The Dink Network

Why can't anybody understand that NPCs that don't contribute to the main story's progress shouldn't count for the time? If there's a scene with dialogue that progresses the storyline, that's fine, and it should count. However, if you're locked in a ten minute conversation with an NPC about what kind of weather there is, it nohow progresses the storyline and therefore that ten minutes shouldn't count. Furthermore, even Malachi's storyline dialogue could easily be cut in half. It's like if I told you to go examine every scripted object in HH2. Nearly everything has a script, so you could easily add another hour into the length of the game. Sure, the object interaction acts as "content" for the D-Mod, but it doesn't add anything to the progress the player is making, which is why it shouldn't be counted for the time. Also, if you want to do everything there is to do in HH2, it'll take around 7-8 hours. If you want to leave the optional stuff out, it'll be around 5-6 hours, still making it an Epic. And imo, the main storyline is what should count for the length. Everything else is just a nice plus.

If I were to now play through Fall of Tahmar and Malachi casually, FoT would take around 2 hours 45 minutes, and Malachi probably around 3 hours and 30 minutes. If I removed all the dialogue from both D-Mods, they both would end up being about 2 hours and 15 minutes. So yeah, Malachi takes longer, but when you remove the dialogue, FoT has just the same amount of quest solving, world exploration, story progressing and time where you can actually play.