Why do games take so long to start up?

[JirinPanthosa]

In my opinion, you should see something resembling a game's core gameplay within five minutes of turning on a new game.

Instead, we get hour long story sequences to start the game, or we get tutorial sequences like in Assassin's Creed 3 where you're not doing a whole lot except following a single path laid out for you. In the extreme example, Final Fantasy XIII, it takes several hours before the combat looks anything remotely like the main combat of the game.

Are game developers missing the point of gaming? It's great to have a game with a great plot, but shouldn't story be secondary to gameplay? And shouldn't gameplay be learned by exploring the system yourself, rather than starting out with no options then being led around by the nose as it's gradually opened up to you? Do game developers just have a low opinion of gamers now, thinking they can't figure out the mechanics by trial and error like they used to?

[Kelthaz]

Ah, that's modern gaming for you. Yeah, so you might be interested in this video by Egoraptor that covers pretty much all the points that you brought up. Take a look.