how long you think a single completionist playtrough will take?

[Emerwyn]

I think he played the console Baldur's Gate. 

 

 

 

The infinity engine games don't take long to clear. Blast through one map and another before u know it the games over. Especially since this game has a fast forward feature it'll be even easier. I can think of so many older game that took longer to beat then BG1. Blood omen, jet force gemini etc. BG1 was one of those short game on the PC for me that you blaze through like vampire redemption.

 

 

Ok I played BG1 and I have no idea what game you are describing but maybe we played different BG1s.

 

The question is not a speed run, not blazing through maps.  This is a completionist first time playthrough.

 

 

I think he played the console BG, Dark Alliance or something like that it was called.  

Edited March 11, 2015 by Emerwyn

[Bryy]

 

I think people in this thread are mistaking playtime for taking it slow.

 

And it's not wrong to play like that. But let's not act like purposefully nitpicking over every detail is a contributing factor to the full playtime. 

 

In the other hand, I think you're mistaking PoE with a shooter or a beat'em up game where the sole purpose is to rush to the end and discard it into the "done" pile of dusty games.

Dude, please don't.

[Stun]

He spoke about effective time play.

He can call it whatever he wants. But until he actually clarifies his position (instead of just coming in here and dropping meaningless one-liners left and right) He doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. Not from me, at least.

 

Ok, lets put it another way. Planescape: Torment.

 

Planescape Torment is the "nit-picker's" dream. The whole game is nothing but a collection of tiny little details that are tossed at you everywhere you look. A player can, of course, ignore these details and simply rush through the game, and the result? That player will get... a passable experience. Maybe 30-40 hours or so of 'effective play time'.... but none of that magic that makes PS:T great.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Stun

[Verenti]

 

 

^Josh played and "finished"* 1 level of the mega dungeon in about 20 minutes (Of course, it was only level 3, I think, and the levels will probably get tougher and tougher as you go further down). You're going to have to walk really slowly to get 25-30 hours out of that dungeon I would guess the dungeon itself is 10 hours, tops 15 hours.

 

ruzen has an excellent point though. Setting the bar/expectation at 100+ hours sounds like setting yourself up for disappointment.

 

*Well, nearly finished it. Maybe 30-35 minutes if he had explored all of it. Then again, hm, might take longer for us depending on how much we have learned the combat system when we get there and depending on what difficulty we play on.

Wasn't Josh playing on a lower difficulty though?/ In the backer beta difficulty level makes a huge difference because it exponentially amplifies the amount of time you spend paused in combat.

 

On the stream from January? I think he says "I'm playing on Hard so I might die depending on where I go", before going down into the dungeon. But you have to also consider that Josh is most likely a Master Sensei of the system (I mean, he designed it). He probably knows the weaknesses of all enemies the second he sees them, and what type of weapons and abilities are strongest against every enemy as well as how to get the most out of his party members through leveling/building (party optimization).

 

I think the joke of "IRollD20s" in the console on PAX East was also a way of him saying to us "I'm really good at this game". So, even if we'd have the same party composition as he did in the mega dungeon, on the same difficulty, same skills/abilities/gears and everything, it isn't certain that we'd blow through it (like he did) on our first try/first playthrough.

 

EDIT: What I wanted to convey with my comment from the previous post "Setting the bar/expectation at 100+ hours sounds like setting yourself up for disappointment" was that... the less you expect, the more you get.

 

If I expect that a completionist run is only 1 hour, boy am I in for a treat!

 

Would you rather "expect" 100 hours, but fall short on 80 hours? Or would you rather "expect" 50 hours, and get 30 extra hours on top of it?

 

I try to not have too many if any expectations. I just know I'll enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts

 

 

 

Unless I am mistaken, "I roll 20's" is a phrase coined by Penny Arcade.

 

December 10, 2004

 

Since then, it's just a general statement of RPG bad-assery.  A person who "rolls 20s" would be an unstoppable force in d20 rpgs. Unless rolling low is good, then that person is poison.

