RPGs too long?

Do you think that RPGs nowadays are too long?

I mean look at those maps in Gothic III, Oblivion, Sacred 2, Fallout3, to number just a few. Those are huge. When I start playing those huge games, by the time I finish them, another 10 games comes which I want to (try to)play. Then I'm falling behind if you can call it like that.

Do you like that? Is too much? Or maybe it should be bigger? What do you think?

 

The maps may be huge, but the games are not. At least that's my opinion of Fallout 3. After I finished the game and was no longer allowed to explore the rest (grrrr), I went to a wiki to see what I had missed, and it wasn't much.

And I didn't even play very intensively, only 2 or 3 hours every weekend. It lasted me something like a month.

 

Somehow sandbox games, where some RPG's fit perfectly, are becoming kind of mainstream. Personally I have enjoyed Oblivion, but since it is too long from time to time I play different games.

 

Long RPGs are good, even they're too short there's little point in calling it ROLE PLAYING. However a balance should be struck between a decent story with an epic timeline and one which is merely a badly written soap opera with little to keep the interest of the ADD-suffering gamer.

 

That's a good point. Fallout 3 is a great example... I got bored of it / new games came out before I got half way through the game and then I never went back to it.

 

It's a good thing when a game lasts a long time. This is if you like the game, of course.

 

I wish they would be longer, usually jRPG's somewhat are or atleast have sequels.
There are new games coming out almost daily (for PC & consoles) but only one in ten games is actually playable.

 

eh, you got your monies worth the longer the game is. (That is, if it is a good game.)
Now days RPGs don't last long enough.
If it doesn't last at least 100 hours, I end up beating it to quickly then left with nothing to play all over again.

 

if you strictly follow the main quests then it doesn't have to be long. if you try to do most of its side quests then the hours will add up.

 

fallout 3 actually sucked me into buying oblivion because i enjoyed it so much. now i am 60+ hours into oblivion. i personally love the length of the games, however when they main storyline ends the game should not (like it did in fallout 3)

 

OK, that would mean that a good game comes out every ten days. OK lets say it comes out every 15 days. Read on.

So 100 hours. Lets say you play it 3 hours daily. Every day. That's 33 days. And two new good games are out already(OK I know I'm exaggerating but just to prove my point here). But do you play 3 hours daily? And every day. I don't. No time for that.

 

I've been playing the same game of D&D for like 6 years. So video game RPG's all seem short and quick to me. I like 50-100 hour long RPG's as it gives me a nice sense of play with out having to do meaningless side quests just because the developers figured it would add time to the game.

"And i demand a shrubbery..."

 

I remember playing final fantasy all summer when I was in 5th grade. The games dont get longer. If you dont like the game, then obviously dont play it.

Just because new games are coming out, doesnt mean the one youre playing is obsolete now. If you like the game, keep playing it, thats what games are for...entertainment.

Kinda like when Modern Warfare came out. I liked it so much that I played it through and through...in single player. But I spent about 3 months only playing it, and I still love playing it time to time.

Its great if a game that you like is longer. Because then you know that you got what ya paid for.

 

Ever tried The Witcher ?

This is a new and refreshing RPG that is just long enough and, with it's different paths, has a High re-playability value. I really enjoyed it. A lot of new adventures (mods) are released either from the community or, free from CD Projekt Red.

It has about 40 hours of gameplay + sidequests and mini games. Which ever decision you take, you will never have the feeling of doing the wrong choice. It only change the ending and how npc's react to you. Don't see it like a fable where you will be seen as an evil character if you make this or that choice, it is more of who will be there to help you or who will leave you to your faith or worst, turn out to be your ennemy

I may be biased as i am a Moderator on their forum but i am first, a gamer. I love the forum as it is very mature and helpful. I am 37 years old and the average is about that if not higher

Give it a try and welcome on the forum: http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/

 

Fallout 3 is only long if you want it to be the main story is ridiculously short.

 

Bah, it only takes 3 days to get up to 25 hrs of gameplay.

That also depends on your preferences , for me personally no, games I like don't come out that often...

 

Agreed, Oblivion is much longer than Fallout 3. More than 200 quests if you add up all the expansion packs and plug ins.

 

maybe rpgs just arent for you.

if i am involved in a very long game, i typically don't buy any other games until i finish it. saves me money. and when i finish the game, most of the time the games that i missed are somewhat cheaper.

win/win for me.

 

yeah i agree. there are only handful of games that i find worth playing each and every year. i prefer playing few quality games over bulldozing through bunch of average ones. now if i owned consoles then it may be a different story but if you were to play every single blockbuster title regardless of platform, then i find that to be a bit excessive.

 

Speaking of consoles, if you like fun games and replayability the Wii is a good choice.

