Valve has posted their data on how Half-Life 2: Episode Two is played. (Data collection quite reminiscent of Microsoft’s work on Halo 3.)
Excerpt:
- Average session time: 0h 27m
- Average total playtime: 4h 41m
- Average completion time : 6h 11m
This is wonderful because, hey, we actually had no idea what those numbers would be.
The one number they don’t write is what percentage of players completed the game? If we for a moment boldly assume that the majority of players got the game around launch and will not get any further, the bottom graph indicates that the number is <45%. Which means that … the most common experience of playing HL2EP2 is that of not finishing it.
That is a bit of a guess, of course. We would need to see what the data looks like in 6 months to know a more final figure.
Also interesting, data on where people die on specific levels (marked in blue):
That heat map at the end was really beautiful, lets hear it for Darius K, bringing these kind of metrics to the indie masses!
those are great stats, here is a Half Life 2 graffiti tag you might like
http://playingwithpower.com/2008/01/15/half-live-2-logo-tagged-on-bike-path.aspx