I’m really struck by how our players’ attitudes have shifted on this over the years. Back in 2011 we sometimes got complaints that Choice of the Dragon (30K words, 7K playthrough) was too long.
A number of online reviews of HMS Foraker (90K words, 14K playthrough) complained that it was too short in comparison to Choice of Broadsides (60K words, 12K playthrough). I have to assume that players were just misremembering how long Broadsides was, but I think it’s not just that. Our players have gotten used to long games, and can now no longer enjoy short ones.
My fear is that our customer base also can’t really afford longer games. We should charge something like twice as much for a 400K-word game compared to a 200K-word game, but when we’re already charging $5 or $6 for a 200K game, we can’t get people to pay $10 or $12 for a 400K game.