Roleplaying lenght: should you have an end in sight?

I was watching something crappy on my tv today while eating reheated pizza and the premise was interesting, an space crew that does a blind jump into space after some pirates begin shooting to their vessel they make a hyper jump and land into the unknown.

As I watched however I was uncertain if I was watching a cheap sci-fi movie or a cheap sci-fi pilot for a series since the concept could be fitted into a mini series.

That got me thinking about roleplays, sometimes a short well played movie with an interesting concept is better than a long dragged surprise that gets old, I recall that for example zombie land was supposed to be a series but ended up as a movie, lets check the walking dead I have heard several complains that it drags and it hurts.

Why is this? budget mostly, George R.R. Martin the author of a song of ice and fire said that in his time as screenwriter of the twilight zone he was frustrated by how many times the "budget" would limit him, which is why on the books he went absolutely epic with armies and flames and blood (yet in the series... well what comes around goes around).

We as RPers are not bound by budget (i would hope) so I have to ask, the media, be it books, series and hell even videogames have to at times convey a message, it can be something like humans are bastards or perhaps a critique about the corrupting nature of power.

As an RPer, more specifically a GM you have to ask, do I want to have fun or be more artistically and convey a message?

Which leads us to the next part of my question, should Roleplays be made with an end on sight? an ending provides the plot with a direction were the crew wants to struggle to get towards, right now I am active on two roleplays one is struggling because we don't really know where we are going and the other in which I am GM has a clear and definitive end.

Roleplays however in my experience are like videogames, they are entertainment, they don't need to carry out a critique or a lesson they just need to be fun and eliminate my boredom, then why should it have an end? should we not seek to keep on going and going and going, or perhaps would this lessen the impact of it all?

I want to know your opinions on this, do you rather have a clear, 10 pages or so RP that finishes or have a +60 pages long RP that does not seem to have an end on sight?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/vYzkWwcnaYc/viewtopic.php

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