Adventure Games - What are they?

Gravity · Sat 24/01/2009 01:14:08

I was online the other day having a conversation with a group of people, most of whom were still in their teens. We got on the topic of games and as they listed off their most favorite games and the like, both old and new, I realized that the games they considered old were from early 2000 at best. So I asked them: Do you have a favorite adventure game? To my shock they asked, "What is an adventure game?".

I know adventure games do not have the fan base like the use to have. It is a very niche genre as of late. But I was still surprised that there are gamers out there who have not even heard of an adventure game. The group of teenagers I conversed with thought an adventure game was, well I don't really want to repeat what they thought they were.

It got me thinking, is there more we can do to educate, if you will, the younger generations on the joys of adventure games? I'm not talking about some of the more modernized adventure games either, filled with eye candy galore and missing the finer points of what adventure games have such as good characters, stories, challenging puzzles that required more than just pixel hunting, and the like.

Are we, not just as fans but aspiring developers, doing what we can to help in this matter? You must excuse me, if you will, for the comment I got from that discussion got me thinking and mostly got me remembering the golden years of adventure games. Sometimes fads come back into style and one day I hope this is true for adventure games as well.

Please forgive me if this post is not as structured as I would like. It has been quite some time since I last posted on these forums. Thank you.

- Grav

Stupot · Sat 24/01/2009 02:36:15

I know what you mean, man.
I'm in the first year of uni with a bunch of 18/19 year-olds... most of them are bigger gamers than me... I don't even have a current gen console. They know all about the latest Half-life clones and they've all played GTA4, guitar Hero, Left 4 Dead, and they all own PCs with stupid amounts of RAM and terrabytes worth of disk space for playing the fastest games with the smoothest graphics... I only heard the word 'terrabyte' for the first time about 6 months ago.

Yet, often, whenever I mention the phrase 'Adventure Game', these people will either look at me blankly, or pretend they didn't hear me. Sometimes saying 'Monkey Island' might put things into perspective for them, but that doesn't always work... And if I use the phrase 'point and click' they think I'm talking about Real-Time-Strategy games, which I detest.

Raider · Sat 24/01/2009 04:29:18

This is unfortunate because a great deal of my friends (including myself) grew up on adventure games. We are in that young generation and can't imagine childhood without FoA or MI. I do play a great deal of modern games now but I guess adventure gaming isn't for everyone. I will probably get my kids playing the classics when they are growing up. Better them using logic and intelligence rather than shooting their friends in FPS'. What kind of objective is 'getting the most kills?'

Babar · Sat 24/01/2009 12:18:23

Quote from: Gravity on Sat 24/01/2009 01:14:08
It got me thinking, is there more we can do to educate, if you will, the younger generations on the joys of adventure games? I'm not talking about some of the more modernized adventure games either, filled with eye candy galore and missing the finer points of what adventure games have such as good characters, stories, challenging puzzles that required more than just pixel hunting, and the like.

It is a good question. What IS an adventure game? Is it defined simply as what you said there (good characters, stories and challenging puzzles)? Is the Castle/Island of Dr. Brain an adventure game, then? What about Myst? What about Gobliiins? What if you played the fists path in Indiana Jones & FoA? What about Alone in the Dark? What about Another World or Flashback? Or Psychonauts? Or Deus Ex?

If you ask me, what made adventure games special has been taken and applied to most other types of video games now. Most games attempt to have some semblance of a story now, with some nice, thought-out characters, and they even include a random puzzle here and there to interspace the action.

If you want to create an old-style 'pure'

adventure game for those of us who enjoy non-fastpaced gameplay that concentrates more on story/character building, involved dialogue, puzzles, thinkery and exploration rather than on action, make it yourself, or pitch your idea to some game developer. But be warned, you'd definitely need to have a lot of that eye-candy to make it accessible to most of the public- if that how you want to educate them.

ThreeOhFour · Sat 24/01/2009 12:50:48

Quote from: Babar on Sat 24/01/2009 12:18:23
But be warned, you'd definitely need to have a lot of that eye-candy to make it accessible to most of the public- if that how you want to educate them.

By this, what Babar actually meant to say was to put tons of boobs and explosions in there, and also slow motion action scenes with motion captured stunts.

Hey, it worked for Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy

Akatosh · Sat 24/01/2009 13:47:02

I'm still wondering how that guy managed to sex up the girl despite the fact that he was

Spoiler

clinically dead (and probably part cyborg) by that point.

