No Man’s Sky is out on August 9, just a few days from now, and a few copies of the game have already leaked out. In one of those, rumor has it, a player was able to accomplish the game’s ultimate and ostensible goal—reaching the center of the galaxy—in just 30 hours. Some people fretted that such a thing could be accomplished in a game of eighteen quintillion planets. But fret not. That’s the way it should be. It is entirely acceptable that you can get to the center of No Man’s Sky in that length of time… not that you will.

No Man’s Sky Length: It’s More Than 30, But 30 Is Enough

The very first civilian to get his hands on No Man’s Sky has already beaten the game, to the extent that you can beat it. This player has gotten to the center of the galaxy, and it took 30 hours. But first off, that was an unusual circumstance—as Polygon lays out in detail, the player admittedly discovered a way to get lots of cash easily, and used it to upgrade the ship’s warp drive to very high levels quickly and skip over big swathes of the area leading to the galactic center. It wasn’t an exploit, exactly, just a clever way to quickly finish the game, but it’s not the normal mode of play. The player discovered a cool way to make money quickly, and used it.

But here’s the thing: That’s exactly how a game like No Man’s Sky should work. Think about Minecraft. If you want and you know what you’re doing, you can start a fresh game of Minecraft and kill the Ender Dragon in maybe a dozen hours—or a lot faster, if you’re good at it. Get some stone, get some iron, get some diamond, get some obsidian; kill some blazes, get some eyes of Ender, find the portal with Ender pearls, and kill that guy. If that’s your one goal, you can do it quickly.

But games like Minecraft and No Man’s Sky aren’t about chasing the end quickly. The real goal of No Man’s Sky is what you make of it: Whether it’s to explore the galaxy, learn about other factions, make yourself a fortune, or find the center of the galaxy or some combination… it’s all up to you. Beating the Ender Dragon is ostensibly the end of Minecraft, but it’s not why most people play. It probably won’t be for No Man’s Sky either. And in that context, 30 hours is an entirely respectable amount of time to “beat” the game, if that’s what you direct yourself at entirely. And some players will do that, and that’s okay, if that’s their goal.

Ultimately, it’s not the length of the journey that matters. It’s about the journey, not the destination. It’s the ultimate cliché, but it’s true in No Man’s Sky. The center of the galaxy is just the beginning.