I don't believe this is a general thing.

It all depends on how fun it is, and how much fun you can get out of those mechanics.

I would not want to play a 100 hour Uncharted game. I would happily play a 1,000 hour Elder Scrolls game, as long as there were enough mechanics and story to keep that experience interesting.  

Splatoon Raiders. That game must tease “Oh, we’re approaching the end!” like five different times. The problem is that no matter how much I’m enjoying a game, the instant you tell me that the end is on the horizon, then I start mentally prepping myself for the next game on deck… only to realize I was actually only halfway through the game. Had Raiders not done this, I could have easily sunk another 20hr into it.

Glad to see ya around. Hope all has been well with you. And yea I agree. It really is a case by case basis. Whereas I’ll happily spend two months on Zelda Echoes of Wisdom or Tears of the Kingdom, I only have maybe two weeks worth of patience for a small indie project such as Deltarune.

After 1200 hours of The Witcher 3 it has never outstayed it's welcome. Yet I got bored recently of Hades a 20 hours. Baldurs gate 3 at 50 ran it's course. Pal World at 2 hours. It really depends on the game. Vampire Survivors at two playthroughs 66 and 40ish hours and I still wanna fire up that game but I have to stop myself to play other games.

I can have this feeling after a couple of hours, depending on the game. I don't get invested as much as I used to, so anything that is story-driven and lasts more than 20 hours usually overstays it's welcome. Especially in linear games. Very few games can keep me for 30+ hours and they are usually roguelites as of the last couple of years.

I don't like content for content's sake. I much rather have a well-balanced 10 hour long single-player campaign, than the same game bloated to 30 hours by filler content.

Yeah I get this the absolute best games are the ones that can't overstay their welcome because you just want more. Seriously far in-between games I feel that way about though, but it's awesome when you find one.

As for the main question I think it's partially a luxury problem of having too many games to play. I burned out on a lot of games last year because I had a long list of games I wanted to play but I've taken it much more chill since the spring (only focused on REplaying most of the Resident Evil series) and it feels like a much better pace to game at for me atm. It's sort of obvious but if it feels like a chore either you or the game is doing something wrong and in my case it was partially me.

Yeah honestly I’ve been struggling with this for a bit. I always look back to 2023 where I only played a total of nine games, compared to now where I’m jumping from new game to new game every few weeks. 2023 was and has always been my favorite year in gaming, with 2017 very close behind (again, another year where I played few titles but for a long time).

IDK there’s just so much I have yet to see and experience… but is it really worth seeing EVERYTHING gaming has to offer? I mean, it’s just unrealistic to achieve, yet I’ve been chasing it for the longest time.