Most Video Games Are Too Damn Long
Are video games too long? I love a great story-based game. The characters, game mechanics, and story can all be amazing. But does it need to take 30+ hours?
A few weeks back, a remaster of Suikoden II was announced. Since then I’ve been replaying it since it’s a true masterpiece of a video game. But, I’m only about a third of the way through. Why do I feel like I’m being punished for getting bored of a game?
This is not a particularly new trend. The original NES Final Fantasy takes about 16 hours to complete. But it does seem to be more acceptable lately to release a game with a playtime marked in days, not hours. For example, Cyberpunk 2077 takes about 24 hours just to do the main quest. Horizon Zero Dawn takes 30, and Fallout: New Vegas takes 27 hours.
Movies and TV shows have been telling gripping and engaging stories for years now, without needing 30 hours with which to do it. So, why is it that we praise developers for padding out God of War to extend the playtime, but criticize The Hobbit movies for doing the same thing?
“Because it’s a Game, Not a Movie”
Broadly speaking, people play video games for two reasons.
- They find the gameplay and mechanics enjoyable to play.
- They want to follow the story of the characters and the plot.
I enjoy games for both of these reasons.
I simply don’t have the long-term attention span for games that take weeks to complete. With my work life and social life, I sometimes have to set a game aside for a few days or a week. I want to follow the story and characters through their journey. But when the game is taking me multiple weeks or months of playing, I grow tired of the mechanics and just want to play a different genre of game.
This cycle means I rarely get to finish games, which is really disappointing.
How to Do It Right
This is not all games, of course. Plenty of games have been released without marathon-length playtime. Stray takes 5 hours, and I beat Metroid Dread in 8 hours. But does having such a long play time really add anything to the game?
There are tons of games out there that are well-loved without double-digit play times.
- Undertale takes 8 hours
- Portal 2 takes 8 hours
- Stray takes 5 hours
- Mirror’s Edge takes 5 hours
- Even Bioshock: Infinite only takes 11 hours
All of these games have tons of world-building, great characters, and compelling stories and can be completed in a dedicated weekend. I want to engage with stories like The Last Of Us, Red Dead Redemption, or Nier: Automata, but I can’t.
I would absolutely play more games, at a lower price point, knowing they had a shorter playtime. It just feels like our range of acceptability is so skewed toward allowing games to run way too long. /soapbox
