Short or Long games—your preference?

[Brian Boru]

If you like a game, do you want it to go on forever, or finish before it outstays its welcome?

I'm usually in the long category, if I like it, I want more of it. Probably because I'm much more focused on gameplay than story most of the time.

I'm also not a fan of having to learn a new game's systems and quirks, so it's much better RoI for me to stay with a game I already understand. My main genres are 4X and RTS, with a more minor interest in Adventure, Puzzle and open world FPS.

How about you? Mention your main genre please—I guess RPG and 4X players will 'go long'.

 

[Zloth]

Long for sure! (Same with books.) I've got the time, and being able to explore a lot of depth is fun for me. Extending a game beyond what the story needs may even be fun if I enjoy the mechanics enough. (MAY be - it definitely didn't work out for Pathfinder: Kingmaker.)

And yeah, main genres are RPGs, 'action adventure,' 4X, and immersive sims. All but the 4X genres are story heavy.

 

[ZedClampet]

Almost none of the games I play have endings. Just counted it up and out of the 23 games I currently have downloaded on Steam, only two of them end: Red Dead Redemption 2 and Death Stranding. Games with endings just aren't my thing, generally. However, if I find one of them that I like, I usually want it to go on for a long time, so I picked "Over 30 Hours".

A lot of times, though, if I'm playing a game with an end, I'll get to a point where I just want it to be over. Pillars of Eternity and Dragon Age (1) are good examples. I genuinely loved those games for about 50 hours and then suddenly started skipping everything to try to get to the end.

 

[Colif]

Almost none of the games I play have endings.

what he said

Games I play end when I need a break, not when story ends in most cases. Journey probably ended at the end, but thats a coincidence. Many of the games I play I have no idea what story is.Its not essential.

 

[Brian Boru]

a point where I just want it to be over … skipping everything to try to get to the end

Yeah, I reach those points too. Then I just drop it, doesn't matter where I am in it—it's on the replay list so I can pick up again, but of course I mostly start a new game.

Many of the games I play I have no idea what story is.Its not essential.

Same here. If I want story, I'll try a different medium. In games, I want to enjoy the gameplay, not follow someone's story. Where there are stories, they're merely a structure around which to construct the gameplay.

 

[Withywarlock]

15-30 hours. I find a lot of games could seriously do with an editor, but then I could do with not being born autistic and ADD, so we can't all be perfect. It's a common problem with Spiders games, I find; they're one third too long, no matter how long the game is. Be it Of Orcs & Men being 12 hours long and needing to cut 3 out, or Greedfall being 60 hours when between 35-40 hours was enough, they consistently overdo it. We'll see how Steel Rising goes, I guess.

 

[Colif]

I like games where I have freedom to ignore story and go do other things instead, so I never got past 1st quest in GTA 5 but I played Sacred 2 for over 3 years. Every class had its own starting area but they were all on the main map, and none of those were at the ends of the map. And game rewarded you for exploring (well, it did eventually. Due to fact you over leveled things too easy in Normal mode if you took too long, it was better to start exploring everywhere in later difficulties).
I miss that map, it had so many hidden things in it,
An entire lake and swamp area that existed just to lead you to a bonus quest that makes you visit 89 NPC who have the names of Ascaron staff members and after telling them all to go back to work, get some reward that isn't really worth the effort (link)
A hidden rock band quest thats reward included a song by a metal band and changed the ingame music for rest of game into the metal theme
an entire village full of ghosts where you had to fight a demon to save them.
90% of the map was just extra, you could complete game and not see most of the map. But you missed so much.
Extra world bosses to kill that aren't necessary.

When the world is more interesting than the story, its easy to keep playing

I would play it now except

• I don't have time,
• I would need to install community patch,
• set game to play at 2k and biggest thing,
• Learn how to play again as its been a long time between sittings

Test Drive Unlimited let me ignore racing for ages and make money another way so that I could buy all the cars and homes I wanted.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

My favorite game of all time is Skyrim, and I think I probably put a couple hundred hours into it. But I don't want all of my games to be like that. In fact, I don't even want all of my games to be open world. With as little time as I have to play, I think I prefer most to be in the 15-30 hour range. I haven't played all of the new era Tomb Raider games, but I did play the first one from 2013, and I loved it. I think I spent about 20 hours on it, and it was linear, which was kind of refreshing. For the majority of my games, I think something like that is perfect.

 

[Ryzengang]

15-30 hours. I find a lot of games could seriously do with an editor, but then I could do with not being born autistic and ADD, so we can't all be perfect. It's a common problem with Spiders games, I find; they're one third too long, no matter how long the game is. Be it Of Orcs & Men being 12 hours long and needing to cut 3 out, or Greedfall being 60 hours when between 35-40 hours was enough, they consistently overdo it. We'll see how Steel Rising goes, I guess.

