Are games intentionally bloated to justify their price?

[Bryank75]

I've been thinking about my recent gaming experiences and I can think of various sections and modes that I didn't enjoy or felt superfluous.

You may or may not agree with me but Street Fighter 6 has the world tour mode that I just didn't enjoy and acted as more of a barrier and annoyance than anything else, locking many trophies behind the mode.

God Of War Ragnarok was a game I loved but even I must say that the Jotunheim section was far too long and many of the Atreus sections felt I needed, even though they did flesh out some characters and their motivations.

Spider-Man 2 had similar problems with some side missions being high quality but then a few were just frustrating and felt like utter filler. Again...I loved Spider- man 2, this is meant as constructive feedback.

I would point to Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart as a game with very little bloat, that moved along at a great speed, very well paced.

What do you think? Am I wrong? Do you have different views on these sections and tell me about games you played and how they were paced and what felt like bloat?

 

[Danja]

I don't think that's the case most times but so devs can claim how big and ambitious their games are or how expansive the scope of the game is. Or that's how I feel the trend started.

Now gamers will rake devs over the coals if a game is straight forward without a lot of fluff outside of the main story. Claiming it's not worth the price. "One and some" games.

Ratchet Rift Apart was a victim of this claiming it's not worth $70. Same with Returnal.

Unfortunately developers are to be blamed for rotting gamers minds over the years to feel like a game's worth it's tied to useless hours and grind.

 

[Darth Vader]

I think your examples are terrible, but I agree somewhat that games are growing too bloated nowadays, with Ubisoft games at the forefront of content for the sake of content. Other mentions must go to Starfield, which is a super shallow game that still takes a couple dozen hours to actually go through.

 

[Kx11]

Yes, Ubisoft loves crap like that

 

[Bryank75]

I think your examples are terrible, but I agree somewhat that games are growing too bloated nowadays, with Ubisoft games at the forefront of content for the sake of content. Other mentions must go to Starfield, which is a super shallow game that still takes a couple dozen hours to actually go through.

I really try to avoid bad games, so I had to use games that I love to highlight the things I wanted to...

It's difficult to criticize games I love, I just went back to plat GOW Ragnarok and still was having a blast.

 

[Yurinka]

I've been thinking about my recent gaming experiences and I can think of various sections and modes that I didn't enjoy or felt superfluous.

You may or may not agree with me but Street Fighter 6 has the world tour mode that I just didn't enjoy and acted as more of a barrier and annoyance than anything else, locking many trophies behind the mode.

God Of War Ragnarok was a game I loved but even I must say that the Jotunheim section was far too long and many of the Atreus sections felt I needed, even though they did flesh out some characters and their motivations.

Spider-Man 2 had similar problems with some side missions being high quality but then a few were just frustrating and felt like utter filler. Again...I loved Spider- man 2, this is meant as constructive feedback.

I would point to Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart as a game with very little bloat, that moved along at a great speed, very well paced.

What do you think? Am I wrong? Do you have different views on these sections and tell me about games you played and how they were paced and what felt like bloat?

For my opinion most open world and RPG games are too long and bloated, they feel too repetitive and grindy with unsubstantial filler stuff. I think they would be better if way shorter and smaller.

For me in single player games 10-20 hours for the golden path and then around 5-10 of secondary/extra/special challenges/trophies stuff is more than enough. To go beyond that, and specially over 50 hours is something I only accept in a few games, in most of the games I quit before completing them because of that.

They do that because on average players buy a couple games per year and many people values long game length as one of the top things. Not in my case.

 

[Infinity]

Only big developers that I feel bloat their games with useless side quests and objectives are SE and Ubisoft

 

[ksdixon]

It was a thing to justify the price back in the day, more game time was like a marketing bulletpoint.

Somewhere in there we got console-ized mtx where it felt like games were padded to make people want to buy bits and stuff from the in-game shops to cut down the grind.

