A lengthy discussion about game length

[Yousef]

You’ve heard me (or read me?), we’re gonna have a loooooong discussion about how loooooong games should be. Just kidding! I’m just padding out this message, just like how padded out some games are!

But being serious for a moment. Discuss anything here. For example, “game length should match the price” is true, but vague. What does it mean to you?
Platformers became so much longer after the fifth gen. How does that make you feel? Well, it didn’t last forever, but you know.

 

[fake-kun]

You’ve heard me (or read me?), we’re gonna have a loooooong discussion about how loooooong games should be. Just kidding! I’m just padding out this message, just like how padded out some games are!

But being serious for a moment. Discuss anything here. For example, “game length should match the price” is true, but vague. What does it mean to you?
Platformers became so much longer after the fifth gen. How does that make you feel? Well, it didn’t last forever, but you know.

Bold of you to assume I pay money for my games

But seriously, I feel like a lot of games these days are way too long without much of a reason for that.

 

[Tounushi]

I'd like to liken it to a rule the household had with movie tapes bought for the home library: buy it if we're gonna rewatch it at least ten times.
When it comes to games, regardless of single playthrough length, it aught to carry as many hours of entertainment as its sales price in euros or dollars. Whether it's high scores, achievements, alternate storylines and paths, etc.

It's annoying when a studio pads the game with some pointless collection with lackluster rewards, busywork quests, or boring achievements. But it's outright criminal when the game is short without playthrough value, like costing a full 60€ and lasting FOOOOUUUUR HOOOOOUUUUURS.

 

[Waffles]

I feel some games nowadays are way too short for the asking price. I wanna be able to mess with my schedule by trying to get to the ever-distant finish line on an excellent game, not blaze through it.

The Last Of Us was the last game to do it for me.

 

[Yousef]

I'd like to liken it to a rule the household had with movie tapes bought for the home library: buy it if we're gonna rewatch it at least ten times.
When it comes to games, regardless of single playthrough length, it aught to carry as many hours of entertainment as its sales price in euros or dollars. Whether it's high scores, achievements, alternate storylines and paths, etc.

It's annoying when a studio pads the game with some pointless collection with lackluster rewards, busywork quests, or boring achievements. But it's outright criminal when the game is short without playthrough value, like costing a full 60€ and lasting FOOOOUUUUR HOOOOOUUUUURS.

That sounds like an AngryJoe reference

 

[RageBurner]

I hate to be the guy that goes against the grain of the discussion somewhat, but for me it's about the quality of the time you spend, rather than the amount of it.

Even long games would leave you with something of a wistful impression if you had a wonderful time with it, and the opposite is also true. Time itself is exists independently of us, but the time we spend attached to something becomes a separate entity, I feel - it is very much ours and thus carries with it our own particulars.

For instance, for me, something like Streets of Rage 2 is ostensibly short, moreso if you are experienced, but it will most likely be a short time with a lot of quality and attachment. Conversely, if I were to play something like Wizardry it would be ostensibly long, but it wouldn't be a quality time, just a terrible slog.

 

[Yousef]

I hate to be the guy that goes against the grain of the discussion somewhat, but for me it's about the quality of the time you spend, rather than the amount of it.

Even long games would leave you with something of a wistful impression if you had a wonderful time with it, and the opposite is also true. Time itself is exists independently of us, but the time we spend attached to something becomes a separate entity, I feel - it is very much ours and thus carries with it our own particulars.

For instance, for me, something like Streets of Rage 2 is ostensibly short, moreso if you are experienced, but it will most likely be a short time with a lot of quality and attachment. Conversely, if I were to play something like Wizardry it would be ostensibly long, but it wouldn't be a quality time, just a terrible slog.

You’re not going the grain at all (though tbh idk what that means since some English terms confuse me ), I think this is a very valid take

 

[RageBurner]

You’re not going the grain at all (though tbh idk what that means since some English terms confuse me ), I think this is a very valid take

Oh that means essentially steering the discussion to an unintended angle. At least I felt that's what I did, since I gave a more esoteric answer rather an a direct one, haha.

Say, for example, imagine you rent something terrible like, dunno, Toxic Crusaders on the Mega Drive? the game isn't long on a strictly completion time sense, but it's so terrible that it really feels like it is a lot longer, and the time you suffer through it isn't worth it.

 

[Ikagura]

1$ = 1 hour is a flawed conversion rate imo.

Doom is only several hours long yet virtually is endless with all mods.

Unless you count mods and fanmade content as cheating.

RPGs, for the main story, shouldn't be too long imo or else it'd become boring. Dragon Quest VII started to feel too long even if I loved finishing it.

Platformers became so much longer after the fifth gen. How does that make you feel? Well, it didn’t last forever, but you know.

I think collectathons are cool because you can finish the game in several hours via speedrunning or decide to 100% it if you want. Mario 64 was great for that.

 

[RageBurner]

1$ = 1 hour is a flawed conversion rate imo.

Doom is only several hours long yet virtually is endless with all mods.

Unless you count mods and fanmade content as cheating.

RPGs, for the main story, shouldn't be too long imo or else it'd become boring. Dragon Quest VII started to feel too long even if I loved finishing it.


I think collectathons are cool because you can finish the game in several hours via speedrunning or decide to 100% it if you want. Mario 64 was great for that.

