Rise of the Argonauts - Preview @ Eurogamer

"What RPG fans really want" seems to be the theme of Eurogamer's preview of Rise of the Argonauts, which features input from lead Charley Price.  Here's the intro:

What do RPG fans want? Rise of the Argonauts' lead designer Charley Price believes they want a strong, customisable character with choices to make. And beyond that, it should be simple. Price says he's been busy "discarding the baggage of Dungeons & Dragons" for Argonauts - due out on PC, PS3 and 360 later this year - because it's laborious and repetitive. There's no juggling inventory items, no health or mana bars, no levelling up, XP or grind, and menus are few. This is a third-person action-RPG built on Unreal Engine 3. And Argonauts doesn't stop at reinterpreting the genre; it also wants to resurrect Ancient Greece.

They also have another piece with an excerpt from Charley, who claims gamers really want shorter play times:

"Every time someone invests 25 hours of their life into a game and then realises there's another 75 hours to go, they just can't stomach continuing and they walk away with a sour taste in their mouth - no matter how much fun they had with the game.

"They need to be doing something achievable with the end in sight; people's expectations are evolving for what they want to get from the experience," he added.