Today, Cortyn is expressing that games somehow are getting shorter. Sometimes you search longer than you actually play!
Playing only in small portions
Once again it is Wednesday and I have dug out a topic from my thoughts that bothers me a bit. When I look at the comments from the last half year on the site, it seems that other players share my opinion. The discussion is about the trend towards more and more “mini-games” or “short matches”. All games that take more than half an hour seem to be on the decline.
According to Blizzard (and many other game developers), the trend is continuing towards short, crisp matches that last no longer than fifteen minutes. Of course, this is encouraged by the mobile trend, as gaming today mainly happens on the go. Some quick rounds of Hearthstone during the train ride, while waiting for the doctor, or in the boring business lecture have long become part of everyday life.
Additional statements that make me sad are those suggesting that today’s gamers “no longer want to deal with 45-minute missions”. Hello?! Yes, I do! Give me missions that require me to invest significant time! Give me matches where I have a wild back and forth with my opponents for 2, 3, 4 hours!
Particularly absurd are situations where the waiting time for a specific game is longer than the match itself. If I search for a match in Overwatch for one minute, then spend 100 seconds on character selection and preparation, only to finish in 2:30 minutes and have to watch the evaluation for another minute… then something is wrong.
I find this development quite unfortunate. When I dive into a game, I like to “lose” myself in it for a while. This simply does not work when I am waiting for the next match after 5 minutes. Ah, I wish for Alterac Valley back… it didn’t achieve much, but it was long.
Do you share my opinion on this matter? Or are short, crisp matches exactly what you need, as long as the “preparation time” is within a reasonable range?