[Bryy]

 

He can call it whatever he wants. But until he actually clarifies his position (instead of just coming in here and dropping meaningless one-liners left and right) He doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. 

There's waaaaaaaaay too much emphasis on "playing the wrong way" (I mean, just look at the responses to my comment - hell, look at the comment I quoted), when there's no "one" way to play games, especially an RPG. People's playtimes are going to vary greatly just because of things like metagaming and stopping to smell the roses. Everyone has their own playstyle, their own tolerance for conversation speed and interaction, their own view on completion. 

 

There's an average playtime, un-average playtime, and then there is the base playtime. I can run Dragon Age 3 at minimum eight hours and at max one hundred. 

 

Completionist playthroughs are rather absolute, as they are the max amount of **** in a game you can possibly do. So no, it's not horrible to mention the difference.

[Lephys]

There's an average playtime, un-average playtime, and then there is the base playtime. I can run Dragon Age 3 at minimum eight hours and at max one hundred.

*Bites fist*... I'm at 110... and I'm maybe halfway through? Maybe?

 

And I'm just casually playing it as I see fit, 8P.

 

Which kind of illustrates the whole "different strokes" point,

[Bryy]

I have no doubt PoE will be gigantic game. Maybe I should just preface all my posts with that. 

[Cantousent]

I have no doubt PoE will be gigantic game. Maybe I should just preface all my posts with that. 

I laughed out loud.  I'm pretty sure it's going to be humongous based on the things I've read so far.  What I'm hoping is that they've struck the balance between sandbox and story.  I think they managed to make a pretty free and open world in New Vegas while still creating a compelling story.  In terms of video game stories, I honestly think New Vegas might be the classic statement about the Iraq war as portrayed in the industry.  Of course, that's not what PoE is meant to be in any way whatsoever.  It's going to be a nice big game with enough leash to get yourself hanged but at least you'll die with a good story.  At least I hope.

[Emerwyn]

 

There's an average playtime, un-average playtime, and then there is the base playtime. I can run Dragon Age 3 at minimum eight hours and at max one hundred.

*Bites fist*... I'm at 110... and I'm maybe halfway through? Maybe?

 

And I'm just casually playing it as I see fit, 8P.

 

Which kind of illustrates the whole "different strokes" point,

 

 

For what is worth, my completionist playthrough of Dragon Age 3 took me nearly 160 hours. Got all 1000 achievement points on it (which includes beating the game in Nightmare difficulty without ever lowering it, killing all 10 dragons, etc etc.) Also spent many hours in the stronghold just doing rounds across all relevant NPCs after every mission to make sure I wasn't missing any conversation, side quest or gossip, and also crafted myself the best possible weapons and armours. No need to say I found all moon shards, completed the collectables/side objectives of every map and so on. 

 

That's what I call a completionist playthrough, which is what the OP was asking for. I don't think when he said "completionist" he was meaning "completionist but without finishing X and Z achievements and without doing all side quests", else he/she would have noted it and then it wouldn't be completionist, that is, a 100% of the game's content completed.

[Katarack21]

BG is, what, about 70 hours? BGII is about 150 with every sidequest and such, right? I'm expecting PoE to have about 100 hours of total, maximum playtime. I'll be happy with anything over 70, however,

[Kjaamor]

To Stun and Emerwyn I would, at risk of pointing out the blindingly obvious, simply say that "my/his/her playtime" is a significantly more quantifiable measure than "the playtime". Equally, "completionists" and "non-completionists" are too binary for practical use. In the Morrowind example, how many completionists - that is to say people who explored every inch of the map and not only took in every piece of lore but also each piece of lore within the context of new information gathered - actually are there?

 

Completionist for me is a term that works in the context of games that keep some form of percentage score dependant upon tasks done, and those people reach the magic 100%. In games focusing upon lore and exploration as it's own reward, where there is not a set bar ("You unlocked the toilet!"), getting maximum playtime from the game does not reflect completionist in the same manner.

