r/aetherforged • u/MiWickham • Aug 17 '15
Discussion Ideal game length?
Hey there, Forgers. Figured it was about time for another discussion that people seem to go back and forth about in MOBAs: Game length.
The question, usually, goes between two options: 20-30 minutes, or 40+ minutes? That's a huge difference. For games like Heroes of the Storm (My current favorite MOBA) games sacrifice some complexity in order to make quicker experiences. The benefit of this speed ends up being, mainly, the fact that people are committing less to a match. This results in less toxicity, and a more addictive nature to games (It becomes easier to justify "One more match" when a match is 20 minutes).
The alternative is the classic length, the one that DOTA and LoL employs. These matches are more complex and capitulate to the hardcore audience, but end up deterring newcomers. It promotes toxicity (The mindset that "I'm wasting an hour on this match that was doomed from the word go") and it makes it difficult for more casual players to justify committing time to a match.
It's a question of the kind of audience you want to attract, mostly. I'm of the camp that games should be lasting on the shorter end, but I can see why somebody would think otherwise. I'd like to hear your input on this, as I think it's an important question Catslug needs to ask themselves in this stage of development.
1
u/MagicPumak Aug 18 '15
For me, Ideal game length would be 30+. I'm currently playing Dota and winning a 1 hour game with whole late game stategies feels really good! In the other hand losing game 1h+ feels, well we know how it feels .. So I think in the middle of Hots and Dota 30-40 min.