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Comment by dfxm12 | Hacker News Reader

Philosophically, I would argue that you did not complete the game.

You skipped several levels and saw only some percentage of the intended content, gameplay, story, etc. Games in general, and Ecco the Dolphin is no exception, are very much about the journey and not just the destination. You missed out on themes & experiences like isolation, making friends with those outside of your in-group, conservation, time travel, communing with dinosaurs and, of course, space travel.

So, you really shouldn't have felt so guilty.

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I wonder if this will make him feel guilty for feeling guilty

And maybe @dfxm12 will feel guilty about that - it's gonna be a tough for everyone

There are plenty of people who would argue that getting to end credits means beating the game.

You can however say that skipping levels also skips the story, so they did not finish the story.

OP didn't say they "beat" the game. If you want to argue that, it's a different discussion.

Ecco the Dolphin (video game) > Plot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecco_the_Dolphin_(video_game)

Does that mean that taking warp zones in Mario doesn't count as beating the game?

Not in this context.

If you told me you beat Mario on NES but you didn't even play 24 out of the 32 levels, and you never beat them otherwise, I don't think I'd give you the same credit as someone who beat each level.

This is why Any% speedruns (get to end credits any way possible) are their own category.

In speedrunning circles there are categories like 100%, any% (get to the end in any way), minimum percent (get to the end doing the least possible), glitchless, no major glitches, etc.

People have different interests and finish in their own way.

If you’re really into a game you’re missing out if you don’t try to beat it in different ways.

If you’re really into one particular way you’re really kind of being a bad sport if you insist others enjoy a game in your preferred way.

IMO it depends, did you find the warp zones yourself or were you told about them? They're hidden. Finding them by luck doesn't feel like cheating to me, but getting outside knowledge to bypass big parts of the game kind of does.

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