Games are too long. Shawn Layden claims games should be shorter. I agree.
When the first Spider-Man game came out, I was super excited. The intro was packed with thrills and comic book action. I thought this was the beginning of an action-packed super adventure. However, after finding out how large and impactful the game was (not to mention all the different moves you needed to learn), I put the game down, not because I didn’t like the vast open-world, but because it was too long! I didn’t have time to learn every move, help every citizen, and scour every inch of the city like I wanted. I wasn’t 12 years old anymore. I had work, study, grandparents to help; I had life. I didn’t have time.
Games are one of the most creative, intuitive inventions ever. Full of art, expression, emotion, life, and intelligence, billions of people are pulled into these creations. Games not only entertain but also provide therapy. They are a mechanism for relaxing. But when a game is 100+ hours long and you only have 1 to 2 hours to play along with a list of other games, it becomes not so relaxing anymore but stressful and disappointing.
I have always been a fan of Japanese games. In fact, I prefer Japanese games (and now Korean games since developers are making PS5 games) over Western games. One reason is story, creativity, and another reason is the structure of the game. Most Japanese games are linear and have a beginning and end. Western games tend to be just like their Hollywood counterparts; they don’t know when to quit the game. Also, their’s so much to do that by the time you finish the game, another year has passed. Then, they throw a DLC at you that is another 500 hours.
This would be good in a world where there are 10 games that release each year, but there are like 50 games coming out every month, and when you have 5 games you want to play that equal 500 hours of your time and you only have a limited playing range, well, nothing gets completed.
I want to play all the games I can play. I want to finish all the games I want to play. Also, even though I can buy all the games I want, I don’t want to have a pileup in my house like a traffic jam. So when I have 5 long games, I only have 5 long games, which impacts the industry because I will wait until I finish my games before I give another game a try (unless I really, really want that game).
I think it would be better to create a shorter game and come out with DLCs over the year that add to the game. This keeps the interest at its peak and the story fresh instead of forcing the player to run around a town for 30 minutes just to make the game long.
Players want great games. They don’t care if a game is 100 hours anymore. They want a well-thought-out, tightly developed game that makes sense from beginning to end and doesn’t waste the players time.
What do you fellow gamers think?
