I'm going to preface this by saying that I shouldn't have said anything and just let play out as usual. Also knowing that the same argument happens endlessly without anybody changing their mind doesn't help either.
Anyway,
Neverwinter Nights?
I don't don't think RPGs and mmos could actually get shorter, or have any reason to if they're up to snuff. As far as MMOs go they're typically investments of hundreds of hours and fuck, we're still all playing WoW to this day, so there's no doubt there's enough content in those. As for RPGs well I guess there's a lot of increasing demand for action-rpgs like the Elder Scrolls and Souls series, and people seem content with those particular series. However I don't play much so I can't vouch for that genre, but given the nature of action RPG vs like a JRPG or RPG or whatever the turn based menu based OG RPG is called it's probably more difficult to created more content. I also don't know which era you're defening but it's way easier to make a 2D over world than me please3D environment, if we're talking about way back when.
Roller Coaster Tycoon?
Simulation/sandbox games are designed for endless replay then and now, I don't see how anything is different in the genre, but I get the impression you used the example to be compared to games outside the genre. If anything you could probably get more hours out of newer games of this type than before since you prolly have more tools and shit to use
Half-Life?
Okay, I will admit that shooters are usually the genre where this kind of attitude is warranted. Maybe I'm just salty from playing Army of Two:Devils Cartel but sometimes you don't get all that much content with a game.
Okay, what was the norm? Every shooter from that era had roughly an eight hour campaign.
Well it probably was still that long though. And of course that's just one game. As much shit as COD gets this newest one had the best looking cut scenes I've ever seen on last gen, and its still putting out an equivalent if not better multiplayer experience as the old ones.
But for the most part you get BioShock sometimes, and sometimes you get Master Chief Collection. Sometimes they go way above and beyond the standards and sometimes they suck dick, but my probably biased view is that if there's anywhere to jerk off on a game and cut corners its prolly shooters
My friends and I poured days into competitive shooters.
My personal favorite kind of games are competitive, and not much needs to be said. As long as there's a multiplayer fanbase they could go forever. Since they only need a relatively low amount of content but just need replayability modern games usually take the edge in having more content. Plus the infrastructure for these games are better with some being esports they'll have players on them for ages.
If I'm cherry picking, then there should be an overwhelming number of counter examples to the three I mentioned, right? So what are they? What was the norm of the time?
I-I could have just cherry picked back? Why did I type this all help me