DOES LONGEVITY OF A GAME REALLY MATTER?

I'm pretty sure I sunk more than 200 hours into Disgaea...and that was only the first Disgaea. Much of the fun imo comes from making runs through the item world to see how many levels you can clear in a single turn by solving geo puzzles. Even after you get the hang of it you still have to think to do it, so it becomes something that stays challenging for a long time. Like Minesweeper or any other randomly generated puzzle (but better, of course). It's unusual for an RPG in that long after the combat has begun to grow dull, there is lots of fun yet to be had in clearing levels *without* engaging in combat, or with a minimal amount of combat.

I was going to say what Max just said. Commercial games NEED to be lengthy, because people won't pay good money for a game they can finish in a few hours. That's why today's games are full of unlockable, downloadables, side-quests, secrets, alternate endings, bla bla bla... which do not necessarily add quality to the game, but make you play more.

The same logic doesn't apply to free games. Of course you can add stuff to make the player spend more time in your game. But it will also make you spend A LOT more time making it. Sometimes it takes you hours to design something a player will interact with for only a few seconds. It's wise to think twice before adding stuff into free games.

author=thatbennyguy
But Braid is a 5-hour game and it's wonderful.

(cue Craze rant about ~~indie~~ games)

Braid truly was an amazing game. Watched my friend play through the entire game and, though I wasn't even the one playing it, I greatly enjoyed the experience.

To tell you the truth I go for story, If the story is good (in RPG wise) Then i'll play. Now if someone eles created it like not a big company, let's say like the people in this website then i'll give it a shot and don't go Boo!!! Just cause I finished the game faster then it took to download, I look at story, plot, I don't even care about the mapping really, but it does help it.

For me, I prefer length. But that is because once I get into a really good game, I never want for it to end. It's kind of like - I want to keep this high going for as LONG as I can.

I'm playing an RPG Maker game right now - I Miss The Sunrise. I'm already two hours in and I wish I could immerse myself in the game even more. If it is short, fine. Everything comes to an end eventually. But my preference for it being long isn't because I want a uber long list of things to do. It's the fact that all I want to do, is this game! (all night long)

And I totally DISAGREE about commercial games needing to be long. Commercial games need to be GOOD for the amount of money we're spending on them. You know how many commercial games offer you a slew of things to do, and nothing but straight butthole in terms of storyline, and mediocre gameplay?

For me it goes hand in hand - The storyline needs to be intriguing, and the game mechanics need to keep me engaged.

COD: Modern Warfare - Fairly short game with a great storyline and great mechanics! (I don't play FPS online, but when I played the campaign segment, it turns out the storyline is unique and actually very well thought out!)

Mirror's Edge - Another short game. The storyline was, okay, but the game play mechanics made it interesting! Shoot, I waited so long that it only cost me 12 bucks when I bought it, but I would have bought it for $60 when it was first released if I had the money.

Heavenly Sword: SO many people forget this beauty. The graphics, gameplay, dialogue, EVERYTHING, was simly FAN-tastic.

... And people complained that it was short.

Oh my god... so what?! Did you enjoy the experience? Were you captivated by the quality of the mapping? Then why on earth are you complaining it's short? If anything, that gives you more opportunities to go back and view all that lusciousness again. If the game lacks length, but is a tiny vessel of awesomeness (that's what she said), it is obvious that your money went towards something worthwhile.

I wouldn't care so much about length. Just make your game. If you try to focus on making it long, when in actuality it doesn't need to be, you end up filling it with meaningless things which only hinders and devalues your game. If people want to whine and gripe that the game, albeit awesome, was too short, then obviously they have nothing better to do than complain.

author=Allen Hunter
Size doesn't matter; it's how you use it that counts.

You bastard; I came in here just to make this joke. ;;

...I guess I should make this post more than me lamenting the loss of a dick joke, huh

I'M ACTUALLY REALLY OKAY WITH SHORT GAMES? Short RPGs, anyway -- if I can clear the main story in liiiike... 10-20 hours, I'm golden. I have less patience for games nowadays, surprisingly, and I'd rather spend my time mashing X buttons and jumping around and collecting Jiggies and what have you!

I mean, I got most of the way through Xenoblade (most of the way? 2/3rds? I have no idea -- I'M RIGHT ABOUT TO GO TO PRISON ISLAND IF THAT HELPS), but it's just been so long and drawn out and auuugghh all these things that I've gotten kinda bored of it! I'll probably start poking at it again some time soon, but as it stands, ehhhh. My girlfriend got a PS3 and Assassin's Creed is calling to me, and EB Games just called to tell me my copy of The Last Story is in, so Xenoblade is likely going to gather dust for a long while.

I GUESS THE POINT OF THIS STORY IS THIS: if your game is going to be hell of long, keep the player engaged and interested the entire time. My interest in Xenoblade started to wane when I was totally thrown off the track of the plot and into elf-fantasy-politics-garbage that wasn't as interesting as evil robots and stuff! Honestly, it was the kind of thing that would've made an awesome end game side-quest -- I don't know why I was forced to do it right as I was about to reach Prison Island! It's just really crummy storytelling -- it had this lovely rising action going on, then BOOM: I was punched repeatedly in the plot by assholes with wings growing out of their heads demanding attention.

author=emmych

author=Allen Hunter
Size doesn't matter; it's how you use it that counts.

You bastard; I came in here just to make this joke. ;;

...I guess I should make this post more than me lamenting the loss of a dick joke, huh

I'M ACTUALLY REALLY OKAY WITH SHORT GAMES? Short RPGs, anyway -- if I can clear the main story in liiiike... 10-20 hours, I'm golden. I have less patience for games nowadays, surprisingly, and I'd rather spend my time mashing X buttons and jumping around and collecting Jiggies and what have you!

I mean, I got most of the way through Xenoblade (most of the way? 2/3rds? I have no idea -- I'M RIGHT ABOUT TO GO TO PRISON ISLAND IF THAT HELPS), but it's just been so long and drawn out and auuugghh all these things that I've gotten kinda bored of it! I'll probably start poking at it again some time soon, but as it stands, ehhhh. My girlfriend got a PS3 and Assassin's Creed is calling to me, and EB Games just called to tell me my copy of The Last Story is in, so Xenoblade is likely going to gather dust for a long while.

I GUESS THE POINT OF THIS STORY IS THIS: if your game is going to be hell of long, keep the player engaged and interested the entire time. My interest in Xenoblade started to wane when I was totally thrown off the track of the plot and into elf-fantasy-politics-garbage that wasn't as interesting as evil robots and stuff! Honestly, it was the kind of thing that would've made an awesome end game side-quest -- I don't know why I was forced to do it right as I was about to reach Prison Island! It's just really crummy storytelling -- it had this lovely rising action going on, then BOOM: I was punched repeatedly in the plot by assholes with wings growing out of their heads demanding attention.

The Xenoblade point makes a lot of sense. The game has the pacing of Xenogears - very meandering and complex. I don't mind it, but then again, I fell asleep like 10 times during Xenogears and still adore it. I think Xenoblade was a big step in the right direction and an important step in the revival of the genre in the eyes of the mainstream.