"Gamers are losing patience" with 10-hour-plus games

[Forstride]

I wish games were LONGER, not shorter. Now, there are some genres where length is made up for with replayability, such as FPSes, puzzle games, etc. But games with potentially good stories should be long.

 

[Deleted_171835]

I remember a few years back when the media was praising video games.

"Kids these days are reading more now then ever!"
"Video games help kids make more unified goals!"
"Video games make kids more cooperative!"
"It cures AIDS!"

What happened to that?

Now, it's more like.

"Are video games turning our kids into mass-murder machines?"
"Video games are increasing our nations crime rate"
"Video games cause kids to be more socially awkward"
"It causes AIDS"

 

[prowler]

I love because FF because of the length. If it wasn't that long I would not play. Although, when playing I do forget to do all of necessary rituals, like sleeping or going to the bathroom.QUOTE(Hyro-Sama @ Jul 20 2011, 07:47 PM) You still buy games? LOL

It wouldn't surprise me if Square Enix released an hour long Final Fantasy game the way you're carrying on.

 

[p1ngpong]

Heavy Rain a long lenght game? Are they kiddin' me?

I finished it in something like 8 hours.

Same here, I finished it in just over six hours, I was actually disappointed it wasn't longer. The person who wrote the article has obviously not completed it.

Twelve or so hours is usually the sweet spot for me in terms of game length. Anything less than ten I usually feel a little cheated, but its all relative to the game. There are far too many different types of games to pin down a perfect time and say "this is how long all games should be."

 

[godreborn]

square-enix could release a shiny case with nothing inside and call it Final Fantasy XV. and, unfortunately, people would still buy it. that is, after all, what final fantasy has become: all show; little substance. am I right???

 

[Telal]

square-enix could release a shiny case with nothing inside and call it Final Fantasy XV. and, unfortunately, people would still buy it. that is, after all, what final fantasy has become: all show; little substance. am I right???

I'm ashamed to say that I would be one of those suckers... I'm compulsive when it comes to collecting sequels... If I already have part one... I need to have all of the next ones that come out... I'll be the first in line to buy the new Squenix 'Shit in a box Part eleventy-seven'.

 

[emigre]

square-enix could release a shiny case with nothing inside and call it Final Fantasy XV. and, unfortunately, people would still buy it. that is, after all, what final fantasy has become: all show; little substance. am I right???

Yeah, it's not like FF13 had a genuinely good and deep battle system.

 

[Nathan Drake]

square-enix could release a shiny case with nothing inside and call it Final Fantasy XV. and, unfortunately, people would still buy it. that is, after all, what final fantasy has become: all show; little substance. am I right???

Yeah, it's not like FF13 had a genuinely good and deep battle system.

It was just lacking a lot of everything else.

 

[Redhorse]

Looks like people these days are suffering for attention deficit disorder. I think the negative implications of that extend far beyond gaming.

I would agree.


Ever since fast food establishments starte using pictures and people chose thier meals by pointing to a picture or calling out a combo number, I realized consumers were becoming dumber. I mean no offense by that, it is both our faults for taking the easy way through things and the advertisers for making it far too simple to choose and buy.

Also the people that benefit from quick games, it seems to me, are creators and developers. Think about this. if you want to sell more games, wouldn't you want to make the games people just purchased, get finished quicker? that was they wuold be ready for thier next fix....

I was part of some major research in memory (human) with Roche Industries, Nutely NJ, USA, back in 1995, and one of the things that came out of that research was that these convieniences that we use so often, like speed dialing (stored numbers), sticky note pads and so forth do more damage to your memory when used as a tool because with them, there is no longer a need to focus attention on the piece of information stored. The research was for add related medications... The problem that was discovered is best put in this statement... If you allow people to do it long enough FOR YOU eventually they will do it TO YOU. IN memory terms this means if you don't use it, you lose it.
he average piece of information in excess of 7 charaters or digits requires 15-20 seconds of concentration to pass into the long term memory... this assumes there is not already some emotional or personal connection with the said piece of data... the statement assumes there is no emotional connection with the data, that they are truely random digits, characters, names etc... IN other words, you will remember a name without the 15-20 aeconds, if it rings a bell with some name you are already familiar with. All new information stored within the mind, must be connected, through intentional or otherwise unintentional association in order to be readily recalled (diff. than rememebred).

Reading requires attention and with todays heat and eat society with the drive through food lines, liquor stores, gas stations and so forth, there is less and less need to pay attention or at least that's what the retailer would rather you believe. In doing so, we turn our choices over to them. We begin to have less and less say so in what we get at the market.

I feel this heavily applies to gaming as well.

Just some food for thought. Great topic.

