Don't worry: I'm not talking about the Booker. Why would I bother? It is what it is, and it's fine that it's that. I just can't bring myself to care one way or the other, really.
What I can bring myself to care about... well, you folks must know by now that video games are another of my many and various interests, alongside books and movies and comics and all the other things I devote the free time I have to. You could even say that video games are a passion of mine; and if I wouldn't go quite so far myself - the medium is after all still in its infancy, and rarely so artful as to inspire such adulation - then it is getting there... slowly but surely.
What I can bring myself to care about... well, you folks must know by now that video games are another of my many and various interests, alongside books and movies and comics and all the other things I devote the free time I have to. You could even say that video games are a passion of mine; and if I wouldn't go quite so far myself - the medium is after all still in its infancy, and rarely so artful as to inspire such adulation - then it is getting there... slowly but surely.
So around and about the video game community - which for me begins with Giant Bomb and ends, at a stretch, with Kotaku - a recent article, reported on both sites, caused something of a clamour that's fascinated me since: an article which alleged that video game developers can only count on approximately 10% of their players to actually finish their game.
I can believe it, too.
And I wonder, how different are the numbers as regards reading?
Are authors any better off? Because the time investments required by authors and developers are essentially very similar. Say it takes somewhere in the region of six to ten hours to finish a typical video game; reading at a rate of one page per minute - as I tend to - the 400-odd sides of a standard novel take roughly the same period of time to read.
Now I'm going to need your help here, folks, because I'm a bit of a basket case as regards books: I finish virtually everything I start, in some cases even if I'm hating every minute of the experience. Only rarely do I put a book down, since if I'm going to express my opinion about a thing, which invariably I am, I'd really rather express a complete and informed opinion than a vague and disingenuous attempt at one. Not to point the finger or anything...
Anyway, I don't need you all to tell me that my stubborn dedication to a book, for good or for ill, is normal. I know it's not. What I want to know is, in general, are readers a more patient species than gamers? Because I think we are.
Say over the course of a month (or really however long) you start ten different novels. How many do you finish? How many do you abandon? What causes you to give up on something? Or are you a completist weirdo like me?
Are authors any better off? Because the time investments required by authors and developers are essentially very similar. Say it takes somewhere in the region of six to ten hours to finish a typical video game; reading at a rate of one page per minute - as I tend to - the 400-odd sides of a standard novel take roughly the same period of time to read.
Now I'm going to need your help here, folks, because I'm a bit of a basket case as regards books: I finish virtually everything I start, in some cases even if I'm hating every minute of the experience. Only rarely do I put a book down, since if I'm going to express my opinion about a thing, which invariably I am, I'd really rather express a complete and informed opinion than a vague and disingenuous attempt at one. Not to point the finger or anything...
Anyway, I don't need you all to tell me that my stubborn dedication to a book, for good or for ill, is normal. I know it's not. What I want to know is, in general, are readers a more patient species than gamers? Because I think we are.
Say over the course of a month (or really however long) you start ten different novels. How many do you finish? How many do you abandon? What causes you to give up on something? Or are you a completist weirdo like me?
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