Now we have the worst of all world's:
Still have the useless grind/padding, but now it's less a buy in universe currency to skip the grind, it's more "what's in our shop rotating window today?" and randomised loot boxes/card packs. Tutorial openings to story games for 3 hours that must assume we've never used a controller before, or not played anything more confusing than a tap, tap, tap mobile game.

I also think they're so long to justify the outlandish budgets or development time sinks. Stop reinventing the wheel each sequel, stop padding games with forced-restrictions and grind, make tighter experiences that are enjoyed beginning to end, then support with equally as tight dlc story chapters or even alternate games (say, a different characters tale) in shorter release windows.

 

[Gamernyc78]

I've been thinking about my recent gaming experiences and I can think of various sections and modes that I didn't enjoy or felt superfluous.

You may or may not agree with me but Street Fighter 6 has the world tour mode that I just didn't enjoy and acted as more of a barrier and annoyance than anything else, locking many trophies behind the mode.

God Of War Ragnarok was a game I loved but even I must say that the Jotunheim section was far too long and many of the Atreus sections felt I needed, even though they did flesh out some characters and their motivations.

Spider-Man 2 had similar problems with some side missions being high quality but then a few were just frustrating and felt like utter filler. Again...I loved Spider- man 2, this is meant as constructive feedback.

I would point to Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart as a game with very little bloat, that moved along at a great speed, very well paced.

What do you think? Am I wrong? Do you have different views on these sections and tell me about games you played and how they were paced and what felt like bloat?

I think most devs are using cookie cutter templates for speed and are inadvertently bloating the world's and the games, as opposed to specifically tailoring that open world.

Some devs like Ubisoft aren't trying to make a swan song or love letter but trying to get things done as fast as possible. Look at Ghost of T! a magical, robust, beautiful world made with only 60-80 million and it's high quality.

 

[Bryank75]

I think most devs are using cookie cutter templates for speed and are inadvertently bloating the world's and the games, as opposed to specifically tailoring that open world.

Some devs like Ubisoft aren't trying to make a swan song or love letter but trying to get things done as fast as possible. Look at Ghost of T! a magical, robust, beautiful world made with only 60-80 million and it's high quality.

Oh yes, I looooved Ghost.

Everything was so finely tuned for my tastes.

Most PlayStation games are close to perfect, I just mentioned a few nitpicks above.

Ubisoft is the big offender, I would say and then of course some grindy RPGs.

 

[John Elden Ring]

Compared to other hobbies - sort of.

I have 300 hours in skyrim (paid probably $100 for all editions) divide that and my playtime is worth $4.0 per hour.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Oh yes, I looooved Ghost.

Everything was so finely tuned for my tastes.

Most PlayStation games are close to perfect, I just mentioned a few nitpicks above.

Ubisoft is the big offender, I would say and then of course some grindy RPGs.

Ghost of T was a project taken on with determination. Sucker Punch had alot to prove with a new IP and being a western Dev taking on Asian history. I say that to say you knew they took their time and tried to perfect it instead of spitting it out due to a time line. Also look at Guerilla, first open world game in Horizon and new IP and knocked it out the park. Projects done with passion as opposed to "oh here we go Assn Creed part 8 ppl, let's get paid". Thts why it's good for devs to move on from projects, they born when they say they are burnt out on them.

 

[Bryank75]

Ghost of T was a project taken on with determination. Sucker Punch had alot to prove with a new IP and being a western Dev taking on Asian history. I say that to say you knew they took their time and tried to perfect it instead of spitting it out due to a time line. Also look at Guerilla, first open world game in Horizon and new IP and knocked it out the park.

I also have to say that when Ghost first released that the review seemed unfair and locked to a score that reflected what reviewers expected a game from Sucker Punch to score rather than how good the game actually was.

I was glad to see it hit high 80's in the complete edition.

 

[peter42O]

YES.

