The length of Single Player Campaigns has changed, deal with it.

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seishiro

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#101  Edited By seishiro
@SeriouslyNow:  Purely on a cost-wise comparison, movies and games work out quite well. A good portion of a game's upfront cost is spent on engine creation or licensing. 


Royalty-Bearing License - For retail console & PC products

A non-refundable, non-recoupable license fee is due on execution of the agreement. The cost is US $350,000 for one of the available Unreal Engine 2 platforms, plus US $50,000 for each additional platform. A royalty of 3% is due on all revenue from the game, calculated on the wholesale price of the product minus (for console SKUs) console manufacturer fees. In the case of massive-multiplayer online games, the royalty is also due on the additional forms of revenue including subscriptions and advertisements.


From Unreal Engine 2's Licensing Terms @ The Unreal Development Network ( http://udn.epicgames.com/Main/Licensing.html ). Epic still has the Unreal 3 Licensing Terms locked down, so we can't get an insight into what the current terms are, but if prior practices are any indication, it'll be similiar, if not more expensive. 
Twenty years ago, if you had told me that that young man Depp in 21 Jump Street would be a star, I would've called you crazy. Of course, I was also 11 at the time, so I probably wasn't into that sort of thing. Saying "Games don't have stars [but] they're franchises which build over time" (ergo, games' distinguishing feature from movies is the lack of stars and games' lengthy development - on a sidenote: how long has Cameron played around with a Battle Angel Alita movie? -) is kind of a fallacy: Everything has to start somewhere, whether it is Mario, Sonic, or... Mario and Sonic At the Olympics. Wait a minute. Mulligan. Whether it's Master Chief... Wait, he (or someone in a identical suit) appeared in Dead or Alive 4? Mulligan. 
 
         
 Nice movie poster. Wait.     
Nice movie poster. Wait.     
And as a small side-note: There is such a thing as press screenings for movies. Not to mention that there are also test screenings to gauge an audience's reaction to a movie and, if necessary, make changes to it. Which sounds eerily similar to focus testing, doesn't it?  
 
Given that the ESA, Entertainment Software Association, states that 67% of all American households plays computer or video games, what exactly is mainstream? Anyway, let's start copy pasta: 
@SeriouslyNow said:

"Movies are also proper Mass Market product and so they appeal to lots of people for lots of reasons; content, adulation, popularity, trends.  Games really only appeal to gamers for only one reason; that they are games. "

Have I been doing it wrong all 30 years of my life and played games, watched movies for entertainment, cinematic flair and story? :( 
Also, blanket statements. 
Also, 

 "Almost no-one can tell you what makes a good gameplay experience good, but almost everyone can tell what a bad gameplay experience feels like."   

Responsive controls, finely tuned difficulty curve, a good system of checks and balances, simple mechanics but good layering of them creates depth, sense of achievement. Did I miss anything? "Gameplay" is as much of a crutch word like "je ne sais quoi" or "value".  
Speaking of which: I don't value guns, therefore all games with guns have absolutely zero value to me and I can demand more gunless games from the industry, right? Am I doing it right? This whole self-entitlement skit is completely alien to me. 
 

"Now, I'm sure that you'll probably do some more arse pulling of figures to justify your opinion, possibly comparing games to some other arbitrary thing of similar budgetary value and you're welcome to do so."

Well, it's a lot more fun / secure to have an opinion based on facts, deduction and logic than on... Errr.
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deactivated-590b7522e5236

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Grimace

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#103  Edited By Grimace

I don't know if this is mentioned before but to me, I welcome shorter games. 
 
They allow people with a busy lifestyle to finish games - but then again I almost never pay full price (which is key for Australians) so I might be different. 

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LegalBagel

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#104  Edited By LegalBagel
@Grimace said:
" I don't know if this is mentioned before but to me, I welcome shorter games.  They allow people with a busy lifestyle to finish games - but then again I almost never pay full price (which is key for Australians) so I might be different.  "
That's become my main concern as well.  If I run up against an RPG that requires 50+ hours, that'll take me months and months to beat, and unless I have a ton of time randomly or I really love it, I'll end up dropping it before then.  If a game is ~10 hours I can play through it in a week or two usually and then be able to move on to some other game.  I have no problem with a developer refining a game experience instead of filling it up with hours of gameplay that aren't as good and that I don't have time to play.  A tightly paced Uncharted 2 or CoD4 is much better than some game that drags for 5 extra unnecessary hours.  RPGs in particular could use a much more focused and fast-paced experience, even if that goes against RPG traditions.
 
Though overall, games have become MUCH longer than they were in the past.  Single player action-focused games are 7-12 hours depending, but they used to be able to be beaten in an hour, tops.  RPGs now have dozens of hours (though lots of filler), but they used to only take 5-20 hours.  
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mackgyver

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#105  Edited By mackgyver

It's about developers giving us less for the same amount of money. That doesn't sound right for customers like us in my book.

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CharleyTony

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#106  Edited By CharleyTony

they haven't changed that much, you still have 4-5 hour games, 10-15-20 hour games  and games that are 40 hours or more. The only thing that really changed in the last 15 years are saved games and checkpoints. Back in the days of the NES, a lot of games needed to be beat in one sitting. How many games of Super Mario Bros 1 ended somewhere between 8-1 and 8-2 ? Who ever complained that the original Ninja Gaiden games were too short ? If you are good enough you can do speed runs with those games...
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Grumbel

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#107  Edited By Grumbel

The problem isn't length, but that some games have basically a WTF-ending. They simply end without really resolving much of anything. I don't mind games that are four hours long, but when I expect to be add a midpoint in the game and instead already see the credits roll (rest of the story comes in the sequel), that just feels wrong. Now luckily most games don't seem to suffer from these issue, but in those that do, it is really annoying.

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Afroman269

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#108  Edited By Afroman269

People think Alan Wake is short? That game was a fine length.

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MordeaniisChaos

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#109  Edited By MordeaniisChaos
@NekuSakuraba: I love how your argument against change is that things have changed. So when suddenly sex becomes painful and thats just the way it is, your going to say its just as good as when it felt awesome?
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septim

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#110  Edited By septim

I would rather have an awesome 8 hour experience, than a drawn out 20 hour one.

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BigBoss1911

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#111  Edited By BigBoss1911

If the game is single player only, it should have at least a 12-15 hour or so campaign.I dont mind short single player games as long as the multiplayer is good.

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Atlas

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#112  Edited By Atlas

Even if you take RPGs out of the equasion, Borderlands and Red Dead Redemption are both action games that clock in at over 15+ hours (in RDR's case well over, more like 30-40). The problem is not with games in general, just a certain subsection. There's always a reason for a game being a certain length. Heavy Rain and Alan Wake are as long as they are because they're supposed to be tight narrative experiences with replayability as well. Splinter Cell Conviction justifies its 5-6 hour campaign with extensive co-op play as well as multiplayer. It's all relative. You can play a game with a guide and cruise through in half the time of other people, or obsess over collectables and seeing every piece of hidden content and take much longer. Relative.
 
It's something that worries me a little, especially listening to Jeff talk about games. It seems like people are developing quite a narrow view of what a game is; they want intense action experiences, and by nature those games tend to be shorter in length. Even if you aren't an RPG guy, there are plenty of other experiences that seems to pass some people by.