[General Discussion] RPGs, a sprint or a marathon?

Heavily favor the power-gaming, min/maxer style of play personally. Nothing bothers me more than getting half through a game and then realizing that I missed some huge thing, didn't get some great item, or leveled my characters in some half-assed way. That has caused many restarts or abandonments in the past, which also leads me to be the type that leaves a huge string of saves at strategic points in the game. (Mass Effect ended up with ~30)

However, my style also comes with a bit of what you've called the marathoner, in that I get everything. Although, for me, I'd call it more completionist. I rarely wander, or if I do, its usually only when I know I can't permanently miss things.

Like Meia, I spend a lot of time pre-game reading about the system, exploitable holes, and any big gotchas in the plot. For example, in Oblivion, I'm the type that custom made a class so I could get +5/+5/+5 stats each level, and then sat around punching rats to ensure it. Unfortunately, I don't like grinding, I just dislike being weak even moreso.

This style tends to make me lackluster about moving the story, as I get so distracted with leveling, finding secrets, and getting everything, that I forget what was actually happening in the game. I'll often have to read up just to remember where I was supposed to go. In some ways, this actually makes me more of a fan of classic SNES RPGs, as there just wasn't the huge quantity of extra stuff to do, and I could play the game without the constant worry that I was missing things.

From a completionist standpoint, one of my favorite systems ever was Chrono Trigger, as once you had finished it once, you could then cruise through the game with nearly invincible characters, beating it whenever you felt like it, and experiencing tons of permutations of the plot at your leisure. Genius.

Jam it back in, in the dark.