Opinion Does length matter?

[suiko]

so many things with gaming went wrong over the last years, even if some consider these changes good, many see them as ruination of their hobby, but one thing is better than it ever was before - choices, there are so many games, in so many genres, styles, gameplay preferences, artstyles, the ocean of choices, the ocean we can drown in.
Some of choices are not anything complex related as gameplay or gerne, or certain feel to the game but simply the lenght of it. Times when longer was better than shorter are way past us, because of limitless choices we have there too.

so, let's talk about big and small games, do you prefer them compact and eventful, or short and relaxing, or long and engaging, or long and neverending as in general MMOs and strategy games are.
What do you think is shortest game you liked? What was longest? Do you prefer small or large games? or maybe games of medium length which I'd consider ~30 hours?

the shortest game I liked heaps has to be Journey, and did I simple liked it? ha, it changed my perception of small games entirely, now I embrace some short games, instead of ignoring them as before.

the longest game I liked (not MMO or strategy or arcade or other endless game, but a game with the actual end) has to be Dragon Quest 7, it took me years to finish it, I went for 100% there, and I would advice against it, because that game is a tad too long for its own good. It didn't really changed my views on long games, but it certainly gave me a pause and deeper contemplation why do I like long games.

my endless game that I played for years is Civ 2 (6 years to be precise, with pauses of course)

I no longer prefer long games over short, I prefer good, creative games over bad, no matter how long.

what about you?

 

[lashman]

it's not the length that matters, it's how you use it ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

seriously, though — if a game isn't one of those “you can play it forever” (Civ, CKII, Stellaris etc.) i DEFINITELY prefer shorter games — at least i can finish those in a reasonable amount of time (i still haven't finished TW3, and i pre-ordered it)

 

[Deku]

I like games that are not too long and not too short. For longer games I hope that there are no choices that make impacts on the stories that require multiple playthroughs in order to get 100%. I used to aim for 100%ing games, getting all items, doing all sidequests and such. But I have come to realize that one of my favourite genres, jrpg, tends to be way too long, missable events, multiple endings and anything else that contributes to more hours to complete.
Nowadays when I am choosing a game to play I check howlongtobeat.com to see how long it takes to play through a game. Between 10 and 20 hours is my golden gameplay hours

 

[ScreamingTrees]

I'm another one in the not too long camp. I like to play through games and then move onto the next one. When choosing the next game to play, I always get put off if it seems like a really long game. This year the long games I've played are Assassin's Creed Origins and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 yet I have a huge backlog I haven't made a dent on!

 

[Guilty of Being]

I'm not big on long games. I actually enjoy short games. However, I'd say 10-20 is the sweet mark.

 

[Anteater]

I don't really care mostly, obviously you might get the feeling that you're not getting your money's worth but in this day and age games drop in price quick so it's not really a problem, there also are a lot of games out there of different length to choose from so it doesn't matter at the end, you can play a long ass game with a few short ones mixed in, you won't be able to finish them all anyway

 

[suiko]

I even bolded questions, still nobody reads OP

 

[Anteater]

I even bolded questions, still nobody reads OP

as i said i don't care!

 

[suiko]

no need to shout, Ant, I was just pointing out

 

[lashman]

I even bolded questions, still nobody reads OP

reading is for nerds!

 

[Anteater]

no need to shout, Ant, I was just pointing out

Never!

 

[Krakn3dfx]

My memory is that Binary Domain was fairly short for the type of game it was, I think I beat it in 4-5 hours, it's one of my favorite titles that came out that year though.

Also loved Inside, although it was only 2-3 hours long.

I love good, open world games with a lot of meat, but they have to keep me hooked. The problem with stuff like Far Cry 5 or even (don't hurt me) Witcher 3 is that after 30 or so hours, other than the story beats, it felt like a lot of the same situations, and I fall off and pick up something else to play. It's always subjective though, I know people playing through TW3 their third or forth times because they couldn't get enough, but I haven't been able to bring myself back to finish it the first time.

On the other hand, I've beaten the original Witcher twice because the story felt tighter and more focused for me, even though it was a rougher experience game play wise in spots.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I have a preference toward lengthy RPGs, but I also like to play some shorter games from other genres in between. So usually it goes long game -> 1 or 2 short games -> long game and so on. An exception to that would be when I'm playing through a game series, like when I played through the Mass Effect trilogy.

