It took me a long time to finish HL, because i lost interest about halfway through and had to force myself to finish it. Way too many warehouses and waste disposal facilities for my taste.

The reason why publishers are charging as much as they are for games is because people are willing to pay. I'm not defending the prices, i think they are a little too high in most cases, but that doesn't mean it's okay for me to download it now and buy it later when the prices drop, or never buy it at all.

And regarding the length of current games, i have to agree, most of them are relatively short, but many of them also sport the high production values demanded by gamers. We want academy award winning music, we want photo realistic graphics, we want stories written by award winning authors, etc. Making a good game isn't enough anymore, you have to make a ground breaking, genre bending masterpiece, and that takes time and money. While some of us would like to blame the developers and publishers for the current situation, you have to ask yourself: Who puts money in their bank accounts?

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How do you know the world has gone mad?
It's when the world's best golfer is black, the world's best rapper is white, the French accuse the Americans of being snobbish, and Germany refuses to go to war.