"Yes, honey. You can use the computer..."

:)

I remember finishing Morrowind in like 80 or so hours and then discovering that was a 20 minute speedrun on it.

I have come into a habit to "force" myself to play games to the end one by one, and I kinda like it. Mainly it means that if I am thinking of installing some new game, I think to myself "No, I have that other game still unfinished, better concentrate on it instead.". Especially if the unfinished game is of the same genre.

It used to be I had too many unfinished games installed, and sometimes just installed even more, and never wanted to uninstall any of them just in case I'd continue them. When I finish a game, it gives it a logical conclusion and I don't feel bad uninstalling it from the hard drive.

At the moment the game I am concentrating on finishing is Fallout Tactics (with the Redux 1.3 mod). I am not even halfway yet, maybe 40% of the missions finished now. So far so good, I've grown to like the game more than in the beginning where I was actually about to abandon the game as the first mission was quite frustrating, but now I am doing quite fine.

Of course if the game really blows, I will not force myself to continue it, but more or less make the decision to abandon the game (possibly for good). I did that to e.g. Forsaken, I just realized it is a badly designed game (on its difficulty level and objectives), so no need to try to like it.

It's because they realize they're not playing Freddi Fish 2 before they get to the end.

The thing with Morrowind speedruns being so short compared to the length of a casual playthrough is the following:
1. Very little of the game is actually required. Since most of the game is optional, most of the game is simply ignored by speedrunners.
2. The game is poorly coded, and that can be exploited by speedrunners to break the game. This is especially true if you're playing the 1.0 version (which is the version speedrunners prefer, even if that version has a tendency to crash a lot). This allows the player to use an artifact that would otherwise lead to a quick death of the player without taking the intended precaution against it. It also means that the player can go so fast that the collision detection can't keep up, causing the player to go through walls (walls? what are those?).

Incidentally, the time has bee reduced as low as 3:14 according to Youtube.

Many times I'll get a game as part of a bundle, and so many of them take a long time to complete that completely finishing a game is often unlikely for me.

Usually it's a combination of the game not being enjoyable enough and hitting a sudden roadblock that's disproportionate to the challenge right before it.

Pacing and managing the difficulty increase are really important if you're wanting people to actually finish the games. Those shenanigans like they had in Super Mario world where you had to finish certain portions of certain levels with the correct amount of time on the clock ensured that the game would perpetually stay at like 95% completed.

Lack of attention span because of being bombarded by too many things from the media, over exposure to screens and electronics, too much accessibility to various form of media at the finger tip, all leading to dopamine dependency and insensitivity.

Back in the days, I have a couple SNES games at a time, in order to even afford another game, I have to trade or sell the old ones.

I have something of a focus problem.

I slammed the door on Skyward Sword because I felt the story was asinine.

I closed Twilight Princess because I didn't feel like escorting a bloody ball.

Other than that, I think most cases are akin to changing a channel. You have your favorite show and that may change.

For that particular level in Super Mario World:

You only need to be fast if you want the secret exit. If you are not fast enough, you can get the normal exit, which will allow you to continue through the game; you just won't get access to a shortcut that skips part of the world at the expense of having to play one secret level. (Note that this is unlike the following level, which is the one where the normal exit leads nowhere.)

It's also not that hard to get the secret exit anyway. In fact, some players actually need to slow down in order to get the normal exit for that level. (I haven't checked, but I would imagine this becomes an issue in a 96-exit speedrun.) (One tip: If you collect a certain number of coins in the first section, the second section (which is the one you need to finish with enough time left) will be much easier; it may therefore be worth the time it takes to collect the coins.)

