Intrepid Homoludens

Evidently those people have never experienced picking up a stunning stranger at a bar and ending up with a dud in bed and regretting not chatting up instead the average looking stranger who licked their martini glass oh soooo suggestively. Ask Marek. He's the one who wants to commit obscenities with it, bless him.

You know, for all this talk about Doom 3 and it's grandmother's dog being graphically superior to Half-Life 2 (I agree, but only on D3's technical merits), I still will shell out my $50 for HL2 over Doom 3 anytime. And it's because, at least based on my experience of the first HL, I think I'd feel so much more involved in the HL universe. The experience, I predict, will feel more integrated and consuming.

I was burned by a fellow gamer at another forum, she accused me of not having my heart in adventure games just because I also play games from genres other than adventure, because I hadn't played nowhere near as many adventures as she, and because I'm lamenting on the lack of progression and forward thinking in the adventure game. This may sound condescending, but I truly feel sorry for those hardcore adventure gamers who insist on their games being only this (2D, point-&-click) or that (slider puzzles, cartoony, Myst style), or declaring audibly and proudly that the new batch of games don't interest them and howling over the fact that Lucas Arts and Sierra had abandoned them forever. Hers was a hurtful remark, I guess I deserved it, being angry and defensive. But I was also frustrated, I only wanted what was best for the genre in the end so that it would have a fighting chance and maybe even puncture the mainstream market saturated with too many sports games, platformers, and fist person shooters. Gabriel Knight 3, Silent Hill. Gabriel Knight 3 will always sit deep in my heart. It was my introduction to the adventure game. Yet my foray was late, the tail end of the tail end of the genre's so called 'golden age'. Growing up on Pacman, Tempest, and Space Armada, I moved on and realized I wanted games where my [main] motivation to win was the story, not the highest score or fastest time (although I like that too sometimes). It was the story and characters that drove me when I played Silent Hill on my old Playstation - not arcade at all, but an exquisitely crafted adventure with an obscure but compelling story, and characters I actually cared about, and even one who I cried over. Innocently I thought that GK3 was indicative of the the genre's quality and vision. But based on the reviews, demos, and some actual titles bought, I was wrong. In a sense, I was spared the fall. I was absent during the genre's golden age, and appeared during its hibernation, and am now awaiting its possible renaissance. I didn't know you're supposed to pledge allegiance to the adventure game, as that hurtful fellow gamer insinuated. But I couldn't pledge. Not while there are games in other genres exploring traditional adventure cornerstones and even transcending them through innovative design and scope and even theme. I cried like no pure adventure game ever made me when I watched the ending to Silent Hill 2 (the water ending), with its tale of self denial, faith, guilt, and failed redemption. No adventure game had ever touched me that way, and I may be wrong, but I can't imagine a typical adventure delving into such treacherous emotional terrain so bravely. I teared up at key moments in Beyond Good & Evil, even fantasized about living the kind of life the main character, Jade, lives. Beyond Good & Evil, Fable. They say the magic is gone from the adventure game genre. I think they're right. The magic really has gone. It's gone over to the games in other genres. It's gone and manifested itself in the heartwrenching story in Silent Hill 2. It's gone and breathed life into the tragic character of Isako in No One Lives Forever 2. It's gone and entered and populated the world of Jade in Beyond Good & Evil. It's gone to colour and enliven the universes of Psychonauts and Fable, and other upcoming games. And yet, my devotion to the adventure genre stays firm. With upcoming progressive titles like Dreamfall, Facade, and Fahrenheit, and even the classically conservative Still Life and A Vampyre Story, the genre is far from dead. The magic is gone, but that only clears the way for perhaps a new kind of magic, that of innovation, diversification, and rebirth in a new form. Why not? I welcome it, and I would never snub anyone whose heart is not entirely in it. Truth is, my own heart never really abandoned it, instead my heart spread out and followed the essence of adventure to the other genres that welcomed it, ironically, as a way to enrich and progress their own games. So I ask you, is my heart not in it, then?

And I'm just an old queen.

