In Praise of Short Games

[VideoGameCritic]

This article caught my attention, not so much about the content, but how it relates to classic games.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/ ... ort-games/

It seems like most modern games like Fortnite are trying to take over your life, sucking every last hour of your time. If you're a kid I guess this is okay, since you have more time than money. When you get older however you realize your time is limited, and it's hard to justify investing a huge chunk of your life in a single game.

I tend to jump around from game to game and I think some people think I don't spend enough time on certain games before posting reviews. That's fair, but I would prefer to play/review as many games as I can.

I think that's why my friends and I like classic gaming so much. You can toss in a cart, play for a few minutes and have a good time. Even if you don't like the game it's no major loss.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this subject.

[Sonicx9]

This article caught my attention, not so much about the content, but how it relates to classic games.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/ ... ort-games/

It seems like most modern games like Fortnite are trying to take over your life, sucking every last hour of your time. If you're a kid I guess this is okay, since you have more time than money. When you get older however you realize your time is limited, and it's hard to justify investing a huge chunk of your life in a single game.

I tend to jump around from game to game and I think some people think I don't spend enough time on certain games before posting reviews. That's fair, but I would prefer to play/review as many games as I can.

I think that's why my friends and I like classic gaming so much. You can toss in a cart, play for a few minutes and have a good time. Even if you don't like the game it's no major loss.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this subject.

In relation to this, I think you should watch these two videos from Jim Sterling about live service games and why they are a big problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=166UJe9-P-8 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSQOJqikw8c

These are must watch videos as it does show that online gaming/live services are not better for video gamers with their monetization problems. It also the main reason why I prefer the Nintendo Switch over PS4 and Xbox One as both are more about gimmicky live service games that focus on making people addicted to spending lots of money on DLC/Micro Transactions and Loot boxes. And force people to log in every day to get in game items which also causes problems making it feel like a job. It even affecting single player games that do not need this junk.

No wonder why both EA and Activision do not do much Switch support as the system does not support what they want with monetization live service support which I do not like at all.

[Voor]

Yeah, I MUCH prefer games that can be beat in 1-2 hours. Probably why I’m rarely tempted to purchase a modern console. Modern games are just too much of a time sink—and yes, I know you can save, but I literally played Ocarina of Time for a year and didn’t beat it because it was always difficult for me to “pick up where I left off”. My gaming “session” is typically 30 minutes.

Do these fornite zombies have other hobbies? My kids still spend a lot of time outside, but our suburban street is practically empty. Guess everybody is inside on fortnite or Netflix. Or the trash of the internet, social media.

Also, why does every modern game need a story? Purchased Kirby Epic Yarn for the kids and you’d think a bone simple game as that one wouldn’t have a story, but nope, there’s some kind of nonsense that we just scroll through. Ugh.

[Retro STrife]

If you asked me, 3-6 hours is ideal for most games. For your more "epic" blockbuster game, maybe 8-12 hours. (RPGs could maybe go a little longer, like 20-30 hours at most.) Sadly, instead, developers feel pressured to put out 15-20 hour games on the regular -- and worst of all, I think that pressure comes more from the mainstream gaming media who use "too short" as a reason to dock major points off a game's score. Shorter games used to be a lot more standard. Then game critics would routinely dock points for 12 hour games during the 2000s as being "too short", and I think that pressured developers to push closer to 20 hours. If you asked consumers, I bet they were just fine with 12 hour games... unless you have no life whatsoever, or you're a kid with only a couple games to play. The rest of us were just fine. God of War and Uncharted do not need to be 20 hour experiences.

Oddly, this is one of the few times when developers spend more money on games than they needed to -- i.e., longer games cost a lot more money to develop than short ones, so I'm sure most developers would love to do 6-12 hour games. However, they also realize that bad review scores hurt their bottom dollar, so they have to balance those two issues against each other. At the end of the day, developing a longer game is worth the extra cost, rather than getting a 7.0 because your game is "over too quickly".

[Herschie]

Activision games are short, yet I'll find myself up until the wee hours of the morning playing Pitfall, Call of Duty, or River Raid.

[goldenband]

As I've gotten older I've discovered a real fondness for short but difficult games like Pitfall! or Shadow of the Beast, or the higher levels of certain puzzle games like Tetris and Dr. Mario -- in short, games that can theoretically be completed in 10-15 minutes without glitches. You can make a bunch of attempts on them in an hour or two, and it's incredibly satisfying when you finally beat them.

I have less and less interest in playing anything with a fixed commitment of 5+ hours. Oftentimes it's not especially satisfying to beat games like that, because longer games tend to make demands on your persistence and willingness to grind, rather than testing your actual skill.

Now that I think of it, I'm surprised the Critic has never reviewed a version of Shadow of the Beast, though I don't expect him to like it much. The Genesis port gets a lot of guff for running faster than intended (a 60Hz vs 50Hz issue) but I found it completely playable and even addictive.

[Stalvern]

If he gets around to Shadow of the Beast, he should review the Lynx version. It's substantially redesigned and much better than the original.

[bluenote]

I like both. This is why today is such a great time for gaming! I love short, retro games but once in a while it's nice to settle in for a while with a Zelda game, usually 30-40 hours. Then, I'll play some games after that that have no time commitment, such as an NES game. Then, maybe after that go to a Lego game, which is around 10 hours or so.

I don't play Fortnight or games like that though.

[Hagane]

I love shorter games, love how they put effort in the difficult and stage level desing to sell the games, instead of those modern open-worlds games where you spend most of your time talking to people and watching cgi movies.

[jon]

Short games take over your life too