Comfortable length for RPG games

[Bubbles]

10 hours? I can't recall any CRPG where a (regular, not a speedrun) playthrough took one weekend.

Banner Saga, Transistor, SRR, Blackguards 2 on Easy. Though you could argue about the first three being mobile/console trash.

 

[StaticSpine]

10 hours? I can't recall any CRPG where a (regular, not a speedrun) playthrough took one weekend.

Shadowrun Returns

 

[prodigydancer]

Banner Saga

http://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=9769
Completionist: 24 hours.

SRR

Yeah. It was too short and felt almost like a demo.

 

[Black_Willow]

If you have a very limited time in which to play a game, it's helpful to know that you'll be able to finish in a moderate amount of time.
Those 60-plus hour games everyone claims to miss from years ago? They can stay in the past for all I care. They have their place in the industry, and I'd argue they're out there for anyone who wants to look, but when I sit down and play one of them I do so with the uneasy knowledge that I'm not going to finish. I'll often note in reviews when a short length is noted, usually as a negative. I don't care that reviewers sometimes look down on that fact, I just appreciate that the data point is in there. My evidence is anecdotal, but there seem to be plenty of gamers who love to spend $20 or under on short, four hour or less narrative games. You can play them in one sitting, you get the rush of finishing a game, and get to experience an entire story that you can be pretty sure you'll finish. In my mind, it's a positive.

 

[Bubbles]

Banner Saga

http://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=9769
Completionist: 24 hours.

In that case "competionist" probably means "two playthroughs for fun." Steam gives me 15 hours played for one complete playthrough on the hardest difficulty, and that includes one restart after the tutorial and at least an hour of idle time. 24 hours is utterly absurd.

 

[Xenich]

If you have a very limited time in which to play a game, it's helpful to know that you'll be able to finish in a moderate amount of time.
Those 60-plus hour games everyone claims to miss from years ago? They can stay in the past for all I care. They have their place in the industry, and I'd argue they're out there for anyone who wants to look, but when I sit down and play one of them I do so with the uneasy knowledge that I'm not going to finish. I'll often note in reviews when a short length is noted, usually as a negative. I don't care that reviewers sometimes look down on that fact, I just appreciate that the data point is in there. My evidence is anecdotal, but there seem to be plenty of gamers who love to spend $20 or under on short, four hour or less narrative games. You can play them in one sitting, you get the rush of finishing a game, and get to experience an entire story that you can be pretty sure you'll finish. In my mind, it's a positive.

So, you want a game company to spend tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a game for you that lasts a mere amount of hours so you can feel like you watched a TV movie afterward. I mean, you can't be bothered with anything longer than that as you need your "entertainment" to neatly finish itself in the standard allotted viewing time.

Don't play PC games. Seriously, pick up that console and purchase all the arcade games you can handle. You sir are not a PC gamer, you are a person who likes to be "entertained" and finds the whole PC thing a "hoot" so you can achieve such. Either go back to the console games you came from, or fucking piss off and die. You are the cancer to the industry. No, really... FUCK OFF AND DIE!

 

[CryptRat]

If you have a very limited time in which to play a game, it's helpful to know that you'll be able to finish in a moderate amount of time.
Those 60-plus hour games everyone claims to miss from years ago? They can stay in the past for all I care. They have their place in the industry, and I'd argue they're out there for anyone who wants to look, but when I sit down and play one of them I do so with the uneasy knowledge that I'm not going to finish. I'll often note in reviews when a short length is noted, usually as a negative. I don't care that reviewers sometimes look down on that fact, I just appreciate that the data point is in there. My evidence is anecdotal, but there seem to be plenty of gamers who love to spend $20 or under on short, four hour or less narrative games. You can play them in one sitting, you get the rush of finishing a game, and get to experience an entire story that you can be pretty sure you'll finish. In my mind, it's a positive.

So, you want a game company to spend tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a game for you that lasts a mere amount of hours so you can feel like you watched a TV movie afterward. I mean, you can't be bothered with anything longer than that as you need your "entertainment" to neatly finish itself in the standard allotted viewing time.

Don't play PC games. Seriously, pick up that console and purchase all the arcade games you can handle. You sir are not a PC gamer, you are a person who likes to be "entertained" and finds the whole PC thing a "hoot" so you can achieve such. Either go back to the console games you came from, or fucking piss off and die. You are the cancer to the industry. No, really... FUCK OFF AND DIE!

Play console games? I have spent more than 70 hours on more than half of the PS3/360 J-RPGs i have played. They are far mor criticized for the big encouter rate than for the short length.

