Average Completion Time and Singleplayer/Multiplayer playtime

[RaveKev]

The Idea is to add an indicator on the shoppage that will display the amount of time for how long the average gamer needs to complete the game.

The time can be calculated by a Trigger in the Steam-API (Developers call that trigger and Steam knows the gaming hours)


Unfortunately, the Multiplayer part will also be calculated - BUT maybe it's possible for developers to transfer that information to Steam:

• Player started multiplayer
  
• Player returned to singleplayer

So Steam, Developers and maybe the gamers themselves would also know exactly how long they played Multiplayer and Singleplayer.
That Would be a nice Addon for the Game Statistics Page

[Zekiran]

There are plenty of other discussion threads about exactly this.

It might be "nice" but it would never, ever, be "functional".

What happens when someone idles a 20 hour single-player game for a night? Adding at least 8 hours to the 'normal' for them? What happens when a game exe *remains running* in the background as many games are want to do?

What about the VAST majority of games which require more than 50 hours already of content that are speed run? What about when they're played A SECOND TIME? thus adding hours? What happens when people like me take a 50 hour game and turn it into a 2400 hour experience by multiple runs, mods, idling, screenshot tours, and the like?

There is no such thing as an "average player".

[ElvisDeadly]

What does completed a game even mean?

All you could really tell is how long people played it for, not what they spent that time doing.

[Zekiran]

I've always found that looking up the achievements for any game that has them, is the BEST way to judge this.

"Oh look only 87% of people completed the first CHAPTER of this game, and only .3% completed this difficult challenge that only comes at the end".

[RaveKev]

Yeah, you are all right.

Those problems are also in the Comments-Section, where idleing people comment on something and have much more weight, because of their ingame-idle time. Also in their library.

But it's an average, you could also use the Median for the calculation to eleminate people that idle many hours.

Originally posted by ElvisDeadly:

What does completed a game even mean?[...]

I mean completing the campain.

But you could see with that number, if the multiplayer is more active or the singleplayer

[Crazy Tiger]

Use HowLongToBeat. Just google "gamename + HLTB". They work via player input, there is no other way.

On Steam all playtime is tracked, so if someone replays a game, you'll still see the total playtime mentioned. It's in no way an indicator of finishing games.

Also, completing a game is highly subjective. Some people only consider a game completed when all achievements are gained, a second person will mean all main missions+side missions and a third only the main campaign.

[RaveKev]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Use HowLongToBeat. [...]

That was my idea to integrate it originally, but i don't think, that Steam will include external services.

That's why i created the benefit for developers, publishers and Stream , that they may know the usage of multiplayer or singleplayer

[Crazy Tiger]

Developers and publishers already have that data. Steam might too, though it's not something relevant for them.

The way Steam playtime works, makes it a not a working function. Playtime on Steam doesn't represent anything else than the amount of time the .exe has been running.
It's why HLTB works via player input. It still can be falsified, but generally speaking the people who take the effort to provide input do it genuinely.

Steam does integrate external services, they have the Metacritic scores on store pages, for example. However, it has to be something that Valve see value in, otherwise it won't be implemented. I honestly doubt HLTB is something Valve sees value in, people rarely buy a game on "time to finish it".
Personally I use it for indications when I'm on the fence of playing something and measuring it against my time (I always look at the Main+extra's, that's generally my completion style).

[ElvisDeadly]

Originally posted by RaveKev:

Originally posted by ElvisDeadly:

What does completed a game even mean?[...]

I mean completing the campain.

I just think as a stat it only really applies to a specific game played in a specific way.

There is an assumption that one gets a game, plays from 'start' to 'finish' watches the credits and then never plays again, they have completed it and are done.

That only applies to a certain type of game.

[RaveKev]

For me that info would be great, because i don't finish long games. I prefere games with a shorter Story (yeah, i think i am the only gamer that thinks that way )

But yeah, all your points are good

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by RaveKev:

For me that info would be great, because i don't finish long games. I prefere games with a shorter Story (yeah, i think i am the only gamer that thinks that way :rufusjoking:)

But yeah, all your points are good

Nah, I too enjoy shorter games. Games like Enslaved and Space Marine only took around 10 hours, that's a good length inbetween bigger games for me.

Though I did play the three Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth games back to back, which comes down to around 80 hours in total.

[ElvisDeadly]

Originally posted by RaveKev:

For me that info would be great, because i don't finish long games. I prefere games with a shorter Story (yeah, i think i am the only gamer that thinks that way :rufusjoking:)

But yeah, all your points are good

Interesting.

I wrongly assumed you were equating length of playthrough with value for money.

[Aqwet]

I can write from my perspective of playing Final Fantasy VIII. I'm achievement hunter and there you have 2 achievements when you can finish game in 3 ways:
- normal, killing all
- achievement for not killing (not leveling), equipt non-encounter thing and play with random fights. 2 or 3 times faster
- kill 10k enemies achievement. For this i played above half a year in background on 2 windows with some multi games like 100% orange juice where i must wait for another player turn
So what is averange time of play? And here you have also sidequest, optional monster and grinding.