I believe games that have a lot of optional side content is to pad out the experience and stretch out the length of the play time. Worst part is that vast majority of this content is shit or just in the game so you can level up your character and gain skill points. I do believe that it also depends on what the combat structure is in the game. For example, The Division 2 has a lot of side content but I love doing it all because I love the combat, cover system, gunplay and shooting mechanics but in a game like Spider Man 2 which is melee combat focused with gadgets, I get bored quickly.

One of the better examples is Ghost of Tsushima. Is there some stupid shit? Absolutely but what mostly separates it from other games is that it never feels like the optional side content is never ending. Also and this is something every open world game especially those that are super hero based like Spider Man should have which is side character story quest lines. Give me several quests that take me through different areas of the map while having a story with that certain character and give me a boss fight at the end or a real good payoff story wise.

Also, im someone who hates documents, books, notes and all of this other shit. I'm not reading any of this because I don't care what it is or what it says. If it's something important, then at the very least it should be an audio file that plays because it makes it feel more important and vital where as picking up note #245 doesn't.

 

[Bryank75]

YES.

I believe games that have a lot of optional side content is to pad out the experience and stretch out the length of the play time. Worst part is that vast majority of this content is shit or just in the game so you can level up your character and gain skill points. I do believe that it also depends on what the combat structure is in the game. For example, The Division 2 has a lot of side content but I love doing it all because I love the combat, cover system, gunplay and shooting mechanics but in a game like Spider Man 2 which is melee combat focused with gadgets, I get bored quickly.

One of the better examples is Ghost of Tsushima. Is there some stupid shit? Absolutely but what mostly separates it from other games is that it never feels like the optional side content is never ending. Also and this is something every open world game especially those that are super hero based like Spider Man should have which is side character story quest lines. Give me several quests that take me through different areas of the map while having a story with that certain character and give me a boss fight at the end or a real good payoff story wise.

Also, im someone who hates documents, books, notes and all of this other shit. I'm not reading any of this because I don't care what it is or what it says. If it's something important, then at the very least it should be an audio file that plays because it makes it feel more important and vital where as picking up note #245 doesn't.

Yeah, the only thing that I felt there was too much of in Ghost was the fox den stuff.

When you go for the platinum, it becomes clear they put about 20 too many in the game.

 

[Nym]

You may or may not agree with me but Street Fighter 6 has the world tour mode that I just didn't enjoy and acted as more of a barrier and annoyance than anything else, locking many trophies behind the mode.

barrier to what? The rest of the game is available. Oh you want trophies lmao

 

[peter42O]

Yeah, the only thing that I felt there was too much of in Ghost was the fox den stuff.

When you go for the platinum, it becomes clear they put about 20 too many in the game.

And following the birds too. lol

Yeah, I guess. I'm not a trophy/achievement hunter. In fact, I only have 1 platinum for PlayStation and it was Hellblade because all you have to do is complete the game and activate all the lorestones which was pretty easy to accomplish. For me, the ultimate trophy/achievement is me completing the game itself because if I don't complete it, that means it was dropped and I rarely go back to games I drop.

 

[Bryank75]

And following the birds too. lol

Yeah, I guess. I'm not a trophy/achievement hunter. In fact, I only have 1 platinum for PlayStation and it was Hellblade because all you have to do is complete the game and activate all the lorestones which was pretty easy to accomplish. For me, the ultimate trophy/achievement is me completing the game itself because if I don't complete it, that means it was dropped and I rarely go back to games I drop.

Damn, now I feel like I should get that platinum.

Thanks for tempting me Peter! Haha

 

[Dr Bass]

I definitely think there is some uninteresting content added to games to make them feel bigger ...

 

[arvfab]

Don't agree with some of your examples, but in general I agree.

RDR2 and Elden Ring for example, are some games I liked, but the open world bloat really impacted them negatively and made the experience feel a few step backwards in respect to their predecessors.

Hogwarts too would have been an even greater experience with a smaller map.