194: Fifteen More Minutes

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Fifteen More Minutes

There may be satisfaction in breaking the shrink wrap of a newly purchased game, but it pales in comparison to the last few moments of play before you have to put down the controller. Taylor Hidalgo ponders what's so special about those last 15 minutes of game time.

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[SmartIdiot]

Fifteen More Minutes has got me into trouble more often than not. Playing Oblivion until 3:30AM when I have to be up at 6:30AM. Playing a FPS with my friends, only to have my friend's girlfriend come around and say "You said you'd be fifteen minutes. That was 1 and a half hours ago". Ah it was fun to annoy her...

 

[Labyrinth]

Ahh, the number of times I've been yelled at for those illusive snatches of play.

This isn't inherent just in gaming. Television programmes set for half-hours usually wind up being shorter in order to break up into bite-sized portions for a lower attention span. 8-12 minutes, depending on the channel. These denominations of time are useful in that it allows us to ever-better schedule our leisure time. However, I see down sides.

By breaking up our days into 10-15 minute segments we can fritter it away on things which don't require the kind of intense attention span that say, a two-hour block of reading will. Casual games just don't need to be as immersive as something you'll spend hours on does which can in part lie at the feet of the increasing shallowness of many big-name releases. If people play for quarter-hour stints they need not absorb so much as other times.

Yes indeed, these stints may be conjoined, which indicates that the game is more immersive than something shallow would be. Not all games manage that, neither do movies, television shows or books. If we could lengthen the Now again, just think how much fun we'd have.

 

[Nivag the Owl]

Haha, I've never looked at it like this before but yeah, I've always over glorified the final moments of gaming before having to actually do some work, or whatever.

I remember when I was around seven years old, playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I would be doing some dungeon and pressing on without any care in the world. Then my Mum would shout at me "Gav! You need to get ready for school!" and I would literally beg for more time. It's not like she has power over time but I still asked.

None the less, I would still pause the game and put my TV on stand-by for hours upon hours until I got back.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Jesper Juul, the guy who made Bejeweled, had an interesting observation about this. They inherently design their games so you can get a fair bit done in 15 minutes so that the user does not perceive it as a critical time investment. Yet on average people play the game for slightly less than an hour per session.

 

[Phat_Frank]

I was going to read this, but I thought it take more than 15 minutes.....

 

[Abedeus]

"JUST ONE MORE MATCH AND I'LL GO TO SLEEP!"

That's why my parents were so infurated when I played Guild Wars PvP. You don't want to stop the winning streak!

Also, Diablo 2. Just one more baalrun... Just one more level... Just one...

 

[Clemenstation]

I implement the "fifteen minutes" rule rigidly, although I guess I never really thought about it until now.

I won't play anything multiplayer if there's a chance I'll have to bail - I hate quitters, and one time a submission match of Gears of War 2 took FIFTY MINUTES to resolve. The whole time I was playing, I was half distracted by Angry Girlfriend, who was stomping around the apartment waiting to go to dinner. I have never been so frustrated with Handley the Aggressively Defiant Meatflag.

Live Arcade games are usually my pick for short-run gaming. Minimal load time, no hunting for discs, and (generally) simple play means I can drop these games at a moment's notice.

I haven't played many RPGs lately, if only because I can't 15-minute game them. You really need to set aside a dedicated hour or two to make story-based games worthwhile, and most of the recently released RPGs I've tried have such ridiculous voice acting that I'd rather play Peggle instead.

My choice in game genres is largely affected by my lifestyle, which has changed from "What're you up to? Nothing? Let's kick some ass!" to "She's on Facebook, go go goooooo".

 

[Playbahnosh]

I always had the solution to the "15 Minute Law"... it's the Save Game button. D'uh!

Okay, that's maybe I was a PC gamer from start, I never understood the "there is no save button" excuse the console players had. When I had something to do, I paused the game, when I had somewhere to go to, I saved the game and went on my way. I didn't have any objection, why should I, if I go now, I get things done sooner so I can get back into game sooner, but there is really no rush, it's saved so it won't go anywhere.

But, I admit, I had my fair share of loooong gaming streaks. Staying up late (early) only realizing at 4AM, that I've been playing for almost ten hours straight is something I'll never forget. StarCraft, Diablo II and many-many adventure games come to mind...

