The Beauty of Short Games

I used to have a lot of free time, particularly when I was in high school and college. I could play straight through 60 hour games after my classes and still have plenty of time to go hang out with friends, get all my schoolwork done, and go to work. Ever since graduation, however, I haven’t seen quite so much free time. Sure, I can make it through games in the summers thanks to my career as a teacher. But even with the luxury of summers off, I am swamped with planning the next school year, attending professional development seminars, and doing other school related jobs on my computer. I cannot spend every ounce of my time trying to make it through massively sprawling open world games with hours upon hours of content. I have an apartment to keep up with, laundry to clean, food to cook, papers to grade, lessons to plan, relationships to maintain, and a life to live.

Does this mean I don’t enjoy playing games anymore? Absolutely not! I just need to pick and choose what games I play. It’s amazing that as soon as you start to earn enough money to buy games, the time you have to play them seems to decrease and the stockpile of games you haven’t yet played builds up. Thanks to the inverse relationship of free time and net income, I imagine the correlation looks something like this:

So I have found myself gravitating toward the following types of games in an effort to continue this hobby without allowing it to overwhelm the rest of my life.

1. Short games

If I can play a game, master its gameplay, enjoy the story, and only spend ten hours of my life doing it, I am a very happy camper.

Examples: Flower, Journey, Uncharted series, Portal, Telltale games, Tomb Raider, Fire Emblem Awakening, Ghost Trick

2. Proven-to-be-Excellent Games

If I know a game is worth a huge investment of time because I have played it before and enjoyed it, I will likely play it again.

Examples: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Persona, Skyrim

3. Games I can start and stop without having to remember what happened last time

If I don’t have to stay committed to a game, I don’t have a problem starting it up from time to time.

Examples: Theatrhythm, Animal Crossing, Super Smash Bros., Towerfall Ascension, Audiosurf, Rockband, Little Big Planet

Of course, I've recently poured 93 hours into a game I still haven’t finished (Persona Q). So while I say I appreciate short games and games I don’t have to feel committed to, every now and then, I find myself pouring a bunch of time into a monster of an RPG regardless. Oh well. Back to leveling up.