How much play time do you generally get out of a fighting game?

I ask because I was contemplating on picking up Marvel vs Capcom 3 next week, but I started thinking about how much play time I would get out of it.
 
When Street Fighter 4 came out I played the game every day for about a week. The week after I played it every other day. By the time the third week came around, I had already moved on to another game. The same thing happened with Tatsunoko vs Capcom and I didn't even bother picking up Super Street Fighter 4. Knowing this has left me conflicted when deciding on whether or not I should pick up MvC3 next week, especially at $60.
 
This bums me out too because I used to get a ton of play time out of fighters when I was younger. The Playstation era specifically. During this current generation there hasn't been a single fighting game that has kept my attention for more than two weeks. I don't know if it's because of the time commitment it takes to get good, the backlog of games I need to play through, or what.

For me, it depends on how much stuff is in the game beyond the simple arcade mode, and on if I have anyone to play with. 
 
In my younger days, I could play games like Smash Bros and Soul Calibur II against my dad (didn't have friends over too often), but now that I'm older, I can usually destroy him at most games, so we don't play as often. Thus, I end up turning to stuff like the "story" mode in the latter two Smash Bros games, or the Weapon Master (I think that's what it was called) mode in Soul Calibur II. The main reason I was disappointed in SCIV was that Weapon Master was replaced with some lame, and mostly linear tower.  
 
But MvC3 doesn't seem like it has a ton of stuff to do beyond multiplayer and arcade mode, which is why I'm really hoping it goes on sale relatively soon, because $60 is way too expensive for how much I'm going to get out of it. $40 seems about right. 

Basically, all it depends on the game itself and the community.  I burned out of SFIV and SSFIV (but I still own them both) because I found the online communities weren't what I wanted (aka, players who aren't cheap) but I have several friends who are really into fighting games and we play: SF3TS, SC2, BB, BB:CS, Guilty Gear series, and my favorite: Virtua Fighter 5.   
 
I will be picking up MvC3 and Mortal Kombat, and I am hoping the online communities are decent and that MvC3 doesn't turn into MvC2 (aka, you can't play online).

" I burned out of SFIV and SSFIV (but I still own them both) because I found the online communities weren't what I wanted (aka, players who aren't cheap)

Back when Tekken 3 was the newest fighter I got normally 3 hours a ay out of playing it. But outside of that and DC universe vs. mortal combat I never really played fighters.

I sunk about 40 hours into SF4 on PC, another 40 on SSFIV on 360, and since I got my stick for PS3 I've played about 100 hours. I would like to sink even more into it but I'm a little burnt out and feel kind of awkward with most characters and I'm also trying to play through my backlog consisting of 30+ games while also playing WoW at least 20 hours a week. It's kind of tedious. I should probably retire from raiding in WoW so I can get more time into fighting games.
 
I can understand getting tired of fighting games quickly though, especially if you're only playing against randoms or AI. If you play online with randoms, either you get squished by a pro, squish a noob, or choke and get owned by a noob. It's a big time commitment to get truly 'good' at fighting games, unless you're a natural. I can squish most of my friends who play SSFIV pretty easily, but against the people here on GiantBomb, I'm just another scrub basically. You really have to think about it when you play fighting games today, because you're not gonna be able to enjoy fighting the AI like you could when you were younger, and having friends over to play isn't as common, so you're gonna meet a lot of randoms, and to beat them, you'll need to invest a lot more time than you would to be able to compete with your friends in local play. So the thing is if you don't think it's fun to battle randoms, you can just bust out the fighting games if you do have friends over who want to play something. It's really fun until someone gets salty and throws their stick.

" @Hansolol: There's a difference between knowing all the moves, and just spamming stuff.  "

I usually play them for 10-20 hours, but since most of them ages well i never pay more than $25 for them

Probably more than I should, considering that a dreamcast is still hooked up to my main tv with MvC2.

As of right now looking at my profile for SSFIV, I've sunk in 170 hours.... I love that game.

It all comes down to how much you enjoy fighting games.  Some people are content with just playing a fighting game over and over with little to no story while perfecting their moves.  Others need more.  It just comes down to what you are looking for.

I picked up Tekken 6 and SFIV to have something else to play when I have friends over.

We played them for 30 minutes each and went right back to the old Gamecube Mario Party games.

