Where Do You Find The Time?
It's been just over three weeks since Mistwalker's latest turn-based RPG, Lost Odyssey, was released here in the US. I expected to enjoy the game, but I didn't expect to love it like I do. What I didn't expect was that I would be trading such a large chunk of my life for an enthralling tale of love and loss, loyalty and betrayal. As it stands, I have invested over 60 hours of gaming into the title, with (I'm estiimating) about another 20 hours more if I want to fill out the entire 1000 points of gamerscore.
I can't remember the last time I have invested so much time into a single game. While I'm in a position to dedicate an unusually large amount of time to my gaming passion, I can't help but wonder about the average gamer. Does the average, recreational gamer have the kind of time it takes to finish lengthy titles like Lost Odyssey?
How much time are you able to allot to the bits and bytes of your interactive entertainment? With some games requiring ridiculous amounts of time to experience, it's not a big surprise that casual, pick-up and play games have flourished in recent years. I can't help but look at literally over a dozen games that have yet to be opened or even booted in my 360 and wonder if I'm ever going to find the time to give titles like Project Gotham Racing 4, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Assassin's Creed, and Mass Effect the time they deserve. We're not even counting the bargain-priced games I pick up on impulse -- Def Jam Icon, Project Sylpheed, Pirates of the Caribbean. Even rentals, The Club and Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors, sit in unopened envelopes from GameFly.
So, I'm curious. Realistically, how much time are you able to earmark for gaming? Do you take into consideration a games length before committing yourself to a particular title? Would you be willing to invest 60 or more hours into a single game's story or do you feel your time is better spent playing smaller, less time-intensive but more complete experiences?
TexCub
Posted to Video Games on 8 March 2008
· Comments (20)
Other stuff like this: casual games, epic games, lost odyssey, mistwalker, rpgs, time
Smaller games. I want to finish games, and longer ones are damned near impossible!
I work full time and do freelance stuff as well, so on days I play, I'm usually able to fit in about an hour at a time. Stuff like The Orange Box and Virtual Console games where you can save anywhere are a godsend, and games with short shunks of play like Super Mario Galaxy are perfect.
I finished Lost Odyssey yesterday (great game -- plot gets a little messy toward the end). While I thought I wanted to unlock all the achievements, I stopped myself sixty hours in because I have so much else that needs to get done. The funny thing about games though is that no matter how many units I take, or hours I work, I always find time to play. The expected length of a game is never a deterrent; shoddy gameplay, on the other hand, is.
it's not time that constricts my gametime, it's my attention. Generally during the week I do maybe one or one and a half hours per day, and that hour or so is cut up into 20-30 minute segments.
I think the most I've played in one day (on a weekend too) was five hours for Lost Odyssey. I just go crazy if I sit too long, even if the game is amazing.
And it took me 55 hours to beat LO. I don't plan on getting all the achievements though, I'm happy with just seeing the ending.
I was actually ANGRY at gamefly when they sent me Eternal Sonata instead of one of the many short games (such as Call of Duty 4 or Silent Hill Origins) I had listed before it in my queue. I guess I need to stay on top of that thing more. I decided to send it back virtually unplayed and waited for the PS3 version, when I might have some extra time to spend on it.
I usually manage to work in two hours for game play almost exclusively on weekends after class and house work are done. Long game playing time isn't a turn-off, as even the most casual of games like Puzzle Quest or Mega Man games take me anywhere from a week to a month to beat. RPG's such as FFX or Dragon Quest VIII take me months or even years to work through.
I'm kind of torn. My problem is that I usually play games to the end - and then I'm done. Fighting games and the like - it's like "OK - I got to the end. Next!"
So a long game is good, because it has a lot of story and things to do (like "Ocarina of Time"). The only problem is, with work and 3 kids, it can take forever. I only today finished "Persona 3", and while I'd like to try out "Persona 3: FES", I know I won't get to it. After "Persona 3" wrap up, I just fired up "Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain" so I can see what the big deal is. (Side note: is the PC version better? Because playing the PSOne version on my PS3, it feels rather slow.)
It's getting harder to find time these days, but it's easier to do when you're working on a game with another player. My roommate and I work on co-op games together and lately we've even done a few single player games.
It's getting harder to find time these days, but it's easier to do when you're working on a game with another player. My roommate and I work on co-op games together and lately we've even done a few single player games.
Lost Odyssey is one game that I have resisted specifically because of its time sucking properties. A month ago or more, I finally succumbed to the lure of Oblivion, and I am still devoting entirely too much time to that to invest in another epic; and besides, with games like Knytt Stories, Dwarf Fortress, Acquaria, and Samorost 2 still waiting to be played, I have to agree: something's gotta give. For the moment, I must go, as I have no time to spare.
I've got a day job that takes most of the day, so I can usually only get in 30-60 minutes tops in the evenings. Maybe. If there's nothing good on TV. On the other hand, I have a long commute, so my portables get a lot of play. I can breeze through DS titles relatively quickly, and if there were more PSP titles I wanted to play, I'd breeze through those, too.
On the other hand, something like Lost Odyssey frightens me, because I just don't have that much time to put into a game.
