Nowdays, I hear a lot of talk about disappointing games. True, this is the era of brutal competition, and every company is taking their own ideas to better find an identity: Nintendo is catering to the casual crowd, Microsoft is nabbing exclusives left and right, and also signing deals for exclusive content for their third party support, while Sony is banking on fanaticism of their first party support, as well as offering stellar games still in the making. Of course, this is all in my opinion, so feel free to disagree.

Thing is, games now are controversial: either over hyped disappointments, too short, graphics not living up to ridiculous standards, basically, a complaint towards any game that comes out. Even a game with a perfect 10 will have disagreements to some. But I guess the one flaw in everyone's eyes is how a game is judged by length alone is what really bugs me.

If a game is six hours long, people complain, whereas if a game is twelve-thirty hours long, it is an outstanding experience. I can argue all day about how an RPG can clock in over 24 hours, and can say I didn't enjoy every minute of it, whereas I can play Gears of War for an hour and say I enjoyed every second of it. For example, I can say a half hour long Live Arcade download gave me more thrills than sitting in my room for hours level gridning in an MMO, a game that will never end. Sure, it's a long trudge in gaming, but I'm bored out of my freakin' mind.

Also, I can say with confidence that not everyone here will agree when I say something like Gears was a masterpiece, because it does have its flaws such as a short time lengh, not much to do in the game besides take cover and shoot things, a non-existent storyline, and everytime someone talked, it sounded like the overexaggerated tough guy voice. But still, it was a blast to play. It's more of a quality VS quantity debate. I'd rather have my fun in an hour than sit through eternity with fragments of joy. But hey, that's just me.

There are games that are long and fun, like Saints Row II, which I poured over thirty hours into it, and I enjoyed every second of it. Hell, at the expense of zero realism and a comical story, I owned a game that I still play even though I beat it hours ago. Thing is, I don't expect anyone to enjoy what I do, much less enjoy it as much as I did, but if people are going to dismantle something just because it did not live up to their unfulfilled expectations, then developers should take note and release their products under the radar...it's the only fool proof way to satisfy the fans and the haters. I mean, you can't possibly hate something that you've never heard of, right?

Honestly, with four gaming machines to choose from, there is literally something for everyone, and I do not believe in the hardcore scene being judged solely on skill or dedication...I mean, who are we to judge a twelve year old that enjoys Halo but lacks the reflexes to score a kill? I'd say mission accomplished, because he appears to be enjoying himself. And I can say that I have fallen into the casual crowd five years ago, solely because I don't have all the time in the world to pour into a video game like I could when I was 18 years old. So I basically play for fun rather than competition.

Point is, games are games. You're not going to call a UFC match horrible if the guy knocked out his opponent is under a minute, right? Much like when I watch a boxing match, and I sat through all three rounds...solely because both boxers are dancing around the ring the whole time. Neither is a bad thing, I mean, we all got our money's worth watching an epic knockout, I'm just saying, not everything that is short is necessarily a bad thing.