 

Completionist in terms of PoE might include filling all the bestiary, getting all the trap/lock exp (*groan*), getting all the exploration exp, and getting the maximum quest exp, all of which shall be possible without the need to tread over ever single pixel and reading every lore section until it sinks in.

 

When I talk about "The Playtime" of PoE, or any other game, I talk about the amount of time the average (Mean + Mode + Medium / 3) playtime of the people who buy the game. Speed runs and Crit-only path runs are anomolies on one side, and score completionists and the sort of absolute completionists you refer to are anomolies on the other.

 

"The Playtime" I talk about is very different from "The Playtime" you talk about, but in terms of comparison with other games, I think mine is of more practical use in games discussion. If the OP was talking about absolute completionist, the time it takes to have taken in every single thing in the game regardless of how incidental, then "The Playtime" of PoE shall be exactly the same as any of the IE games, which is to say practically forever.

[Emerwyn]

Probably reading every lore text in PoE is too much for a standard "completionist" playthrough, but if you ask me, the general benchmark behind a completionist playthrough in this Achievement age is getting 100% of the game's achievements. At least 100% of those that can be obtained in a single playthrough (some achievements might be mutually exclusive and need several playthroughs). 

 

Anyway, it's pointless to banter about how long it'll take, we'll see soon enough.

[Failion]

 

Fixed.

 

Hyperbole is pointless here when the majority of us have played the IE games. You cannot just "blast through one map after another" in the IE games. You have loot to Identify and sell; you have inventories to manage; you have HP pools to heal; You have NPCs to talk to; you have quests to turn in; you have characters to individually level.

 

And occasionally, you have encounters that require time, planning, pausing, and waiting to deal with.

 

And none of this takes into account the first playthrough, which is what we're discussing here.

 

you can definitely beat bg1 in 20-30 hours first play through. Ya okay if you do all those outdated mmorpg type fetch quests maybe after wasting your time reading and going back and forth for all them you can add 20 more hours. Most of the loot was useless, encounters were easy, there were basically 2 types of encounter in bg. Easy? highlight all ur guys and right click hard, with casters and the like? summon monsters, highlight everyone and right click.

 

[Lord Wafflebum]

I've long since given up on measuring games in gameplay hours. I spend so much time at work (most of which entails me waiting for tests to finish running and therefore me ending up on the forums) that I really only have one, maybe two, days a week I can invest any time to play. At best I can around eight hours a week into a game. So, any game I play is going to take me months, and I'm much more selective.

 

That said, I have to measure my gameplay in how many months it'll take me. And boy do I take my time with games. I only finished New Vegas fully a couple months ago. I'm probably still under halfway through Skyrim's content. Based on BAdler's allusions to game length/content, I suspect I'll be playing PoE, at a minimum, until the next Fallout comes out.

 

Sooooo, my guess is the game will take 8-14 months to complete.

[morhilane]

Probably reading every lore text in PoE is too much for a standard "completionist" playthrough, but if you ask me, the general benchmark behind a completionist playthrough in this Achievement age is getting 100% of the game's achievements. At least 100% of those that can be obtained in a single playthrough (some achievements might be mutually exclusive and need several playthroughs). 

 

Anyway, it's pointless to banter about how long it'll take, we'll see soon enough.

 

Mass Effect 1 Completionist achievements (that's its name) only require you to do half of the game side quests to unlock...

[Lephys]

Well-said, Kjaamor. You made me realize what my not-very-well-stated point was when I talked about speedrunners. And that is that doing all the stuff does not necessarily mean taking your time. I can do only 80% of the stuff, and still play much longer than someone who does all the stuff.

 

As you said, how you play matters just as much as how much content you try to play through.

[rheingold]

Hmm as many people here have pointed out playtime is really in the eye of the beholder... But my impression is that this is not a particularly long game. I don't think Obsidan had the resources to really stretch it out. Also they have been pretty good in the past at focusing on stories. It's really really easy to create a long game like Skyrim or DAI if you don't have to worry about having any semblance of a story. Not so much if there is actual writing to be done.

