Games becoming too short?

[xenxander]

Not all RPGs are collecting games, some just have a long story you go through (with side quests and things to encourage collecting, but not required).

I remember Star Ocean - usually was lengthy even if you didn't worry over the side things to get.
Shooters haven't ever been very long.. and when attempts are made at lengthening them, they frustrate the foamy-mouthed FPS gammer - they don't want to think about complex puzzles, key gathering quests - they don't want to play a "Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver", they want something that doesn't require much thought and that doesn't break flow.

 

[Hellion25]

Length is nothing without proper pacing. A developer shouldnt stretch a game beyond the story its trying to tell just to say it packs more gameplay hours, if the game is well paced, then the player should feel fulfilled at the end regardless of how long it took to get there. And really games have never really stretched beyond ten hours outside of RPGs/Non Linear games. Hell platformers on the MD and SNES could often be cracked in a couple hours top.

 

[brithou11]

Prices increasing = game play decreasing!

 

[kawligia]

i don't see how they can make money on these shorter games. the shorter games get the more i start thinking gamefly is a good idea

I agree.

The only games that are worthy my money to buy are strategy games like Civilization or Total War. I can play those for a long time.

As much as I like FO3, even with the side quests, I finished it too fast. Looking at gameplay hours to dollars, FO3 was, at most, 25% of the value of Civ4.

I've said it a hundred times and I'll say it again. High-end graphics are KILLING FPS and especially RPG games. They need to stop trading gameplay for graphics.

Basically, nobody who plays console games has the fucking time to play a game that takes 2 weeks to finish. Maybe PC gamers do, but console gamers generally do not.

I agree that not everyone likes a super long game, but both sides can be pleased. If they want to keep the main story relatively short, they should add a lot of story driven side quests. And I don't mean one guy giving you a mission with two or three parts. I mean joinable factions that have story length roughly equal to that of the main quest. That way, each story is not too long, but there are enough of them that the game CAN be long for those who want it to be.

 

[AlphaOmega]

Basically, nobody who plays console games has the fucking time to play a game that takes 2 weeks to finish. Maybe PC gamers do, but console gamers generally do not.

Story mode in console games, in my opinion, should just be there to get you achievements or to get you ready for multiplayer. That's all.

So in your logic it would be longer story = people better skilled for MP, and we get decent SP times?

if you mean that I agree, else I feel sorry for you that you never had good SP experiences

 

[Ultress]

I just go for JRPGS, they tend to have longer SP but even then some more recent RPGs are shortening up like Lunar nights I was about 8 hours in and then bam Final Boss.Then again maybe games like Tales of Vesperia spoiled me with a 60 hour story line with plently of fun sidequests that enhanced the story. It's sad to see the SP campagin dwindles away as MP takes over but it's what people want in thier FPS then let'em have it.

 

[Flying Dagger]

i thought a few FPSs were a bit too long... i've enjoyed playing games like bioshock but theres a point where i feel like i've done it all before... (happened in half life too, and at certain points in COD4)
I miss the days of games like red fraction 2 - you have a good story mode that unlocks characters, then a few maps with bots to mess about on multiplayer with.
i can't understand why games such as bioshock couldn't include a few arena style quickplay levels where you just got bombarded by enemies serious sam style... would be so much fun.
i'm also getting annoyed that i can't play things such as COD 4 multiplayer with bots when i don't have internet connection.

 

[widowedeight]

i dunno if this was said.... but damn was re5 just too short....

 

[suhlEap]

i recently bought lost odyssey and though i love it, i completed the first disc in around 10 hours. now why does a game need 4 discs if they only take that long to complete?
also play GoW the other wekk (i know i'm behind) but it only took about 4 hours to finish and that seems very short to me.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Fable 2 to me is the worst game I've played when it comes to replayability. It's supposed to be an RPG, there is really nothing else to do but the main story line, and once you finish, you play for another hour, get enough money to buy all the houses, and you're done! Shortest "RPG" I've ever played.

I know, I purchased the game on a extremely rare blind buy and regret it now. I like the game and will probably play it again however with so many other better games released it was unfortunate I opted for that. The game felt like Fable with a few added nuts and bolts.

Yahtzee's review of it was spot on, it was a game of "well you could do but why would you want to?" I asked myself that with practically every add on, why would I marry a bunch of women when it means nothing? Why have children when they do nothing? Why own every house in the game once you acquire the achievement? Mediocre indeed.

On topic

You will be hard pressed to ever find a long game that is not in some way connected to a roleplaying game. Those are essentially the only games that inspire any real length, especially nowadays however even they have been shortened over time. Xenogears or Chrono Cross would easily set you back close to forty or fifty hours, provided you did not speed through the game and talked to NPCs. Lunar averaged thirty when doing this.

