Are AAA Games Too Long?

[BreakABone]

Another day, another fun-filled gaming article.

This one is taken from GameSpot

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6324422...games-too-long

The panel discussed the relevance of narrative-based gameplay in today's world of casual and social games. Looking at recent AAA releases L.A. Noire and Heavy Rain--both heavily story-led--they debated whether their long length was still enticing for today's gamer. "Gamers are losing patience," said Kennedy, when asked about his own experiences with Heavy Rain, "so many people don't reach the end and lose the full impact of the story." He wasn't complimentary of its narrative either, questioning the benefit of basing a game on long-form narrative such as film, resulting in a "bastardised" storyline that doesn't quite work.

So some questions

1) Do you think Games Are too long?
2) How many of your games do you complete?
3) What is an AAA title to you?

And as an added bonus, here are some numbers courtesy of Raptr.com of % of people who finish games.

Modern Warfare 2
Complete the game - 66.75%

Mass Effect 2
Complete Final Story Mission - 65.8%

CoD4 Modern Warfare
Complete the Game - 64.41%

Gears of War 2
Complete all acts - 62.22%

Assassins Creed 2
Complete Final Mission - 57.59%

Halo 3
Complete the Game - 56.69%

Halo Reach
Complete the Game - 56.18%

Shadow Complex
Complete the Game - 55.88%

Gears of War
Complete all acts - 55.84%

Castle Crashers
Complete the Game - 55.16%

Mass Effect
Complete Mass Effect Playthrough - 54.79%

Resident Evil 5
Complete All Chapters - 54.54%

Halo ODST
Complete the Game - 53.68%

CoD World at War
Complete the game - 49.14%

Braid
Complete the game - 45.01%

Fallout 3
Finish Finally Story Mission - 44.85%

Assassins Creed
Complete Assassins Creed - 44.57%

Bayonetta
Complete all Chapters on any difficulty - 43.58%

Dead Space
Complete the game - 43.24%

Dirt 2
Completed the Singleplayer - 41.29%

Devil May Cry 4
Complete All Missions - 36.78%

Alan Wake
Complete the game - 35.56%

Grand Theft Auto IV
Complete the final mission - 32.15%

Darksiders
Complete the game - 30.81%

Dead Rising
Survive 72hours - 26.18%

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Finish Last Mission - 23.88%

'Splosion Man
Complete the Single Player game - 16.16%

Trials HD
Complete Extreme - 12.20%

Battlefield: Bad Company
Complete Last Mission - 7.56%

Red Dead Redemption
Complete the final Story Mission - 5.2%

[KillerGremlin]

Yeeeeeesssss and no.

I don't think this is a black and white issue, and somewhere in the gray muddle lies two cold facts: a lot of these games just have shitty single players and there are way too many games coming out for gamers to handle.

I'm sorry, but how many of the games polled actually have A or B-grade single players?

So when you combine repetitive and long single player games with a market that is turning out big title after big title on 3 consoles plus PC....no shit people don't finish games.

Back when it was Playstation vs. N64 I beat way more games than I do now. And I was an impatient little shit back then! I've grown up, I think I'm more patient now. I remember when OoT was the video game I played for like a year. That's all I had, plus my older games. So of course I beat that shit. I owned Super Mario 64 as a solo title + rentals for like 1 or 2 years before I bought a second N64 game.

I do agree that this generation and the state of society is one with constant streams of media...and people, myself included, are losing our patience. But once upon a time I had no issue investing HOURS into gaming, and at this point in time I still invest hours into games I'm really passionate about.

I think it's a complicated issue....but developers shouldn't even make a suggestion that it is the gamers fault. Maybe they should quit milking sequels and make better games.


Also anecdotal but worth discussion: GTA3 and Vice City...me and my friends beat the shit out of those single player games. But we didn't do it in one stretch. Half the fun of those games were epic police chases, seeing how long you could last with the military on your ass, stealing tanks.....doing the rampage challenges, all that fun stuff. Between time spent fucking around sandbox style vs. single player, it was probably a 10:1 ratio. Now what's up with GTAIV? I don't hear the same love or the same stories or the same experience.

[gekko]

Originally Posted by BreakABone

1) Do you think Games Are too long?
2) How many of your games do you complete?
3) What is an AAA title to you?

1) If the game is good enough to keep you entertained for its entirety, then no.

2) The ones that keep me entertained. If length is a problem, you need to look at the real issue of why do people want to stop playing your game.

3) The ones with huge budgets that keep me employed.

Although, that is not the best list of games. Trials HD is more like a Super Monkey Ball, it's a really short game but very difficult to complete. That's nothing like Red Dead Redemption, which is incredibly long but not too difficult.

[Vampyr]

Yeah, it really just depends.