I've played console games since the SNES and I haven't kept track of hours spent on each game until recently, so I don't remember exactly what the shortest game I've played was. Out of the single-player Steam games that I have actually beaten, the shortest would be Cuphead at 8 hours. As for the longest to beat (reaching the end credits), it would either be Xenoblade Chronicles (1 or 2) or Divinity Original Sin. I know the Xenoblade games each took me over 100 hours to beat, but I don't remember the exact numbers as I kept playing each to do the optional content so they now have more than 200 hours clocked in. Divinity clocked in at 128 hrs when I beat it a few months ago, so I will stick to that as the longest game I've played so far.

 

[Teggy]

The shortest game I’ve liked is probably Gone Home. It had a story to tell and kept me guessing about what was going on until the end. Journey is up there.

I think I like games to be in the 15-20 hour range, although the type of gameplay does matter. I will have more patience for games that allow exploration to suck up a lot of time. It’s kind of weird, but if games are non-stop action they can get tiring more quickly.

I’d say the longest games I’ve enjoyed were either Morrowind or Skyrim. But even when I am enjoying them, long games tend to hit a point where I am ready for them to be over. AC Odyssey was definitely the most recent example of that.

 

[Durante]

It depends on how much variety the gameplay offers, and how well-paced it is.

There are certainly games that I think would be far better if they were shorter, like Persona 3-5. The JRPG genre in particular seems to be liable to overstay its welcome in terms of length.
Another somewhat recent game I enjoyed but which might have had "too much stuff" is Witcher 3, though arguably that one is more on me since no one forces me to do all those optional quests and tasks.

Still, overall I don't have clear preferences, it very much depends on the game.

 

[Ex-User (307)]

The problem isn't length, it's padding. The biggest example offender of the padding issue in my opinion, as a kind of aside here, is the modern JRPG where this issue is just ridiculous.

A game can be long, but feel vibrant and full of life. I'm sure not everyone will agree with this example, but I've played all the way through The Witcher 3 twice (once at release, once with all the expansions once they were both released) and I never felt like the game was wasting my time. I immensely enjoyed my time in the game and in the world that was created.

Conversely, there are even shorter games (though a good example isn't coming to mind right this second) where even though it's short, it still feels padded out.

Anyways, the shortest game I liked? Journey is probably a good pick and what I'd say if pressed to pick one game. Thomas Was Alone is another good short, so is 80 Days, and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is an all-time great. I wouldn't call it a favorite, but Subsurface Circular was another game that I enjoyed recently that's brief (Bithell is pretty good at the short game thing I guess!).

Longest games? In recent years, TW3 as I said is great, Mass Effect 2 was good as far as I can remember, Yakuza 0 is good (has some padding, but it can be skipped anyways), etc. If we're talking even more of an "endless" type of games, I've been playing Tetris for years, Civ 4/5 for years, RimWorld, Rise to Ruins, League of Legends, Dota 2, and FFXIV.

I don't think I prefer one or the other, I just prefer games to not waste my time. Two games can be of equivalent length, but feel completely different in terms of time investment. Wolfenstein: TNO is a breezy, lovely 10 hour jaunt killing Nazi scum. Wolfenstein: TNC is a nightmare slog that sucks all joy out of killing Nazis by padding the game with boring sections and bad level design.

Or as another option, if a game is going to waste my time, at least surround the systems with functionality that makes it feel like less of a waste. A good example here is real MMOs (like FFXIV/WoW) versus fake MMOs (Destiny). The real MMOs have community functions built so deeply into games that I rarely feel like I'm wasting time, even when I legitimately am, because the game is designed to facilitate a reasonably communal experience the helps brush some of the pain of padding back. Conversely, a game like Destiny that lacks most basic communal functions because the directors are afraid of "toxic communities" (or whatever nonsense they peddled years ago), feels like my time is being wasted a lot more often.

 

[curi0usBystander]

Honesty I don't know. Probably one of the long games that I enjoyed the most was probably SMT III (but this might just be my memory being fuzzy). Of the shortest I really couldn't say.

I general though, I don't care if a game is short or long as long as It keeps me engaged. What I don't want is a lot of "filler" (I don't know how to call it) that makes the game longer so it's longer..

 

[CrazyJuan]

Bit 'o both, really.

