Cakebatter
All Star
I agree with you. I was referring more to replayability. If you choose a game you played for 25 hours as your favorite over a game you played for 50 hours, I wouldn't question that. Its when you are playing a game 10x more hours that it becomes a "Stop the Cap" moment. There was a ton of content in Elden Ring, but we see a ton of folks online raking up hours just replaying the same boss fights with different builds. That's not due to filler by the developer. There use to be a time in gaming when replayability was a major factor in game review scores.I don't think time spent on a game means it was more enjoyable than a shorter game. A game can be long as hell and entertaining enough to complete it, but still not be among your favorite games.
One of my favorite games ever is super metroid, which is a pretty short game. Compare it to something like fallout 4 where I spent atleast 100 hours in and I feel like that game is mid.