There was a thread recently about games you wish you gave up on sooner than you did, becuase everyone kept telling you they "got better later on". But I have a different question - what if a game is really good, you do like it, but you're either doing really badly at it, or just got totally stuck and can't move on for the life of you. Either way, although you like the game, playing it actually became more frustrating than fun. Depending on the game it may be a case of either your reflexes not being good enough, or simply having bad luck with the "dice rolls" or anything else. How long will you keep ramming the wall before you admit defeat? Hours? Days? Weeks? Or will you never ever quit, no matter how much time and frustration it costs you?

EDIT:
In case anyone is wondering, the game that prompted this question was Cardhunter, a game I think is really great, but my god-awful bad luck with cards and dice makes it almost impossible for me :D But I don't mean to complain about my poor luck (or skills, as some would insist), I'm genuinely curious how others approach this kind of situation. Especially nowadays, when we usually have plenty of games waiting in the backlog.

I typically throw in the towel at the point that I realize the satisfaction of finishing the game would be outweighed by the frustration required to get there. Even if I feel like I could potentially improve my skills and press through to the end, I'm not willing to subject myself to that if -- at the end -- I'll look back and say "that was SO not worth it."

Yup. If I'm getting bored it's game over -- unless I have reason to believe that it's going to get better fairly soon.

I honestly can't think of any. In general, if I'm finding a game really impossible to play, I won't be enjoying it anyway. OTOH, if I am enjoying it, I'll generally have enough motivation to continue even if it's brutally difficult (Desperados is one example that comes to mind).

I think the closest I've ever come to quitting a good game is with Riven (a long time ago now), when I got completely stuck at one point and decided to take a break. When I came back to it after a couple of months, I realised that by closing a door I'd already opened, I could open a hidden passageway and access a new area. I'd never spend so long on a puzzle these days, though - I'd just look at a walkthrough instead.

So, yeah, in my experience, if there is a point when I am not good at some game - its right time to find a MOD for it. :)

Gunvalkyrie for me!
I was just too stubborn not to finish it.
And will never forget it.

I've a simple criteria.
Is it still compelling/interesting/fun?

If it is, continue, if it isn't, pick something else.
Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out that I'm not having fun since I'm stubborn at times, but once I realize then its off to something else for me.

There have been games where I die repeatedly and kept going, and some where I died once or twice and gave in.

Dungeon rats might be a candidate for that. It's a dungeon crawler focused solely on combat, and is pretty good at what it sets out to do. It's also obscenely difficult on the highest difficulty (which is the pre-set standard). I did manage to finish the game on that difficulty once, shortly after its release, but I think I was aided in that by some bugs (which gave me more rations to replenish health than I should have had). Anyway, I tried it a 2nd time on that difficulty a few weeks ago and got stuck on a fight I had had trouble with on my first run. And I knew there was an even harder fight waiting for me after that, and that I didn't have enough resources to heal my group. So I gave up because frustration seemed inevitable. If I ever play that game again (and as I wrote, it's a really good turn-based combat game, recommended if you like the genre), I'll pick a lower difficulty.
EDIT: I gave up on my 2nd run after being stuck for maybe half an hour or somewhat more, after I had tried everything I could think of. I'm over 30 and don't have that much patience for games anymore :-)

There is a graph.

On the y axis you have enjoyment level

On the x axis you have time left to complete game

y = 1/x

something like that :)

x = 42?

Recently did this with A virus named Tom... although in that case it's probably more for going outright batshit insane difficulty and not really giving you a way to work while having drones chasing you at the same time trying to rotate the pipes/circuits at the same time not trying to activate it unevenly because the red pipes if they are fed energy before the circuit is complete the entire thing blows up in your face.

Though an easier one. If you aren't having fun over a 30 minute period (and the game isn't compelling or enjoyable in some fashion), I'd say quit.

Perhaps when the difficulty spikes 10x suddenly and you aren't getting anywhere.

This can happen more often with online esports games. I used to play SpeedRunners until I've reached the Silver range. That was nice because that helped me to face the very best players in the game (gold - diamond) due to the low number of currently players. Sadly, this same reason, starts demanding me much more time and effort to develop skills just for having some fun due to the match making. So I had to quit that game (almost at the same time that the title quits early access)

When you can't get the plane off the ground after an hour : flight sim I tried to play when I was little.

I find the best time is when I am ready to toss the controller and/or monitor through the nearest window :)