Well, the reason the series has been more or less abandoned is because Capcom ran it into the ground on every front. They had multiple sub-series with annual releases going simultaneously.

Eh, the BD Demo was constructed by reusing assets from the main game. Its development cost was probably negligible. Ground Zeroes would have actually cost money to make.

Also, let's not exaggerate the length of Ground Zeroes' campaign. Initially people complained it was only about 2 hours long, now you say it is less than an hour? A quick check clears this up: main story is an hour and a half long, almost down to an hour if you rush through.

But for completion? 17 hours. That sounds like a lot, but I know my friends who bought the game put at least 6 hours into it, so I'm confident that there's a bit of content beyond the main story.

Well... Thats 100% completion right? I mean... My point is, you can drag out a lot of games if you want 100% completion and they sure as hell don't have <2 hours (I could have sworn it took less than an hour when I was playing it without credits) of main storyline. A game that costs $30 shouldn't require you to do all the optional stuff in order to get the best "value" for what the price which is my main issue. I am not saying it wasn't fun, I am just saying that price was nonsense. And considering that MGS V PP will cost $60 and I am sure the main story will last way longer than 10 hours to beat so I highly doubt that segment of MGS V costed that much to create. If they wanted to charge for it, <$10 would have been a great deal for both parties imo...

Honestly the only people who really care are forum folks like us. Because every sports series out right now is a straight up rehash by design.

The price of the game is related to the cost of making it, not the time it takes to beat it.

As for bolded, 100% of every game is optional. You can buy a game and not spend a single minute playing it. You can play through only what is necessary to experience what is considered the "main story" and avoid all other content in the game, but I would say that you must not like the game very much if you are so determined to play only the absolutely "mandatory" parts. If you enjoy the game, you will voluntarily experience more of it beyond the main story, probably without even making a conscious decision to do so. If you don't enjoy the game, you aren't getting any value out of it at all regardless of its price or length.

I don't understand why 15 hours of optional content in a game with a 2 hour-long main story are irrelevant. Look at Far Cry 4, a game with a 15-minute-long main story and 60 hours of optional content being sold for $60. They're valuing their game at $4 per minute!

Yes, thats true, so... If MGS V PP costs $60, comparativly, MGS V GZ should cost way less cause PP takes way longer to make

Oh come on... 100% of every game is optional? Really? We both know that, that is pure nonsense. Why on earth would anyone buy the game if they weren't going to play it... By that logic, Food, and life and everything is optional in a sense... The point again, I am try to make is... Virtually every game has what MGS V GZ has with its hidden things and blah blah blah but you don't see other games that are very enjoyable charging $30 for them because that is terrible value for money comparatively. The only reason MGS V can get away with it is cause of its dedicated and potentially exploitable fans. If EA did this or Ubisoft did this, even if the content was good or better than MGS V GZ, everyone would be up their asses like crazy and rightfully so...

I did enjoy MGS V GZ but I really don't care about the optional content... MGS V GZ isn't the only game I have to play and it shouldn't need nor does it deserve any special treatment that my other games, which I enjoy very much, get. Even on my most favorite games like Mario Galaxy and other things, I don't care for all the extras but that doesn't mean Mario Galaxy can't stand on its legs without them. People shouldn't need to do optional things to feel that their money is well spent where as there are plently of other games that are veryyyy enjoyable and they include plenty of optional content on top of the main section as well

Oh and Main Story on Far Cry 4 is about 13.5 hours... http://www.howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=19310

Bolded is exactly my point. Why would someone buy GZ and stop playing it after 2 hours? What about the other 15 hours is "optional" compared to the first 2? If you really liked the game, why didn't you continue playing it? You just stopped after clearing what you consider the main story? Might as well have just watched it on Youtube if that's all you cared about.

It's not nonsense to say all of a game is optional. Especially when you bring up Mario games. What makes completing the main story "mandatory?" The little checkmark you can put next to the game in your mind signifying that you beat the final boss or saw the credits? I mean, take the first SMB. There's no post-game, and almost all of the content is "optional" because of warp pipes. You really only have to play a handful of levels to beat that game. Does all of that optional content not contribute to the value of the game, just because you can skip it and still see the end credits?

It gets even crazier in the 3D games. You bring up Galaxy, for example. But the structure in Galaxy is non-linear: you can skip level A entirely, or you can get all of the stars in that level and skip level B entirely. Both levels are optional, because you can skip either and simply play the other.

The main story in Far Cry 4 can in fact be completed in about 15 minutes. Won't link it, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

While it's true to a degree, Nintendo franchises date back more than 30 YEARS. So I see it as valid from both sides.

Well thats because the reason the person bought the game was cause of the Story, specially in MGS (considering GZ won't be avaliable in the main game)... And the reason as to why the person wouldn't play it is cause the person is not interested in the rest of the things and he/she has other games to play. And Youtube does not give you the same experience... Not only is the audio and video compressed but every game is better if you experience it yourself from Start to "Finish".

As for Mario games, the reason why they are so good is that if you don't care about the optional stuff, you can still get great value out of them and this is speically true of the 3d Mario games. Mario games in general make sure that everyone thats playing has an very enjoyable experience for a great length of time while rewarding the people that put the time and effort into doing optional and extra things like it should be. Sure, Optional content has value but they should be added value instead of be the thing that people do in order to justify their purchase.

And yea, I just remembered that loll but still, thats not really the "main story," thats just a little bonus thing for the people that are trollish enough to wait and see what happens.

But Metal Gear Solid's gameplay stands on its own even without a story excuse to drive you from point A to point B. Hell, the reason I don't care for the series myself is because I feel the story is too intrusive and I would rather just play the game. I would say that if you don't want to continue playing the game after seeing the story despite the presence of additional content should you choose to pursue it, then maybe you don't really like playing MGS at all. My metric for how much I like a game pretty much boils down to the quesetion "would I play it again?" (or continue playing after seeing the credits if I'm reluctant to start over). If the answer is 'no', I can't have enjoyed it very much.

But that's just, like, my opinion, man.