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.