I have no interest to play them by myself so an hour I guess?.

i rarely play fighting games. the last game that i played was soul calibur 4. i only played it for like 3 hours then brought it back to block buster.

As much time as I have friends around to play with.

I put around 60 hours into SFIV and haven't picked up Super yet. However I am buying MvC3 when it comes out because I know it'll be awesome to play with my one friend who enjoys fighting games. We kinda burned out on SF pretty early but he loves Marvel stuff so I bet I can hype him for MvC. Some other friends of mine that enjoyed Soul Calibur 2 and 4 don't quite have the skill or timing for Capcom fighters and that's a real shame.
 
Other than that I don't really play fighters online that much; I get destroyed by commited players or frustrated by lag. But I'm okay with my casual fighting habit; if my friends get burned out on them I'll usually let it rest for a few months then bust it back out. These games stay relevant in that way, there's never any real reason to stop getting better. That's plenty of value for me.
 
Edit: I'm also commited to teach fighters to my soon-to-be roommate. He's pretty good at Smash Bros.,  but has never touched a real fighter. That'll be a fun experiment!

Depends on two things:

1) Am I having fun with the game? If I'm not I won't play it.

2) Can I keep up skillwise with the people I play regularly? If not, I'll quit to avoid frustration.

If I enjoy the game and can keep up with the relevant skill progression I'll play until one or both conditions no longer apply.

I got a ton of hours out of SSFIV, and MK vs DC. I got like 6 minutes out of Tekken 6. I don't think I really like Tekken.

If I have some friends who are willing to get together in person, get drunk, and play for hours then I can get a lot of value out of a fighting game. The only games that I've had that with are Guilty Gear X2 and Super Smash Bros Brawl. We're talking hundreds of hours spent...

" @MooseyMcMan said:

" @Hansolol: There's a difference between knowing all the moves, and just spamming stuff.  "

Spamming isn't an inherently bad word.  If I'm facing someone who's spamming and I don't know how to stop them, then I didn't deserve that win.  It's up to me to find a counter to whatever he was doing; it's not up to him to 'play fair.' "

I'm probably the wrong person to ask but I play Super Street Fighter IV several times a week.

Nothing worth the 60 bucks price tag. 
I usually run through story/arcade with characters I like, fool around in multiplayer, read some bio's and unlocked concept stuff and then shelf it forever (Oh hai Soul Calibur 3-4)
 
I still play Smash Bros Brawl like once a week if that counts, I've been playing that since release, its still amazingly fun to play and multiplay.

There are really only two things that make you spend time in a fighting game. 
You can either play with other people locally, which is the best fighting game experience, or practice it and play online. 
I plan on getting really good at mvc3 when i get it, but i spent about a week in super street fighter iv because i didnt put the time in to get better.

By casually playing on and off I got around 70 hours on SSFIV... (30 minutes to an hour in a week)
 
I think I got around 80 or 90 for Tekken 6 by the virtue of the 'endless' mode and unlocking costumes. 
 
And I rarely play with others or online.

I'm pretty sure I have 2000+ matches logged on Blazblue Continuum Shift, and the number's still rising, so...

It all depends how you like the game and if you want to get better.  I have put in a shit load of hours in SSFIV (300+) and I'm still getting better.  To me, fighting games isn't about all the crazy unlockables, it's about playing with other people.  That is why I enjoy playing them.
 
If you get bored with them quick, that you should probably skip it then and get something else.

It really depends on how it plays, I really couldn't get into Tekken 6 because it was just controlled by juggling and that's just not my play style. That's one of the main reasons MK Deadly Alliance is my favourite fighting game and also one of biggest worries about the upcoming MK game.

The question to ask is how much you're into the competition and how much time you think you'll drop into getting better. These fighting games are really not a good value at full price if you're planning on playing every once in while. Offline there's really not much to do. They all drop in price very quickly after a few months so waiting isn't a bad choice. To get the full value you really need a lot of local competition or play online regularly and get invested in improving your game. If you're planning on playing a lot of online it really helps to jump in right away before the online community gets too advanced. With MvC3, It's odd because I think this game looks very casual friendly in some ways but I think the online is going to be very brutal. I'm expecting to lose a lot of games due to crazy combo shenanigans that I cannot stop. I know a lot of people are really excited for this game, but I'm sure there are going to be a lot of frustrated people next week after getting bodied repeatedly online (me one of them).