 

[emigre]

square-enix could release a shiny case with nothing inside and call it Final Fantasy XV. and, unfortunately, people would still buy it. that is, after all, what final fantasy has become: all show; little substance. am I right???

Yeah, it's not like FF13 had a genuinely good and deep battle system.

It was just lacking a lot of everything else.

Dear lord, I agree with you there. The story was shit (though in fairness, JRPG stories are generally mediocre) and the characters were just irritating. But the battle system was good and that's where the substance was located.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

square-enix could release a shiny case with nothing inside and call it Final Fantasy XV. and, unfortunately, people would still buy it. that is, after all, what final fantasy has become: all show; little substance. am I right???

Yeah, it's not like FF13 had a genuinely good and deep battle system.

It was just lacking a lot of everything else.

Dear lord, I agree with you there. The story was shit (though in fairness, JRPG stories are generally mediocre) and the characters were just irritating. But the battle system was good and that's where the substance was located.

Bahaha some characters were annoying as hell

.
Vanille!

but at times she was cute lol.

But the stunning visual kinda made it up for me

.

 

[purechaos996]

Gamers are losing patience" with 10-hour-plus games

Excuse me? What? I think not.

 

[emigre]

Vanille's Eidolan's battle was hilarious. She was confronted with death and in battle, she would shake her arse and say something along the lines of "I can see rainbows."

 

[ShadowSoldier]

Fuck that, I say people are getting tired of having anything less than 10 hour games. When I pay 60 bucks for a game, I expect something that will last me for months. I don't need a simple 7 hour game that I play once then tuck away forever. If they're going to make that happen, then they better lower the price of the games.

I want what I pay for, if not, then I expect more bang from my buck.

 

[Sicklyboy]

Not reading all of this (got a date in a half hour

) but I will make one remark:

So far, on the first page I have seen all talk of "reading" to accompany the storyline of a game. Yet, when I think of "long ass game", I think of Half Life, Half Life 2, and Doom 3. Doom 3 especially, if you take the time to search everything in the game (as you should with all those fuckin demons around) (however *some* reading is required then), that game, for me at least, is an easy 25+ hour game. That game took FOREVER.

 

[RupeeClock]

In recent days I've cleared the Dragon Quest IV/V/VI trilogy on DS, and Majora's Mask with all masks, and am now moving on to Dragon Quest VIII.

They have all been really entertaining games and have taken me a lot of time to beat each one, around 30 hours on average.

Good stuff.

Anyhow my view on the gamers losing patience is that they probably weren't that avid of a gamer to begin with, the fact is a lot more people are gaming now, this doesn't mean that less people are playing games for as long as they used to, per se.
There's also the social part of gaming that's developing, people quickly want to move onto the next game.

 

[Necron]

Not reading all of this (got a date in a half hour

) but I will make one remark:

So far, on the first page I have seen all talk of "reading" to accompany the storyline of a game. Yet, when I think of "long ass game", I think of Half Life, Half Life 2, and Doom 3. Doom 3 especially, if you take the time to search everything in the game (as you should with all those fuckin demons around) (however *some* reading is required then), that game, for me at least, is an easy 25+ hour game. That game took FOREVER.

Still short. 40+ hours is fine to me.

 

[_Chaz_]

If I'm paying $60 for a game, I better be paying less than a dollar per hour.

 

[SamAsh07]

I definitely am losing patience, at games being only 10-12 hours long. Pfft, I want longer games!!!

 

[Blaze163]

I don't have much money (hence why I pirate damn near everything

) so when I dole out the cash for a game for my 3DS or my 360 (my only unhacked systems) then it had better be good. And it had better last. Whether through being a long and engaging story or by having tremendous replay value, preferably both, I expect value for the prices I have to pay. Great games that I'll remember for years are the great value games. Starfox, you can clear a run in an hour but it's so easy to pick it up and try to add another few kills to your all-time best score. Zelda is a timeless classic that I can happily replay and it'll still feel fresh, even when I know every inch of the game off by heart. Mass Effect and Dragon Age Origins may be the best value games this side of Tetris, with near infinite replayability on top of great stories that last for days.

Compare gems like these to say, Halo 3. My little brother can clear it alone on the highest difficulty in an afternoon, and he only has one eye. There's no challenge, length, replayability or even a truly noteworthy story. Developers seem to think they can sell a game based on multiplayer alone. To me any game should be able to stand on the features that EVERY gamer will have available. Not everyone plays online. Everyone capable of playing Halo 3 has access to the single player portion. By no means ignore multiplayer, it's a vital part of modern gaming, but not at the expense of a decent campaign for those of us who still play single player. Black Ops got it damn near perfectly balanced.