Does this site have an official stance on listing unbeatable games as completed?

For example, games such as Space Invaders and Galaga have completion entries on this site. Is there an amount of time a game like this is considered to be played before listed as "completed", or is the entire Atari library uncomplete-able on this site?

I didn't know we had poll-ability here. Also sorry I couldn't resist that second choice :P

I think it's just up to your own personal definition. I marked Worms Pinball completed after like 15 minutes cause I was bored af. So maybe when you feel satisfied with your own progress on an unbeatable game? Or just when you're over it lol.

I honestly didn't either until I started to post this. So you voted choice 2, but your heart is in choice 1? XD

Agreed with Drymonema, it's totally up to the individual user to decide on a game's completion status. Also, choice 2 ftw ;)

Yes. Exactly. lol

The way I've handled Atari games or other "unbeatable" games is I play the game until I get tired of it and log the longest time I've played with entering the highest score in the comments. I personally don't log a completion every time I play.

As others have mentioned, it's ultimately up to each user to define what "beating" a game means. And that definition can vary from game to game. Here's how I've handled completions for a variety of games in the past:

• Donkey Kong - This game is only three levels long, but it doesn't end...they just repeat and get increasingly more challenging. For this particular game, I entered a completion time of 03:02 and included a comment to indicate I completed all three levels once.
• California Games - This game is basically just mini-games and you go for high scores. I added a completion with a time of 06:15 since that's what it took me to play through each game once in the tournament mode.
• Dead or Alive 2 - Older fighting games are interesting because they often contain story elements throughout an arcade mode playthrough that are specific to each character. Modern fighting games tend to have an overarching story mode, but not so with older ones. For this one (and all other fighting games), I entered a completion for a single arcade mode playthrough. I try to include a note to indicate which character I used, not that it really matters.
• Last Gladiators: Digital Pinball - Pinball games are weird since they don't tend to have any sort of mode beyond "pick a table and go". I'm absolutely awful at pinball, so I basically play 1-2 rounds on each table that the game offers and call it a day. Again, I include what I did in the completion notes.
• Worms - The original Worms game didn't have any sort of mode beyond "pick a team, generate a map, and go". For this one, I just played a single match with the maximum number of opponents. As a side-note, I wouldn't have entered a completion had I not won the match. I would've played again and included both matches in my overall completion time.
• Sega Saturn Bootleg Sampler - Now here's a weird one. This is a sampler that includes a few playable demos and a bunch of short video clips. I had this as a kid, so I played it recently for pure nostalgia and my time reflects how long it took to complete each demo and watch every video.
• 8-Bit Bayonetta - Here's another endless game, but this time, it was on Steam and had achievements, so I defined my completion as the time it took me to unlock each one.
• Daytona USA - Old arcade racing games don't even have a championship mode. So I consider a completion to be placing 1st on each non-secret track. It took many tries to place 1st and all of the time is included in my completion time.

So overall, I think it really just depends, but leaving a note is always helpful (assuming others read them!)

But getting back to some of your examples...I haven't quite figured out how I want to log a completion for a game like Galaga. I actually sat down a couple months ago to try and log one for Pac-Man, but it seemed weird to enter a completion before seeing all of the levels (I think they repeat after a set amount) or at least viewing all of the cutscenes. I'd probably have an easier time justifying a completion for Galaga or Space Invaders since I think they're more of the endless variety.

Also, polls just arrived last weekend!

A couple of completion criteria I've used:

Sports games: Win the sport's title (Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup, etc.) in Franchise mode.

WWE games: Go through MyCareer mode until you reach and win a match at Wrestlemania and/or complete the Showcase modes.

The Sims: Reach Level 10 of a career (or perhaps all the careers).