“Hours to dollars” is not the end all be all of a good game. I have like 25 hours on the Outer Wilds and is one of my favorite games of all time. I also have hundreds of hours in Skyrim, and it’s also one of my favorite games of all time
Yeah and I have thousands of hours in League of Legends, but have probably enjoyed only about 10 minutes
I find hours to dollars to be more useful for cheaper indie games or games on sale, where I feel more comfortable taking a chance on the $5 game knowing I’ll only “need” to spend 5 hours playing to justify the purchase to myself. I also don’t really feel bad about not finishing games once I hit the golden ratio of hours to dollars.
40 hours for a 60€ game is pretty good if you enjoyed those hours.
Maybe I’m old school and in my late 30s, but I like linear games, they have good stories and aren’t too long. But it helps that I’m a patient gamer, so I don’t buy AAA titles at ridiculous prices.
For example, I bought Mafia Definitive Edition when it came out (one of the rare times I’ve done that, but it wasn’t $70) and I thought it was well worth the money, even if the story is a bit shorter than modern standards.
I’m all about quality over quatity. Give me a good story every day, don’t force me to do side quests that have nothing to do with the main story (I’m looking at you, Assassin’s Creed).
Add the “I spent 3 hours following a modding guide for stop to play after 1hour”
At this point, I maybe only buy and play 1 or 2 AAA games a year, this year being Tears of the Kingdom. Otherwise I pretty much only play Indies. They’ve reignited my love of gaming. In so many of them, you can feel the love and care put into them. Whereas so many AAA games have started to feel like something pumped out of an assembly line with little to no thought or care put into them.
I’ve spent more time in indie games like Terraria, 20XX, 30XX, Deep Rock Galactic, and NecroDancer than I ever have with most AAA titles. (Animal Crossing Wild World is probably the exception, but I played that a LOT as a kid)
Though that’s not too say I don’t enjoy AAA titles. I’m having a blast with Tears of the Kingdom, I’ve been revisiting an old Phantasy Star Online game, and my entire friend group has recently gotten into Dragon Marked for Death (though that last one might be just AA)
AAA is $70 now…
Lmao 70 is the framework for the 20 paid DLCs.
There are a few exceptions like Elden Ring, and Witcher 3, but my library playtime is dominated by games I paid very little for. Factorio, Stardew, KSP1, etc. Currently playing Hollow Knight and having a blast (when I’m not being demolished by a boss).
Factorio…
3k+ hours on record…
There’s definitely exceptions. I paid $70 for the new Zelda tears of the kingdom. Just beat it at 175 hours and it was easily my goty.
Battlebit vs Battlefield
It’s sad because most AAA game studios are just focused on making an on-rails story game or a competitive realistic shooter. Nowadays they’ve added “open-world” to the archetype.
Just imagine the fun games we could have if they devoted time to just creating a fun game like Indie Developers seem to focus on.
I beat CyberPunk 2077 in under 40 hours even doing many open world events and doing ~5 side-quests for every main story quest. I remember getting to the last quest and being like… “That’s it? It’s already over? That was ridiculously short!” and I’ve never touched the game since…
Meanwhile, with 800hours in Terraria and probably 8k+ in Path of Exile over the years.
Maybe I’m just jaded after playing games for 45 years, but the indie scene just doesn’t interest me.
Vampire Survivors? Yeah, I played it when it was called “Robotron” in 1982.
So many people went nuts for Castle Crashers and it’s just the same as any other side scrolling beat 'em up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Side-scrolling_beat_'em_ups