I can be a cheapo boy sometimes. Even if I’m in the mood for a lemonade, I might buy a fruit punch if it’s $1 cheaper. Many might argue that video games are a costly hobby with the vast majority of releases slamming you for $60, but I’d argue the opposite. What other medium can you pay $60 and get over 100 hours of entertainment from? I mean I suppose you could buy a book and read it over and over again for 100 hours, but I’m talking about new content being discovered throughout the whole journey. That’s sixty cents per hour my man. You ain’t finding that kind of value at a movie theater, amusement park, concert, etc. However, is there a point where you can get TOO much value for your money?
This past week Ubisoft promoted an upcoming cloud-based technology called Scalar that aims to make open word gaming go even bigger. It’s gotten a bit of pushback as people questioned whether that’s actually a good idea considering Ubisoft already releases games with long storylines and massive worlds that ultimately end up being backdrops for “go here, kill this, go here, collect this” etc. I saw somewhere that the average estimated time to beat the main story of any game has gone from around 23-26 hours to 35 hours over the past few years. As technology improves we can surmise this number will increase further, but damn fellas I’m an old man and I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up. I mean if gaming is your only hobby this is probably fantastic news, but these days I still have anime, music, shows, and you know, more than one game going on. The last long game I beat to completion was Persona 5 and that shit came out years ago. Since then I tried to play Nier: Automata and loved it for about 20 hours, but eventually fell out of playing it regularly and haven’t found the time to return to it.
I'm sorry Queen, I have failed you.
Some of the blame resides in the players themselves. Listen I can’t help it, I hate the idea of spending $60 on a game and then not exploring the whole thing. If I drop the bucks I’m doing every side quest I can find, exploring the world, fighting all the bosses, etc. I know others feel the same way though I’m not sure how big that group is. Regardless, at this rate it may not be long before even the main storyline of a game (no grinding, no side quests) still takes a huge chunk of time. Between work, other games, other hobbies, and social relationships, are players going to have the fucking time to beat this shit or will high school kids become the only ones with enough free time to complete these giants? Don’t get me wrong I loved playing Persona 5, but I don’t know when I’ll have that kind of time on my hands again.
At this point my most played games right now are Yu-Gi-Oh!, Genshin Impact, and fighting games and that’s because all of those games have no clear ending. It’s not a “dedicate 100 hours to this playthrough and experience the adventure” type deal. You can play for however long you want and not feel like you’re not making enough progress. Plus you can play them with friends so you can scratch off “hanging out” and “relax and play a game” at the same time. These days when I see shit like Elden Ring come out and shake the industry it makes me want to play it… but where the fuck will I find that kind of time? Under the damn sofa?
The meta is shit, but at least I can play for a quick 20 minutes and then skedaddle.
I hope this doesn’t come across as an old man yelling at cloud software. More playtime for your money is generally a good thing assuming the quality of said playtime stays the same or improves, but even when the gameplay is good like Elden Ring, are games still beginning to get out of hand in length? If Scalar or similar technologies take off, will you be able to keep up with longer and longer titles? All I’m saying is there’s a reason I haven’t watched One Piece, one of the most renowned shounen of all time, and that the “over 1000 episodes” part may be involved. Boot up your console, sit down, and hibernate for 100 hours just so you can complete one game in the comments below!