Yea, I strongly agree. There are long games that I like, but there are way too many that overstay their welcome. I'm pretty new to the genre but it seems like JRPGs are pretty bad in this regard. Generally speaking, I think 10-25 hours is the ideal game length, but there will always be exceptions.

 

[Zloth]

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is the only game I can remember off-hand that overstayed its welcome. (Maybe that's why it bothered me so much - no scar tissue there.) If I like a game, I like it and I'll stick with it for a good, long time. Well, unless something really cool shows up to distract me.

 

[Withywarlock]

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is the only game I can remember off-hand that overstayed its welcome. (Maybe that's why it bothered me so much - no scar tissue there.) If I like a game, I like it and I'll stick with it for a good, long time. Well, unless something really cool shows up to distract me.

I remember calling that "the best game I'll never play again" precisely for that reason (130 hours and many missed sidequests.) That was until I played its sequel, Wrath of the Righteous. A second playthrough of Kingmaker for my Pathfinder fix suddenly felt welcome. Played as a lawful evil alchemist, too, very much a nice change of pace.

 

[Johnway]

Tough call. The inner gamer says longer the better because a good game should be enjoyed as long as possible and get as much bang for your buck. Of course all the best things come in small packages, the bigger problem now is that i have too many games and work/life commitments mean i a finite amount of time to play them.... its not helped how boring some games are now when its grinding and padding as opposed to actual content. Half of it was intentional so they can sell you boosters or as a lazy way yo apply content.

So to answer the question; probably somewhere in the middle.

 

[Frindis]

15-30 hours for the most part if it is a single-player game, tons more if it is a multiplayer game. Since survival is one of my favorite genres, I accumulate a lot of hours in games like Rust/Dayz (around 700+ hours in both now).

 

[mjs warlord]

I like games with graphics and story lines like blacksad and batman the telltale series , puzzle games like witness , the room and manifold garden. For the longhall it has to be skyrim and horizon zero dawn. Horizon zero dawn is the only game that i have completed and started again the next day.

With regards to hours played if i see a game i like i google expected complete time and if its under 20 hours i just dont get it. Yes i know programmers work hard but 20 hours to finish something is a bit too quick.

Hours versus ££££ spent ... Their are some games i will never buy even though i want them.
Games use to cost an average of £30 to £35 , their are a lot of games on steam around £45 and i have even seen some early access games for as much as £65 , i must not name them here but look hard enough and you will find them. Considering how many people play games around the world i think the sudden rise in prices is unacceptable but maybe that comment should be on another thread.

 

[Brian Boru]

if i see a game i like i google expected complete time

Go here instead, gives you 3 different complete times depending on your objective—Story, Story + Side quests, Completionist:

How long is The Witness? | HowLongToBeat

How long is The Witness? HowLongToBeat has the answer. Create a backlog, submit your game times and compete with your friends!

howlongtobeat.com

 

[mainer]

Any game under 80-100 hours is short in my gaming book. I love a long, deep RPG. Whether the focus is on exploration or story or companions/relationships or player choices or combat, or any combination of those attributes; if I love a game and am completely immersed, I just don't want it to end. I talk to everyone I can (usually multiple times), talk & discover the personalities of my companions (if available), explore every inch of ground the game world provides, and complete every type of quest I can find (or as much as possible).

There are a few exceptions to the above. Sometimes, after finishing a long journey-type RPG, I'll play something a bit more structured and shorter before I start my next extended journey. There are also a few situations like @ZedClampet stated:

if I'm playing a game with an end, I'll get to a point where I just want it to be over.

Examples of that situation for me would be both of the Divinity Original Sin games (1&2). I loved both those games fiercely for about the first three quarters. But both of them started to become a slog near the end (puzzles for DOS1 and combat for DOS2). And I don't know that I'll ever replay them, even though I loved them for the most part.

Long for sure! (Same with books.) I've got the time, and being able to explore a lot of depth is fun for me. Extending a game beyond what the story needs may even be fun if I enjoy the mechanics enough.

Exactly this for me, for games as well as books.

My favorite game of all time is Skyrim, and I think I probably put a couple hundred hours into it. But I don't want all of my games to be like that.

Skyrim is in my top 5 favorite games of all time, absolutely one of the best open world RPGs of all time. My combined hours from the original Skyrim release and Skyrim SE are just a hair over 3000 hours, but that's over a 10 year period. I have plans to back there this winter (winter always brings up that urge). And I also agree that I wouldn't want all my games like that. I also want some games (RPGs) to be a bit more story & companion focused, like the Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Pillars of Eternity games.

but 20 hours to finish something is a bit too quick.