Yeah the 1 to 1 ratio is absurdly arbitrary. It's all about balancing expectation and tolerance.

You'll want good games to go on longer, you'll want bad games to be shorter. Consider roguelikes; a single loop can last sometimes an hour, an hour and a half. If it didn't have replayability, it would be a ludicrous notion.

Conversely I feel that since RPGs are, unless you have some sort of replay ritual or challenge runs ideas, not often replayed, so they being longer is more forgivable.

DQ7 is a bit of a special case. Originally it had a lot of time padding to it because of poor design (looking for those stupid shards with little to no guidance).

 

[Cu-Neo]

In a particular point of view I have always preferred games with a short time length (7-10 hours?) because I can replay them more . Altough a short game shouldn't cost 50-60 dollars

 

[Tounushi]

1$ = 1 hour is a flawed conversion rate imo.

I'd say completion time and entertainment time aren't correlative. I can't count how many times I've replayed arcade games like Turtles IV.

 

[BlissfulBandit]

I was a huge RPG kid back in the day, spending entire weekends on Dark Cloud 2 and FFX. I thought "Video games don't get any better than this! You can play these things forever!" And now I've done a U-turn on the opposite direction and mostly replay shorter action games with minimal story.

There's probably something to be said about that childlike immersion in fantasy worlds being snuffed out as you grow older, but I do come back to the rpgs from back then sometimes.

 

[Soul417]

The only time I care about time compared to price is with Visual Novels.
When playing a VN, I want something mid to longish read time.
Without some real convincing, I will not buy a 3-5 hour or under VN.

 

[Yousef]

The only time I care about time compared to price is with Visual Novels.
When playing a VN, I want something mid to longish read time.
Without some real convincing, I will not buy a 3-5 hour or under VN.

Wholeheartedly agree here.

 

[ZeromusVX4]

I mostly play jrpgs and as an adult i came to appreciate chrono trigger even more, they did a miracle by making a 17-18h long game feel much longer than it is, as a kid i could swear that game was like 30h long, but I'm not against longer games too, i now just have to be in the mindset that I'll take a while to beat them, i began trails in the sky in 2022 and only now I'm getting to cold steel 4

 

[Erebus]

I honestly don't mind games being really long if they have good story and memorable/likeable characters. I only have problems with length when there's too much of what i would call filler content(Persona 5 as example) or the pacing is just terrible(Utawarerumono mask of deception).
One thing i can say for sure though is i'll never pay like 60$ for a story-driven game that is very short like 10 hours, that'd just be a huge waste of money even if i can easily afford that.
Game length shouldn't match the price either, the content quality is what should match the price imo.

 

[Adrastia]

I can't afford many games so I find myself needing them to either be fairly long or have good replay value to close the gap between purchases.

Of course if the game drags on forever with pointless filler then you can't wait for it to be over.

 

[moonbits]

I'd rather pay $70 for a good 7 hour campaign than the 80h open world bullshit padded monstrosities we get these days.

 

[GeoHikari]

And what about Dragon Quest 11 S, who extends much more the lenght of the game with the Togkington quests and the additional end game dungeons with the one who exists in the original version? This is a surprise for me, once DQ 11 is the installment when I advanced a lot without problems, unlike popular ones such as DQ6, DQ 7 of PS1 version(due for the high amount of battles you must win to become a Master of any Vocation one character is linked) and even DQ8 of PS2, when in the middle of the game you MUST DEFEAT DHOULMAGUS in order to progress the game.

Square Enix goes impulsive with the adventure of Eleven and his friends, transcending between present and future(and past).

 

[DunkeyKong]

This is why many people returned to Retro games because it's not about having a big, open, vast and empty world

Games are supposed to be fun and experimental, and not about grinding and completing side missions just to progress

Indie developers for example, most of the games aren't too big, they still experiment things, they are actually doing something fun AND it's cheap…not $60+

 

[RageBurner]

This is why many people returned to Retro games because it's not about having a big, open, vast and empty world

Games are supposed to be fun and experimental, and not about grinding and completing side missions just to progress

Indie developers for example, most of the games aren't too big, they still experiment things, they are actually doing something fun AND it's cheap…not $60+

Indies have been acing it, even in territories where normally AAAs were untouchable, like RPGs (Cosmic Star Heroine, Chained Echoes, Sea of Stars).

 

[DunkeyKong]

Indies have been acing it, even in territories where normally AAAs were untouchable, like RPGs (Cosmic Star Heroine, Chained Echoes, Sea of Stars).

True, indies are the GOAT

But I think some of those RPGs only need some story, incredible arts and graphics, they didn't need to do much

Not saying it's bad of course, those things still requires some work

 

[JoxerGX]

while i agree the 1$ per hour isn't a great measurement, it does facture into my thoughts of if its a good game or not, along with all the other multiplicative subjective thoughts like enjoyment, coziness, challenge, etc....

Like my hard rule for gacha games if beat your FTP pass for the month you earned me buying the paid one.

As for game length to many things factor into it, i think if its less then 10 hours it should have good replay value, if its around 20-30 it should have a good story, if its 30+ great story + good/fun mechanics. And all that can change an example for me is say Undertale i don't care about the story or gameplay, BUT that damn music made it worth it

 

[CaptainGreedEye]

I'm Still waiting for a future Were Game Become another life, and only end has long has your character Life span.