I have the same problem. I did quit quite a few games just before the last bossfight, or the last act, or when the story is picking up speed toward a resolution, after dozens of hours of happy gameplay. Especially RPGs. I postpone until I've pretty much forgotten the game, and have to start over again...
Did that for games I enjoyed very much : NVN2 (stopped in the last dungeon), Terraria (stopped before the last "normal" boss because I get cold feet at the idea of going into Hard Mode and having my gameworld wrecked), BG2 (stopped just before the confrontation with Irenicus), golden sun (stopped at the bossfight), Skyrim (went into "side mission limbo" because I didn't do any story mission), Fallout 2...
There is something that repels me in the idea of finishing a story I liked and leaving the gameworld. Or in making hard decisions that will cut a part of the game away.

And of course there is also the "nightmarish final bossfight that kicks my ass", but I now realise it's more an excuse than a real reason ^^

I'm working on it, though, and managed to push myself to finish several longish games lately, like Valkyria Chronicles or the trails in the sky games, and it gives a good feeling of closure. But it does not come naturally to me

And I realize I have the same problem for tabletop RPGs : My campaigns tend to simply lose steam and get dropped because I get cold feet at the idea of giving them a conclusion. Interesting thought, I really need to work on this one if I want to get better as a GM. :/

I have some rules.

First rule: I only buy games that I am interested in. That is strict. For example, "Constructor" was given free a couple of days ago, but no, not interested, moving on.

Second rule: I usually prefer to buy a bunch of games on winter to last me until summer and in summer a bunch of games to last me until winter. I take advantage from gog/steam sales and I throw some retail in the mix. During those seasons, in autumn and spring, I try to resist any temptation because I know I'm good, I have enough. I may yield in specific situations, for example if I spot a retail version of a game I really want and I can afford it at the time or if I can obtain a game for free. I try to keep my backlog in a minimum because I intent to play every game I have in my possession.

Third rule: I intent to finish every game I play. There are a handful of exceptions of course. There are a few games that I never finished and probably never will. The reasons vary. In some games I encountered bugs and glitches that put me off and/or prevented me from moving on and some other games bored me veeery much and I found them disappointing. However, I must note that even if a game lets me down, I will keep playing it until the end. It must be extra bad/boring to stop it. In general, I would say I've finished around 90-95% percent of the games I have played, maybe a little more.

I almost never finish games, not even back in the early console days. I love playing them but I just don't have that "I must see this through to the end" drive.

I'm also a slow gamer; when I first get a game I'll start playing it and then when I've got a good idea of how things work, I'll start over.

After a few weeks of something, I'll find myself in the mood for something different. Just as there are many different genres of books I like to read, there are many different types of games I like to play and I'm not always in the mood to stick with something until it's done. And then it might be months before I go back to something, in which case I want to start over again.

But I still get disappointed when I read about what seems like a great game only to find that it has a relatively small amount of playtime. I might not finish games, but it's not because they're too long. I'm not interested in short games at all.

If I like a game, I finish it. Or at least I try.

If I don't finish a game, it can be because
- I had no time to play for a long while, and no longer remember where I was and what am I supposed to do. Starting over would be the only option, but.... no. A similar situation is when I lose my save file, and should be forced to start over =/ It happened with Icewind Dale. I lost my save file when I was almost at the very end. I didn't want to start all over :(

- The gameplay become tedious/too hard/too...random? glitching? I play games to have fun, and if the game is not fun then I don't play it. For example, I couldn't for the love of everything solve the snake mound puzzle in Gabriel Knight. Even with a walkthrough I couldn't solve it. Heck, even with a youtube guide I couldn't solve it!! Maybe my game glitched, idk. But instead of smashing my keyboard to the wall, I just watched the ending on youtube and called it a day.

- An expansion/DLC came out, and I want to play that too, but don't have it yet. In these cases I temporairly stop playing, until I have the expansion/DLC. (And meanwhile I'm hoping that I don't forget where I was and what I was doing :D)

Mart's Monster Mod and Bullet Time can change this! Maybe there is a mod similar to "A world of pain" for F3, which expands the maps with a lot of content?

So that would add only more grind into a game which doesn't seems to have any purpose? Neah.. I rather stick to FNV and "forget" that F3 even exists.