 

[Black_Willow]

If you have a very limited time in which to play a game, it's helpful to know that you'll be able to finish in a moderate amount of time.
Those 60-plus hour games everyone claims to miss from years ago? They can stay in the past for all I care. They have their place in the industry, and I'd argue they're out there for anyone who wants to look, but when I sit down and play one of them I do so with the uneasy knowledge that I'm not going to finish. I'll often note in reviews when a short length is noted, usually as a negative. I don't care that reviewers sometimes look down on that fact, I just appreciate that the data point is in there. My evidence is anecdotal, but there seem to be plenty of gamers who love to spend $20 or under on short, four hour or less narrative games. You can play them in one sitting, you get the rush of finishing a game, and get to experience an entire story that you can be pretty sure you'll finish. In my mind, it's a positive.

So, you want a game company to spend tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a game for you that lasts a mere amount of hours so you can feel like you watched a TV movie afterward. I mean, you can't be bothered with anything longer than that as you need your "entertainment" to neatly finish itself in the standard allotted viewing time.

Don't play PC games. Seriously, pick up that console and purchase all the arcade games you can handle. You sir are not a PC gamer, you are a person who likes to be "entertained" and finds the whole PC thing a "hoot" so you can achieve such. Either go back to the console games you came from, or fucking piss off and die. You are the cancer to the industry. No, really... FUCK OFF AND DIE!

 

[Xenich]

Huck huck... why... use dere gotz sum guud tazest dere dum. I menz... usez liks da weal qwik dere enterum tainum tent, gotz ta beez qwiks so usza can keepum upa rites dere?

 

[Black_Willow]

Huck huck... why... use dere gotz sum guud tazest dere dum. I menz... usez liks da weal qwik dere enterum tainum tent, gotz ta beez qwiks so usza can keepum upa rites dere?

and prognosis is getting worse.

 

[Xenich]

Play console games? I have spent more than 70 hours on more than half of the PS3/360 J-RPGs i have played. They are far mor criticized for the big encouter rate than for the short length.

Yet that has nothing to do with the point. Note that the poster did not state "well, as long as the game is quality, I like a long game", rather they went on to claim that they are an idiot who like short games because apparently they can't play a game unless it is in a single setting as he notes here:

If you have a very limited time in which to play a game, it's helpful to know that you'll be able to finish in a moderate amount of time.

We are talking about a single player game right? We are talking about a game where you can save right?

So is this guy fucking stupid? Really, does he think with his ass? I mean... how stupid do you have to be to actually make a point that a single player game that you can save should be short because you have limited time? Is this guy some fucking mobile game fantatic? Really? Where did this fucking tool come from and how can he be so fucking stupid? Go ahead... explain that point to me?

 

[Xenich]

Huck huck... why... use dere gotz sum guud tazest dere dum. I menz... usez liks da weal qwik dere enterum tainum tent, gotz ta beez qwiks so usza can keepum upa rites dere?

and prognosis is getting worse.

You were the fucking idiot who made the point of: "If you have a very limited time in which to play a game, it's helpful to know that you'll be able to finish in a moderate amount of time."

Do you find it hard to draw breath and think at the same time?

Its a single player game you fucking moron. You have all the time in the world to finish it at your own pace!!!!

Please fucking kill yourself you fucking moron!!!!

 

[Black_Willow]

Huck huck... why... use dere gotz sum guud tazest dere dum. I menz... usez liks da weal qwik dere enterum tainum tent, gotz ta beez qwiks so usza can keepum upa rites dere?

and prognosis is getting worse.

You were the fucking idiot who made the point of: "If you have a very limited time in which to play a game, it's helpful to know that you'll be able to finish in a moderate amount of time."

Do you find it hard to draw breath and think at the same time?

Its a single player game you fucking moron. You have all the time in the world to finish it at your own pace!!!!

Please fucking kill yourself you fucking moron!!!!

 

[Xenich]

Yeah, thought so you fucking twit.

You lost the discussion. You are a fucking popamole player.

Don't fool yourself into thinking you are anything more than the cancer to which has killed games.

Why don't you take your stupid fucking ass and go over to RPG watch where you will find like company you fucking moron.

go ahead piss ant, run off to your friends who think like you. You are such a pathetic excuse for a life form. Please... please... kill your pathetic self!!!

Let me add this point so your fucking stupidity carries on:

"If you have a very limited time in which to play a game, it's helpful to know that you'll be able to finish in a moderate amount of time."

Yep, you sir are a fucking idiot.

 

[tuluse]

Yeah, thought so you fucking twit.

You lost the discussion. You are a fucking popamole player.

