Are video games getting too long?

[Nyangoro]

I miss the days when I could could grab the latest JRPG and fully expect to put in a minimum of 30-hours to finish the thing.

Now I have to play remakes/ports of JRPGs on PSP.

;-;

 

[XIII Heartless]

Games aren't getting too long.

Peoples' average attention span is getting shorter.

Blame the internet.

I don't think enough people realize just how much weight this argument holds. The internet really has shortened our attention spans.

 

[lilVon]

No, they actually feel shorter imo... and we as gamers are being ripped off by these developers. i hate having to dish out 60 dollars for unfinished games and then have to pay 15+ for DLC....

no one forces you to buy DLC Dissidia is the only game ive ever bought DLC for.

i think most of you have bad ideas about what makes a game worth your money

would you rather play a 15-hour game that's fun all the way or a 50 hour game where only a third of it is fun?

if a game is good enough, you'll want to play it again and again. that's more than your money's worth there.

Imho this is only true for fighting games, like Dissidia, ive got 200+ hours in the original & ive been playing Duodecim for a month & just hit 100 hours earlier this week. My favorite games are Zelda & the numbered FF & though i love these titles to death its impossible for me to start at point 0 after getting all the pieces of heart, getting every spell & leveling all my characters to 100. & usually i dont even get that far, ounce i beat the final boss im done, fuck side missions & mini games, im on to the next experience!

 

[Orion]

I don't think enough people realize just how much weight this argument holds. The internet really has shortened our attention spans.

The problem is that many people - through social media games, smartphone games and match-based online play - want the experience of their short games to mirror the experience of their long games. Thing is, this is difficult to do and overall detrimental: short games work well because you don't need to bother with narrative and their lack of length means you have to make a concentrated experience to make an enjoyable game. Overall monotony in gameplay is good because these games aren't designed to be played as hours-long entertainment packages - though cumulatively they will be.

This cannot be easily applied to lengthy entertainment packages when you ask for the same fun or action concentration spread across an entire game. Extremely few people will get into an albeit great game if there isn't some (even thin and superficial) narrative in place to get them new missions and equipment and abilities. On top of this, you need dynamism in a game for it to be interesting and fun.
Action is exciting because it's not common, large-scale war is devastating because it isn't ubiquitous. A Call of Duty game - say - could be filled to the brim with action, but that doesn't mean it's exciting. A game of non-stop explosions and gunfire is monotonous and boring, because it has no point of comparison that might be calm. The action stops being exciting when you've been fighting for the last six hours, and you just start going through the motions as opposed to really feeling the weight of combat.

 

[ROXAS_32]

no one forces you to buy DLC Dissidia is the only game ive ever bought DLC for.

well yeah thats true. but i think it just wrong that developers hold back content just so they can release it later for a price on top of what you paid for the game.

 

[lilVon]

well yeah thats true. but i think it just wrong that developers hold back content just so they can release it later for a price on top of what you paid for the game.

True that especially on the PS3, theirs no excuse to not fit everything on those Blu Ray discs!