 

I am actually loving Oblivion cause it is so long , I dont even want to finish the whole main questline yet till I close all the gates I think games should be a bit longer though.

 

I find that I get bored of RPGs very quickly nowadays. I don't know if its because theyve gotten less interesting lately or if it's just that my interests have changed, but I remember Baldur's Gate 2 was awesome. And it took me like 200 hours to finish, but it was a fantastic game. I haven't really enjoyed an RPG since.

 

You've got to be kidding................right ?

This is the first time I have ever heard someone complaining about games being too long !

Personally, I believe people "THINKING" a game is too long comes from the mentality that game producers have been coddling to lately and that is make a basic story, make it fast moving with self-gradification every few minutes or so and add a lot of eye-candy and bling-bling ! Rinse and repeat with expansion packs !

Then again maybe some peoples attention span might not be able to grasp a game the last more than 10 hours !

 

The gate closing part of Oblivion only has one problem: it gets really BORING after 4 or 5 gates.

And regarding huge maps, let's not compare Fallout 3 with for example Fallout 2. Sure, Fallout 3 may have a bigger map in sheer size, but Fallout 2's map has a lot more cities, towns, small settlements and all with many things to do. And apart from Megaton, no city/town in F3 has its own "ambiance". Putting 10 kids together cursing and swearing doesn't count IMO.

 

Anyways FO3 was ok, but really looking forward to Aliens RPG
http://www.obsidianent.com/games.html

And Fallout: New Vegas, whole new game, also being developed by Obsidian, which happens to employ some of the "Original" Fallout Devs.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=746960#746960

Hope both of them are very looooooooooooooooooong games !

 

KOTOR 1 and 2 are long RPG's.

 

I got bored of FC2, I bought it the day it came out and im only about 3-4 hours into it.

Mass Effect however, was way too short. I just felt like that game was picking up and boom its the boss and end of game. The false feeling of having all those planets to explore and not being able to is what caused the most heartbreak. lol.

 

Aliens got pulled. waiting anxiously for Mass effect 2.

 

That's because you've been spoiled by the greatest series of all time: SMT and Persona haha. (ATLUS is pure win)


Back on topic:

I think that the term RPG is encompassing to large of a spectrum now. Huge sandbox games like Fallout and Oblivion are completely different from linear JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Persona. Also, there are the games in the middle that have several paths but have an overarching story line, such as the Baldur's Gate series and the WItcher.

Sandbox games have a strength in that you're free to completely be another person, but the story line is generally weaker for that (too many possibilities).

JRPGs put you in a certain role FOR the story. The point of these games (generally) is to follow the protagonist around and watch the plot unfold.

cRPGs take the advantages and disadvantages from both.


Back on the OP's topic:

I think RPGs are perfect the way they are. Their length allows us to enjoy the story being told as well as the character development (both in gameplay with levels and storyline wise with exposition).

I usually treat RPG's as a long term 'project' with other games (mostly multiplayer FPS or RTS) to serve as smaller 'assignments'. That way you get both immediate satisfaction and get to enjoy a big masterpiece. For example, I'm currently playing Fire Emblem with Far Cry 2 and Dawn of War 2 to break it up. (Sorry for the school related analogies, games are not supposed to be associated with work )

 

Actually it gets fun somehow probably from all the pretty cool equips. I have closed over 20 gates now.

 

If you feel a game is too long, chances are you're not enjoying the game if you're bothered to count the time until the end . That's like asking me if my classes at school are too long. If I say they are, then obviously I don't enjoy being there as much as I could >.>

 

IMO, the open sandbox games like Oblivion or Fallout 3 aren't really your stereotypical RPG game.

For me, the stereotypical ones are like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, ect....

In terms of length, I would gladly say that Oblivion, Fallout 3, ect.... had nowhere as much content as some older RPGs like Morrowind or Neverwinter Nights.

The amount of content in Morrowind without counting the expansions is enough to put Oblivion to shame. I was actually very dissapointed at Oblivion since there wasn't as much content in it as I expected especially given how long I've played Morrowind and yet still never finished everything in it. For Neverwinter Nights, the campaigns weren't particularly long, but all of the modules could easily take up as much time as you are willing to dedicate to the game.

IMO, RPGs should be as long as possible while maintaining the player's interest. It must not use the same old formula over and over again. Even if in almost every game, you are just killing stronger and stronger monsters, the developers must make at least an effort to change something up. If length and uniqueness in different portions of the game can be maintained, it is a sign that the developers are truly devoted to the welfare of their game and IP.

