Topic: Unnecessary Padding and Stretched out games

I thought I would make a thread on the crazy long life energy you need to put into games these days. I've recently been playing one piece warriors 3 and its great, however I have a major problem with the game and judging by the tiny amount of people who have platinumed the game I am not alone.

I have roughly spent somewhere between 60 and 80 hours so far and its now become a grind, I'm guessing by the coins I have left and the characters who's crew levels are low I'm going to be playing for at least another 50 hours if I'm lucky. There's also an element of luck as to what if any coins drop during the end game. So this 50 hours could really be 80-100.

Are game companies mad? I won't need another game for 2-3 months at this pace.

Has anyone else given up on games due to the sheer effort and time its going to take?

Personally no. I've spent over 2000hrs in Destiny, over a 1000hrs in the majority of CoD games, 150hrs in the Witcher3 and that was just to complete the main story once. I have spent similar time on each of the Borderlands games too - with just 1 character and not completed some of the high level DLC yet. Its not that I got 'bored', I fancied a 'change' and new games came out.
I don't like 'short' experiences, games that can essentially be completed in one sitting. I can afford maybe 1 game a month and if that game lasts a day, then I am left with a 'void' and relying on these games to pick up that 'void'. I guess it does depend on what 'content' they have to stretch that time out. If its just a case of 'farming' for XP or resources, it can get repetitive - especially if that's all you are doing. Games like Destiny and RPG's have multiple ways to earn resources, gear and XP so you can mix it up by doing different things.

I feel you. The last time I had this was with Rebel Galaxy. The research I did before buying the game led me to believe that there were plenty of ways to progress out of the main story with regards to how to make in game money. This actually boiled down to kill this, mine this or trade this. Initially, saving up and buying a new ship was rewarding. The larger ships come with multiple turret slots which need equipping with the turrets themselves. These then can be upgraded numerous times. As time went on, the ship costs became really high and the turret upgrades became more costly than the earlier ships. I haven't even completed the main story, even through I own a tooled up destroyer with mid-high level turrets. I couldn't cope and it now resides in my backlog. Bring back Colony Wars!

I felt the same in some ways about MGSV. I loved the first chapter storyline, and liked the whole motherbase upgrading and visits etc. and I sunk a lot of hours into it. BUT, to 100% it, I realised I would be spending hours setting traps for badgers and voles and whatever and then they added in the whole MP based invasion element as a further distraction. At the same time I realised that the Chapter 2 story bottomed out into replays of previous missions (I know this probably has more to do with Konami's board room shenanigans). Got to the point where new games were on the horizon and I never really finished all of it. Normally though, I grind through and try to 100% a game.

Because, unfortunately awesome short games like Vanquish don't seem to sell very well!

@Rudy_Manchego: I completed mgs v just after new year, then Lego marvel, got about 20 odd hours into fallout 4, now one piece, and I'm tired 😫 and want another Order 1886 or Resogun. I ended up on Shisammi or whatever the free psplus shooter is, and as terrible as it is - I had more fun in 5 minutes of that than the last 10 hours of one piece.

Do finish mgs v - I loved it. Skip the remix levels and just play the new levels. I actually collected the animals! Go me. But on mgs v I went 40 hours without a trophy at some point.

@Shellcore: That cycle of upgrades and levelling is the worst - and its in nearly every game nowadays. It would be nice to get a bout of easy levelling or upgrades later on in a game as its so archaic the way its done currently.

I have not given up on games because of the length the normal reason is because they are not very good but that takes just a few hours to decide that. I have a preference for RPG's and they can take 200 hours plus which for me is great. I love exploring and doing all the side quests. Grinding in games can get annoying I had to do that a lot in Ni No Kuni. I think with a game your progress should match the skill needed for the next stage of the game. But with some games it forces you to do extra fights to get more XP in order to continue. I do not agree with that. Some games I have nebver wanted to end like skyrim I would have happily played that for a 1,000 hours.

@kyle Vanquish was an awesome game need more games like that on PS4 and also Bulletstorm was great fun.