 

[Cylem]

Yesterday I had a bowl of cereal and some instant ramen. Total. Too busy playing 20-minute matches in S4. >_>;; My mom ends up doing the same thing when it comes to Facebook, so we're late to a lot of stuff.

I have my mornings planned out so I get fifteen minutes to spare on the internet. :'D

 

[Neesa]

I tend to do that when it comes to talking to people. I know I have to get up at 5am for something and I'm still up talking online at 3:30am. I always tell myself, "I'll be done in a few minutes. I'll get off in 15 so I can get some sleep." Another interesting topic or conversation strikes and I join in, chattering away. Then 4am rolls around and I complain that I didn't know where the time went. Oooh, so much sleep I have lost.

 

[NinjaKirby1322]

Ah, yes, the old "I'll just try to get a little bit farther" excuse. I've fallen victim to this many times, ending up playing for multiple hours instead of just a few minutes.

My favourite case of this was when I finished Golden Sun: The Lost Age. I started to approach the final boss at about 10:00 PM and said to myself "I'm at a high enough level that this should only take a few minutes." After at least 50 restarts, changes of strategy, etc., the credits started rolling. A glance at my clock showed 7:30 AM. I immediately collapsed and slept until about 8:00 PM that day...

 

[retro himself]

Interesting philosophy about the "15 more minutes", I never thought of it as the smallest possible unit of time we can devote to something else. But I have to disagree about your intro.
You can infact, finish a level in 15 minutes. It's more than enough for a few gunfights and a bit more. You can get to the boss and at least get the taste of him in those 15 minutes (if you're right at the end of a dungeon).
That's the whole deal with 15 minutes. When we were just beginner gamers, we once decided just to continue a little bit more to see if we can finish another part till the next save point, and we saw that 15 minutes is just enough. At least I know I did. I found out that in most mission-based FPS, repeating a failed mission is just around 15 minutes. And in RPGs, you can just barely make it either to the next save point or just to see what lies ahead. Or figure out how to reconfigure your inventory.
Those 15 minutes were never pointless to me <3

 

[insectoid]

If you give yourself a set amount of time (say, 1 hour) that you really can't change due to other commitments, even if it's a game you really aren't enjoying, the fun factor increases tenfold the closer you get to the end of your allocated playing time.

Then again, perhaps that just means my 'other engagements' are boring.

15 minutes is just enough time to (likely) achieve something, but not long enough that you will begin to tire of the game.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I remember accidentally playing the "15 more minutes" game with the MGS 2 ending, that was a big ass mistake.

Congrats on the article Mr. Lassik, may there be more in the future.

 

[meatloaf231]

Very true. The moment you become conscious of the amount of time you have left, you keep glancing at the clock, hoping that time would slow down. It's a last grasp before you have to go do something.

And see? I told you you'd get it done.

 

[Da_Vane]

Fifteen more minutes also represents another, external factor: it allows us to "come down" and "wrap up" whatever aims we were trying to achieve in the game, so we can leave the game on our terms. It represents an internal shift from fun mode to responsible mode that is more effective for us, as we internally embrace the idea that we are in control and choosing to move onto the other engagement.

The flaw with this process comes when we don't want to accept the other engagement at all - in which case procrastination kicks in, and more often than not, we milk those 15 more minutes, and then some, until it hopefully somehow becomes too late to do the other engagement, at which point we might as well continue with the game instead until the next engagement comes along.

 

[Zephirius]

Yesterday I had a bowl of cereal and some instant ramen. Total. Too busy playing 20-minute matches in S4. >_>;;

I once had my mom call me for dinner 4 minutes after starting a 30-min. match in S4....Being the greedy bastard that I am, unwilling to give the money and xp I had so far accumulated, I completely finished the match. My dinner was still lukewarm when I finally got downstairs, so not all was lost.

 

[SquirrelPants]

I've been yelled at many times for these chunks of playtime, but that's why I'm starting to go more handheld than usual. See, if I need to head to school, I just need to close my DS for a few minutes, and once I'm safely on the bus and not going to be late at all, the games can continue for-you guessed it-another 15 minutes.