14 réponses à ce sujet

[Loregothe]

I just read an article on 1up.com with the above title. Don't have a link, google it if you want to read it.

In the article (a developer round table) an interesting comment was made, and I wanted to discuss that premise. The idea was, that since there are more older gamers (such as myself) that people didn't have time to invest in 100 hour games anymore. That made me pause a moment. They repeated a thread of thought that because working class gamers had "a finite amount of time" that longer games were less desirable. Hold on a minute guys.

As far as I am concerned, the longer the better. The more content I get for my money the better. I have a finite amount of time to play - in a given week; but not in the long run. A single player RPG has many advantages over the MMO counterparts because of features like "pause" and "save."

In WoW where I have multiple level 80s, in order to gain something for any of them, I have to raid. Before we get into the alt discussion - I have the Max number of characters (50), 3 of them 80, several 70s 60s 50s and whatnot. I am tired of leveling them. I want to concentrate on the ones I have 60 days played on. So that leaves raiding, or at the very least grinding dailies. That takes time, continuous time with no ability to pause and walk away; and that time is at the guild's behest, not your own, you don't get to set your schedule. I am not complaining about WoW. I got my money's worth out of it, but it doesn't match my lifestyle right now. That is where single player games rock.

For my lifestyle single player games are much better. Since they don't make many single player RPGs, the longer they are the better. It doesn't matter if it takes me 2 months to get done with it, in fact that is a bonus. For me, Quality of story, length of the main quest, and replayability are all high on priority list (that and I want to create my own character).  

Any other working gamers out there with an opinion on this? 

[DallasMead]

I'd prefer to finish a game and want more, rather than give up half way through a game and move onto something else, which is what I find myself doing more often than not.



Many people, myself included, can't find 20+ hours over a weekend to finish a game, and (I know some people don't have a problem with this) I don't want to be playing a story driven game over a long period.



Imagine a 50 hour RPG for someone who can only play for 2-3 hours a night only 3-4 nights a week, the quickest they can possibly finish the game is 4+ weeks. In that time they will probably want to play other games too, maybe some Call of Duty, so take out 1 of those nights per week and you add an extra week onto the time required to pass the 50 hour RPG.



In those 5 weeks there are more games released they want to play so maybe they'll try those out and before long you're half way through a game, haven't played it in a week and eventually you just give up on it and move on.

[MrGOH]

I love long RPG's and I generally have little time to play them. I spend only about a couple of hours a day playing, and none on many days. The release of DA:O was an anomaly for me - I had two unexpected days off that week due to a very successful project we had thought would take longer than it actually did. I like longer games because I like focused entertainment - I want to engage something interesting over a long period rather than waste time with self-contained little non-narrative games.

[the_one_54321]

if i cant log 60+ hours on a game it was too short. that goes for any kind of game. which is why im almost always dissatisfied with the length of FPSs.

[Amberyl Ravenclaw]

Like most of you have said: the convenience to put down a game, walk away and come back to finish it anytime without feeling like you are missing out on something is really a big bonus for sRPGers. I'm starting to despise MMOs because often I don't have the time to play, and what I find - logging in six months after my last playthrough - is that none of the 'friends' made at the last session are around, there are few familiar faces on OOC chat, and everyone has basically grinded and twinked their way up to the top and you begin to feel very very lonely where you are. The sense of having to play "catch up" to everyone else (in terms of levels, loot, raids, etc) is also what I believe drives some player behavior in MMOs, and it's unhealthy when taken to extremes. With sRPGs, at least, some of that impulse to addiction is lessened (though not always).

Modifié par Amberyl Ravenclaw, 18 novembre 2009 - 05:58 .

[Loregothe]

Just out of curiosity Dallas, how old are you? I only ask because I know a lot of people with that opinion, but they are generally in their 20s or early 30s. This question was more aimed at people 40+ which is what they were referring to in the article.



Today's consumer has a significantly less attention span than older gamers. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, it is what it is. If they said in the article that they are shortening up games because the attention span of the major demographic is shorter than it was 10 years ago, I would not have questioned that. They need to sell copies at the end of the day, because that is what allows them to produce more games and make a profit.



The premise that I am questioning is that the older gamers find long games inconvenient. I just don't see that by and large. Everyone is different obviously, not all younger gamers have the same patterns, and the same can be said about any demographic. Personally I would love to see someone make a game with modern graphics that was as epic as BG2/BG2:ToB. At least a Series that epic that I could keep playing the same character from game to game.



I am still waiting for someone to create a game like DA:O or Fallout 3 but have an ongoing plan to keep expanding it and putting out "modules" playable with the same character. I would pay a subscription for that before another MMO. Best of both worlds. More content + convenient time.

