Adventure Games, A Dying Genre

> So the question remains -- which came first, the idea for the game or the idea for the movie?

The Dig was written and developed by Sean Clark, based on an idea by Steven Spielberg. The legendary filmmaker conceived The Dig as a story combining two classic films, Treasure of the SierraMadre and Forbidden Planet. While several creative venues were considered for The Dig--including film and television--Spielberg decided it would work best as a multimedia adventure game. Naturally, he turned to LucasArts to bring his idea to life. (dig.mixnmojo.com)

Actually, a really cool, detailed, account of the game's history can be found here; http://dig.mixnmojo.com/makingof.php



Looking forward to booting it up tonight.

 

I think that the reason that there are so few adventure games today is because of the internet. I remember playing games Fate of Atlantis or Quest for Glory for months! I would get stuck on a part and try EVERYTHING I could do to get by it. Nowadays if I get stuck in almost any genre of game, I stumble around for a little while before getting frustrated and giving in and before I know it I find myself at gamefaqs.com.

Adventure games require you to think. You had to use your brain to get past challenges, not just mash buttons a little to defeat a difficult boss or run around a little while and collect more ammo. Now, that the internet is here to answer all of our questions, games that would take weeks to play can be completed in a matter of hours.

Granted, it may just be that I'v grown up and gotten smarter. I did beat Full Throttle in under 12 hours the first time I played it, and that includes the time I took getting a full nights sleep. Nowadays so called "adventure games" are nothing more than some sort of action game with a plot. The days of the adventure game golden age in the early 90's is gone. Adventure series have had to change with the times. Does anyone remember the last Kings Quest game? *shudders* I'm worried that Full Throttle 2 will focus more on action than on the puzzle solving like the adventure games of yore.

The only true adventure game that i've played in the last few years (and actually enjoyed) was The Longest Journey. Great characters, beautiful backgrounds, and an intersting plot (something that game developers seem to forget sometimes, but thats a whole nother rant all together).

Sorry if this is a drawn out rant but this is a subject that is very dear to my heart. Adventure games were what got me into video games in the first place. I never owned a NES but I did have a computer. Sierra and Lucasarts changed everything for me. With Sierra abandoning the cause it's up to you Lucasarts! There are new companies though to take up the torch. I forget who made Longest Journey but they should keep up the work. Ok, I'm done now, I'll just end with this: Here's to hoping for Monkey Island 5 in the near future. (And please, no monkey combat)

 

Good point regarding giving in & using the internet.

I remember playing Zork on the AT's at high-school, and we'd al get stuck - eventually someone would figure out to type ECHO in the loud room and everyone would move forward. (Curse the guy who told me to KICK THE BUCKET, though) to the next stumper of a puzzle (the hot air balloon was a killer).

And similarly for Monkey Island 2, about 4 or 5 of us had that game in my University class, and we'd discuss where we were stuck, and someone would have figured to put the painting on the wanted poster, and soon enough more progress would be made by all.

These days, though, yes, any puzzle can be solved in seconds via that evil temptation of the internet.

Maybe we need an internet petition to have the WWW closed down?

 

Yes! The picture on the wanted poster in MI2 stumped me FOREVER! In fact, I actually called the LucasArts Hint Line for that one. Thats another question? Do hint lines even exist anymore? I can't imagine anyone would call them when you can just go on the net.

 

The Dig use't to scare me..... hey I was only 7 when i started to play it!

 

A Dying Genre!? NO!

Forcebewitya!

 

Awesome interview with Tim Shafer (Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, DOTT, Full Throttle etc).

http://gamestudies.org/0301/pearce/

(Thanks mixnmojo.com, for the tipoff)