Now games are ranging in at fifteen,, although talking to the NPCs and etc does increase the length of some games like Jade Empire. Personally so long as the story is told properly and you are not left with numerous plotholes, I can accept shorter games. It just means I will replay the thing until death comes.

I do wish though a company would go back to the retro days, where RPGs were fantastic. FFX and Persona are the last few that real stuck home and the former is not exactly young. Mass Effect is a decent start however.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

It's not only length that's getting killed here, it's also genres themselves. I blasted through Dead Space in 6 hours, and Resident Evil 5 with a buddy in 7-8 hours and those are all survival horror games. Length is what helps to flesh out survival horror (although people can race through RE1 in 20 minutes.), and as a result, the line between that genre and action games is starting to get extremely blurry, and right now, that doesn't look like it's going to get solved anytime soon.

 

[Worr Monger]

Games that are somewhere between 12-24 hours long are good in my book.

I like my games short and sweet..... If we have too many games like Oblivion and WoW, you'll never have time for anything else.

I'm usually playing only 1 incredibly long game at a time.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

Many games that I know are either:

About 6 hours long to complete, which is pathetic (Sonic Adventure), or

Are long, but only because they have such a repetitive storyline (Zelda Wind Waker).

 

[psilocybe]

Mind you, not all that content is necessarily good ("Nico, ees your couseen") but when they get it right, you've got a game that makes hours pass like minutes.

Oh, that is so on the money. Glad I'm not the only one not over the moon about GTA4.

Personally, I'd rather play through 5-8 hours of compressed fun than 30+ hours of mediocre with a few ups and downs.

 

[Azahiel]

You lost all creditability when you said you loved ME.

Whoa, and why is that?

Dunno how much free time you have, but I don't get much. If the average game were longer I'd never finish anything. Right now the standard seems about right for my typical level of interest.

True, I guess the change in length is also due to the fact that the end user to whom the game is marketed changed in time. Games are more and more for the "casual" gamer, or at least the one who doesn't have much time on their hands.

Basically, nobody who plays console games has the fucking time to play a game that takes 2 weeks to finish. Maybe PC gamers do, but console gamers generally do not.

Probably forgot to mention that I'm more of a PC gamer. I grew up on games like the first and second Fallout, Baldur's Gate and so on. Yeah, they were RPGs, which are supposed to be long, but as RPGs moved over to console territory they're are also getting shorter and shorter and less "RPG-like" really - simpler. Mass Effect being a "link" here, since it's modern-simple and oldschool-long.
No offense to the console gamers, but notice that if a genre moves to consoles it gets simpler and less sophisticated (hence the RTS now). In the past it didn't bother anyone to have 20 statistics and 100 spells in a PC RPG. Today you have almost no stats (or don't care as much) and no more than 10 special powers and the game is much more of an action game.
Also, I remember shooters lasting longer than today, as Flour noticed:

I finished CoD4 in about five hours, WaW in six. In comparison, Clive Barker's Undying costs me 10 hours to complete. Tron 2.0 costs 13 hours to complete, the original CoD costs me 15 hours to complete, Painkiller costs me on average 12 hours to complete and Half Life 2 costs about 10 hours.(depending on difficulty setting and luck, these times could be reduced by up to 30%)

I remember playing Far Cry for a looong time, I can't remember really HOW LONG it was, but it seemed to me like forever. ;p
True that the FPS wasn't a genre with long gameplay. It relies much on multiplayer, but the thing is that the SP was longer in the past. Today the developers seem to forget about the singleplayer player. I personally enjoy SP as much as MP.

 

[Fraeir]

RTS's like Empire Earth and Age of Mythology... Empire Earth had four -challenging- campaigns, and Age of Mythology had one long, 30 mission one including each and every one of the three playable civilizations...

Games like C&C3 and Red Alert got the campaigns too short, to me they barely tell a half-decent story... and it goes without saying I usually prefer Single Player more so than Multi Player.

FPS' like Crysis had too much emphasis on the graphics... The story was mediocre, but just... so short. D8<
If it was longer it could've saved it in my opinion.

 

[xChevelle24]

Basically, nobody who plays console games has the fucking time to play a game that takes 2 weeks to finish. Maybe PC gamers do, but console gamers generally do not.

Story mode in console games, in my opinion, should just be there to get you achievements or to get you ready for multiplayer. That's all.

So in your logic it would be longer story = people better skilled for MP, and we get decent SP times?

if you mean that I agree, else I feel sorry for you that you never had good SP experiences

No, in my opinion it would be story mode = training for multiplayer

And you're correct, I have never met a game that just blew my mind away with the story mode. I don't know, maybe it's the fact that I hate killing bots for 4 1/2 hours repetively. There's no strategy in story mode. There's no teamwork in story mode. There's nothing but you killing bots.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

it seems open world games are getting bigger and linear ones are getting smaller