[Stun]

you can definitely beat bg1 in 20-30 hours first play through. Ya okay if you do all those outdated mmorpg type fetch quests maybe after wasting your time reading and going back and forth for all them you can add 20 more hours. Most of the loot was useless, encounters were easy, there were basically 2 types of encounter in bg. Easy? highlight all ur guys and right click hard, with casters and the like? summon monsters, highlight everyone and right click.

Ok... You've either never played an MMO, or you've never Played BG1. My guess is the latter.

 

Even normal loot is hard won in BG1, which means "blasting through the game in 20 hours on your first playthrough", without doing any of the game's side content, will leave you woefully underpowered, and thus subject to reloads, and everything that goes along with reloads, like re-doing the areas since your last save (not to mention leaving you with a sub-optimal party, since some of the most powerful party members have to be searched for off the beaten path). But to be fair, this is beside the point, since not many of BG1's side quests actually send you off that far into the wilderness (almost all of the city's quests can be completed without leaving the city)

 

But speaking of those "MMO fetch quests" I forget... can you, by chance, list me some of those "collect 5 X and return them to me", Or, "gather 6 Y and turn them in, and "secure these 7 areas and report back" quests that BG1 is filled with? Because I can't seem to remember those. And that IS what MMO fetch quests are all about. There is the Bandit scalp collection thing with Officer Vai. And that's.... THE ONLY ONE IN THE WHOLE GAME.

 

But I digress. the claim that it's the side quests that make BG1 take so much longer is silly on its own. BG1 is about exploration. That is where the time sink is. It has dozens of fairly large wilderness maps and clearing them out is what takes so much time. The city alone has countless buildings in it, and simply walking into every single one of them to see what's inside can take...oh...5-10 hours by itself? And, as you know, a first time player has no idea which ones have nothing noteworthy in them, and which ones have The Best Loot In The Game (see: Helm of Balduran; cloak of Balduran, Helm of Glory, Tome of Dexterity, Necklace of missiles etc)

 

And then there's the Traps! Oh god...the traps. Now, I'm sure you're ready to tell us all that you just blasted through the Maze under the thieves guild on your first playthrough - Sweeping aside those skeleton warriors as they shot you with ice arrows while you were trying to disarm those insta-kill lighting bolt traps so that you could actually...you know... move forward without dying.

 

And we won't discuss the Cloakwood. Not too deeply, at least. Although it's still needs to be pointed out that there's no way to dispel Web in Bg1. And the second Cloakwood map has many web traps. You know, those web traps that you'll detonate, one at a time, if you're just blasting through the area. And once those traps go off, you know what happens. That's right, here come the huge, giant, phase, sword, and wraith spiders to attack your party. Oh WAIT! I know your response to this: "Ahem! In my first playthrough, I guessed correctly and equipped everyone with those rings and potions of free action that I found, from all those quests and areas I didn't bother doing!" Or... "Hahahaha! On my first playthough I managed to guess correctly and stop the "blast through-ing" at just the right places to search for traps, and disarm all of them!"

 

Like I said, your hyperbole is pointless here. The majority of us have played Bg1. No 1st time player will finish it in 20-30 hours unless he skips half of it. And you know full well you were NOT talking about minimalist-first-playthroughs

Edited March 12, 2015 by Stun

[Sanquiz]

every single quests, dungeons, stronghold upgrade, bosses/secret bosses, if it is anything like baldur's gate 2 i'm expecting at least 60 hours, and the main quest alone is 20-30 hours. probably the mega dungeon alone will take at least 5 hours to 15 hours to complete.

 

Take more than 200+ finish Baldur's gate 2, i expect the half of that, i like play this games with a bottle of ron Cacique Leyenda.

Edited March 12, 2015 by Arturo Sanquiz

[Cantousent]

I think the idea that someone just picks BG1 off the shelf and says, "hey this looks interesting," then plays the game with no significant planning and finishes in 20 hours doesn't reasonable to me.  Maybe it could happen, but it sure as hell isn't going to fit in the normal range.  Accounting for quirks becomes pointless.