Don't fool yourself into thinking you are anything more than the cancer to which has killed games.

Why don't you take your stupid fucking ass and go over to RPG watch where you will find like company you fucking moron.

go ahead piss ant, run off to your friends who think like you. You are such a pathetic excuse for a life form. Please... please... kill your pathetic self!!!

Let me add this point so your fucking stupidity carries on:

"If you have a very limited time in which to play a game, it's helpful to know that you'll be able to finish in a moderate amount of time."

Yep, you sir are a fucking idiot.

Can you name one RPG which would have been good/great and was ruined because they shortened it down for people who want short games (and not because they ran out of money making it)?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I prefer when main story takes about 20-30 hours, with secondary quests taking at least 10-20 hours. I can accept more, but only when it doesn't turn into a drag after some time and has some interesting twists. And if it does turn into a boring drag, I simply rush through the game to see the ending (or try to rush then drop if it's an utter dragfest).

 

[Xenich]

Can you name one RPG which would have been good/great and was ruined because they shortened it down for people who want short games (and not because they ran out of money making it)?

Do you think that is the point of this discussion I was having?

Or... do you think the point was making default claims as to what a game should be?


The OP is a fucking idiot because he tried to suggest that long games were bad because they were long. Seriously, you have to be a complete fucking moron to buy into that premise.

Now a smart person would understand that it isn't the length of the game that is the issue, rather it is how the content is applied that sums up the game.

I made this point previously, even quoted and emphasized on such in another.

The poster I was responding to made the same fucking idiotic claim as the OP, stating that a shorter game was better, but then went off the deep end of stupidity to claim it was better because they could finish it due to the player having limited time.

So...


Now knowing that, do you care to ask your question in the proper context? Do you think I should answer your question now due to it being completely fucking irrelevant to the line of discussion I was having? Please explain.

 

[Ramireza]

I voted for 50+ Hours. Some years ago Games like BG2, wich had 80+ Hours of great content wihtout any filler shit, set the bar for all other games. Exceptions are surely The Banner Sage or Dragonfall, but in the common case i prefer "long" RPG´s.

In short words : If the content is high quality then the game couldnt be long enough in my opintion.

 

[Black_Willow]

Yeah, thought so you fucking twit.

You lost the discussion. You are a fucking popamole player.

Don't fool yourself into thinking you are anything more than the cancer to which has killed games.

Why don't you take your stupid fucking ass and go over to RPG watch where you will find like company you fucking moron.

go ahead piss ant, run off to your friends who think like you. You are such a pathetic excuse for a life form. Please... please... kill your pathetic self!!!

Let me add this point so your fucking stupidity carries on:

"If you have a very limited time in which to play a game, it's helpful to know that you'll be able to finish in a moderate amount of time."

Yep, you sir are a fucking idiot.

Sir, you deserve a multitude of brofists.

 

[naossano]

Lengh still matter if it reach huge proportions, despite of the quality.
Outside the extremes, it is mainly dependant of the overall quality and the percentage of filler/repetition/tedium/Genericness/etc.

(We are talking about a single playthrough. Doesn't matter if you spend 9999 hours replaying the games for branching)

 

[Metro]

The ten hour examples are pretty weak. Stuff like Banner Saga and Shittyrun Retards are less true cRPGs and more strategy combat vignettes. Same with Blackguards, too.

 

[Perkel]

As much as game needs to build proper narrative.

Some RPG can be 10 hours some may be 100h

 

[Saber-Scorpion]

Banner Saga

http://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=9769
Completionist: 24 hours.

In that case "competionist" probably means "two playthroughs for fun." Steam gives me 15 hours played for one complete playthrough on the hardest difficulty, and that includes one restart after the tutorial and at least an hour of idle time. 24 hours is utterly absurd.

Yeah, I gotta call shenanigans on the 24 hour time too. I played Banner Saga twice, taking my sweet time, and I've only got 34 hours logged. 15 is more like it.

 

[Necroscope]

Depends on a game really. MoTB is like a separate game fit in a form of expansion, yet it feels compelling in terms of gameplay time. FONV, on the other hand, is a beast with all the dlcs, but again I had a good time with it (ok, maybe aside from the Old World Blues find upgrades for the fucking talking toaster faggotry). It boils down to whether a game content is good and how the filler stuff, which is unavoidable to some extent, is handled and dosed. If every NPC bombards you with "find my lost ring" shit and you have to fight your way through every corridor, then it doesn't matter that the game is long.

 

[Morality Games]

I prefer 20-30. Anything past 40 hours and I'll get burned out and have to finish it later.