 

there are games that can and should be shorter like Titan Quest or Divine Divinity cuz the devs most likely copy/pasted bunch of tile sets for the sake of creating a 'huge' game world. if the game starts to feel like a drag then there's something wrong. i'd rather have a short game like CoD modern warefare if few additional hours of gameplay means sacrificing quality. a lot of games that tried to be too ambitious in creating a huge game world ended up having to sacrifice a lot of content in other area so i disagree that more is always better.

 

If a game is that long that you are constantly playing it, even stopping you from playing other games...
I call it value for money

 

No, in fact I like RPGs and I played every major one since Baldurs and Planescape Torment. It's just that I felt that BC of a long RPG I'm sometimes miss some other good game. I also like racing games and RTS. And I don't play on consoles.

When I play an RPG I like to play all of it that's why it takes so much time. I don't like just to finish the main quest and that's it. I finish every single quest, check every chest, do multi-classing... And never I felt bored by the game, that's why I always play to the end.

But I never thought of multi gaming though, as one member above mentioned, to play other game "in a break". Will try that. Until now I always had only one game installed and didn't play any other until I finish it. Why not make a break with a 5-day FPS.

 

The only RPG I consider long is Fallout 2, the new generation of RPG's are designed to make an illusion of depth, but that is because developers thrown you into a huge map where it takes long to venture from point A to point B - like Fallout 3 - this game really doesn't have deep feeling, you just need to walk a lot to find one of not so many quests and that's all

 

Hell, people spend years in WoW...is that considered long?

 

For them it's not considered long...it's considered life

 

ghghgh nice one

 

and you feel RPGs are too long because?... if you try to do everything in the game then of course it's long. if you try to do everything in a GTA game it's going take you a while to complete. it's like saying you wish there wasn't an option for FPS to have unlockable content only after beating the game in hard and hardcore. not to mention online component and mods which offers additional hours of gameplay.

what strikes me as odd is that you actually enjoy doing everything in the game and not get bored by it, yet you still feel it needs to be shorter. trust me if you only play quality games then arent that many choices especially if you're just playing on the PC.

 

hahaha I guess it is kinda like a way of life or something..

That is pretty funny tho

 

Your above formula, copy/paste for Titan Quest or DD , is no different from MMORPS like WOW !

 

I put 350 hours in Oblivion before it wore out on me, and I have yet to play through SI. I wish I could go back to the first time I walked up to Kvatch and get that feeling of awe again.

 

Of course I try to do everything, I believe thats the point of a game. What would be the point of playing a racing game and then after 45% of the game, stop and play another game. Waste of money. I consider game played if I finish it. On one level.

Actually I do play only quality games BC of the same reason you said it. Not to get bored by the game and feel like I wasted money. Before I buy it, I check how the game is reviewed(Gamespot, Metacritic) and then decide.

I guess I asked the question that is somewhat stupid, of what I didn't think before. Why would a game developer make a short game if he wants his game to be played for a longer period thus he will earn more.
Also probably my personality, I play the game, I enjoy it, yet I can't wait to finish it so that I can play another one. I guess that's the question that I should have asked. Here comes now the thing when the game is long and I become more an more inpatient.

 

RPGs are supposed to be long-ish...

The whole point is a world that lives and reacts with you and your actions.

Fallout series games and Oblivion are among the best games in existence for this reason.

Any game you can beat (and have no reason to play again) in a week or two is a bad game.

Even console games should last longer than that.

 

Length of the game isn't so important to me, as long as the game doesn't become drudgery (level grinding)...if a game takes 60 hours, but it's fun, then I'm fine...same if it takes 10 hours...

One of the bigger differences between FPS and RPG is 'leveling up'...in both genres, enemies become progressively more difficult...in FPS, your skill with the control functions is expected to improve and you discover specific moves and counter-moves for specific enemies...in RPG, the abilities of your actual in-game character improve giving you more HP or more damaging attacks to defeat the bosses...

Both FPSs and RPGs can have decent stories, and they both can be story-lite...I can enjoy either way if the game is done well...

Diablo 2 (not a true RPG but RPG elements) is story-lite (has to be since the bulk of the game is randomly generated)...but, for me, it's a perfect example of leveling up...the next skill or that next weapon or staff you find is worth the time playing...

I got tired of WoW because I chose a warrior...after getting dual wield, it was a long, boring drought for leveling up until I finally quit...

And I can't stand an RPG where you have to spend hours finding enemies to beat just so you can level up to beat the enemy that's preventing story progression...that's poor play balance and I give up on those RPGs just like I gave up on WoW...

The other element (and it should be the fundamental element) of RPGs is the role playing...I tend to like RPGs where you're free to choose how you interact with the world, but the world responds accordingly...I think that's what Fable and the Fallout series has always done well...you can be as bad or as good as you want to be, and there are constraints on game content either way...to me, that's a good RPG...