I very rarely 100% a game just because the trophy aspect of game does not drive me to complete it.

@BAMozzy: All those games do the postgame well. I think that's mainly my point, the supposedly quicker games or leftfield usually 20-30 hour games with tacked on postgame trying to imitate the likes of Destiny or Cod. But failing drastically. Pointless levelling, grinding with no fun, no change in your own skill levels. Just watching a bar scale upwards. I think you know what I mean, and I loved Destiny and enjoyed cod a few years back.

@themcnoisy: Yeah - I will go back to MGSV (I bought it first day and don't have the money to buy new games a lot and not complete them). It was a great game, thought it deserved more attention and love than it got.

I don't have a lot of time to game (or not as much time as I would like) with wife/daughter + another one on the way so I find my gaming is a bit fragmented. I think I put about 3 months and at least 60+ hours into MGSV. I had just come off Far Cry 4 and Shadow of Morder so I think that contributed to open world burnout. I think I just felt a little like it was going to take me another month or so to go it all and I wasn't getting anywhere. Purely me here...

I get what you are saying about longing for shorter games. I came off MGSV and then played Uncharted Collection & Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and it felt great to be able to close something. At the moment I am liking some shorter games. I also tend to get the longer games when cash is a little scarce - I have Fallout 4 stored away for later in the year when I know I will be a bit more strapped for cash!

For me, a longer single player game has to have a driver other than simple upgrades and item collection to keep you going. I think the moment it feels like a grind then it has lost the grip.

@themcnoisy: I think I understand. I don't like games where you can 'flatline' and get 'nothing' from playing. I do feel that Destiny has an element of that by limiting the level you can obtain and of course the amount of 'gear' you can acquire. If, for example, you reach the max level, there is still usually gear you may want - whether that's Exotics or Raid gear and then of course levelling these - I guess there is always the MP but that never appealed to me. With CoD, there is always the next Prestige and countless challenges to obtain in the levelling system. Even weapons ( BO ) have their own levelling system but there is still camo's, player cards etc to unlock. I know that in the more recent games, I have reached Max Prestige but still have challenges to go for. One of the reasons I didn't prestige multiple times in CoD4 for example was the fact that you lost all progress to these challenges, all unlocked camo's etc and because of 'balancing' issues, you ended up having to use 'terrible' and 'frustrating' weapons until you could reach a high enough level to unlock the decent ones.
I don't like reaching a point where it becomes 'pointless' to play for whatever reason. Reaching a max level doesn't necessarily men the end if there are other things to achieve - like gear to collect/level up - its when you reach that max level and everything you do is literally pointless - no XP, no gear (you want/need), no need for resources etc. These can be immaterial in a game like Destiny because you can still have fun playing these with friends.
In terms of Story and/or SP content, there is often no point in replaying. It doesn't change the story. I can't watch a movie again a 2nd or third time - at least not for quite a while because I know what's going to happen, I know how it ends etc. I find this more of a case with video games. The few remastered games I have recently completed (Nathan Drake collection, Tomb Raider etc) certainly didn't impress me as much or feel as 'enjoyable' despite the visual improvements because the story lost much of its 'mystery' and 'surprise'.
I doubt I will play much of Uncharted 4's MP and doubt I will play through the campaign multiple times - especially if I get all the treasures on my first playthrough. I would be surprised if this game last me more than 20hrs and this would 'generally' be considered 'disappointing' by me. I hope I do get to play the MP with friends but I can't see me jumping in and playing 'Solo' like I do with CoD for example. CoD also has things like Zombies too so plenty of options after completing the story - something to do Solo, Co-op and competitively - reason's to put the disc back in depending on your gaming needs.

It all depends on the game really for me. If it's grinding to get better gear like Diablo for example or just grinding to get prestige levels as in Black Ops 3 then I can enjoy the game for a good long time. Trophies on the other hand, not so much. If a game has a storyline and I finish it without getting all the trophies then I am good and I move on to the next game. I do believe that some companies use trophies to pad their games and make them seem longer then they are.

Bottom line though if a game starts to feel more like a chore then an actual game, it might be time to put that game down. At least for a little while.