[Mazisky]

I remember my first playthrough on Baldur's Gate, back in the 90's, i played with normal difficulty settings and it lasted a lot of time, i guess 50+ hours at least MINIMUM

 

To be honest that was my first RPG ever played, but this means nothing: i was a RTS-TB expert (Dune 2, C&Conquer, Redalert, Ufo:defense\Terror from the deep\Apocalypse) so i felt confortable with the game anyway

Edited March 12, 2015 by Mazisky

[Stun]

I remember my first playthrough of BG1. I think I spent 1 hour rolling my character's stats.

 

(There's a 1/100 chance to get 18/00 strength. Which wouldn't normally be a problem... just keep rolling till you get it! Except that often times you'll get that 18/00 on an otherwise sh*tty roll - which means....keep trying. So I do. about an hour later I settle for 18/99 Str, because that particular roll allowed me to have 18s 3 other stats! Woot!)

 

 

So finally I start the game proper. No problems in Candlekeep. In fact, no problems at all until the Friendly Arm Inn, and there, I run into my second time sink. F*cking Tarnesh. He wipes me and Imoen out. Reload. Does it again. Reload...this time I get lucky and the fight attracts the guards and they help us..... unfortunately, Tarnesh manages to kill my character about 2 seconds before one of the guards chunks him. Reload. This time I totally get lucky. My character scores a hit on him right off the bat, interrupting his mirror image. He dies shortly after that.

 

Time elapsed to this point: 3 hours.

 

 

inside the Friendly Arm Inn

 

I remember falling madly in love with BG1 right about here. The FAI has 3 floors! Time to look around...and steal stuff (time sink #3!). I manage to get one chest open. I get caught. reload. Try it again.... succeed. Then I talk to the guy who thinks I'm a butler.... gives me his Pantaloons to wash and press. They're...Unidentified? Ack. We have no mage in our party. So I get out the manual and look up how to deal with unidentified stuff. it says: shops and temples. So I go downstairs to the innkeeper.... he can't identify it. So I go next door to the temple. Gnome priestess identifies it. I spend a few minutes reading the item description. hilarious.

 

I go back to the inn. I go back upstairs. Talk to people. Find a Dwarf who wants me to visit a town and kill the spiders in her house. Leave Friendly arm inn; visit house next door, half-naked old lady wants me to kill some hobgoblins who stole her ring. Says they're just outside the walls. So that's cool. I can do that real quick. So I go out, scout the area outside the walls.... manage to make a gigantic counter clockwise circle of the premises. After about 20 minutes, I find them. I then kill them, and maneuver my way back to the lady (joia, I think her name is). I give her the ring. she thanks me, And then she leaves! Sweet. Time to loot her house.

 

Time Elapsed: 5 hours...or... a 4th of the game? Screw that. NO ONE does BG1 in 20 hours on a 1st playthrough. No one.

Edited March 12, 2015 by Stun

[Katarack21]

Personally, I've never managed to get BG1 finished in anywhere close to 30 hours. Let alone my first playthrough.

Remember the Nashkel Mines? Did anybody else end up exploring every single blasted dead-end tunnel before finding the next way down, on every single ****ing map in the place?!

[Failion]

Loot isn't hard won man. All you have to do is fine one +1 weapon your character is proficient in and you won the game. The game was littered with mmorpg like hey go kill this ogre to collect my ring, axe, kill 7 zombies. The traps were nothing a fighter with high con can't run through for the most part. Cloakwood have your fighters run through to clear and forget about your squishy companions. Also the best loot is conveniently put in the city districts you will likely go through on your way to finish the game.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Failion

[Sedrefilos]

I gave it a lot though lately and I've come to this: it'll take 99 hours, 26 minutes and 11 seconds for a completionist to finish the game. I'm 99,99% sure and I can link you my equation if you don't believe me.