My GoTY is Sea of Thieves, and I've got multiple hundreds of hours enjoyed. On the other hand, many of my favorite games this year are smaller games with impact, like The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories, or Laser League, which is super intense for me but I can pick it up and play any time.

 

[Hero Prinny]

games being too long actually turns me off from them. Persona 5, for example, could've been my goty if it was like 30-40 hours shorter. There's way too much fat on that game that just holds it back.

 

[Kuroyume]

When I was younger I'd want to get as much game play time as possible. Now that I'm older I prefer for games to be short, and just feature procedurally-generated content with unlockables to remain fresh. For example, you could get through a game of Isaac or Nuclear Throne quickly, but still play them many times over and find new things or get a fresh experience each time.

 

[Atraveller]

I hate long games now. My time is precious.

 

[TheVectronic]

I wanna preface this response by stating the following...

Time is eternal, my attention span isn't...

I generally like games of a wide variety of lengths, anything that I can consider fun, interesting or entertaining can be easily be placed on my list, but to give proper examples of games I've played recently that can attribute to OP's question is quite difficult so I'll do my best to explain why while using How Long To Beat as a reference when I do mention these games.

What do you think is shortest game you liked?

While I agree with OP with Journey that helped expand my horizons to not just ignore smaller, shorter games, but embrace them, I have to give mine to a game that came out recently.

Donut County (2 hours)

This pocket sized game is a really good puzzle adventure where you take control over a hole in the ground that gradually expands as it consumes items in the level. It's a charming game you can play on an afternoon with a hot coffee & a box of donuts. Featuring a cast of memorable characters, a unique & calming soundtrack with a witty sense of humor, it brings the table a new idea of what's like to be in this world ruled by raccoons. (I am not making that up)

I find that the base price for this game isn't worth the actual content that's inside, but as someone who keeps an eye out for these smaller indie titles every once in a while, I found it to be worth the $12.99 I spent getting it. It's very cool, I recommend bringing a friend over once you finish just to see their reactions on it & keep playing it more & more.


Honorable Mention - Flipping Death (6 hours)

This was one of my favorites of 2018 along side Donut County. The game sets around a what if scenario where the player becomes Death after he decides to take a vacation taking care of the unfinished business that wandering ghosts in the town seek for closure. Similar to Stick it to the Man! another game of theirs that's in the same vein, you switch between the corporeal & the ethereal by possessing the living to solve the phantom's errand while trying to find out who stole your body.

It's a fantastic unique game with hilarious visuals, cool & charming characters that sure to hook you for a ride in the Otherside!

What was longest?

I normally don't tend to play past the +30 hour mark at times, but there's some games that make me want to go past it. In this case it's no different.

Persona 5 (96 hours)

One of my most anticipated games of 2017, & it was worth the wait. I got so hooked by the time I knew it I had 100% the game, I just wanted to keep playing through it. There's little to say here that hasn't already been said before about this game, so I'll be brief. It's a fantastic game that everyone should experience at least once. While there's a small hope that it may be ported elsewhere, it's worth picking a PS3 or a PS4 to just play this game. It's that good.

Do you prefer small or large games?

A tough one to answer, but I think I'll get to say I'm a more varied person when it comes to length in gaming. I do like playing games that sink you to the point of disorientation when it comes to picking the next game, but I also like bite sized games that you can beat casually in a sitting. Medium sized games like say Okami or Assassin's Creed is how I'd prefer most of the time. It's not long enough to be a total time sinker, but not short enough to feel cheated by the game if it turns bad. There's nothing inherently wrong with playing longer or endless games, but I feel it can be devoiding time I can spend with other games, unless I'm 100% certain that I'm willing to commit to the time needed to finish them.

I am trying to get into more RPGs like Hyperdimension Neptunia, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of the Cold Steel, & Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland, I find it a bit harder as time goes by. Probably my attention span being much smaller with all of these newfound responsibilities as an adult that can lead to a more difficult schedule thus creating this issue with longer games.

Hopefully once I settle a bit more in the future or when I become an old retired fart, I may get the chance to play these games & more. Who knows? I got a huge backlog with more games to come, & I got what's left of my time here to play through the most of what I can.

Great Thread OP!

 

[fantomena]

As long as I enjoy it, nope.

 

[CrazyJuan]

As long as I enjoy it, nope.

That's what he/she said.

 

[fantomena]

That's what he/she said.

