News Do gamers want shorter games?

Replayability is key for me. Games that have staying power on my hard drive tend to be either turn based strats with a sandbox mode, or simulations with a dynamic campaign. Games that have tons of high quality user made content are great too, like Oblivion and Silent Hunter III. If a game is designed from the ground up with modding in mind, that adds a lot of value IMO. Perhaps even enough to make up for a lackluster game out of the box.

 

Hi everyone, Helios from Codemasters here. Just been taking a look through some of your comments, and whilst there are some very interesting points made, I just wanted to clarify some things about Rise of the Argonauts.

First of all, RotA is by no means a short game. A typical playthrough of the game, including some of the side quests should take the average gamer around 20 hours.

Another point that I would like to make is that RotA is a game that emphasises quality over quantity. The game has not been artificially "bloated" with weak storylines and subplots in an attempt to lengthen the game and boost the playing time. RotA is playable in 1 hour chunks that will be full of intricate story telling, and powerful battles against lethal enemies, no longer will players have to kill rats for an hour before they are strong enough to get into the thick of the action.

I hope the above clarifies a few points that maybe were not made clear in the article.

 

I think most of us would consider 20 hours a short game, especially if it's at the $50 price point. That works out to $2.50 an hour for entertainment, and, honestly, that doesn't indicate a very good return on investment.

Glad to hear it

A learning curve, well executed, is not a bad thing. I think that having the game be easily playable in short chunks is a good thing. I know I usually play games in about 3-5 hour chunks, and then don't touch it again
for a few weeks until I have time again.

 

I'd like to clarify that you can also contact me directly if you want to address these concerns in a more public manner

 

i quite enjoyed the length of CoD4. shorter games are cool, but if the developer still expects to charge $60 for a game, they need to either have a strong multiplayer aspect, or a lot of side challenges. i would not be averse to paying $20-25 for a short game though.

 

20 hours is a good length for a straight run through, but it must have re playability and more to do than just the on-rails main quest thing. Oblivion can be completed in 20 hours, Morrowind I have seen completed in less than 20 minutes in a speed run.

 

If you were to fully explore all the games islands then you can definately expect that time to increase. The 20 hours I quoted were just for a regular run-through of the game without full exploration, completing all side quests etc.

 

It's not a simple good/bad answer. Someone like me with wife, kids, full time job, and online classes sees a 50 hour epic as an unattainable goal, because finding that much time in chunks big enough and close enough together to get into the game is an epic quest in and of itself. Does that mean I just want a 10 hr game for my $50? Uhhh....no. Long games need to be able to be taken in small doses or extreme sessions and still hold the players attention, and short games need heavy duty replayability, either with gameplay changes or multiplayer.

 

I've played a lot of games recently that were far too short despite being of good quality. Perhaps I have too much time on my hands in this new age of shorter games, but I felt robbed. So in my opinion games should be made longer.

 

I too felt that COD4 was too short.. I finished it in 5 hours. I thought to myself "is that it" I remember the first Call of Duty was the right length it took me a while to finish it and it was challenging. I don't mind games being short if they are meant to be short like the episodic games which are priced accordingly at about $10 an episode so you come back for more episodes.

So yes.. I am up for short games, if they are priced as "short"
and yes to long games for the longevity of the single player and a good multiplayer aspect