The Controversy Surrounding MGS: Ground Zeroes (Length & Price)

Now, I'm pretty sure you might have all seen the complaints people have had over the length of Ground Zeroes and the price of it as well. I've mostly seen it all come to fruition on the review for the game by AngryJoe. However, Joe's only other Metal Gear game was Rising, and he gave Ground Zeroes a 5/10 because of length and price. Which brings me to my YouTube comment that I did on his video. I'm pretty sure that Ground Zeroes was advertised as a prologue and it had a pretty short campaign if people were willing to research it. (You'd pretty much feel like you've been rip off'd though if you only go in playing it once and only once) Where in Ground Zeroes that base in the game is sandbox-esque and there's a multitude of ways to complete a main mission. So it has that going for it.

This actually reminds me of the time I was alerted to a petition for Dark Souls II where they wanted it to be ported to PS4/Xbox One after just two days of it being released in America. I'm pretty sure that game was also advertised as coming out on PS3/Xbox 360 first. Their reasoning however, "We all traded in our PS3/Xbox 360 so we could get a PS4/Xbox One, it would be nice to be able to play it on Next-gen consoles". While I still haven't purchased either of the Next-gen consoles because they both lack games I'm interested in. I'm pretty sure Dark Souls II was advertised as not coming to the PS4 or Xbox One at the time.

Even though Ground Zeroes was roughly 1-2 hours. (3.5 if you do an all stealth no spot play-through) I also agree that it should have been included in "The Phantom Pain" for the beginning of the game. I don't agree with the $30.00 price tag, but I also don't think it should go for $5.00 considering it looks more graphically impressive and overall impressive than Dead Rising: Case Zero.

I'd also like to mention that if you take out the Main Story from past and recent MGS titles you're left with an even shorter amount of Gameplay. Obviously, not as short as Ground Zeroes but shorter nonetheless. The only highest completion playtime I've seen is 90 hours and that's only for Peacewalker.

Metal Gear Solid 4 on average is 18 1/2 hours. Take away the 10 hours that are cut scenes and you're left with an 8 hour game. It took me about 12 hours to complete Rising and the main story of that is 5-6 hours long. 12 - 5 = 7 and that's only 7 hours if you use the "6" instead of the "5" You're left with 6 hours of Gameplay on average. Story has always been the "meat" of the MGS franchise while the Gameplay is still good it also takes a backseat from the story.

Not to mention that the TellTale episodic adventures are roughly 1 to 2 hours long. So if you're happy to pay 20$ for a season pass for those that is also roughly 5 or 10 hours long in-total each, then I don't see why you should have a problem with Ground Zeroes' length. Obviously the price could be better I however don't think $5.00 cuts it.

And, obviously games take a lot less after you've played them before. That's one of the reasons why it only took 10-12 minutes for people after they replayed the game again.

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Joe compared Ground Zeroes price to the price of Case Zero which was $5.00 vs. the $30.00 price Ground Zeroes has or the $20.00 price if you go digital. The price is obviously a lot more outside of the United States. I don't agree with it being $30 or $20 however I don't think it should be $5 either. I'd either go for $10-15 although this is just my opinion on the price.

Then the other people I've seen have made complaints like "I hope developers/publishers don't follow suit with this idea". Hmm, I think they might seem to be forgetting/overlooking all about The Walking Dead, Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Infamous: Festival of Blood, Journey and Flower. Where depending on how you buy it, in order it goes $5 each ep, $20 season pass. BAS: 1 $10.49, BAS: 2 $14.99, Blood Dragon $14.99, Festival of Blood: $4.99 (Was $10 when I bought it), Flower $6.99 and Journey at $14.99. My [SIZE=11.818181991577148px]price-points[/SIZE] are going by what they're at right now on Playstation Network. While, the prices of each of them [SIZE=11.818181991577148px]varies[/SIZE] and some might be more 'attractive' to other people, what I'm mainly getting at is that their all stand-alone campaigns that are short as well. Some longer than Ground Zeroes, other just as short but make up for it via (User Generated Content) in Infamous's case. That is, if you're into that kind of thing.