I reached a point when playing Destiny where I stopped and thought, "I'm not actually having fun anymore". I was playing the same things over and over again for little reward, and once I realised I would never reach a satisfying end point, my interest dropped totally.

I also sort of did this with Skyrim, too. I never beat the main quest, but instead became the best darned Khajiit thief ever. Once I finished the thieves guild quest line, I felt like I'd had my fill of Skyrim. There was no way I was going to ever tackle every single thing to do in that game.

Give me a shorter, tighter experience packed with variety of a longer, drawn out experience every time. It does, of course, depend on the game, but I've always preferred shorter experiences personally. A game should make me want to replay it when I finish it, not beg for it to be over before I'm halfway through.

So few games are respectful of the player's time.

@Rudy_Manchego: Congratulations. I have 4 kids, the youngest being 7 months so I know what having limited time is like. Also they never ever like the same games / things as you. EVER! Good luck 😊

@Tasuki: Trophies are my issue - and yes they are 100% used to pad games out. I quite like achievements / trophies, but they have become less appealing with the super hard trophies. Complete x without being spotted fir the whole game - terrible trophy as if you go for it you cant change your play style halfway through. Do x in a game at this point - you are now passed that point and have to play the whole game again (ffx I'm looking at you).

@Quintumply: Snap with Destiny, my point came with the taken king. I like you realised continuing was trivial I had already blitzed some raids with a bunch of pushsquare heads and had a brilliant time. I didn't want to sully those memories with the grind for new gear. Props to Alex, Robert, Bamozzy, Kyle, Wesker and Riscazz top team.

@get2sammyb: Absolutely, in the past you had a ton of shorter games with the odd rpg. Now every game has rpg mechanics it seems. I cant see the trend changing with people charging for time save dlc unfortunately.

At the end of the day I'd rather a game I'm enjoying would end abruptly than drag on until I'm not enjoying it as much. Sometimes it's my own fault though. I've put 90 hours into PP but didn't clear it because 70 of those hours (!) were spent on the first 10 missions. I've done the first chapter now but I wish I'd just got on with it and enjoyed the game in its entirety.

For me, Alien Isolation was the perfect length. Not too short, not too long (although some people would have liked it 3 hours shorter) and I felt satisfied by the end, yet still wanting more. Axiom Verge is another.

Fez should have been 3 times longer

It's the reason why I've pretty much given up on RPGs (especially JRPGs). They're too long. I still haven't touched my copy of Xenoblade, because I know it's a 100-hour game and I don't have the time for that. I often don't finish games when they take too long. I take 5 20-hour games over one 100-hour game anytime.

I don't mind long games as long as they are consistently good for the whole of their duration... currently 76 hours in on Yakuza 5 and it has been consistently enjoyable all the way

@kyleforrester87: Haha Im with you on Fez.

@Octane: I kind of agree, my favourite genre when all is said and done. But for me most games have become pseudo rpgs, so we are literally playing them all of the time.

I've personally haven't encountered this too much, only a handful of times. I'll just say up front that I've never 100%-ed an RPG. I've never gotten ultimate weapons and finished every sidequest, because it tends to require doing banal stuff and hoping for the best. It gets boring after a while. I usually just do the main story and maybe some sidequests.

I think one example I absolutely loathe however, is from MGS Peace Walker. After beating the titular mech, you start chapter 5, which is basically an endgame. You have to apprehend Zadornov 7 times (last one not being a mission, as he's in the training area), which is done because you need to make Metal Gear ZEKE to access the final mission, hence giving you time, but it irritates me because you just wander through the whole game's areas looking for Zadornov, who could be hiding anywhere, and getting the parts for ZEKE is a grind in of itself. It's like double padding!

@themcnoisy: If trophies are your issue then don't worry about them. As I said before games are to be fun not a chore. If a trophy is making you enjoy the game less then don't get it. It's not like Sony sends you a check when you platinum a game. Are propel going to stop talking to you if you don't platinum Metal Gear V?

They way people get so obsessive over trophies just makes me wonder.