Are games shorter now?

[bluestarultor]

You know, I seem to remember people complaining because FFX had ONLY 80 hours of gameplay, which was apparently less than previous titles.

I couldn't help but think that 80 hours just to get through a game was still a hell of a lot. Even if you played it 8 hours a day and did nothing else during that time period, it would still take 10 days. And I'm sure that's WITHOUT all the grinding and sidequests many people are apt to do. Seriously, playing it 4 hours a day still gives you the better part of a month's entertainment, and if you play Blitzball and get the Celestial Weapons and all that junk, you're probably looking at a full month's enjoyment if you're dedicating actual, well, dedication to it. And most people are liable to change it up with other things.


That said, my research on Torchlight puts it as a short game, which is disappointing, because their solution was to put in an endless dungeon after you've won to try to keep you occupied, which assumes people are playing just to grind instead of to, you know, beat the game.




I think it's really less of games being shorter as a whole and more a proliferation of individual short titles. I know that doesn't seem to make sense at first, but what I mean is that people rarely say anything if they feel a game is long enough, the same way they don't report hundreds of ships and planes going through the Bermuda Triangle safely on a daily basis. There are plenty of games that are long enough for their genre. Assassin's Creed II is long enough on its own to be satisfying and lets you dink around after the ending to boot. Dragon Age: Origins almost feels too long due to the way it's paced, but in a way, that's a good thing, at least after you get past the beginning.

Basically, it all depends on quality and pacing. If the game is good, it will always leave the player wanting more. If it's paced slowly, it will feel longer. These are independent. Your standard FPS has neither because they're selling them on multiplayer, but in general, single-player games are largely as long as they ever were from the 3D era forward.