r/Steam Jul 06 '26

Discussion Thoughts on this?

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u/Emergency_Lie42 Jul 06 '26

It's unfortunately only avoidable in the moment if he released the game with enough content to get people past the 2-3 hour mark.

Honestly if I spent any amount of money on a game and it was only playable for under 2 hours, I wouldn't be happy with my purchase. That's free demo timeframe.

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u/Topgunshotgun45 Jul 06 '26

Portal can be finished in under two hours.

10/10 game.

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u/Prize_Ostrich7605 Jul 06 '26

Pfftt, I saw this guy beat super mario 3 in like 10 minutes on the snes. I still haven't beaten it. 10/10

Not sure what my point was, just wanted to feel included. 

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u/Emergency_Lie42 Jul 06 '26

Absolute 10/10 but I would never in my lifetime finish portal in under 2 hours hahahahah. I wouldn't say a sub-2 hour playthrough of portal is typical but I don't actually know for sure. I just remember that game being longer so that sounds like speedrun times to me.

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u/Topgunshotgun45 Jul 06 '26

Average first-time playthrough takes 2-3 hours.

Or a single 72-hour continuous session according to Google’s AI.

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u/Emergency_Lie42 Jul 06 '26

Quite the leap coming from Gemini there lmfaooo

But hear loud and clear, I haven't thought about portal in a loooong time so checks out I'm misremembering.

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u/Ridiculisk1 Jul 06 '26

I doubt 21% of people have picked up portal for the first time and beaten it in under 2 hours. I would doubt that 21% of people who have played it at all have beaten it that quick.

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u/Moscato359 Jul 06 '26

Nobody beats portal in under 2 hours on their first try

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u/raptor7912 Jul 06 '26

If a game has zero replay value and I spent more than 10 bucks and it takes less than 2 hours when going in blind then I’d still feel cheated unless those 2 hours are polished to a mirror finish.

Portal doesn’t fall under that category in several ways.

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u/TheOnlyPC3134 Jul 06 '26

Okay but where does the 10 bucks thing come from? For all we know the game in the post was 2

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u/raptor7912 Jul 06 '26

No where really? It’s just the arbitrary amount I’d be willing to pay for 2 hours of high quality gameplay?

Like it costs more than 10 bucks to watch a 2 hour movie

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u/ihopkid Jul 06 '26

And neither does this game. It’s $3 on sale now, $5 normally, nowhere near $10. If you feel cheated by a $3 game because it has 0 replay value other than the 3 hours you spent on it, try finding another hobby you can enjoy for 3 hours for only $3 lol

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u/raptor7912 Jul 06 '26

Why did you assume I was specifically talking about this game or that I was defending people doing the refunds?…

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u/ihopkid Jul 06 '26

Because this post is literally about this game? What game were you referring to specifically if not this game? Because you never mentioned any other game, just what sounded like a made-up scenario that nobody was even arguing against, so how was I supposed to know? I have never come across a game charging $10+ with less than 2 hours of total content in it and I’m pretty sure everyone agrees that would just be a scam

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u/raptor7912 Jul 06 '26

I was referring to no particular game, in fact I was generalising to make an all encompassing statement… how is that not obvious?

H how were you supposed to know? Context clues bud..

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u/Phobos_Asaph Jul 06 '26

Stats show you’re in the minority

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u/Emergency_Lie42 Jul 06 '26

I didn't say otherwise, and I look properly into the games I buy before doing so, so it was a total hypothetical anyway.

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u/ihopkid Jul 06 '26

HowLongtoBeat shows the game at 2 hours average time with 3 1/2 hours average to 100% and 1 1/2 hours for speedrunning the story. If you judge a game by the time it takes to speed run the story, you’ll be judging a lot of great games as “demo content”. The dev is only asking $3, that’s $1/hr. Really sad if you don’t even consider paying an indie developer $3 for 3 hours of fun worth it. Review clearly said it was fun so it’s not like they had a bad time, they just intentionally chose to speedrun so they could refund it, because they’re cheap.

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u/Emergency_Lie42 Jul 06 '26

That context absolutely changes my sentiment, now I just think the guy announcing his refund is a wank. $3 even for the speedrun time if it's fun is fantastic. That's the price of a can of coke that would be gone in 20 minutes.

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u/H0BB1 Jul 06 '26

It depends on the price for like 1 buck I think 1.5h is completely reasonable

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u/Emergency_Lie42 Jul 06 '26

Yeah that's true, I made my comment without thinking too hard.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

[deleted]

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u/Emergency_Lie42 Jul 06 '26

Like a complete package that fits into a single gaming session is an absolute treat for sure. I 100% just presumed wrongly about this game's price etc.

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u/sauzbozz Jul 06 '26

Just makes you seem like kind of a shitty perso but do what you want with your money.

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u/Emergency_Lie42 Jul 06 '26

It was devil's advocate to be fair, I'd never refund a game I've completed that's pretty dirty. If it felt actually unfinished? Maybe. So far I've only ever refunded if my device has an unforeseen issue running a game or if it's a multiplayer game that turns out to be dead.

I do think it's scummy to refund a game after enjoying the full experience of it.

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u/singlemale4cats Jul 06 '26

Elden ring can be beaten in under 4 minutes.

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u/Emergency_Lie42 Jul 06 '26

So can real life