Mass Effect 2 wasn't too long, because it was a fun ride the entire way through.

Dragon Age 2 was too long because it was mostly filler missions that recycled the same dungeons over and over.

Really just depends on the quality of the game and how engrossing it is.

[Angrist]

Some games definitely have problems. But I don't think they're too long. They're too boring.

I know plenty of games that took me 60 hours to finish and I still felt sad when they were over. And I have a hard time finishing some 10 hours games, simply because they get repetitive.

[KillerGremlin]

It appears Reddit shares my sentiments:
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comme...best_gamespot/

"Are AAA games too long?", or "The dumbest Gamespot article I've ever read."


And the best Reddit comment so far:

When a game is truly an AAA game IMO opinion, it almost physically hurts to have to beat it.

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by KillerGremlin

It appears Reddit shares my sentiments:
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comme...best_gamespot/

"Are AAA games too long?", or "The dumbest Gamespot article I've ever read."


And the best Reddit comment so far:

To be fair, it isn't a GameSpot article in the editorial sense, but them reporting on a panel.

[Jason1]

If the game is good enough, it is never too long.

[Typhoid]

This is the saddest stat I have ever seen relating to a video game:

Red Dead Redemption
Complete the final Story Mission - 5.2%

Everyone should finish that game. The very end of that game is the rug that ties the room together.

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

This is the saddest stat I have ever seen relating to a video game:



Everyone should finish that game. The very end of that game is the rug that ties the room together.

I think, and GTA kind of backs it up, that open-world games are really difficult to complete just because there's so much stuff that actually keeps you from focusing on your goal.

I think its something Rockstar discovered when the DLC for GTA IV just didn't sell that well.

[magus113]

Originally Posted by BreakABone

I think its something Rockstar discovered when the DLC for GTA IV just didn't sell that well.

That's a shame too because I liked playing The Ballad of Gay Tony. Mind you I haven't finished it because I got it in the Steam Rockstar pack and the PC version runs like garbage, but I did like what I played storywise.

I was only able to complete GTA IV because I did nothing but the story missions non-stop. I wasn't about dicking around and killing cops and stuff like that because it was wasteful for me. You lose your weapons, you pay money, and all this other mess that seemed like a waste of time.

Maybe it's just cause I don't like that style of play, although I like sandbox games..I like games with a goal that can be reached. Even in open world games like Fallout New Vegas, the world might be open but unless you keep buying DLC you can eventually do EVERYTHING in the game.

MMOs are things that have to be really good for me to get into because of that.

[KillerGremlin]

I think GTA could be the ultimate win-win since it has a story mode for the dedicated gamers and a sandbox mode for the people who want to pick it up and just screw around.

Does anyone think that this is just a pitfall of the current gaming market? I really think the stream of games across numerous consoles coupled with the consumerist mindset of "want want want buy buy buy" has created a generation of consumers who own WAY more shit than they can actually consume. It creates huge profit revenues which in turn has lead to a market that continues to turn out games at a pace that is too rapid for any gamer, casual or hardcore, to keep up with. You can't even say it is a quality over quantity issue, because so much stuff gets turned out that good games slip through the cracks.

It's almost like a gaming bubble...

[Vampyr]

I played the hell out of Morrowind, and never even started the main story.

[Typhoid]

Originally Posted by BreakABone

I think, and GTA kind of backs it up, that open-world games are really difficult to complete just because there's so much stuff that actually keeps you from focusing on your goal.

See, that's what pisses me off about the vast majority of gamers these days though. They all just want to bitch and moan about somthing.

"This open-ended world is too large. There's too much to do, and I have too much freedom. I'll never find the time to complete everything!"

But if Rockstar switched up the GTA/RDR style to a singular mission-based style it would be

"This game is too linear. I wish I could roam freely in this game and do whatever the fuck I wanted to do."

Everyone who plays games these days seems to have the attention span of a fucking goldfish, and I find this infinitely frustrating because I enjoy the longer, drawn out games. One of the best experiences I had was playing and beating RDR, and Fallout New Vegas. I fear for my future gaming enjoyment if people constantly bitch about the things they previously bitched to receive. I think people forget that open-world games exist because people hated the tedium of point-to-point action games. Maybe people just want to pay 70 dollars for a 5 hour faux-open world game that presents fake decisions that both result in the same outcome regardless.

Kids these days. Finish your goddamn games. There are kids in Africa having no fun.

[Bube]

Games aren't too long. The real problem is without a doubt the quantity of games on the market. Imagine a game like GTA4 in the time of GTA1.

My brother said that games feel like "fast-food" these days. He's right. Not because they lack quality or are too short; it's because we keep thinking "damn, I have to eat quickly so I can catch the 9.30 movie".