[close]

ThreeOhFour · Sat 24/01/2009 13:55:35

Quote from: Akatosh on Sat 24/01/2009 13:47:02
I'm still wondering how that guy managed to sex up the girl despite the fact that he was

Spoiler
clinically dead (and probably part cyborg) by that point.
[close]

That was actually my favorite part!

I sat there going:

Spoiler

OMG NECRO LOVE

[close]

AND THEN

Spoiler

he MARRIES her and gets her pregnant, and he knows everything! What a fantastic way to end a game! "I died, but was rebuilt to be a zombie robot and now I know everything and have a family at last!"

[close]

I repeat:

What a fantastic way to end the game

InCreator · Sat 24/01/2009 15:09:40

All gaming magazines predict console games taking over PC gaming, big time.
While consoles being cheaper, not needing upgrading and being generally more comfortable to use, I have a big problem with that.

Point is - consoles do not need brains to use.
Also, nor do games for consoles.

Gaming is getting more and more unintelligent, especially since you cannot control RTS or adventure game or even tycoon-simulation-style game with gamepad, and mice on consoles will never get popular. Also, alternative controllers do not really happen, atleast there's no trace of them.

So, out of 100 new released games, 90 are about shooting and/or killing something (don't believe me? visit new releases list on random gaming site, such as gamespot). Anything requiring more than three brain cells will not happen.

Also, even on PC, Flash has taken over big time, going for handheld'ish simplicity...

That's the curse of consoles.
That's the cause of retardation of games.
That's why - when PC gaming really dies on one sad day, no-one will remember adventure games.

Babar · Sat 24/01/2009 15:23:29

I don't think consoles will eliminate PCs for gaming any time soon, and I'm not just talking about casual gaming (flash?) either. This is for the very reason you pointed out- you can't really upgrade them. If every two or three years the same company releases a newer, next generation of their console, to stay up with games, a person would have to buy them every time. At least with the PC it is standard (until some company comes up with an upgradeable console. That'd be awesome

).

Ghost · Sat 24/01/2009 15:30:51

Quote from: Ben304 on Sat 24/01/2009 12:50:48
By this, what Babar actually meant to say was to put tons of boobs and explosions in there, and also slow motion action scenes with motion captured stunts.

Totally wrong, you need to put in tons of stunts and explosions in there, and also slow motion action scenes with motion captured boobs.

ThreeOhFour · Sat 24/01/2009 15:37:17

Quote from: Ghost on Sat 24/01/2009 15:30:51
Quote from: Ben304 on Sat 24/01/2009 12:50:48
By this, what Babar actually meant to say was to put tons of boobs and explosions in there, and also slow motion action scenes with motion captured stunts.

Totally wrong, you need to put in tons of stunts and explosions in there, and also slow motion action scenes with motion captured boobs.

This here is exactly why I consider you a mentor

I am willing to learn, master!

Ultra Magnus · Sat 24/01/2009 17:12:09

Quote from: Babar on Sat 24/01/2009 15:23:29
If every two or three years the same company releases a newer, next generation of their console, to stay up with games, a person would have to buy them every time.

"A console costs $300-400 dollars and is good for 5 years, more or less. (Much more, in the case of PS2.) A gaming PC costs over a thousand and you start to have trouble keeping up with new games after about a year, barring constant hardware updates."
- Why PC games no longer sell

Babar · Sat 24/01/2009 17:18:19

Yes, but there are no more games being made for my SNES. Or my Sega. Or even any good ones for the PS or PS2, really. Or the Gamecube.

Ultra Magnus · Sat 24/01/2009 17:26:45

Quote from: Babar on Sat 24/01/2009 17:18:19
Yes, but there are no more games being made for my SNES. Or my Sega.

And there are also no more games being made that'll run on a 16kb machine with a 5Â¼ floppy drive.

Quote from: Babar on Sat 24/01/2009 17:18:19
Or even any good ones for the PS or PS2, really.

Whether they're any good or not is entirely subjective.
You could also claim that there are no good games that will run on a 5 year old PC.

I just don't see the distinction between upgrading everything in a PC but the tower, and getting a whole new machine.

Anteater · Sat 24/01/2009 17:32:35

QuoteYes, but there are no more games being made for my SNES. Or my Sega.

