Text or graphic adventure?

Steel Drummer · Tue 08/08/2006 04:13:58

I'm just saying that even though people don't agree with my dislike of text games, they can at least respect my opinion. Now let's get back on topic, shall we? Oh, by the way MrCollossal, the homosexual thing was in a thread way back called Bone: Out From Boneville in the general discussion. Pretty obscure, eh? A thread about a game I was trying to make (until it was criticized by 75% of everyone) turns into a thread about homosexuals, racism, sexism, etc.

Quote from: Ghormak on Tue 08/08/2006 00:33:41
It's not you, it's what you write.

Well, what did I write wrong in the thread for my new in production game, David Smith: Private Investigator? Most people ignored that. Heck, I doubt anyone that has posted in this thread has even heard of it. Sorry for rambling.

Pesty · Tue 08/08/2006 05:41:34

Quote from: Yoda Man on Tue 08/08/2006 04:13:58
Well, what did I write wrong in the thread for my new in production game, David Smith: Private Investigator? Most people ignored that. Heck, I doubt anyone that has posted in this thread has even heard of it. Sorry for rambling.

Now that we've pinpointed the real problem here, maybe you should get over yourself, stop bitching about text adventures without giving a reasonable argument against them and work on your game. People pay more attention to released games than GIP threads because 90% of the games posted in the GIP forum are forgotten and abandoned by their creator.

Steel Drummer · Tue 08/08/2006 05:52:06

Fine, maybe I will, gosh! :

Helm · Tue 08/08/2006 07:41:30

Don't roll your eyes at me young man!

Ali · Tue 08/08/2006 10:22:33

Quote from: Yoda Man on Tue 08/08/2006 04:13:58
I'm just saying that even though people don't agree with my dislike of text games, they can at least respect my opinion. Now let's get back on topic, shall we?

Okay, but the problem with this potential interesting topic is that you've asked which is better, text adventure or graphical adventure. You might have well have asked: 'novels or theatre - which is best?'

It doesn't matter which medium is 'best' it would be far more interesting to identify the most enjoyable characteristics of both text and graphical adventures.

This would also mean you justifying your dislike of text adventures. You can't rightly ask 'so what if I don't like text adventures?' in a debate you started about IF and graphical adventures.

MarkPhantom · Tue 08/08/2006 12:22:36

Both of them have their pros and cons, and even though I was brought up on Grahpics adventures (sweet Monkey Island) I have enjoyed IF games also. Even if I do get lost all the time.

Steel Drummer · Tue 08/08/2006 15:04:33

One other thing I hate about text games is that for the most part you have to type in a specific thing. Pick up or take, anyone?

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Tue 08/08/2006 15:08:19

I dunno, in games like Gateway II you can use the mouse to string together sentences rather than type them in. I find this approach better since you know exactly what verbs are available.

Ali · Tue 08/08/2006 15:11:51

Quote from: Yoda Man on Tue 08/08/2006 15:04:33
One other thing I hate about text games is that for the most part you have to type in a specific thing. Pick up or take, anyone?

I can't think of a IF game that didn't consider 'pick up' 'take' and 'get' to be synonyms. I'm glad you're supporting your objections to text adventures, but I'm not sure that's fair.

You might as well argue that graphical adventures are bad because the characters walk too slowly. Occasionally they do, but not often.

Radiant · Tue 08/08/2006 15:34:00

Quote from: Yoda Man on Tue 08/08/2006 15:04:33
One other thing I hate about text games is that for the most part you have to type in a specific thing. Pick up or take, anyone?

It is ironic how most people who, for whatever personal reason, do not like text adventures, feel the need to 'substantiate' their opinion by resorting to this old chestnut, which is an extreme exaggeration at best. It's like saying you hate graphical adventure games because each and every one of them requires excessive pixel hunting in every single room.

It seems that most people who don't like text parsers have never played any parser game except something extremely amateurish and/or any Sierra game (all of which admittedly have a mediocre parser at best), or played such games when they were too young and unskilled in English, and blame the text parser for not understanding them. Anyone who has played just a single Infocommie or Legend game, or even The Hobbit, would know how versatile a good parser is, and how many synonyms and lexical constructs it understands.

Like I said earlier today, don't go bashing text parsers if you haven't played a game with a good parser (which indeed are plentiful, and have been for over a decade).

Steel Drummer · Tue 08/08/2006 16:36:47

Quote from: ProgZmax on Tue 08/08/2006 15:08:19
I dunno, in games like Gateway II you can use the mouse to string together sentences rather than type them in. I find this approach better since you know exactly what verbs are available.

Yeah, but Gateway 2's a graphic adventure game. Radiant: I'm not bashing text parsers, I'm bashing the whole genre.

And I'm not bashing it for it's word recognition, I just don't prefer the genre.

It seems like most of your favour text adventures- why is that?

Radiant · Tue 08/08/2006 17:16:04

Quote from: Yoda Man on Tue 08/08/2006 16:36:47
It seems like most of your favour text adventures- why is that?

Fast gameplay. Better puzzles. Creative approaches. Versatility.

Likely the same reason people still read books when there are movies out there - an evocative description can often set the mood better than graphics. For instance, a theme of 'desolation' is easier to convey in words than pictures, and requiring the player to click the eye cursor around to find the words just isn't the same.

Helm · Tue 08/08/2006 17:34:31

Gateway is IF through and through. Just 'cause you see graphics on the screen doesn't make it a pointless clickery game.

MarkPhantom · Tue 08/08/2006 17:37:45

Before this reaches a head, let's not forget graphic aventures are good too. IF adventures are still excellent though. I just wanted to point that out. The natural advantages of a graphic adventures are that it allows for a more cinematic style - problem is, this style isn't always what people want to see...so here we have the endlessly circular debate.

Helm · Tue 08/08/2006 17:43:50

I don't see any circular debate. I see some users pushing ignorant opinions. I respect both good graphical adventure games, and good IF. Most should be able to also if they give either a decent chance.

Steel Drummer · Tue 08/08/2006 17:48:01

Then why do most of you who try to make games make graphic adventure games, not IF?

Helm · Tue 08/08/2006 18:00:16

Because we like graphic adventure games and do not see any ridiculous, arbitrary competition between the two schools of adventure games?

scotch · Tue 08/08/2006 18:07:44

Also, a lot of us have tried to make IF games at one time or another. It's very difficult if you aren't a confident writer, and we mostly give up when we read over our own stuff.

Gilbert · Tue 08/08/2006 18:10:26

Furthermore, this is called AGS forums, there'll be no surprised that there're more talks about graphical adventure games here, as that's what AGS was designed mainly to create.
There's certainly no point to argue which is better, each of which certainly has its own charm and unique characteristics which the other may not be able to ~~fake~~ beat.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Tue 08/08/2006 19:12:01

At this point I'd just like to plug my new project, which will probably never be finished anyway - an original story which some people know about, being done because I found I have a story to tell... and also to showcase the engine/template I've been working on, a sort of Gateway template. It also relieves me from the constraint of not being an artist, and still allowing it not to hurt me... AND to still use AGS. BTW, building a decent parser that even accepts pronouns (it, he, she, them) and "all" wasn't all that hard. AGS is truly magnificent.

Why am I saying this?

QuoteThen why do most of you who try to make games make graphic adventure games, not IF?

Some of us try to. And some of us try to use AGS to do it. I'm certainly not the first person to, someone else made an IF demo game a long time ago (I think it's in Bycycle for Slugs...), and since then Bernie has also started on a similar project...