I posted this a little time ago on the forums. Just putting it here for convenience.

What are your thoughts on game lenght? On game formats? Do the games we have now best represent the formats that are the best for the industry? I have a few thoughts on these...

Ok...most games today don't really pay attention to the format they are in, and most gamers don't really give it much thought, either. The most common way to get games are:
1) $50 on a DVD or some CDs, and thats it
2) $50 on a DVD or some CDs, and a monthly fee for playing
3) Online transaction and distribution, but this method doesn't seem popular with the 'serious' games, the only company using it being Valve

And mostly the only way for gamers to know how much value they are getting from a game is based on genre expectations, like:
1) Action games - 10 to 20 hours
2) RPGs - 50+ hours
3) Most multiplayer games (RTSs, FPSs, Fighters) - In theory, infinite replay value
4) MMOGs - real-life cripling addictiveness

So why do we pay the same for each and every game we buy, no matter the entertainment time it's gonna give us? I have no idea why. And why do I have to buy a 180 hour RPG if I didn't really like the 1st hour? So, I guess my point is, games should be sold differently, specially because $50 is a lot to pay for a lot of people, and games are probably the only entertainment medium whose value decreases over time, seeing as year old DVDs and CDs still retail for full release price (well, most non overly crappy ones). Also soon-to-be-released and new games are the only ones that get ANY promotion, with very few exceptions, and that goes a long way to the almost-non-sales of old games, and the thought that the only 'hip' games are the new ones. So how do we change this? Here are a few ideas I have heard/read around the net, and (hopefully) somethings I came up with myself:

1) Put game demos on EVERY game released, just like movies do. This could help promote lower profile games, older games and it WILL reach the desired audience, no matter what. At least video previews should come with every game. They could even be sold as advertisements in the most popular games, imagine previous of other XBox FPS (Riddick, Rainbow6, Timesplitters, etc) coming packaged with Halo 2. They could have sold those spaces and made even more money on the game and the previews would reach the perfect kind of gamer, boosting sales of other XBox FPSs.

2) Games could be sold differently, 5-20 hour games could be sold as movies, one low charge ($5 to $10) for 1 play through, and a higher charge for playing it whenever, wherever ($20 to $30), and still be in a low price range, very close to DVDs.

3) MMOGs have the perfect time based charge format, but the upfront price is a bit high. It should be close to, if not totally free to get the game, and maybe even free 5 to 10 hours, just to hook players who have never tried them.

4) Other multiplayer games should just adopt the MMOGs for continous gamers, and could adopt a pay-per-play system for tryouts, just like arcades.

5) Really long single player games could adopt the oft-mentioned episodic content idea. Just release a free first episode, and make it the most engaging episode in the game. Then sell the rest of the game, part by part, maybe releasing each new episode once a month and make these episodes really accesible to buy.

The biggest problem still is getting new people to play games, and I think the biggest hurdle is the price of a gaming system, the complexity of most of the biggest hits, and the feeling that new games are the only good ones. Couldn't Sony sell really cheap PSOnes with the best games, marketed towards people who don't play anything? Too much rambling, starting to lose coherence, so Im going to stop now. Maybe I'll post more later.