Many respondants went so far as to say they explicitly avoid games advertised or reviewed as requiring dozens of hours to complete. "Personally, when I check the game boxes on the shelf and see 'more than 60 hours of epic adventure!' I quickly put back the box where I took it and check the next in line," wrote Gameloft Montreal's Kevin Trepanier. EA Tiburon's Vince Dickison weighed in as well:

There is a point where I wouldn't want to spend $50 for 6 hours of mediocre entertainment, but rarely have I been disappointed with a game because it was too short. It's almost always because it wasn't compelling, or it was buggy, or had poor game mechanics, etc. What I really want is a fun and memorable experience that keeps me engaged and thrilled all the way through, regardless of raw length. I finished Shadow of the Colossus in three sittings, and it was one of the most memorable games of the year.

On the other hand, I can think of more than a few games that would have been a better experience with a few hours trimmed off (thinking "when is this going to end" is not particularly fun).

Digital Eclipse's Daniel Lam lamented that long games can perpetuate the problem of never being able to catch up on older games one has missed. "In today's modern gaming lifestyle, many of us are now adults who have steady jobs, and not that much time," he wrote. "We want games that are short, so that we can catch up with our backlog of games (I still have PS1 games I haven't played!)."

Some noted that they make the occasional exception for particularly noteworthy games ("I'll find the 60 hours for Wii Zelda one way or another!" said Ben Board of IR Gurus) but said that they have even passed on some games they wanted to play simply because they knew they would never finish them.

Interestingly, several responses noted that episodic content might prove an effective solution, as it allows gamers to determine whether they would like more from a particular game, while being assured that they will not have to make an unmanageable time commitment. Some respondants mentioned games such as Valve's Half-Life 2: Episode One and Telltale Games' Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock as short games that offer value along with the promise of more games of similar value and aesthetics down the road.

Personally speaking, I fall completely along the lines of most of Gamasutra's printed statements. There are countless older games I own that I would love to complete some day, but as it stands I already rarely find myself finishing the new games. This puts games at an unfortunate disadvantage to other entertainment mediums such as film or literature, which provide something of a guarantee that you will be able to digest works at a fairly reasonable rate and with a fairly reasonable dedication of free time. Many of the truly enjoyable game experiences I have had in the last several years have been ones made up of single-digit (or nearly single-digit) gameplay hour counts: Ubisoft Montpellier's Beyond Good & Evil, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Ubisoft Montreal's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Capcom's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Namco's Katamari Damacy, Double Fine's Psychonauts. Some of that enjoyment was derived simply from being able to play through the whole of the game experience, and the closure and sense of accomplishment that comes with it.