 

[Maxi]

I don't mind either way and I never tend to put a price per a n hour when it comes to the value of a game.

The longer games I've enjoyed are RDR2, Yakuza 0, Yakuza 6 and Assassin's Creed Origins over the past year but I have struggled with all of those games when it comes to getting through the story and often had to ignore a lot of side quests that I tended to enjoy. That is mainly due to time constraints and a new game eating up my time.

I do like my shorter games and experiences more so. Rouge-lites or similar short arcade games are great, currently poking at Geometry Wars 3 and picked up Rogue Legacy.

Any type of games works for me but with me being so closely tied to the industry and urge to play a lot of games that hit the market the shorter experiences are the one that tend to stick more and leave a founder memory looking back on the game.

 

[RionaaM]

I've been playing The House in Fata Morgana for over a hundred hours now (I'm a slow-as-fuck reader, and I tend to reread old stuff), and still have several endings to get. I'm enjoying every minute of it. I also love Super Hexagon, which you can beat in 360 seconds if you're good at it, and the Bit.Trip series (you can beat several of them in an hour or so), so yeah, it depends on the game

 

[Matimeo]

short and to the point. I have a short attention span so even if I enjoy something I will get distracted by something new.
Anytime i see people complain a game was too short, it goes to the top of my play list lol.

I also really prefer games with short sessions. When I am waiting too long to hit a save point or feel like I made progression
I tend to drop those games. pacing is super important for me.

 

[Sophie]

Short but not too short. I don’t have the time or patience I once did, so it’s hard to play a long game while still getting my MMO fix.

 

[eonden]

I think it depends.
The main issue with long games is when they are padded not to improve the game but rather to add "value" to the customer, to the point where it just becomes a long boring span of going through the game just to finish it.

However, there are long games where the story makes it worth it, such as some RPGs like DQ or some FF.

Still, I think most of my playtime is with near endless games and modable games which can give you nearly as much time as you can, as long as you arent bored.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

What do you think is shortest game you liked? What was longest? Do you prefer small or large games? or maybe games of medium length which I'd consider ~30 hours?

I think the shortest game that I liked was That Dragon Cancer.

I tend to start long games but never finish them, even though I can say I enjoyed my time with them. I can put in this list Dark Souls, Divinity Original Sin, Pillars of Eternity and so on.

Nowadays, mainly because time, I prefer short games but when I was younger and had plenty of time and no responsibilities in my hands it could be the other way around, but there are exceptions. There are some "endless" games that I've spend a lot of time like Path of Exile or Warframe.

 

[Stop It]

It really depends.

If a game is enjoyable, obviously you don't want it to be a short experience.

So long as a game manages to keep your engagement and feels like fun, length is not a factor especially in the days of GaaS.

 

[Le Pertti]

I prefer long RPGs and open world games, so yeah for me the longer the better. Of course the game has to be good also. I do also want to "snack" on short games between long games.

I think for it comes from a fundamental vision of what I think games should be, I think I've always wanted games to become virtual worlds where one can make ones own story, so a perfect game for me would be unlimited.

 

[Jam]

There's just too much context around the length that is more important.

Though I will say as I get older for single-player games I'm leaning towards 'accomplishable in a reasonable time', some single player narrative driven games drag on far too long or are filled to the brim with fluff. I think my most played games of all time are Overwatch/Football Manager Series/Fallout Series. But I've had some incredible experiences with shorter games.

A lot has to come to perceived value on the behalf of the consumer. How much they value quality/quantity.

 

[Soma]

As I grow older I've found I appreciate shorter games much more. I've always been a huge fan of JRPGs, but nowadays I just look at most of them, think about how long they are, and I just can't muster the courage to give them the proper attention. I really need to find the time and will to play Dragon Quest XI, though.

 

[Digoman]

Variety of game types and quality of content is everything.

My favorite long game probably is Witcher 3. Spend 246 hours on that with two playthrough (and I started the second one before there was a New Game Plus).
But there is also a *lot* of short games that really, really liked. Technically the answer is probably Gone Home (2 hours) but I should also mention Brothers (3 hours) and To the Moon (4 hours).

As a starting point when looking for story based games (my preference), I usually look for something in the 20-30 hours range. However if I game "clicks" with me I happily spend a lot more time with it, but I also value short experiences if they are really well crafted.

