Not in the sense that game length has gone down (quite the opposite), but in that people seem to have a shorter attention span and play games for less time overall than they did a while back?
I'm honestly starting to think so. I remember how back when I was younger, it seems people played the same game for about a year or three and were generally more willing to replay the same thing over and over, whereas now, the hype for a game seems to die in about two months at best.
Is it due to how the internet and modern culture seems to have lowered people's attention spans and made everyone grow bored of things in days or weeks rather than months or years? And has anyone else noticed how quickly people seem to get bored of any particular game now?
I think it's because while a game is great, you get tired of hearing the same story over and over again. With RPG's, people play them a long time because of sidequests and other tasks to do. With COD and other similar games, you have directed through one story. No changes. Take games like Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario 64, and you will see a lack of story. Sure, there are some minor details, but the plot isn't quite as thick, and you're free to do what you want. Super Mario 64 is open world, where Super Mario Bros. is challenging and holds many secrets.
It's not that our attention spans are shorter, albeit there are more distractions, it's just they don't make them like they used to. I still play Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Bros. I only play the COD story once.
I think it's because while a game is great, you get tired of hearing the same story over and over again. With RPG's, people play them a long time because of sidequests and other tasks to do. With COD and other similar games, you have directed through one story. No changes. Take games like Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario 64, and you will see a lack of story. Sure, there are some minor details, but the plot isn't quite as thick, and you're free to do what you want. Super Mario 64 is open world, where Super Mario Bros. is challenging and holds many secrets.
It's not that our attention spans are shorter, albeit there are more distractions, it's just they don't make them like they used to. I still play Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Bros. I only play the COD story once.
I think you are right Dan. Another thing might be is if they got rid of save points, people are more likely to get game over and have to start out from the beginning. That sort of thing might keep people playing games a bit longer until they are able to finish it. What ever happened to learning from your own mistakes? In the new Super Mario Bros games I found it a lot less challenging because I basically had unlimited lives. Ive never once gotten a game over in these newer Mario games. I miss the old days when you had to work really hard to get a 1up, and to find all the hidden secrets.
But the lack of an attention span is also something that contributes to this, too. I have friends on Steam who will buy fifty dollar games just to play them for half an hour and never pick them up again. Perfectly good games like Bioshock: Infinite and other similar games. It's just as mentally rewarding for some people to quit the game and get on Facebook or Twitter and do social networking.
I think all it takes is just a bit of conditioning to fix this though. I noticed myself doing this a while back so I started playing many older, difficult games that were really time consuming for me. Like, A Link to the Past, because I am absolutely terrible at that game. Played it in very large chunks and convinced myself not to quit even if I got extremely bored. I was able to concentrate more while playing games after.
A lot of it's probably a shift in the overall sphere of gaming. When the games first came out, not only were some of them nigh upon unbeatable (Because that was the only way to ensure a lengthy game before it was beaten due to technical limits) but it was also something not necessarily seen by the general public before. When they first started to arrive in households, people had to develop new skills they likely hadn't ever used before on anything else.
On top of that, parents during the time of the early game consoles, would probably not have been as likely to buy every new game. It was new, it seemed like a silly waste of time, they were expensive... Now that those initial gamers have grown up, had kids, taught them to game... I think gamers now a days are more inclined to buy every new release, often across multiple consoles, because it's not a weird 'kids thing' to them. It's more important and acceptable. Well, I at least have WAAAAAY more games then my parents ever bought me. I have so many games I can't even really play them all, and that leads to jumping around quite a bit.
And I do think attention spans tend to be shorter for a lot of the younger generation. Growing up immersed in a world of computers, tablets, phones, TVs, internet and social networking.... It's all right there, in your face, 24/7. Between tweets, bite sized games on your phone designed to cater to short attention/time spans, internet you can take everywhere... It must be very overwhelming for a brain trying to take the constant stream of information in!
To be honest, it's hard to concentrate on something, which isn't unique.
There are many games with similar plot...and yeah...they wouldn't be to hold someone's attention for long.