[the_one_54321]

DallasMead wrote...
Many people, myself included, can't find 20+ hours over a weekend to finish a game, and (I know some people don't have a problem with this) I don't want to be playing a story driven game over a long period.

i'd view that as a very short game. and i'd say you have a fairly limited attention span. i'm not bashing you, just making observations.

[I Valente I]

The longer the better, especially for single player rpg's. It's much the same to reading a book, I don't have a lot of time to read, so I usually read one chapter a night. My goal is not to finish the book so it's done, but to enjoy it, so it could take me over a month to read a book and that's great. Same goes for long rpg's like Baldur's gate, dragon age, lost odyssey etc.



Look at some fps cames coming out these days...Bioshock: 10 hours...10 HOURS!! what? it was great but honestly, that's an expansion pack. The new batman game, assassin's creed, almost every single FPS(though most are multi-player) are way way too short.



Imo, if I buy an rpg, and I finish it within a week of casual playing(fable 1&2), I'm dissapointed and not satisfied, if I invest $60 into something, I expect some sort of longetivity.

[aeon_flux1985]

I Valente I wrote...

The longer the better, especially for single player rpg's. It's much the same to reading a book, I don't have a lot of time to read, so I usually read one chapter a night. My goal is not to finish the book so it's done, but to enjoy it, so it could take me over a month to read a book and that's great. Same goes for long rpg's like Baldur's gate, dragon age, lost odyssey etc.

ITA.  The longer the better.  If I invest $60 into a video game, it had better not be only 10 hours of gameplay, srsly.  I have a very busy professional life (I'm a nurse), and even if I can only play a game 2-3 hours every 3-4 days a week...that's fine for me.  I'm not in this with a "get it over quickly" mentality.  I like to enjoy the experience and get involved with things and blah blah, you know the drill.

I don't know if that makes us a dying breed, I Valente, LOL.  I hope not. 

Modifié par aeon_flux1985, 18 novembre 2009 - 10:49 .

[Equilibrium1990]

to be honest I think who ever wrote that statement was biased in some ways. While I am a younger gamer my self (19) I actually find that many of the older gamers log more gaming sessions then I my self do. With working a job, ontop of an already busy social life and university I find that my dad and my friends parents who still game are actually able to play a lot more then me and my friends. The difference is that when we game I play hard and can often play for 6-10 hours at once maybe twice a week at max. Where as my dad will play 3-4 hours nightly 7 days a week.

[Count-JN]

Well, I have used literally many years for NWN1 (and still do), in Amiga time I was able to play around 3 year for Mech Force. So longer the better.



I do not mean just some random generated maps and quests, but real long solid game. I am still playing P&P AD&D 2:nd edition Birthright game witch we start way longer then 10 year ago. We gather across our country maybe less then once every 1-2 month and spend a weekend during that game.



I do not understand how someone NEED to be able to buy, install, update, start a new game and finish if during one single day feeling that if (s)he have to stop even for small amount of time during that game experience will be somehow ruined. I am more then happy that NWN gave us DM tools, ability to create PW's and spend literally years for them.



Sure, I can time to time take for example nice few minute game of tetris. But if I would have bought "real" game with big amount of cash and heard how big game firm spend 5-6 year making it.. I would be quite unhappy if I would only spend around 10-20 hour with that game and then never play it again.

[LaztRezort]

Some games provide a fair amount of entertainment for a week or two, one, maybe two playthroughs.

Then there are the games that become more than just a video game -- they become somewhat of a hobby.  Multiple plays, each different than the other, trying different characters/builds, fiddling with the toolset, downloading and playing mods, hanging out at forums (or a social site) -- it's not just a video game anymore, its become something greater.

RPGs, I think, are in a special position to become the latter, due to their legacy.  PnP RPGs were not short lived affairs.  Gamers would sometimes meet a couple times a week for years, often with only one or two characters, and often playing in the same setting/campaign.  Then there would be lengthy sidetreks into experimenting with different characters or settings.  This wasn't Monopoly or Chess, it was a hobby.

I think it's obvious which of the two I'd prefer.

[Mordaedil]

Yup. This is also why Borderlands is kind of barking up the wrong tree for me. Since DAO released, I'm 10 levels behind everyone and if I want to resume, they will have to play their maxed out characters in my game and basically kill-steal everything just so I can get a little xp from it all.



Meanwhile, I am way behind everyone on the Social site from the looks of it. I started the game late, but I play at my own pace and everyone else seems to have finished the game seven or more times over.



I just don't have the time for that. I don't think I could, even as a student, really.

[Loregothe]

Aniko, I would not insinuate that YOU have a low attention span. I was fairly clear about the fact that individuals vary. I simply stated that the average younger gaming consumer (which make up most of the gamers - and hence most of the available development dollars) has a lower attention span than older consumers. This is born out through market research and evident by the fact that most games today are considerably shorter and faster playing than they were 10 years ago. You simply are not average. Nothing wrong with that.