This medium allows for all kinds of experiences (something the big publishers tend to forget), so it all depends on filling the time the best way possible. Unfortunately with the GaaS boom a lot of what we are getting is usually very artificial ways to extend playtime, so you never leave.

 

[Kyougar]

I don't play to finish something. I play to get immersed, have fun gameplay elements, build crazy things, have fun with my buddy, etc.
So short games are the Antithesis to my enjoyment of Gaming. If I want to experience a short game, I will watch a Lets Play.

The same with books. I rarely read anything under 100k words, unless it is a series.

 

[OniluapL]

I prefer shorter games, in part because I can experience more stuff in less time that way, in part because I have a very low attention span, so if it's shorter, it's more likely that I will actually finish it. And, well, the kind of stuff I like (artsy narrative indie games) tend to be short.

On the other hand.... I also love JRPGS, so there's that. I spent 90 hours with Persona 5 in 2017, and this year I went on a Trails binge that I don't even know how many hours it took me to play through seven games (around 300h?), and while some JRPGs are definitely bloated, the length in these games are part of what makes them so memorable - their characters and world really become a part of your life.

 

[uraizen]

It's quality, not quantity for me. I remember when Metal Gear Rising was coming out and I heard people going "waaaah, it's only six hours! it's not worth $60!" I ended up putting 87 hours into that $60 game because I wanted to keep playing it. Games that are long sometimes have a habit of cramming in garbage to pad it. There's not too many that I play where I'm like "okay, that needed to take this long." I also don't like games that aren't meant to be replayed. If it's meant to be a one and done "experience" then I'm better off watching it on youtube.

The exception to this rule are fighters. I still play Street Fighter 3: Third Strike and that came out about a decade ago. They are timeless to me and also my biggest time sink.

 

[KenOD]

I enjoy a mix of both. That's not a non-answer, rather I generally play one long game over time (Assassin's Creed Odyssey at the moment) and one medium length game I can get into and finish to my sanctification (Vampyr right now, Spyro 3 next) and I feel content with being able to satisfy what I want from gaming with both (and the occasional quick bout short games, a few Smash Bros matches or a stage of Peggle 2).
It's not a matter of preference for me, rather it's just what I've gravitated toward that works best for me because I do want those long games and seeing a continued growth or sense of progression, while also wanting that satisfaction of a complete story/adventure/experience.

So length matters to me because I want both, but I'm not going to push away a game for the sake of it being long or short, outside of those 90s and 2000s RPGs where people thought "if it's not 40 hours or more, it'll review worse, so let's pad it out with tedious work or forced grinding". Likewise if it just feels incomplete because it's so short, I'll tend to avoid it unless it's truly remarkable or does something unique that I'm interested in from a game design point. It's why I waited for TellTale games to finish their seasons.

Shortest game I've liked? I'm a light gun fan, I love on rail shooters. I love the experience it brings, so getting through some of the arcade games that perhaps only took 22 minutes to an hour was never a problem for me to complete it as a whole. I'm sure I've beaten games that were shorter than that which I enjoyed my time with, but these are the ones I remember when I think "what's a short game I can play and beat right now?".

The longest? Well, depends on how I can answer that. As a series Football Manager is something I've been playing since I was a small child (with my dad) and every year I'll spend a 100 hours on the latest one, so that has to count as it's a never-ending type of game if I allowed it to be.
If it's a specific game that just requires a long time to beat, I would have to say Dragon Quest VIII. I think I put some 80 hours into that. Other games I might have played longer due to my personal style making it last longer (e.g. me looking at all the references in Arkham Knight as a comic fan, me looking at game design layout in Dark Souls, etc), but that's the one where I didn't do much beyond just what it offered and didn't look to do anything it didn't offer, and it took me that long to feel I had completed it.

 

[bbd23]

I tend to prefer shorter games these days but im still down to having one big game in my rotation as well. I think the longest games for me were Divinity Original Sin 2 @ 104 hours and that was an amazing experience with 3 other friends, and the witcher 3 @ 117 hours. Shortest game for me....probably something like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. took me close to 3 hours to beat it

 

[Kuro]

Can't really remember what would be my shortest game, longest ones are possibly Persona games.
I think lenght doesnt matter but sweet spot is around 50 for me, and games has to be really good to keep my interest after that, like Souls games can take 100 hours yet leave me craving for more.