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[Templar Wizard]

once again i ask the forum for its opinion, and hopefully this time i get an answer

would you buy a game that had a 6 hour playtime? but in that 6 hours, it was all gameplay. im talking about very well thoughtout level design, audio design. game design is geared towards pushing you along through the story, but you make the choices.

since the developers dont have to spend so much time on making 75 maps and the support for same, the majority of the time would be spent on fine-tuning the gameplay and of course, the AI.

imagine a pretty solid action movie in 3 2-hour sections or acts, that would make you play it all to the end in one go.


for longevity, a solid multi componet would be included, that would feature all of the gameplay elements.

 

[Suikoguy]

Yes, but not for $50

I'd pay 20 tops, or rent it

 

[AniHawk]

Well, I bought VJ, PoP:SoT, MGSTTS, and MGS2S, so the answer is yes.

 

[Anyanka]

I am playing Way of the Samurai 2 right now...so yeah...

 

[Scrow]

The answer is yes.

 

[nubbe]

The theory of fun

I think this is a great and yet so insanely simple read about game design.

 

[DDayton]

If the game had good single player replay value -- sure...

Sadly, that entire aspect of game design seems to have vanished from the face of the earth.

 

[Tellaerin]

It really depends on the genre of the game.

 

[gofreak]

Yes, I am all for highly tuned and polished game experiences of more movie-like proportions - my time is becoming more and more limited. Though more movie-like prices may apply then also (i.e. $20?)

 

[Templar Wizard]

the MGS type (not that its a stealth type game) gaming experience is valid in this case. but there are huge differences, the story is told in the game, your choices push it all, you dont have to sit through passive cutscenes.

what genre? elements from nearly everygenre, but not in an 'enter the matrix' way.

pricing is not my dept, but what im mostly interested in is: would you pay for a game that only delivers a fantastic 6 hour experience. and it will be replayable.

 

[gofreak]

pricing is not my dept, but what im mostly interested in is: would you pay for a game that only delivers a fantastic 6 hour experience. and it will be replayable.

Yes, though I think it'd require a big shift in thinking by most people. As open as I am to the idea, it doe initially conflict with my thinking on value in games..but then I thought, well, if I pay $20 for a DVD which I may only watch once or twice..

 

[Wario64]

If the game is fun and has some replayability (e.g. Viewtiful Joe, Zone of the Enders 2), yes

 

[IJoel]

I'd play it because... well quality is quality.

But, at the end I'd be very disappointed in the length of the title. I remember being disappointed with PoP and Riddick precisely because of this.

And no, repeating the same stuff just to get a couple more guns or a screenshot the developer decided to put in as 'extra' doesn't cut it.

 

[Wario64]

The games need to have some some great difficulty as well. I'm talking about difficulty like V-Rated mode on Viewtiful Joe, or Master difficulty on F-Zero GX, or Ninja Gaiden

 

[Templar Wizard]

hmmm, thats the thing im fighting with, high difficulty on a 'short' game (to extend longevity) or a better, fuller experience in the same time.

expectations and what people are used to are HUGE hurdles.

am i wrong in believing that a nicely rounded multi (co-op focus) would calm the gnashing of teeth?

 

[xsarien]

Considering that the one game I keep coming back to this generation is Rez, I guess my answer will also be "Yes." Short and sweet is much, much better than long and mediocre.

 

[Crazymoogle]

If the game is fun and has some replayability (e.g. Viewtiful Joe, Zone of the Enders 2), yes

Wario, your second comment is basically irrelevant thanks to this one. Difficulty selecting is really a non-issue (in general Nintendo get's along without it fine) because if the game already has some replayability, you won't need to worry about it.

Otherwise, you've hit the nail on the head.

Gitaroo Man (linear rhythm game with minor branching per level)
Shadow of Destiny (non-action adventure game that encourages player death)
Way of the Samurai (Run-Lola-Run style short experience with heavy branching)

To me, those are three of the top ten games this generation. Each game understands the relationship between the shortplay (a few hours) and the long play (to completion). Hell, if you look at these games structurally, you'll notice they aren't really 6 hour games at all, but much longer games that unfold like a map instead of a line. The gamers who bought into the experience keep unfolding, while the gamers who didn't, like the checkers player in that Theory of Fun, are satisfied with victory and ready to move on.

 

[ge-man]

I'm fine with a short game. For some people length is important because they are fairly skilled, but a lot of the time I find that people who a make a big deal out of length are more about showing their "hardcoreness." I don't find anything particularily hardcore about 100 hours of gameplay, nor do I think that it's impossible for a game that is that only a couples hours long to be hardcore.

Given the right design, a six hour game can be just as rewarding if not more than an eighty hour epic.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Hey nubbe, thanks for the link btw, it inspired this opinion piece I just wrote.

 

[Wario64]

Wario, your second comment is basically irrelevant thanks to this one. Difficulty selecting is really a non-issue (in general Nintendo get's along without it fine) because if the game already has some replayability, you won't need to worry about it.

Well the way I see, the more you play a game, the easier the game gets. If the game is gonna hook me on for a long time, I'd like difficulty settings unlocked that makes the game harder to level out my skills. Like for example, Advance Wars 2. You beat the game and you unlock hard campaign, which is almost like a whole new game because the maps are actually significantly different than the normal game, and much harder. Since I've already spent about 10-15 hours just playing the normal campaign, I expect the next run to be harder to match my skills. That's the kind of difficulty I really want to see, instead of just giving enemies an advantage by making them stronger.

 

[kernel]

I agree with Wario64. A real video game like Ikaruga can improve your concentration/memorization skills like nothing else out there. I used to play games off and on during the 32-bit age and realized how much my brain missed video games when I put Aladdin in my Genesis and got a headache after only 10 minutes. Everything else in life seems more difficult if I don't make time for gaming. Super Monkey Ball > ginkgo biloba.

The imdb crowd might be interested in something like this, however, assuming there's more to it than choosing between trying to escape by going out the window or trying to break down the locked door on the south side of the room. I wouldn't dismiss something that would let me play the role of Starbuck and give me a chance to see what would happen if I killed Ahab. A medium (I ain't gonna call it a video game) that would let me go through the same challenges Ahab went through with Ahab and then let me restart with someone who has a different philosophy would be intriguing. It might even be worth more than $49.98.

Good luck with something like that though. Hollywood has a hard enough time making a decent linear story.

 

[slayn]

rent only