How Long Should a Game Play Out?

      For the longest time I have always thought that the longer a game, the better it was. The longest titles were usually RPGs. I would average 40 hours playtime in games like Legend of Dragoon, Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy IX. The longest game I have played so far would have to be Xenoblade Chronicles in which I had a game completion time of 110 hours! I got pretty close with Oblivion and Skyrim, but never finished all of the content, so I had between 40-60 hours invested on those titles. However, one of the strangest experiences I had was with Jade Cocoon.

      Jade Cocoon was this RPG title that I rented a long time ago when the Playstation was still brand new. I played through this awesome game and made it to the very end. To my amazement, my playtime barely scratched 20 hours. I deemed it less enjoyable than the other games that took longer to beat. As I grew older I noticed more and more games were reduced in length. Games such as Portal, Braid, Limbo, and Bleed took less than 4 hours to finish. The shortest game I have ever played was Journey and I clocked in at 90 minutes! Why are games becoming shorter? A better question might be is this a bad thing?

      Portal was a short game, but my time with it isn't what I would call brief. Brief implies it was not long enough. Short just refers to the overall length of the game's duration. Despite spending only 4 hours playing Portal, it was a grand experience. Braid's playtime was almost 4 hours, but I loved every bit of it. Bleed was around 3 hours and I had a blast slowing down for bullet time and dodging attacks that should be impossible to avoid! And Journey absolutely astounded me. I played a total of 90 minutes. You would think that would be a complete waste of my money, but no. The game was incredible. I literally felt like I spent a lifetime playing it even though an hour and a half was all that passed in reality. I do feel like it could have done just a little more, but that's for another time.

      I think duration and longevity in a game is of little importance at this point. If I play a game for 20 hours total playtime, but it feels like it's dragging on, it should just end already. I expected the story to stop 5 hours ago. Why is it still going on? Haven't I done this before? When will this monotony end? I don't think a game has to be incredibly long to be truly enjoyable. Earlier when I said Xenoblade Chronicles was the longest game I played? I would have to say 90 of those hours were spent on side quests and being lost. It wasn't a bad experience, but some parts did make me want to hurry the story along. When it gets to the point the game feels like a chore, just proceed with the story. If the story is the chore, maybe take a break from it.

      What are your thoughts on longevity? Should a game be padded out for the sake of a long duration or should it only be long enough to prove its point? Is there an objective minimum length a game should be? What's the longest game you've played and how much time did you invest in it?