How long do you think a commercial game sould be?

[Lord Dragon]

Let's say you buy a VN priced at $10 (Or $9.99) How much play time do you expect to get for it to be your money's worth.

Let's say we ignore the quality of art, music and story for the first instance, and they are mediocre.

And for the second instance the art, music, and story are all above average.

How long would a game have to be for a consumer to get their money's worth?

[SundownKid]

$10 is pretty cheap, so if the game was excellent I'd be fine with a couple of hours. Brevity is the soul of wit, so it doesn't have to be an epic as long as it's enjoyable. If it was mediocre across the board, I probably wouldn't buy it unless it had a conceit that really piqued my interest, but it's not like being longer than that would make me more interested.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

A game should be as long as it needs to be, and no longer. I prefer a quality experience than something that is drawn out.

As my grandmother used to say when asked how long something should be, "Like a girl's skirt - long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to stay interesting." (My grandmother is awesome.)

Give me an awesome experience, and I'm not going to be disappointed with whatever I paid you for it. Give me a mediocre experience and not only might I regret the money I paid, but the TIME I invested. (I don't have a lot of that resource these days.) And anytime I get a mediocre experience from a developer, the more reluctant I am to take a chance on them again.

[RotGtIE]

Let's say we ignore the quality of art, music and story for the first instance, and they are mediocre.

Let's not, and say we did. I'm willing to pay a lot more for Planetarian than I am for Majikoi.

[gekiganwing]

Give me an awesome experience, and I'm not going to be disappointed with whatever I paid you for it. Give me a mediocre experience and not only might I regret the money I paid, but the TIME I invested.

I agree. There was a year when I played the mediocre SNES title Paladin's Quest just because of boredom. Right now, there are only a few occasions when I can make time for a portable / mobile video game.

That said... here are a few things which I think a visual novel should accomplish in its first 45 to 60 minutes:

* Set up the conflict
* Help the reader care about the characters, no matter how villainous / troubled they are
* Establish rules of the fictional universe (limits of magic? how far a character can super-jump?)

[Katta]

I agree with SundownKid, the level of art doesn't affect the expected length of the game for me, it's just fewer chances I'll buy a game with worse art. I'm also of opposite opinion to everyone else, that an awesome game may be short, because an awesome game will feel even shorter in my experience since I'll be so immersed in it - of course I wouldn't demand my money back, but I still may be upset because I wanted more)
2 hours (one playthrough) is enough length I think.
It's also not that much difference between 10$ and 15$ for me, so you can charge a bit more if it means making a better or longer game.

[Shinoki]

Personally, I would say:

$0-10: 1-2 hours
$10-30: 10-30 hours
$30-60: 30-60 hours
$60 +: Over 60 hours

[Tyrantauranox]

I'll be the greedy consumer. I want FOUR hours of quality content for $10

[Lesleigh63]

Hmmm, but does the time you're quoting refer to completion of just one path or completing all paths in that time?

[Lord Dragon]

Hmmm, but does the time you're quoting refer to completion of just one path or completing all paths in that time?

One path, for all those that only play through once.

it's just fewer chances I'll buy a game with worse art.

Yep, That's where the real issue is at, with a commercial game you gotta entice people whilst also giving what they want (story wise)

[FriendlySenpai]

If I were to buy a game that's $10, I'd hope to get at least seven or eight hours of gameplay out of it.

It doesn't have to be one route, it can be over the course of multiple playthroughs, but I've just grown tired of VNs that charge more than a few dollars for a game that I will have 100%ed in >4 hours.

Like... Ebi-Hime's games are typically pretty short and simple, but they also only run at an average of $6 so it isn't an issue. Meanwhile, Sake Visual's Backstage Pass is $30 but also takes upwards of thirty hours to complete and is very gameplay-intensive for a visual novel.

Art doesn't necessarily pose much of an issue for me, really. Umineko's art and interface were both absolute eyesores, but the story itself was enough to make up for it.

Just food for thought, I suppose.

[JBShields]

For $10 I'm cool with two hours gameplay.

[Anyubel]

Generally, I'd want to play at least 2-3 hours on one route alone plus ~ 4-5 hours for the other routes altogether (Around 7-9 hours gameplay for all routes). At the same time, I don't want to be put to sleep by filler dialogue.

[Imperf3kt]

I personally hate drawn out dialogue. Especially if there's multiple paths that use very similar / the same dialogue.
I feel the same way about "AAA title" games like Call of Duty or Star Wars or whatever else AAA game there is.

If the progression of the story is "go here, do this, get that, go here, do this, get that, go here, do this, get that." Why am I playing it? I was "finished" after the first time.

I'd pay $10 for any length game (well, as long as it's at least an hour @ 125wpm), provided the content is actually compelling. Hell, I don't even care if it's got grammatical errors or typos all over it, or even if the English sounds more like Engrish, as long as it's entertaining.
Length, is irrelevant (to an extent, I won't pay $10 for the shiniest turd, no matter how much you polish it)