Question Longest ever played to complete a game and which game was it?

[Charagma]

In 1994 my father purchased a Creative labs speaker system. Along with it came a few games that complemented the "Audio". Already Out of my parents' house, I used to visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Being a student at that time meant free food so who says no to that. My father started a game called Ultima 8 Pagan which was part of the purchased bundle. During my visits we used to sit and play this game to my mother's demise. We played maybe 3 to 4 hours every Tuesday and Thursday and I would visit my mother on Saturdays just to make up for the weeks gaming (More free food remember). Either my dad would be on the PC and me backseat driving or I would play, and he would be backseat driving. He was excellent at jumping disappearing stones so when we got to something like that, he would take control.

Took me and my father 8 years too finish the game. Best 8 years of my life spent with my father on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

 

[Frindis]

World of Warcraft Vanilla + Burning Crusade/Wrath of the Lich King expansions probably took me around 4K hours to complete over roughly five years.

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm pretty sure it's going to be one of the Elder Scrolls games, but I'm not sure which one.

I think Skyrim was the only one where I completed the main quest on my first character, but I did do every side quest I could find first.

I was too young when I played Morrowind to understand what I was (supposed to be) doing, so I probably wasted a lot of time running around, but I do remember I cheated to finish the game.

I don't remember if I finished Oblivion and then decided never to activate the Oblivion gates again or whether I restarted the first time I activated the gates and only far later decided to finish the game (again by cheating).

I do think Baldur's Gate 3 is making a valiant effort to join this list as well, assuming I do eventually manage to finish it.

 

[Colif]

World of Warcraft Vanilla

I have my doubts you did everything in vanilla... on both sides? So many questions... did you visit world tree before they opened zone? 1k needles was cool before they flooded it... stops thinking about wow.
but I let you live for now

I generally play games that don't end so I can't really say. Maybe Super Metroid as I know I took a year or more playing it, every afternoon... seeing people finish entire game in less than 2 hours now just shows how much time I wasted... (or perhaps it shows how much they have to get to point that they can finish it so fast) but it was fun.
Finishing it meant I had to find something else and back then there weren't many games you could lose self in (it was 30 years ago). I didn't actually get 100% I don't think, it was difficult without knowing where the items were I was missing.

 

[Frindis]

I have my doubts you did everything in vanilla... on both sides? So many questions... did you visit world tree before they opened zone? 1k needles was cool before they flooded it... stops thinking about wow

"I did it my way", to quote Elvis Presley

 

[Zloth]

Phew, there's a bunch of games you can just play until you don't want to play anymore. I could pick X4:Foundations up right now and find something new to do.

But for games with actual, for-real endings.... Pathfinder: Kingmaker took me 283 hours. And I didn't even do much of the DLC! BG3 might surpass that, but I sure hope not. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous was at 244 when I gave up on it, and there was still plenty of game left to go there. Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children may have surpassed both, but I started a second play-through plus I spent a lot of time with the game open while writing a guide, to its hours are dubious.

If you're talking just Date Finished minus Date Started time.... that wouldn't be easy to check. I would have to look at achievements and dates on screenshots to try and figure the start/stop dates.

 

[Pifanjr]

If you're talking just Date Finished minus Date Started time.... that wouldn't be easy to check. I would have to look at achievements and dates on screenshots to try and figure the start/stop dates.

I actually do know that one for me. I'm almost certain it would be Final Fantasy VIII, as I first played it when I was 8 on the PlayStation of my sister's boyfriend and 22 years later I got the game on PC and finished it.

Though if it's the longest time between starting and finishing for a single save I'm not sure. I know I had a several month break when I played Mass Effect and I had a Total War: Warhammer 2 campaign that took me months when our kid was just born.
I've also taken two breaks from Baldur's Gate 3 of several months each already, so if I do ever finish it that might become the longest.

 

[mjs warlord]

Am not sure if this actually counts because technically i did not finish it.
I got warframe many years ago when it first came out and war absolutely hooked on it to the point i kept my pc on all day and would grab a few hours when i could. I remember all the big halls looking dark and drab and then after one certain update they were golden coloured and shiny.

Then one day after clocking up over 7,000 hours i logged in and everything in my account was gone.

 

[Charagma]

Pretty much everything counts. Time spent on a completable game might have been better wording.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Ive been playing Hollow Knight on and off since 2018, started over 3 or 4 times. I love the game and my kid loves the art style as well so sometimes she asks to play it. Its less than 100 hours but its been played fairly regularly for short spells. Played some again today.

Other than for a game that actually got completed I guess probably The Last of Us. Played it on PS3 in 2013 and dnf because I sold the system and built a PC. Finished the game this year on Steam. 12 years is a pretty long time, but it was probably only 30 odd hours in total.

If we're talking hours, then going by my Steam account Baldurs Gate 3 took me around 150 hours to finish for the first time, Elden Ring was around 140 IIRC, both of those got a fair amount more play after the first time so I dont have the exact numbers.

 

[Colif]

Time spent on a completable game might have been better wording.

