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[immortal-joe]

The onset of DLC means that developers have more reason to keep you playing, which often times leads to meaningless collectibles, filler side missions, and lots of bars to fill.

I'm always cautious when a developer talks up the game's length.

 

[Orakio Rob]

I usually quit most RPGs after a few hours, but I still play Skyrim because crazy stuff happens all the time. The best stories in Skyrim happen in a completely random way, only possible because the game engine is so damn great. It keeps surprising me with amazing and unique situations.

Once I lost my horse in a snowstorm while attacking a witch hut. I went back to a village, slept and my horse didn't come back. I figured a witch killed it, so I headed to the witch hut again to see if I could find any traces of it. When I got there, I could see some lights flashing in the distance, among the snow. Well, my horse was just finishing off the last witch of the bunch, which was desperately attacking it in an attempt to survive.

I think more games could go the Skyrim route and keep surprising players even after long hours. I don't necessarily want the next Zelda to be an open world game, but it would be great if the game engine was able to create unique, random and surprising situations to keep me interested until the end.

 

[TheBryanJZX90]

Yeah, but what's "needless repetition"?
Is it filler combat encounters? But... in an action game the core part is the combat, so how many combat encounters is ok to have, 10, 20, 50? Any more is "needless"?

I feel like lots of times when people don't finish a game or they complain of filler what's happening really is they don't like the game, and they didn't even know it. They shouldn't wish for a shorter game, they should drop the game and play another thing.

To me Dragons Dogma is good for both a positive and negative example. In the original game, the endgame dungeon has a ton of weapons and armor only available there, and only in certain chests. The only problem is, even after you've looked up in a FAQ which of the identical chests has what you want, once you open it there's only like a 5% chance you'll get the item you want. You can run through the entire dungeon and not get a single rare item. So what's the best way to get the equipment you want? Figure out your target treasure chest, save the game, open the chest, and if it's not what you want then commit suicide (yeah there's an item for that) and reload your game and try again. It can take 30 minutes or an hour of just opening the same chest over and over. It's a waste of time, and it left me with a bad impression of the game at the end, after I had enjoyed everything leading up to that point.

On the other hand, in the Dark Arisen expansion for Dragons Dogma, the new endgame loot is earned off of foes you've killed. They drop items that need to be purified, and after purification you have a chance at getting all kinds of rare stuff. This was a great system, because fighting monsters is exactly what is fun in Dragons Dogma. That isn't wasting my time, even if it still might take a long time for me to get the item I want.

 

[tbro777]

Thankfully I don't feel that way. When I buy my games, I make sure to play and finish them or else I won't feel a sense of closure with said game. I found out that if you bought one game at a time or played one game at a time if you bought many at the same time, helps alot. All you need is focus.

This is what I do, I may buy more than one at a time but if I start a story driven game that is all I play (except games with no endings like racers or sports games) until I beat it.

The only exception is Splinter Cell Blacklist, can't seem to find myself wanting to finish it.

 

[xevis]

I want JRPGs to be nothing but boss fights that test your skills and push the game mechanics to the limits. Random trash enemies serve no purpose.

That would be... exhausting. Like an action move with non-stop explosions. Developers need the filler so they can pace the action.

 

[CadetMahoney]

Games as story vehicles is borderline preposterous to me. It's a misuse of the medium.

It's easier to have basic gameplay and keep pumping out sequels with just:

-different cinematics
-show close of faces
-make everyone think that's awesome when it's not
-target 30fps so looks good, but performs shit ("casuals won't notice")
-linear plot-driven
-just hold up whilst explosions and shit happen around you

All the things like a movie, just keep pumping the same thing out just with a different plot. Nothing really innovative game-wise. They are desperate to get everyone to like games which are just interactive cinematics like these, because they know their job becomes easier just following a bullet-point sheet of things to do and have everyone eat it up.

 

[John Kowalski]

Games as story vehicles is borderline preposterous to me. It's a misuse of the medium.

every other medium in the history of humanity has been used in some way or another for the transmission of narrative, why would videogames be exempt from it

 

[Alucard]

You want a game that doesn't respect your time? Try Final Fantasy IV. The final save point is like 60-90 minutes away from the final boss. Motherfuckers.

 

[GreatMightySymp]

I usually only fully finish games if the storyline hooks me, like what happened when I played Ar nosurge last month.

Other games like Hyrule Warriors I'll finish the story mode but I won't do all the extra stuff afterwards. I'll usually come back to it now and then if it's good enough, though.

If the game's obviously padding things out and making it a chore to finish (or it has asinine trophies if you want to 100% it) I'll stop playing. Did that for FFXII (original US version, not the International version) because the game went into the deep end with fetch quests and the story took forever to get anywhere.

 

[PseudoViper]

I don't finished games cause I'm usually juggling 5 or 6 at a time lol. New game comes out, I stop playing everything and get dedicated as f*k with said new game. Then I'll take a break cause sometimes I get too busy w/ life or I get "enough" of it blah blah blah. So when I try to get back into a game I can't cause I totally forgot what I was doing (true for RGPs) or where I was going. I get discouraged and say I'll come back to it and never do lol

 

[freethoughtbubble]

A gaffer once posted a perfect summary why I don't finish games. I mean, there comes a point where you just "get it" and have experienced everything the game is going to give you gameplay-wise and just don't feel like bothering to finish the actual game.

I recently experienced this with Splinter Cell: Blacklist. I was really enjoying the game, but after a certain point I just...stopped. I almost feel guilty about it, but I just can't seem to animate myself to finish it. I guess I just had enough of what the game was offering.

 

[Skux]

Another excuse for laziness. I hope reviewers don't subscribe to this view.

Story is not the most important thing in many games. If it was, we'd have no reason to play and enjoy multiplayer games like CoD or LoL, driving games like Forza or Driveclub, or arcade games like Resogun and strategy games like Civilization.

In those games there is no filler, because there is no story. If you want to skip every gameplay sequence and only experience the story, you chose the wrong hobby.

 

[spectral_method]

There are plenty of games that are short and fantastic as well as games that are super long and drawn out. Read a review and get an idea of the game before you plop down money and then complain you didn't finish it for "X"reason. Don't say all games need to be "blah blah blah, so I can finish them", go find something worth playing and that has all the things you want.