I agree, that's way too short, even if there is replayability. I've spent over 20 hours just in some game's tutorials.

Every class had its own starting area but they were all on the main map, and none of those were at the ends of the map. And game rewarded you for exploring (well, it did eventually. Due to fact you over leveled things too easy in Normal mode if you took too long, it was better to start exploring everywhere in later difficulties).
I miss that map, it had so many hidden things in it,
An entire lake and swamp area that existed just to lead you to a bonus quest that makes you visit 89 NPC who have the names of Ascaron staff members and after telling them all to go back to work, get some reward that isn't really worth the effort (link)
A hidden rock band quest thats reward included a song by a metal band and changed the ingame music for rest of game into the metal theme
an entire village full of ghosts where you had to fight a demon to save them.
90% of the map was just extra, you could complete game and not see most of the map. But you missed so much.
Extra world bosses to kill that aren't necessary.

Sacred 2 is the most underappreciated game of all time in my opinion. At it's heart an ARPG, but the things and quests you could discover felt unlimited. Discovering the Blind Guardian concert, just by getting clues from talking to random NPCs was amazing to me.

 

[Pifanjr]

I definitely prefer long games, either games with a lot of replayability or games with immersive stories/worlds.

I've been playing more short games that can be played in short game sessions recently, but I've noticed those don't really scratch that gaming itch. They're fun, but it's like watching a YouTube video versus watching a full length movie, it's just not comparable.

 

[Colif]

Sacred 2 is the most underappreciated game of all time in my opinion

let down by bad release timing.

All I can think of is rats, mainly as in one area all you get attacked by is rats. There are at least 12 dragons in the game to fight but only 3 of them in main story, rest are just extras for you to find. And broken quests, and oh no, the quests where you have to lead someone somewhere and they agro onto a mob pack while totally unarmed and die. Saving was needed when random accidents can fail quests. Doing quests out of order can fail them too.
And Yoda is in game, but he is an kobold. Its not spelled out it is Yoda but its listed as a Star Wars reference on the wiki
Game was full of easter eggs, as was original. Still remember the summer camp in the desert, totally random.

Sacred 2 is short and long, you can finish a difficulty in about 2 to 3 days (normal) or endless (later difficulties), really depends how far off course you go. I would generally go opposite direction to main quest in later difficulties, its just there to open up a new area on map, and from start you can get way ahead of where story leads you but you still need to finish story quests to reach the end zone.

 

[mainer]

And broken quests, and oh no, the quests where you have to lead someone somewhere and they agro onto a mob pack while totally unarmed and die

Oh, yeah, those escort quests were a huge pain. I was constantly yelling, "You idiot!" at the person I was supposed to escort, as he/she constantly charged enemies barehanded (and usually died). There are a lot of quest fixes in the community patch (current v1.60), as well as many other fixes. If you're interested, here is 13 page PDF that lists all the fixes compiled over the years:
Sacred 2 Community Patch Total Changes.pdf - Google Drive

 

[JCgames]

Why choose?

If a game is great and you can play it for 5k hours and never get bored like starwars galaxies back in the day or Crusader kings III now. . But at the same time i enjoy games that i can play in a single night often. I guess if i had to really pick one i'd say i prefer 3 hour games. Main reason being i only need 1 that i can play for 100s or 1k's of hours. A single game to play for the next year or 50..

I will say if it's longer than 15 hours it better be frigging awesome though, because I've abandoned so many games by that point it's not even funny. Games like oblivion, fallout 3, world of warcraft are ones that stand out, if your going to bore me, just do it for a few hours!

for example i just played this little holiday gem over the weekend. I've been sick so i didn't want to goto my mom's so to get in the spirit of the holiday i watched the grinch and played this game. What a fantastic little hiddden object game, has to be the best one i've ever played.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1174500/Yuletide_Legends_Who_Framed_Santa_Claus/ I can play a whole bunch of things like this and find a bunch i really enjoy. It's like watching a great movie often less is more.

 

[Colif]

There are a lot of quest fixes in the community patch (current v1.60), as well as many other fixes. If you're interested, here is 13 page PDF that lists all the fixes compiled over the years:
Sacred 2 Community Patch Total Changes.pdf - Google Drive

I have played CM patch, been to the Xmas world that was to be added as a seasonal zone, died to a boss in another new zone that one shot my lvl 120 character and left me wondering wtf just happened. I might look at PDF but more I talk about game, more I want to play it.