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Game Length Versus Quality: The Debate Continues

Posted by Bob Mackey

When it comes to game length, how long is too long? This is a question I've personally pondered for quite some time; thankfully, GameSetWatch's Mister Raroo has done an excellent job of detailing this dilemma in a recent article. So, what exactly is wrong with the bloated, modern game?

Nobody wants to pay $60 for an experience that is over in an evening. Thus, games are usually stuffed with enough content keep players busy for weeks or even months. That said, too often the length of games is artificially lengthened in order to provide players with the perception of a longer experience. I’ve done enough backtracking and fetch quests in games to know filler when I see it.

It's true; there's a certain dollar-to-content ratio that we've all come to expect over the years. But just how much of that content are we actually going to play? Personally, I tend to check out of a game when it's stopped giving me anything new to care about. As much as I liked Odin Sphere, the mechanics--essentially unchanged throughout the game's entirety--were so repetitive that I didn't feel bad checking out shortly after finishing the first chapter. In my eyes, I had "finished" the game. The "seen about enough of you" defense has been a huge help in getting me to stop playing through games I'm no longer enjoying; though this new healthy lifestyle has only developed recently in my adult life.

So where has everyone else either drawn the line, or continued to suffer through a game for the purpose of finishing it? My most egregious cases of the latter always happened with JRPGs--and sometimes continue to happen, despite my awareness of bad gaming habits. There's just something about seeing all of those numbers onscreen that makes it impossible to look away.

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Posted Nov 13 2008, 07:00 PM

Filed under: gaming culture, jrpg, bob mackey, game design, gaming habits, game length, filler

Comments

Demaar said:

Personally I feel 20 hours is about the limit I think a game should take you to play through if you're doing what's required to finish it. If they want to fluff it up with another 20 hours of content that's optional I'm fine with that.

That's actually one thing that really bugged me about GTA4. Too much stuff was mandatory. The game felt like it was dragging about half way through, and when I DID finally finish it there was nothing of great value for me left to do.

November 14, 2008 4:52 AM

Jes said:

I still haven't finished Final Fantasy XII. After 30 hours, when I reached a point that all I had to do to kill a boss is turn on the gambits and go make a frozen pizza.

November 14, 2008 5:23 PM

Amber Ahlborn said:

I've always said games should be exactly as long as they need to be and priced accordingly. If your base idea is pretty substantial and has $60 worth of content, then I'll happily pay the $60. But if you have $20 worth of content, don't stuff it with filler and charge $60. I'd be happier with a tightly designed short game than a game that would have been good if only it hadn't had all the flavor diluted out of it.

November 17, 2008 9:31 AM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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