Actually, a Genesis game was released in 2006.
Furthermore, people play adventure games all the time. Metroid and Zelda are examples of this. Sure, they're not point-and-click, but they still meet the basic description of an adventure game. The problem is that people don't even think of them as adventure games, they think of them as shooters and RPGs, respectively. Most people seem to think that any "adventure game" is a Myst clone.

Gilbert · Sat 24/01/2009 18:13:46

Quote from: Anteater on Sat 24/01/2009 17:32:35
Actually, a Genesis game was released in 2006.

Actually, in some way I was a bit related to the team who released this game.

Gravity · Sat 24/01/2009 19:24:43

There are many games not classified as adventure games that still have many adventure game like features. Truth be told, out of all these new games (while some are quite enjoyable) I am still drawn to games produced in the 1980's and 90's. Some of my favorite games are dos related. Few games today can combine all the elements into one making a good, re-playable game. Take Fallout 3 for example. Though primarily a shooter/rpg it is very much like an adventure game to a point. There are many examples and not enough time to go into details on each and everyone.

Adventure Games do not need the latest graphics incorporated into them. Warranted that many people these days are put off by any game that does not have the latest and greatest graphics even if the game play consists of nothing more than killing and blowing things up. Don't get me wrong, I love taking a hour or so break and just having a blast but I miss games that require thinking as well.

Mass Effect, while some hate it and others love it, did an overall if not cliched job. Believable characters with a good amount of dialogue. It was not, however, a true adventure game. But I still enjoyed it.

To understand the future you must understand the past, or something like that. I'm not saying adventure games must return to their roots but build on the foundation from which they began. I will play a game even if it has a few static images and nothing but stats as long as it is fun.

I, however, can not comment as far as the devolopment aspects go. I first discovered Ags back when it was Ac and only four or five people were registered on the forums. It has been ten years (or has it been longer) since that day and I've not made one single game using the program.

Games these days, sadly enough, are marketing tools used for profit. Few companies make games (big time companies anyway) that make the game because they want to and think it will be fun instead of just pushing out the next title for that extra $50 or more dollars.

I think that a good many gamers these days have simply lost their ability to sit through a game that requires a lot of reading and thinking. Sure there are strategy games among other genres that require some thought to complete but it is different for me. Out of all the game genres I never get that same sense of accomplishment from beating them as I did with a really good adventure game. Could just be me. Peace.

- Grav

InCreator · Sat 24/01/2009 19:50:13

Time's best thing to prove my point. Come back to this thread after a year.

Pumaman · Sat 24/01/2009 20:06:52

Quote from: Stupot on Sat 24/01/2009 02:36:15
I'm in the first year of uni with a bunch of 18/19 year-olds... most of them are bigger gamers than me... I don't even have a current gen console. They know all about the latest Half-life clones and they've all played GTA4, guitar Hero, Left 4 Dead, and they all own PCs with stupid amounts of RAM and terrabytes worth of disk space for playing the fastest games with the smoothest graphics... I only heard the word 'terrabyte' for the first time about 6 months ago.

Yet, often, whenever I mention the phrase 'Adventure Game', these people will either look at me blankly, or pretend they didn't hear me. Sometimes saying 'Monkey Island' might put things into perspective for them, but that doesn't always work... And if I use the phrase 'point and click' they think I'm talking about Real-Time-Strategy games, which I detest.

But the thing is, the only reason that most of us got into adventure games is that they were the "in thing" when we were kids. If I was 10 years younger, I'd have probably grown up playing games like Quake and Halo, and I wouldn't really be interested in some quaint "adventure game".

Trying to explain the virtues of adventure games to teenagers nowadays is like trying to convince them that it's cool to wear flares, and that the Pet Shop Boys and Michael Jackson are the sort of music they should be listening to ... you just look old and out of touch. Times move on, but we don't have to!

TheJBurger · Sat 24/01/2009 20:57:06

I was actually surprised at the number of people who knew about old adventure games when the subject of game-making came up. I mean, since I automatically expect no one in this modern age of gaming to have heard of them.

Somehow, someone once asked me "You made a video game?" and "What kind?" Then I start talking about some extinct genre called "point n' click adventures." I've been thrown back more positive responses than I've ever expected, as it turns out quite a few people have actually played games like Fate of Atlantis, or one of the Monkey Islands, even if the fanbase isn't that active.

But then again these were like 20-24 year olds.