This is a semi-continuation of my previous banter about the roguelite epidemic in video games. In that banter, I raised the point that making your game as a roguelite is enticing because it extends the average play time of your game without the need for meticulous level design, but why would a developer want to artificially extend their game’s play time in the first place? Most of these games are up-front purchases, so there’s no direct financial benefit in the form of continued subscriptions. This brings me to my thought that the “dollar-to-hour” value proposition is a harmful myth.

I believe that this drive for longer games is rooted in the so-called “dollar-to-hour” ratio – the ratio between the amount of money you pay for a game and the number of hours you spend playing it. Many gamers believe that the lower this ratio is (that is, the more hours of gameplay you get per dollar), the better value the game is.

From a purely economic viewpoint, I can understand the logic here. If you were to offer me a normal-sized Snickers bar and a fun-sized Snickers bar for the same price, I would obviously buy the normal-sized one, because I get more product for the same price. But that is an incredibly reductive way to think about value, especially for subjective, artistic products like video games.

In fact, we can debunk this myth with just two games: Portal and Final Fantasy XIII.

Portal is only a handful of hours long – even casual gamers could easily beat it in one or two play sessions. Yet despite its short length (or perhaps because of it), it is considered by many people to be one of the greatest games ever made.

Conversely, Final Fantasy XIII is dozens of hours long, but you feel every single hour as the game drags along at a snail’s pace. In fact, for many critics, the game’s length was a point of criticism. To paraphrase Yahtzee Croshaw, the game isn’t so much a slow boil as it is holding a cigarette lighter under a swimming pool.

So, we’ve proven that the dollar-to-hour ratio is a myth. But how is it harmful? Well, because it can pressure game developers to make decisions that don’t align with their games’ strengths. A developer might create an amazing two-to-three-hour game but then try to pad it out to make it more enticing and, in the process, ruin the game’s pacing. Or they might try to turn it into a roguelite and lose part of what makes it unique.

In our current economy, I understand the impulse to try to make every dollar count, especially when it comes to leisure activities like video games. But, if you subscribe to the dollar-to-hour view of games, I would ask that you think about what kind of amazing games might pass you by just because they don’t seem like a good value proposition.

What do you think? Do you prefer shorter or longer games? Do you wish there was more of one or the other? Head on over to our Discord and join the conversation!

The Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast About Video Games

The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and The Boss Rush Network. Each week, hosts Corey Dirrig, LeRon Dawkins, Stephanie Klimov, and Pat Klein, as well as their friends, fellow content creators, developers, and industry veterans come together to discuss their week in gaming, including what they’ve been playing, a randomly chosen rotating weekly segment, the Boss Rush Banter of the week, answer community write-ins, and more. New episodes are released every Thursday. Members of The Boss Rush Network’s Patreon will receive the exclusive Pre-Show at any tier along with other perks.

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