Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software, believes that the length of a videogame is irrelevant without the "feelings and experience." He shared his notion that we shouldn't put so much weight into how long a game lasts, and focus more on how good the experience is while it's lasting.
Notice how I'm talking in terms of feelings instead of in terms of number of hours? That's important - it permeates everything we do. The stats aren't important. The feelings and experiences we have are.
A game I'm not interested in can be 100,000 hours long and I don't care. Maybe if it was one hour and all the attention was put on that one hour, the game might be something I could get interested in ... Meanwhile, if something is awesome, but too short, I don't feel value for my investment. The goal is to find the sweet spot.
Game length is an interesting issue, especially since Portal, which is now rather famous as an example of game experience being more important than duration, or perhaps even aided by its respectively brief length. I am willing to agree with Pitchford that an emotionally evocative game is definitely better than an incredibly long one, but am glad he points out that at the same time, we're expected to pay $60 for these things -- we want something substantial for our cash. We'll have to see how well Gearbox strikes that balance with Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
11:19 AM on 08.12.2008
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.....THATS WHAT SHE SAID!
In all seriousness, I would much rather have a brief, well-made game than a decent, long game. I really don't have as much time to play games as I used to, so I can appreciate games that are short enough I can actually finish them. However, for $60 I expect to get some life out of a game.
I would rather play a short game that delivers an amazing experience over a gave that takes a life time to beat that's boring as hell.
Some games start pretty sweet but they drag on and on and on. FF 12 did this to me as I really enjoyed it at the beginning but after hour 120 I gave up as I wanted it to be over.
Tis' a teeter totter and you need 2 fat kids of equal weight to deliver the perfect combination of game play and length
I want to see a game that can do what Star Wars did in just two hours. Shit, Star Wars managed to go right from a level 1 farmer to blowing up a Death Star before most games had even finished the tutorial!
yeah portal was a great experience but at a couple hours length I personally wouldn't want to pay more than $20 for it.
To me it seems that the trend is shortened campaign modes. Of course this maybe perception since this generation of gamers have been playing games for a while so its easier to play through a game's campaign in a shortened time frame.
"I would rather play a short game that delivers an amazing experience over a gave that takes a life time to beat that's boring as hell."
Of course, anyone would... but that doesnt excuse them from making a long game that is still amazing to pay. 60$ is a lot for me these days, I may be being greedy... but I like to get my moneys worth.
Totally we need games that are both awesome and long as I too like getting my monies worth, if I didn't I would be playing some pretty shitty games...lol
The whole point to video games is the replayability and the ability to make it your own. The shorter the game, the less this can occur. Soon we will be paying $60 for a 5 hour experience. Thus being no different from the movies.
With RPGs and all I have played I prefer ones that get a core gameplay system down without alot of extra fluff my example for that being Etrian Odyssey had a solid system and was fast paced where as something like lost odyssey was too lost in trying to impress you with looks and throwing alot of combat ideas at you and hoping one sticks,it just didn't feel as solid as something like Etrian.
Don't the publishers make more money from folks buying game instead of renting? You'd think they want to give gamers incentives (game length wort the invenstment) to purchase instead of renting it
GoW was just about right...