Are RPG's too long?

[Rayfer]

I posted this sentiment awhile back and got soundly trounced. This recent RPS article is pretty much saying the same thing. Curious as to what other hardcore RPG'ers think about it. I for one don't want to put 200 hours into completing an rpg. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/04/06/the-rpg-scrollbars-how-long-is-too-long/

[jomni]

Are Gary Grigsby games too long?

[Pete Dero]

You don't have to do everything to finish a game.

Eg : Skyrim : Main story 20 hours - Full game can be over 300 hours.

I prefer a long RPG over a scripted shooter campaign that lasts 4 hours.   Was going to preorder The Witcher 3 (should have 100 hours of play time) but now that I found out my I5 2500k (plays The Witcher 2 on ultra) is only the minimum system requirement i'm hesitating.

[DennisS]

Requirements for games are getting crazy. My wife LOVES Dragon Age..so naturally, I bought the new one the day it came out.

...and she couldn't run it, with her Windows 7, 32-bit operating system. Screw it..got on Dell, got her her teacher's discount, and bought a top of the line new system. Having a wife that's a game ... ROCKS!    O0

[TacticalWargames]

As someone who usually gets bored long before the end I suppose I'd say yes..however others love the longevity and I'm happy to pack it in early if others enjoy playing much longer..it's my problem not the games.

[tgb]

I have gaming ADD - it's a rare game these days than can hold my interest for more than a week or two. I think the last game that did that and that I actually finished was XCOM.  So I know I'll probably never see the end of an RPG, no matter what the length, and have learned to just enjoy the journey as much as possible.

That said, between sales and lower game prices, I'm actively playing more games at one time than ever before, which allows me to play a game for as little as 5 minutes before getting bored and moving on. In that situation I may actually get to the end.  Eventually.

[Cyrano]

Not if they're good.

"Two Worlds" was too long shortly after I took it out of the shrink.

I am sad that "Might and Magic X" will have no further expansions.

As big a grog as I've always been, I have hundreds upon hundreds of hours in RPGs dating back to "Temple of Apshai" and I still remember the name of the Mad God in "Bard's Tale"...but we've had that conversation.

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

[Nefaro]

RPGs too long?  Absolutely not.  If anything, there are too many short ones out there.

I may not finish many of these RPGs, but the fun is in the gooey center.  More specifically, in the process of getting to the end.  Not the end itself.

If it's an excellent RPG all around, I will finish it.  And then I inevitably wish it were longer, or there were a sequel in which I could continue on with my character(s).  My most memorable example of this was with KOTOR, years ago.  I finished it in one straight shot and wanted to keep going, but having to start over with a new character and play through the same content again wasn't as enticing.  It was already of a decent playtime length, but I would've been quite happy if it were even longer.  I'd also like to point to all those who were addicted to Skyrim more recently, happy to take their time and play their character for as long as possible.

Longer is always better, in case you enjoy the game.  I suspect the minority who wants shorter RPGs have very different gaming preferences than myself, and look at the end-game as the epitome of RPG enjoyment.  Or perhaps they just aren't into the RPGs in question enough to carry through but for a Completionist streak.

[glen55]

Never.  If I get bored with it, I quit and play something else.

I guess I should mention that I don't really care about the endings of books and movies, either.  They tend to be my least favorite part of any story, as writers usually dream up a complicated plot and then just klutz something together to finish it because "a story has to have an ending."  With an RPG, which typically has a far inferior story to a good novel or movie, that's even more true.  More often than not, I only have a relatively foggy idea of what is going on.

There are occasional exceptions.  My favorite RPG story was KOTOR, and the way it ended was so fantastic that I'd hate for anybody to have missed it.

Not an RPG, but the opposite from KOTOR was the old Close Combat game that was about the Arnhem operation. I don't recall the name and don't feel like googling it because I still kind of hold a grudge against it.  Fun game, but to get all the way through the campaign, you had to play some ungodly number of long tactical battles, I can't say how many but it feels like it was about 100.  And a fair number of those battles were really hard to win.

So you do all that - win all those long, hard battles - vanquish the campaign . . . and when you win the last scenario a little box pops up that says "Game over" for about 2 seconds and then you are dumped to desktop.  It was so outlandishly inadequate as a reward for all that that I didn't even take a hammer to my PC, I just sat there and laughed until I cried.

Now compare that to the last scene of KOTOR, for those of you who have played KOTOR.

And yeah, I may've wandered from the subject slightly, but I'm old, it's my prerogative.

[Swatter]

Some RPGs are too long. I don't think there is an ironclad rule about how long an RPG should be as long as there isn't "filler" content to extend the number of hours of play. In the end, I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here, as long as developers include meaningful content that naturally draws the story to a conclusion.

[Martok]

Swatter basically beat me to what I was going to say:  As long as the story advances as a more-or-less reasonable pace and there's no meaningless filler content, an RPG can be as long as it wants. 

[Sir Slash]

I don't mind long as long as they are winnable. Some games try to beat you instead of letting you find the way to win. The original BG and Planescape Torment ended too soon for me. And I never want Skyrim to end at all.