Would you play a video game for 500 hours?

Modern video games boast longer and longer playtimes - but does the idea of spending hundreds of hours on a game make you feel excited, or exhausted?

In the winter of 1996, I almost lost my job because of the acclaimed management sim Civilization II. I was supposed to be reviewing it for the video game magazine Edge, where I was a fledgling staff writer. But I got so hooked, playing it was all I did for three weeks. During that period I ate, slept and drank Civilization II. At the end, I handed in my extremely thorough two-page review: the only thing I had submitted for the entire issue. I was supposed to be writing 25 pages a month. My editor was ... displeased.

On Saturday evening, video game publisher Techland proudly tweeted that if players hoped to fully complete its forthcoming apocalyptic adventure Dying Light 2, they would need around 500 hours - almost as long as it would take you to walk from Warsaw to Madrid". The message immediately provoked a storm of controversy. Many respondents were critical, complaining that there wasn't a chance they'd be able to find enough time for such a challenge. Writer Andy Kelly summed up it up by tweeting: How not to market a game to anyone over 30 years old."