I'm Getting Too Old for These Long Games

Necuno

Necuno

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I'm Getting Too Old for These Long Games


Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has a lot of content. This much we know. Releasing next week isn't the most perfect time as far as I'm concerned with the Vita's launch on the horizon and both Twisted Metal and Resident Evil: Revelations competing for my time, but it's also a much more comfortable spot than any point in the last quarter of 2011 would have been. One of its developers recently pondered if the amount of content crammed into the game was overdone, and I can't help but think it just might be.

"We recently had a content completion play through about two months ago... so, QA guys, they've been playing the game for years, they know all there is to know about it, its ins and outs, etc... their goal is to play everything," lead designer Ian Frazier told Strategy Informer. "Do every quest, every dungeon, everything possible, but as fast as possible. That means easy difficulty, skip all cut scenes and dialogue, sprint everywhere that's sprintable, fast travel everywhere you can, don't do any combat you don't need to do... that all took around 200 hours, and that was a speed run."

Even the main campaign is pegged at taking between 30 and 40 hours to complete. That begs the question: is there too much content?

"I think in terms of a selling point -- bang for your buck -- I think it's great," Frazier said. "It should be on the back of the box. But as a developer I have to look at it and think, 'Did we overdo this?' I really don't know."

The purpose of Frazier saying this might be a PR move more than anything else, a last-minute attempt to reinforce the fact that there is this game coming out that has a lot of stuff for players to do. But it's also a very interesting, valid question he raised, and it's one I've flip-flopped on as I've gotten older. I simply don't have dozens, much less hundreds of hours to invest into a single gam...[more]
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I tend to agree. I generalize now, but as you get older your available gaming time does decrease - family, work etc demand greater amounts of time and then when kids arrive another chunk of time disappears.

With the speed of new releases, multiple gaming platforms, it really does take some dedication to finish a game of 50+ hours in length.

But then we all want to get value for our money.....does a longer game necessarily mean a better game?
 
I love lengthy games. I was mad about Amalur. I just had one or two gripes: much of the content became repetitive and the appeal of levelling ended up being stripped from you after hitting the level cap at 40.

The idea of finishing a (good) game makes me cringe if I feel I haven't spent enough time in it; if I feel that I haven't been able to do enough.

Granted, not everyone feels that way but for me, certainly, a game needs to FEEL complete and I need to feel like I accomplished something.
 
Yes it does seem that time for gaming does get less and less as the years pass by. What I do is only buy a limited number of games, and give them the full attention they require.
 
So so true, especially the part about devoting a good deal of time to one game being at the expense of all your free time. Maybe this is why I'm finding Indie Games so enjoyable since they are usually relatively short in length but can offer some great gameplay.
 
200 hours... I'm sorry but I don't think someone will actually spend that much time on one game. They'll probably get pretty bored with it.
 
czc said:
I had around 500 hours in Bad Company 2.
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Yes but I'm assuming its MP including.... A single player storyline that's 200+ hours long :eek:
Imagine a cod game with a campaign with a 200+ story line.... Its going to get repetitive.

@mmo junkie number 1. How do you guys do it? :eek:
 
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JP'S said:
200 hours... I'm sorry but I don't think someone will actually spend that much time on one game. They'll probably get pretty bored with it.
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342H 42M

My time for bf 3. I had more time in bad company 2 :p
 
I can relate. I absolutely can't stand long games any more. All good things come to an end, and to drag it out for 30 - 40 hours kills it. I am more than happy with a 10 hour SP campaign.
 
Grimspoon said:
I can relate. I absolutely can't stand long games any more. All good things come to an end, and to drag it out for 30 - 40 hours kills it. I am more than happy with a 10 hour SP campaign.
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Same I get sick of the game after a while. Unless its an old school rpg then I am happy with a lengthy campaign
 
Grimspoon said:
I can relate. I absolutely can't stand long games any more. All good things come to an end, and to drag it out for 30 - 40 hours kills it. I am more than happy with a 10 hour SP campaign.
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Everyone always moans about the short single player campaign in the cod series. But tbh I wouldn't want to play a +30 hour campaign it just doesn't suit the game. 30 hours of linear missions doesn't appeal to me.
 
JP'S said:
Everyone always moans about the short single player campaign in the cod series. But tbh I wouldn't want to play a +30 hour campaign it just doesn't suit the game. 30 hours of linear missions doesn't appeal to me.
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I think that's one of the biggest reasons why the COD money train is still steaming along. People don't have time to sit through a 30 hour campaign any more. We want quick fixes, quick meals, quick everything!! The moment COD begins to almost feel lengthy, it stops, making it one of the best quick fixes in gaming. And also think it's this trend that's causing all the traction in the Indie game industry. They are all quick, original, fun ways of gaming that everybody can enjoy.
 
DieGrootH@mmer said:
I think that's one of the biggest reasons why the COD money train is still steaming along. People don't have time to sit through a 30 hour campaign any more. We want quick fixes, quick meals, quick everything!! The moment COD begins to almost feel lengthy, it stops, making it one of the best quick fixes in gaming. And also think it's this trend that's causing all the traction in the Indie game industry. They are all quick, original, fun ways of gaming that everybody can enjoy.
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Exactly! If you've established a good series and can manage to release a new game every year ( in cod's case) then less is more :)
 
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