Updated Playing Time Estimate

31.05.2012

When buying games, people often have a look at playing time estimates to see how much gaming time they'll get for their money. But there are many problems with this approach. More is not always better, the same game spread over more hours doesn't make the game any better. If a game playing time is inflated by useless grinding for 200 hours, only a select few will like that more. And of course, if you have a huge backlog of games, shorter games might actually be preferable. With Driftmoon our target has always been to get as much fun and adventure into each minute as possible.

Early this year we started collecting playing times from Driftmoon, and in the end of May we added a new area into the game, Nomon Docks. Now that the new area has been out for some time, we can have a look at how much playing time you're getting with the current alpha version of Driftmoon. Only one playtime per given player was counted into the average. Here are the results (averages updated on June 17th): The average playing time (saves and reloads excluded) is currently 8 hours 9 minutes, with variation between 4h 42min and 18h 58min.

And here are some detailed statistics, for those among you interested in them: The average was shorter for those playing on the easiest level of difficulty (6h 23min), than for the three harder difficulty levels (8h 59min). Those playing their first playthrough had on average a longer playtime (8h 18min), than those who were on their second or more playthrough of the game (7h 41min). For the players who had discovered and passed most of the quests, the average playtime was again longer (8h52min), than for those who had passed less of the optional quests (7h 19min). I'm actually glad to see that the playtimes for the easy mode were noticeably shorter than for the other modes, because it means it's working both for those who like to really think the battles through, and for those who like to play the game faster, and more as an adventure.

Keep in mind that Driftmoon isn't complete yet. There's still a huge chunk of the game missing, and the rest of the adventure is coming soon! Happy days and jubilation!