RPGs can take a long time. I bought Persona 3 last summer and have 90 hours in it. My Final Fantasy XII game has about 70 hours. I'm still not done with either of them. Bioshock took me like...2 months. I usually play in bursts, mostly at night after school and work and homework and such. Or on days off (like today) I sat in front of the TV for 5 hours and played Eternal Sonata. It all depends on how busy I am and what needs to get done in a day.
Hmmm.
I don't earmark time. If I get a game I play it when I can until I'm done. This usually preempts other types of entertainment like tv/movies/books; or I just sleep less ;-)
Generally speaking the length of a game is not a factor when I'm going to decide if I'm going to START playing it. I like RPG's; I know they are long so I know what I'm getting into. However, if they story isn't interesting enough and the game looks like too much of a chore it is history. Oblivion for example. Around 80 hours in I just uninstalled it. I could see how much time I would need to spend to be satisfied and it was too much.
Bioshock came dangerously close to not cutting it either. Portal I wanted to be longer but I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of what I got. HL2 was IMO the right length; you got your money's worth without it being tedious. Eps 1 and 2 were short but the gameplay was iffy so...
However, I've been known to spend 150+ on some Final Fantasy games (FF:Tactics is my daddy) and will likely do so in the future. So for me the acceptable time commitment is relative to the entertainment value.
I'm not sure what to think about "less time-intensive but more complete experiences;" do you mean things like HL2:Eps 1 and 2? Or more casual (that term is so tired) games? If short games were more like Portal I'd play a lot of them. Darwinia was fun but I wanted more. Puzzle games can be fun but are not really satisfying. Smaller episodic content would be fine as long as it could provide highly polished gameplay/content and be delivered in a timely fashion.
So I'm still willing to try the upcoming Fallout - even though Oblivion gave me a rash - with its 12 endings or whatever, and will play FF:Tactics A2 along with whatever else Squeenix throws my way.
But if you bore me, we're done.
I play after work usually and most of the time the games are short or I speed play through them.
Just finished God of War: CoO on the psp in 2 hours and 23 minutes....
I play games anywhere from 2-4 hours a weekday, 2-10 hours on a weekend, but most of that time these days is spent on City of Heroes. I'm very single-minded and focused when it comes to a lot of things in my life, including gaming. I have roughly 10-15 games that I've started in the past year but haven't finished yet because something new and shiny came along and I started playing that and got into it. It doesn't help that most of the games in my "queue" are RPGs. :p
I understand that the current thinking within the industry is people want shorter games that they can complete and move on to the next thing. I disagree with it though. I'm a semi-core gamer, 28 with a life and family. The amount of time I spend playing per week might not be a lot in comparison to some, but I would still rather have a satisfying and engrossing campaign rather than a brief jaunt.
Take CoD4, it was an awesome single-player experience(AC-130 level, w00t!) but it was over as soon as it begin. I felt kind of teased. I bought it for the multi-player so I don't feel slighted, but I am very leery of buying many single-player only games because of this trend.
I got into an argument with a friend of mine about the "shorter games v. longer games" issue, and while he feels shorter better quality games are important (as he complains about being such a busy man), I'm all about having gameplay and invesment of time being part of my motivation for buying a game in the first place. I don't really want to play games that only take 10 hours to finish. It just means I trade them in for other games.
As for Lost Oddessy, its not just you! I can't get enough. I was at an after party last night talking to some kid about how it was the most unexpectedly enthralling game I've played in the longest time. Brilliant character design and development, awesome music, neat and innovative skill system... I'm enjoying this game so much I'm reluctant to actually beat it...When do we get the sequel already? :)
TBH....
I was so burned (and burned out, by the end) by Blue Dragon that I can't bear the idea of picking this up. No Lost Odyssey for me.
Somewhere around 60 hours on Blue Dragon, another 12 on Mass Effect, and another god knows how many on Assassin's Creed, and I'm actually feeling a bit wrung out.
And what's on the way? GTA4.
How do I find the time? There's a stack of other things that I don't get to do instead. People I don't see, drinks I don't drink, outside-of-work projects that don't get done.
I just have to get comfortable with the fact that I'm not going to be able to play every major game that comes along. Something has to give, and this time, it's Lost Odyssey. I don't want to pick up and half-play it; if I'm going to play it, I want to finish it, and I don't want to take the shortest possible path doing it.
There's now so many games coming out so often that I just have to start wearing horse blinders when I go into a game store; sure, I could buy it all, but I've now reached the stage where my ability to buy games has far exceeded the amount of time I have to play them. I don't know how I get comfortable with *not* playing <insert game here>, but I'm bloody well going to try.
So the 360 goes. It's like a diet; I'm going to downsize to help restrict the amount of games I have access to.
Truly an awesome and addcitve game!
I rarely buy more than one game at a time unless I'm discount shopping (used game buying).
It really depends on the game's story that determines how much time I spend with it. I put a hundred sixteen hours into Lost Odyssey. I play Forza 2, for example, when either their is no game I'm interested in playing or become bored.
I usually play RPGs and most of them are incredibly time consuming.