I think it's rather silly that people are hoping/complaining that other companies don't "follow suit" when in the past they've done the same before, with slightly longer gameplay, and possibly more attractive price-points. Except for Flower, Journey and Infamous Festival of Blood. Which I've seen can be finished in two hours while Festival of Blood only took me 1hr 15mins or 1hr 30mins to complete.

Anyways what do you all think about the controversy surrounding the games length/price? Is it warranted even after looking back at other stand-alone campaigns that vary in price but also have slightly longer campaigns and campaigns that are just as short?

That was a long post to basically say kojima is an asshole and I agree

gunnm said:

That was a long post to basically say kojima is an asshole and I agree

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It was a long post to show that people have been complaining about stuff that has already happened before. With slightly more appropriate prices and slightly longer campaigns. I'm forgetting most people don't think straight when RAGE HANDS happen.

While I do think Ground Zeroes should have been in The Phantom Pain and the price could be half of what it is right now. I'm not going to complain about it to the degree, that other people are. When you look back it's happened before with all the other stand-alone campaigns I used as examples. (Follow suit per se) I just find it funny how they complain about Ground Zeroes' length, but those same examples I used are also offenders in their own right. At least, I'd like to think that the same people would have problems with them as well. If they don't. I can't say I understand their reasoning.

gunnm said:

That was a long post to basically say kojima is an asshole and I agree

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I'm pretty sure charging an arm and a leg for the game wasn't his decision. Konami is a shit company, and they had the final decision.

That's all I have to add. I haven't played a single game in the series and don't plan to.

Dead of Knight said:

I'm pretty sure charging an arm and a leg for the game wasn't his decision. Konami is a shit company, and they had the final decision.

That's all I have to add. I haven't played a single game in the series and don't plan to.

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I agree #boycottmetalgearsolidvuntilhayterisback

While I do agree that Kiefer Sutherland can't exactly pull of Snake/Big Boss like David Hayter. I'd rather have Peter Lurie or Richard Doyle after Hayter not being chosen to reprise the role. I guess I'm just not that die-hard of a fan to go out and create a petition to send to Kojima/Konami to have David Hayter back. It could have been worse, Big Boss could have been a silent protagonist with a list of dialogue to choose from.   Besides you've always got the option to turn the volume down on Kiefer's parts if his voice is that ear-cringing to you. 

Ground Zeroes just didn't look all that interesting. Two hours of patrol dodging isn't going to convince me to drop $30. I'd be hesitant to drop even $5 considering you can just YouTube the cutscenes.

Persona 4 took me over 80 hours to complete.  Does that mean Atlus should charge more for it?

62t said:

Persona 4 took me over 80 hours to complete. Does that mean Atlus should charge more for it?

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Persona 4 already has longer game play time than the ones I used as examples. So no. I was talking about people complaining about games with 1 to 2 hr content when there's also already Flower, Journey, Burial At Sea, Infamous: Festival of Blood and the others I listed. Pretty much people who are worried about publishers/developers following suit when it's already happened before.

I was also saying that in the past if you paid $20 for a season pass for any of TellTale's episodic adventures. Where each episode is 1 to 2 hours long I don't see how you'd have a problem getting Ground Zeroes digitally for the same price. What I'm really getting at is the people who are overlooking all these stand-alone campaigns or indie games that are just as short and also asking for a pretty big price for that content. (At least the people on YouTube)

Unless $14.99 is an attractive price point for them to purchase a game that offers 1 to 2 hours of content which is about the same as Ground Zeroes content-wise. That's the kind of reasoning that I can't quite understand. Where companies have already been doing the same like Ground Zeroes did with length and price on some other particular titles.

They've already been "following suit" prior to Ground Zeroes release. People just need to be looking back at earlier released games.