I was thinking about this thread today, in light of just receiving a message from my DM in the Avernus game that I play that real life has just stepped on him and he will have to drop the game. Six months of gaming, and story, straight down the toilet.
And, frankly, that's been my experience through most of my gaming career as a player. LIke many here, I've been gaming a long time. Since I was about ten years old so, ahem about forty years now. Sigh. Pretty much forty years without much of a break. That's a long time. And the number of campaigns that I've been a player in that have come to a conclusion I can probably count on my fingers and have a couple of fingers and thumbs left over. Even in 5e, I've been lucky enough to be in six campaigns, three different DM's, all I would highly recommend to any player who wanted to sit at their table. Six campaigns, three completions. Batting 50% so, that's good, I guess?
Go back to 4e? Zero completions, at least three campaigns that I recall.
3e? Zero completions, at least four campaigns that I recall and probably many more.
2e and earlier? Maybe a couple of complete campaigns. Nothing that really sticks out in my mind. Most fell apart for one reason or another.
I'd say my completion rate as a player is probably about 10%. Give or take. Which is why I'm rather jaded. I've DONE the "heroes meeting" so many times. I've done the "get your quest" thing so many times. I've done the "off you go on your epic journey" thing so many times. I keep getting asked how I know that this or that is pointless. I know it's pointless because it was pointless the last fifteen times I did the exact same thing.
Like you, I like to read. Love to read. Again, like pretty much anyone reading this. We all do. Now, imagine that every time you sat down to read a book, you could get about 100 pages in and then the book spontaneously combusts as does every other copy of that book. You get to read the first 100 pages of any book you want, but, no further. You know that it's possible to read more, and, maybe once or twice you've been lucky enough to do it, but, most of the time, it's flame city.
So, do you keep trying to read big, thick doorstopper novels? Or, do you switch to short stories? Me? I switched to short stories. If I'm only going to get 100 pages, then tell me the story in 100 pages. Because there's no point in a 300 page novel for me. I never get to read 2/3rds of it. When I say that my version of Lord of the Rings is 90 pages long, that's what I'm talking about. That's the analogy. The Lord of the Rings can be the best thing ever written in the English language, but, every time I try to read it, I don't even get to leave the Shire. I don't even make it to the Shortcut Through the Mushrooms.
Every time.
So, yeah, I'm not interested in all the side stuff. Because, well, I know that if we pursue that side stuff, it means that I will just get stuck never getting to read the end of the book. I never get to see the end of the movie. I never get any sort of conclusion at all. I get halfway through the campaign (at best) and then it collapses.
And I highly, highly doubt I'm alone in this.