A game you only want to play once had better be just that, either something so awesome you know you can't hit that height again or something so awful you have no idea what most of the stages look like. If it's the latter, then the price becomes an issue. If you want to play it again and again, then there are no issues with price.

Actually it's hard to tell. Today I read a study that most people don't even finish their games. Less than 50% of gamers beat even the most beloved by the gaming community games (even if they're short, or critically acclaimed games. Also, there are tons of people who love games but take forever to beat them. You can make a thread if you want to and ask how long it took people to beat their last game. It took me a week to beat Stick of Truth, DmC, God of War 3 Gravity Rush, etc and they were all games I absolutely loved. Gaming is my number 1 hobby. All I'm saying is, it's really hard to tell how it works not only for the masses, but also for dedicated gamers. 

You can be a gamer and still have an extremely busy life (especially if you have a partner/children/active social life) or if you are the kind of gamer that likes to take his time to enjoy and not just beat the game. 

The article is a sum of previews given by critis that have played the demo.  It might not be the full game, but a demo is enough to critique these things:  "Clunky mechanics, Quick-Time Events, and a wonky camera".  Hopefully they just picked terrible parts of the game to demo, but the previews definitely don't paint a rosey picture (full game or not).  

Considering I clearly remember buying Turtles 2 on NES for $50 as a kid and beating it that same day with a friend, the fears and tears surrounding game length is kind of sad. Maybe the hobby is too expensive for some? (Considering it costs about $30 for me & the wife to go to a movie these days, $60 for even a 5 hour game we will both play through separately is not bad. And hell, you can trade it in for probably $45 if it can be beaten as quickly as internetfolk are claiming!)

People failed to buy a Wii-U because Pikmin 3 wasn't long enough for them, that was when we started to have a real problem. But I myself failed to buy Sin And Punishment: Star Successor so I'm hardly faultless.

I remember when Beyond Good & Evil got bashed because of its short lenght. That's the oldest instance of this being an issue I can remember.

Trust me, you're not alone in noticing these things.

Some of my favorite and most memorable gaming experiences have been with short games that were 8 hours or less.... but I call those rentals. Only games I buy for 60 are games with heavy replay value.

Really... it depends on the game. For example... CoD or other shooter games... you can beat the single player in a matter of hours but yet you can play the online for countless hours provided you don't get bored of it. An RPG/ adventure game where a story is involved.. you tend to want more game hours out of it because no one spends $60 to plays a child's short story. A Racing game, you may be able to go through all the tracks in a matter of hours but then the playing and racing against other people over and over especially online can make it well worth it. It just depends on the game.

Spec Ops: The Line - Not great gameplay, pointless multiplayer, such a superb story. Generally people don't care the main story only takes about 6 hours because it's a great one.