http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2013/02/08/the-final-countdown-awesome-astronauts-venom-returns-and-shorter-games/ Tue, 21 May 2013 23:45:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2013/02/08/the-final-countdown-awesome-astronauts-venom-returns-and-shorter-games/#comment-696614 Thoreau Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:29:15 +0000 http://unrealitymag.com/?p=79521#comment-696614 Paul, great blog on Forbes regarding shorter games. I could not agree with you more. I love playing video games, but more and more often I find myself choosing other forms of entertainment because I know I won’t have the time to give a game my full attention. I’m especially fond of single-player, story-driven experiences, and with those types of games, there’s really not much payoff unless you play through to the end of the story. Thus, when I do have free time, I often choose to read or watch a movie, because I know that I will be able to reach the end of those particular stories within a reasonable amount of time. With gaming, I barely have time to keep up with the franchises I’ve loved for years, let alone delve into anything new. I think this is really unfortunate, because there are new IPs from this generation (Bioshock, Red Dead Redemption, to name a couple) that I’m keenly interested in exploring, but know that I never will because my life is only getting more busy, and if I can’t find the hours to get into those games at this point, I can’t imagine I’ll find that time at any point in the near future.
I really hope developers begin to take us time-constricted gamers into account. Shorter games at a smaller price-point (but with AAA production values, of course) would be great. I’m sure there are also other options that could help too– I, for one, would love to be able to save every game at any time, and then pick up exactly where I left off. No more searching for save points or checkpoints, or the end of a stage/level. No more wasting valuable gaming time replaying part of the game you’ve already played because you had to leave before reaching a checkpoint or end of level, etc. This type of thing would be extremely appealing to me. For example, I never hesitate to start reading a book, because I know that if I’m interrupted, I can always mark my spot and begin again exactly where I left off, whether I come back to it 10 minutes, or two weeks later. Wouldn’t it be nice if gaming were the same way? If I knew that even a gaming session as short as 10 minutes would still get me 10 minutes closer to the end of the game, and that I wouldn’t have to replay those 10 minutes if I were interrupted, I’d be much less hesitant to turn on the console at any given time.
I could go on and on about this, but the bottom line is that I enjoyed that blog of yours. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who has a hard time fitting gaming into my busy life– and if it’s hard for you, especially considering that gaming goes hand-in-hand with your profession, it’s only logical that it would be hard for those of us for whom gaming is pure hobby.

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