With a single-player campaign clocking in at around six hours, fans of the first Modern Warfare were left craving more, a sensation likely to be felt again at the end of Modern Warfare 2.

Buried beneath all the glowing praise, the first game was criticized for the brevity of its single-player campaign, a concern that has carried over to the much-anticipated sequel. And though Modern Warfare 2 is expected to be slightly longer, developer Infinity Ward is already defending its creative process, saying that “the story dictates how long the game is” and not the demands of the players.

“We never go into development saying ‘We’re going to make a 20 hour game because people want a 20 hour game’ – we want to deliver an intense experience where you walk away and go ‘wow, I want to play more,’” said Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling, responding to campaign concerns in an interview with IGN.

“It’s okay for you to want to play more of something – that’s a good thing,” he added, “And then you’ve got all these other modes. You might love the story, it left you wanting more but that’s great but jump into the multiplayer and 14 million people have been playing it for two years straight. That’s a long game, no matter how you look at it.”

Personally, I didn’t have a problem with the length of Modern Warfare’s single-player campaign, as what it lacked it length it more than made up for in quality and intensity.