Ummm....yeah .... . I say that puzzles are among the most important parts of the gameplay, but not necessarily constitute all of the gameplay. You could take the puzzles out and replace them with other challenges, like quests or clue hunting. The upcoming game Facade will not have any bona fide puzzles at all (no mechanical enigmas, no inventory problems, no combining things with other things). Instead, the story itself will be the actual puzzle, as you must figure out how not to ruin an otherwise pleasant evening with two good friends. But I may have some clue as to what you're getting at further. Based on my discussions with other adventure gamers, there seems to be this unwritten consensus that gameplay in an adventure game should only consist of puzzlework. This of course presents potential barriers against possibly experiencing a game and story from an entirely new angle. And this is when it can get tiresome for someone looking for a fresh thing (such as myself), but this is the typical formulaic approach most adventure games take. I have yet to see a new adventure game that breaks this cycle while avoiding the cliche of incorporating the conventional 'new and exciting' features from other genres (like action elements, stealth, and real time 3D). This is where the true innovation may lie for the adventure game, to stake its identity as such and still forge ahead.

Looks like you've finally been replaced, Marek.

Sounds just like Los Angeles.

Cate Blanchett modelling for Dona Karan's advertising campaign, Fall 2004. .... And Anjelica Houston's in it, too! She rocks! And they played New Order's Ceremony, I love that! This movie's gonna be fun.

I have to really disagree with you here, Farbror. You have to admit that puzzles are a great chunk of the pleasure of adventure games. You have a point that the story can be a reward for solving them, but that doesn't necessarily mean the whole equation. According to Jake a puzzle that's too easy (find locked door + talk to man + man give key + unlock door, or something like that) dilutes the potential essence of what a game is supposed to be. I say it kills the game but maintains interactivity. The puzzles put the 'game' in the adventure game. Otherwise you'll just be clicking to get the next plot. But as it stands you are expected to work for the next plot. And that's where the great chunk of the fun lies - accomplishment, reward, progress. This is exactly the basic formula that a game like Myst uses, although the emphasis is clearly on the challenges themselves (puzzles); notably the actual reward isn't so much more story, but more puzzles, with the story itself as simply a bonus reward. Myst is a series of puzzles connected by a story, not a story connected by a series of puzzles. The puzzles in Myst were the stars of the show, with the story being the supporting cast. Syberia, on the other hand, used the story as primary reward for solving its puzzles, a greater emphasis was placed on the immediacy of the narrative - you want to solve the puzzles to see what happens next. But that didn't necessarily weaken the puzzles themselves as sources of enjoyment in and of themselves, merely that the story was imbued with more value as reward for solving them.

I agree! Kingzlebub, do something!

Oh my. An environmentally correct action game starring an intelligent fish that can solve puzzles?

Oh WOW, Marek! That is so damn cute! What is it called? Does it eat much? What kind of sound does it make? Would I be able to ride it? It looks friendly. Is it fully grown? Where does it come from? Is it Kingz-proof? It looks smooth and not furry. How fast does it run? Can it be trained? How big is it? What does it eat? It looks like it would taste like a lime popsicle if I licked it. Would it make a good pet? Where can I get one?

He'll be so alive and kicking when he arrives. Of course, I can't guarantee your fridge will stay full with him around. Oh, and he likes being coddled and bedtime stories (Beowulf and a re-enactment of Das Rheingold). I included a cattle prod for when he gets cranky.

Some people will not want to understand and I'll be lynched anyway regardless. Because my 'heart is not in it'.

.... [sends a note to Erwin's boss to check the mail]

.... [sends a very naked Kingz wearing a Freud mask to Erwin's house by FedEx express]

Ummm....The Longest Journey?

[imagines Marek being chased by a wasp] Oh! AH YEAH! Good times, indeed!! Hey watch it, bitch! I resemble that remark. Skinny and stealthy, man. You just wait. You have NO idea how big a favour you're doing me.

Market's not there anymore. Now the next wave (if you can call it that) of adventure games will be mostly from Europe.

BITE ME!

Somehow I think that wouldn't make for salably attractive box art.

Enough with this rampant lewdness already!

I'm gonna go on AIM and kick your candy ass!!!