The problem with gaming today

Not gonna lie, I think with every iteration of the Assassins Creed franchise, I get around halfway through the game and just completely stop playing it. I too cannot finish games.

For years, games have been designed to make players spend time rather than be good games.

Yes overbloated games have become way too common. How many "hours" a game takes has become a big point of discourse and any game that isn't a 50+ hour slog is often described as too short by many. With rising game prices people really don't want too short of a game, but it's clear games that are too long are a much bigger problem than games that are too short.

Too many open world games that have no reason to be. The world is "big" solely for the sake of being big. Just big empty areas of nothing interesting.



Also way too much completely monotonous copy/pasted filler activities that drown out the actual good stuff. Bad signal to noise ratio. Even if most of it is technically optional it's a problem because it's easy for the average player to spin their wheels chasing this stuff and get burnt out and quit.



He makes a good point about big games putting this stuff way too much in your face too. It makes it feel like a checklist and work. Oddly enough games that just let you discover things on your own are more compelling, but they are super scared you may "miss" some content they overwhelm you with it all and it feels like work.

I miss the era when the vast majority of single player games were sorta by default a tight 15-30 hour experience.

There are games where a big world work well for them (RDR2, Breath of the Wild, Witcher 3, Elden Ring, etc.) but most "big" games feel like a chore and makes them all feel samey.

It takes an exceptionally great game to be able to hang around for 60-100+ hours and not get tedious. Way too many Witcher 3 wanna be's out there who don't have what it takes.

People frequently use the word "linear" as an insult which is really ridiculous because it makes it sound like an inherent flaw and that all games should be non-linear. The reality is that many open world games are still very linear fundamentally, and that linearity as a concept can actually be a great thing, as it allows you to reliably build a much more curated compelling experience.

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It takes an exceptionally great game to be able to hang around for 60-100+ hours and not get tedious. Way too many Witcher 3 wanna be's out there who don't have what it takes.

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There is a reason I can platinum Mass Effect yearly.

I actually have a pretty damn high finish % of games I play.

I generally don’t play slop though

I also am totally indifferent to game length, an simply care about quality so I play a bunch of short but great games many people likely wouldn’t care for when they just do a cost per time entertained equation in the store


If anything most games today are way too long. Industry needs to learn from Capcom all their games seem to always come in with perfect pacing and length

I definitely thought about this after playing metal gear remake.


Don't need games to be a slog to be great.

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Right now, I’m playing KOTOR 2 and I will have no issues completing this game 100%.

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I am not going to buy GTA6 because I know I will never complete the game. I never completed GTA5.

They are too big.

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Just doing GTA 5's main quest and side mission isnt really much longer than KOTOR 2. To 100% it yea, but I never 100% most open world games either.

He makes great points. Crimson Desert was a game I should have LOVED and played through completion.

I got probably around halfway and just stopped playing. Combat wasn't really fun and was just "attack and eat" then there was just way too much going on in the world.

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For example, I have been playing Cyberpunk since it came out, but I have not completed the game.

There is so much going on that I can only do a few gigs or quests at a time before I have to put it down.

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My issue is games these days are so complex and big, and it may be a week or two when I get to pick it back up because of life, and I'm totally lost. "What was that combo?" "How do I select that skill?" "Why the frick am I in this part of the map" "What was I in the middle of grinding for?"

It's the reason I play so many games on easy these days if they're story games. Otherwise, you'll catch me on racing sims, puzzle games, and old games. Things I can pick up without spending time getting back up to speed with.

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I think it’s an age thing too.

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Yep, I bought Witcher 3 and the Harry Potter game. Both of them would've been right up my alley in my teens and 20s. In my late 30s with 3 kids, I couldn't put much time in each day. So, I was never able to get a feel for the games. I basically quit them after a few hours.

I did get deep into BOTW and TOTK, though. I realize they are not as in depth with menus and things, but it's still a lot more than normal Zelda games.