[3/7/2016] The Mysterious USD to Hours Exchange Rate

     Whenever I buy a video game, I don't usually consider game length. As long as the content is good quality stuff, I could care less about how long it is. I can beat Super Mario Bros. in about eight minutes if it's a good day for me, but I still find myself coming back to it. Of course, if an RPG game were only eight minutes long, I don't think anybody would enjoy it for long. Games should not require a strict length; the longevity of a game should be flexible, depending on what the game is based on, and what it offers in terms of content or difficulty. Many people base the game's price to its overall amount of content, e.g. "This game is $60, so it better have a lot in it for me to do." When Super Nintendo games came out, they were roughly the same price, if not more expensive, than modern new games. I don't associate game price with game length, I attribute my game purchases to either good word of mouth, or the brand who made the game. I would like to consider myself a completionist, but you will not find me raising all 721 Pokémon up to their maximum levels and give them each their best movepool and specific item. That could take upwards to 200 hours. As much as I love Pokémon, there's a limit as to how far I would go to literally complete the game. For me, I consider "completing" a Pokémon game to just be catching them all.
     There are a ton of different types of games, and they all have their fitting play times. RPGs, or Role Playing Games, take up the most time, but they have a reason for doing so. Games of this type are made to immerse the player into its story. While it is possible to pull off a 6 hour RPG, I wouldn't likely be as concerned with the events of the game as I would a game with ten times that length. Now what about a first person shooter with a simple storyline? After beating it once, likely a 7 hour experience, I am usually satisfied. However, that in turn raises another problem: when I'm completely satisfied with a game, I'm usually done playing with it. When I buy a game, something I look for most is replay value. RPGs excel at this, because there is always a different way to play. The player may wish to grind more to be better prepared, or not grind at all and face a more challenging adventure. Replay value is what keeps me coming back to old games. No matter how many times I play Super Metroid, I never play it exactly the same way, even if the end result is typically 100% item completion.