12 years. That's 4380 days and that's 105120 hours... Wasted on a first-person shooter.
This list is still pretty, hm, amazing to look at even though it hasn't been updated for over a year. Among other things let's look at other games.
During this time Valve (Gearbox for OF and BS) released:
Half-Life
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
The entire Half-Life franchise...
Blizzard released:
StarCraft
StarCraft: Brood War
Diablo 2
Diablo 2: Lordd of Destruction
WarCraft 3: Reign of Chaos
WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne
World of WarCraft
World of WarCraft: The Burning Crusade
World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King
GSC Game World released:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
and the next title is coming soon. Not many but it's worth mentioning due to problematic development by an inexperienced team of an open-ended shooter with RPG elements, experimentational AI system, building the entire engine from scratch along with physics engine and a major upgrade to dx9.
BioWare (Obsidian Entertaiment for NWN2 and KotOR2) released:
Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide
Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of Underdark
Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker
Neverwinter Nights 2
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of Betrayer
Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir
Neverwinter Nights 2: Msyteries of Westgate
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
Jade Empire
Mass Effect
All of them are lenghty RPGs.
The entire Fallout series have been released during that time:
Fallout
Fallout 2
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout 3
Again, all of them are lenghty RPGs (with a slight expection of Tactics as far as I know)
Bethesda released:
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal
The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine
The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles
Another set of RPGs.
We could go on like this forever. Add every Unreal, every Quake (except for the first one), every Thief, both DX, every Tony Hawk, every Metal Gear Solid, every 3D Prince of Persia (5 games), every Halo (3 games, expansion coming this year)...
And during this entire time 3DR are developing ONE, linear, 10h or so first-person shooter.