Journey is complete able in 90 minutes but I spent years playing it. Probably can't now as the amount of other people playing is probably smaller... but 10 years ago I could spend months playing it. No idea how long I played it for, I had it on 3 different platforms - PS3, PS4 & PC.

Games that only have one end and don't allow you to repeat or continue, is probably a better description

Torchlight 2 has an end... in theory. It has many New Game+ options. and mods that add endless dungeons. When you stop playing it up to you. I see level 100 as one spot to end... playing one character. Can only play the game so many years though. I have 1100 hours in the game over its time. Its a 12 year old game now.

 

[JCgames]

This is an interesting philosophical question, what is complete? I a complete experiace considered 'complete' or total time it tookto get from begining to end including not playing? Or just hours played till yhe game said you win? aThat said ill give you three answers.

Complete fun, My favorite game i ever played that i did so much, but there was so much more i could have done, and most likely would still be playing if the main servers were still online. That game would be starwars galaxies, I clocked in at 7k+ hours over 8+ years. I look back with both fondness for time spent and sadness that it came to an end. I could go back and play but with that amount of time spent, redoing it just doesnt seam worth. So now its a memory and a darn good one.

Time spent to finish, the would be mass effect 1, took me 4 years and 4 tries before i finally made it to the end but it only took 23 game time. I still have issues making it through this one. My most recent retry in the new version haulted at 6 hours. To me the game is average at best, thankfully thene t ones were far better, 2 saved it and 3 was just very solid all the way through with a nice esoteric ending i didnt see coming.

Longest time playing a single player game, i think about 6 months and 125 hours to finish Mass effect Andromeda and i loved every minute. The game reminds me more of star trek, in that hopefull space explorer feel, verse a war torn save the world that is just over done. I never felt like the hero/savior you're just someone trying to do their best at what they think is right to maker things better for everyone. The game had a nice message and was extremely enjoyable. It also has an amazingly fun vehicle to just blast around in.

 

[Colif]

I play games in chunks. If I find something to play its all I do until I am bored of it. That happened with mmo, 3 or so years on wow, 3 years in Age of Conan. I don't know how many hours that adds up to - I know I was lvl 60 in wow on one character for an entire year of game play. I can't tell now as the characters/accounts no longer exist and it wasn't a metric that was tracked.
I played Sacred 2 for about 4 years but that was before it ever hit Steam. I have it on Steam but never played it there.
Last game that happened to was Grim Dawn. 1300 hours played in just over 4 months.
I am overdue for another but I just haven't seen anything that keeps my attention long enough. That and I really shouldn't play anything while I am doing my course.

 

[JCgames]

If you contact support on the phone they can help you recover accounts. Deleting a character can be possible too, but time is a factor on that.

Wow should have a /played command or it used to i think, that tells you how many hours a character has been online... use at your own risk.

 

[Colif]

I haven't had an account to play the game in over 15 years so I can't now. I have resisted playing it ever since and I think I will continue that trend. Its not the same game I played.

 

[JCgames]

I never got into wow, swg was my jam. When i needed a change of pace i played city of heroes. Both were awesome games, i dont know how they didnt make it. To me they were the best mmos to date.

Then agian what do i know i barely see a game in steams top 100 that interests me....

 

[Colif]

Then agian what do i know i barely see a game in steams top 100 that interests me....

I can guess without looking that I am the same.

 

[Charagma]

I play games in chunks. If I find something to play its all I do until I am bored of it. That happened with mmo, 3 or so years on wow, 3 years in Age of Conan. I don't know how many hours that adds up to - I know I was lvl 60 in wow on one character for an entire year of game play. I can't tell now as the characters/accounts no longer exist and it wasn't a metric that was tracked.
I played Sacred 2 for about 4 years but that was before it ever hit Steam. I have it on Steam but never played it there.
Last game that happened to was Grim Dawn. 1300 hours played in just over 4 months.
I am overdue for another but I just haven't seen anything that keeps my attention long enough. That and I really shouldn't play anything while I am doing my course.

I loved Sacred 2. The Rock song in the band camp was one of the parts I looked forward too. Just had to hear the song and get the guitar. LMAO

 

[Charagma]

I never got into wow, swg was my jam. When i needed a change of pace i played city of heroes. Both were awesome games, i dont know how they didnt make it. To me they were the best mmos to date.

Then agian what do i know i barely see a game in steams top 100 that interests me....

Must admit I missed WOW, the whole thing. Only WOW I interacted with was on YT watching gameplay and failures. They had something similar to the DOTA "mistakes" made channel. Cannot remember the channel now......think DOTA-FAILS. I ended up playing Rose ZA (Cannot remember if it was the title or part of a title or possibly even the server (Pulling shoulders up) and Evony, and there was another online game but for the life of me cannot remember it Was very similar to Monkey Island (OG monkey island) .....LMAO.

 

[Zloth]

... i dont know how they didnt make it.

For City of Heroes: I expect NCSoft just didn't have the manpower/servers/capital/whatever to keep it going along with the other games they were trying to release. I guess it was a pretty friendly dumping, given that the game is still going on private servers. Many companies would have thrown dozens of lawyers at something like that.

P.S. Homecoming servers are currently on Issue 28.