00:00While I was scrolling through the vastness of the internet, I stumbled upon this article.
00:04And when I saw the title, it made my spider sense tingle a bit.
00:09Basically, the title says, no RPG needs to be longer than 40 hours.
00:14And when you think about it, this is actually a great topic because it cuts to a debate that's becoming
00:19more relevant as game budgets and prices keep increasing.
00:23Now, I think the article makes somewhat solid points, but it also overstates its case with a 40-hour tops
00:31rule.
00:31Here is how I would break it down.
00:33The biggest issue isn't that RPGs are long.
00:36I would say the biggest issue is that many are padded.
00:41What does that actually mean?
00:42Well, a lot of modern RPGs mistake content for value.
00:46Instead of adding meaningful quests, they add stuff like repetitive fetch quests, copy-paste dungeons, excessive crafting, unnecessary level grinding,
00:56bloated dialogue, or huge empty maps.
00:59And I bet my ass you can identify several games that are doing this bullshit.
01:04So basically what happens, you as a player, you are spending 20 hours doing activities that could have been cut
01:11without hurting the experience.
01:13One example that comes to mind is Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
01:15And rightfully so, because it has been often criticized for exactly this.
01:20The main story can easily stretch past 60 hours because the game constantly forces you through regional story arcs that
01:27often feel disconnected from the central narrative.
01:30And I know because I played the game and I experienced exactly that.
01:34I was basically doing these regional story arcs because I wanted to clear the map, but also I wanted to
01:40gear up my character.
01:41And suddenly I completely forgot what's the main plot all about.
01:45And let me tell you, that's not epic.
01:48That's a textbook pacing problem.
01:51Another thing that this article is mentioning is that people want their 80 bucks worth of time invested in the
01:57game.
01:58And I actually think this mindset isn't fully outdated.
02:01However, I would argue most people would rather play one incredible 30 hour RPG than one mediocre 100 hour RPG.
02:10Simply put, nobody finishes a fantastic 30 hour game wishing there had been another 40 hours of filler.
02:17Essentially, quality creates value, not runtime.
02:20However, psychologically speaking, if you paid $60 for something and you invested 60 hours in it, especially if the game
02:30was marketed like that, then you can kind of feel okay in a sense that it was, what, one buck
02:36per hour value.
02:36On the other hand, if the trailers were promising all kinds of wild stuff and you actually believe it because
02:44rarely people will show proper gameplay, and then you play the game and all its gameplay elements and story and
02:51feature and all that stuff is very fucking bad, naturally you're gonna feel bad because you spent so much money
02:58and you received, what, barely 30 hours of game time.
03:01Which, by the way, more often than not, it's mediocre at best.
03:06So yeah, the value argument does and does not hold, but it fully depends on the situation, and it should
03:13not be generalized, because if we had the ability to do so with games, we would have completely different landscape
03:19in front of us.
03:20The final point that the article is mentioning that I sort of agree with is that 40 hours is enough
03:25for almost any story.
03:26Now, if you look outside gaming, for example, Lord of the Rings Extended Trilogy, or Game of Thrones, or Breaking
03:33Bad, these stories introduce dozens of characters, multiple plot points, politics, betrayals, emotional arcs, and satisfying conclusions.
03:41Except, obviously, Game of Thrones, but we don't talk about that.
03:44Anyway, 40 hours could be considered an enormous amount of time to tell a story.
03:50Which brings me to my next point, which is, if an RPG still hasn't gotten to the point after 40
03:56hours, that's probably a writing issue.
03:59However, there is a much better rule to judge a game by, and I personally believe a much better philosophy
04:06would be this.
04:07An RPG should only be as long as its best ideas last.
04:12For example, some games can justify a 20-hour story, some games do with 35, some do with 60, some
04:20do with more than 100 hours.
04:22But the problem starts when developers continue adding content after they've already exhausted their mechanics or narrative.
04:29And you can easily tell when a game has started recycling itself.
04:32So, like I said, there is not a golden rule, and when you think about it, there isn't a blueprint
04:38what kind of length the main story should be for an RPG.
04:43And that's one of the reasons The Witcher 3, while Hunt, is so highly regarded.
04:47Because you can roll credits after a reasonable amount of time, but if you are interested in the world, there
04:53are a dozen more hours waiting for you, and everybody wins.
04:56Overall, you could say that the issue isn't length, and I don't think it will ever be.
05:03The main issue is respect for the player's time.
05:06A game shouldn't deliberately slow progression with repetitive objectives, force grinding, oversized maps, or filler dialogue simply to advertise 100
05:15plus hours of gameplay.
05:17But same thing goes in the opposite direction.
05:20If you have a 20-hour game, but the story is dogshit, you bet your ass I'm going to be
05:26upset when I paid 60, 70, even 80 bucks for that product, only to get basically nothing.
05:33And also, let's not forget about one main thing here.
05:36Everybody has a different value perception.
05:39And because of that, different people will have different opinions.
05:42However, you can still make a point if you give a proper example why this particular game is too long,
05:49or why the other game is too short.
05:52And that descriptive element is all that matters.
05:55Because, for example, you could say The Witcher 3 is too long, but if you cannot give a proper reason
06:01why that is a problem, then there is no problem whatsoever to begin with.
06:05And that's why it's always better to read a review or listen to someone who is doing this stuff on
06:12YouTube, a reviewer that you trust, for example, whereby you can see through their content that they have actually played
06:18the game and pointed out what was good and what was bad about it, regardless of the length of the
06:25set game.
06:25And as my final thought, I would say this.
06:28The RPGs people remember most aren't usually remembered because they were long.
06:33In fact, I've never seen that ever being a case.
06:36They are remembered because every hour felt worthwhile.
06:41And that's basically my take on this news.
06:43Thanks very much for watching, and as always, like, share, subscribe, comment, all that good stuff.
06:49And that's it from me, until the next one.
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