7 game genres that consume more (and less) time
Time… It has become such a valuable commodity for many of us that we base all of our daily activities on the amount of time we have available. I’m sure we’ve all had to cut something out of our daily routine just because there isn’t enough time. When you’re a young adult like me, with a full-time job and other responsibilities, it’s honestly pretty hard to find time to play video games, which is a shame because I love video games. This list is designed to show you which game genres take the most time to play, starting with the least.
7. Platforms
When I think of platform games, I think of games like Super Mario World, Kirby, and Mega Man. These types of games are usually broken down into individual levels or stages that you have to complete. You are often given the opportunity to save your game after a stage, which means you can turn it off afterwards if you don’t have time. In addition, these types of games are quite short. Megan can beat Super Mario World in just a couple of hours, while I… I’ll get back to you on that.
6. Third Person Shooter/Action
We went from cutesy looking character sprites to extreme action and destruction. For this genre, I’m thinking of examples like Max Payne and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, just to give you an idea. These games are also divided into stages commonly known as “missions”, and are generally longer than the typical Mega Man stage. They are almost always action-packed, so it can be easy to lose track of time. Fortunately, these games are also quite short. If you’re as handy as anyone but me, you can beat Max Payne 3 in an eight-hour day.
5. Turn based strategy games
SO MANY different types of strategy games. It’s such a popular genre, but for this entry, I’m thinking of games like Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, and Gungnir. In this kind of games, you control a group of characters and you have to eliminate the enemy forces and usually you fulfill some kind of condition during the battle. Usually you control all your characters, then the enemy can make their move. Games in this genre can be quite long and can consume several hours of your time if you are not careful.
4. Real-time strategy games
The next type of strategy game we have on the list is real-time strategy. For this genre, imagine games like Age of Empires and Starcraft. In these games, you have to increase your forces by collecting resources and upgrading units. This genre ranks higher than turn-based strategy because while some of the battles can be short, others can take several hours if you have equal forces with the enemy. This can make it a time-consuming game genre.
3. Turn-based RPG / J-RPG
For this genre, I turn to one of the best-known turn-based RPG series to date: Final Fantasy. You knew it was coming, right? As soon as you saw the title, your mind immediately went to Final Fantasy. These games are known for having a very deep story and can often span multiple CDs/DVDs of content, containing hours and hours of gameplay. The average playtime of a turn-based RPG can range from 18 to 36 hours, and even the cutscenes of these games can be quite long. So before you pick one of these games, make sure you don’t have anything else planned for the day. Now you may be wondering “If these games are so long, why aren’t they higher on the list?” Well, keep reading, friend.
2. Epic RPGs / Action RPGs
Do the titles “Skyrim” and “Fallout 3” ring a bell? Yes, these little gems are famous for being long games, and for good reason. You have vast worlds to explore, epic quests to complete, and plenty of game people to talk to. These games give you a lot to do and keep you busy, so it’s very easy to lose track of time. I picked up Skyrim the other day to record some gameplay, and *poof*, that was 3 hours gone. These games are immensely fun to play, but they can take up many days of precious time. I’ve personally logged a total of about 160 hours in Skyrim so far, though that pales in comparison to some people. Surely this is one of the most time consuming genres, but there is one more on the list…
1.MMORPG
For the 7 who may not know, MMORPG stands for “Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game”. However, we don’t call it that, because it consumes precious time that we could be wasting playing games. So we call them MMORPGs for short. World of Warcraft, I’m looking at you. Games like these are often pay-to-play, which means you pay a monthly fee to keep playing. This genre is the most time consuming game genre because people have lost jobs and spouses due to how immersive games can be. You can spend countless hours on these games, and can even become addicted if you don’t moderate the amount of time you spend on them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people who try to ban MMORPGs because of how addictive they can be. I spent a lot of time playing Guild Wars and enjoyed it. Just don’t let them take control of your life, because they will.
Runner-up: Minecraft (and other open world construction/excavation games)
What list of “time-consuming game genres” wouldn’t be complete without everyone’s favorite construction/mining sandbox game? Minecraft is endless. Sure you can beat the Ender Dragon, but you’ll still be forced to keep playing. It must be something about being able to manipulate an entire world with nothing more than a few picks and shovels. The problem is that I didn’t know what genre to describe this game. Perhaps one day it will be its own genre. Minecraft is very time consuming because you can spend hours wandering the caverns looking for rare minerals. It didn’t make the final list because it pretty much belongs to its own genre, and that wouldn’t be fair now, would it?
So this little list should give you a general idea of what types of games to play given the amount of time you have to spend. I know I left out several game genres like racing, fighting, etc., but this was not meant to be a complete list of game genres. Perhaps that is a list for another day.
