The Video Game Critic

Good topic!

I think that gaming today strikes a great balance. It took me six hours to beat Shovel Knight, and I felt like I more than got my money's worth since I'll most likely play through it again. I've seen speed runs of 1,001 Spikes where the player beat the game in 30 minutes! I guarantee that their first several run throughs took hours! It reminds me of Punch Out, one of my favorite games. I spent hours on that game, perfecting it, and now I can beat it in a flash....but I still want to go back to it.

I love the longer experiences, but I compare them to something like No Country For All Men in that I only need to play it once, and I have no reason to go back to it.

I definately agree that some games are way too long.  I'm married with 2 young kids, so my free time is at a premium, and it will take me months to get through a 40 hour game.  It starts to turn into a chore rather than a fun diversion.  I've been playing Lego Marvel Super Heroes and I started in June and I still have about 5 levels to go!  And Lego games aren't exactly lengthy.

I've been wanting to start Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword, but I've been reading that it's easily 30-40 hours, and that just seems too daunting for me. 

I've been harping on this for a couple of years now.  Games being too long is something I felt I was very much in the minority about.  Most games today are somewhere in the 10-20 hour length for single player.  This is considered the "sweet spot" by most sites and most gamers.  I think it should be anywhere from 2-8 hours.  

I know that sounds a bit loopy, but it doesn't go for every genre.  RPGs tend to be longer and I have no problem with them coming in at 20-25 hours.  However, these beasts of games that take 50+ hours to complete....ain't nobody got time for that...or at least I don't.  

Games today are disposable.  Meant to be consumed quickly and then you move on to the next thing.  Most gamers do not replay games over and over again.  There is very little reason to do so.  I would replay games like Contra and Super Mario Bros. ALL THE TIME.  You would pop the game in...play for an hour or so and see how far you could get.  There was a legitimate chance of finishing the game in one sitting.  In fact I would play a game with the intentions of beating it.  I'd say, alright, I'm gonna play Super Mario Bros 3 and beat it today.  That was the challenge.  Sometimes I could do it, sometimes I couldn't.  The challenge is what kept me coming back.  The days that I did accomplish my goal, man what a feeling.    

I like games like God of War, Uncharted, Fable etc... the big difference is when I sit down to play those games I know that I'm just going to be chipping away at them.  Finishing a quest or a couple sections then turning it off.  Nothing wrong with this...except I tend to lose interest.  I don't play games for 4 to 5 hours anymore.  Most games I start I do not complete.  I also don't feel like there is an actual challenge with the gameplay.  Sure there are a few hard sections you have to repeat a couple times...but overall the games are designed to move you along so you can experience the story.  The purpose isn't to finish a difficult game, it's to have enough interest to get through 15 hours.  

People always perceive things that are bigger to be better.  If something has more perceived hours of entertainment it's a better 'value'.  This is wrong.  If you never play or see those extra hours of gaming you've wasted your money.  


 

They probably are way to long for some people.  They are the people who are just atrocious at video games.  Though if you think games are way too long you might want to get into Titan fall.  There is no one player game whatsoever.  So you play it in 10 minute segments.  Or Metal gear zeros I hear the game is only an hour long. 


I feel completely and totally ripped off when I buy a game and it just ends. 

As I've said before, I'm a story nut. I can overlook repetitive gameplay if the narrative is good. Some games, like Heavenly Sword, had a great story AND gameplay, and I think it clocked in just right at a few hours. Games like Arkham Asylum are much longer when it could have gotten by being short as well, but the story kept me engaged to the end. I recently finished playing Tales of Xillia, which took me a good 40 hours, and I'm already doing a second playthrough to see the other side of the story. But if there's no story, or a bad one, I'll get tired of it much quicker, so the gameplay had better be outstanding if it wants me to stick around till the end

Modern games are way too long, lol. My friend just got a PS4 with MLB The Show and he told me because he knows I love sports. He expected me to be interested in playing the game but I find these modern games just way too much of a chore. Playing one of these new games feels like taking a class, it's so demanding. And that's just a sports game. I can't imagine trying to tackle one of these "epic action adventures". I'd probably give up after 5 minutes. To be expected to put in 60-80 hours (at least) just to finish a game, that's unbearable for anyone with a career. After the 5th generation, things started getting really complicated.

Most games aren't 60-80 hours except for RPGs, most FPS and action games are generally 8-16 hours, which for me is usually just the right length.

I believe this is an extension of games generally being driven more by story than by high scores these days. They are all spokes of the same shift in gaming over the years/decades.