[Intrepid Homoludens]

Maybe it's just that many adventure games, commercial and underground, merely blindly follow the conventions without ever actually examining them very closely, critically, and constructively.

All too often it looks like this: story > puzzle > story > puzzle > story... There doesn't seem to be an organic structure to these games, if you know what I mean. They don't seem to follow a particular cohesiveness and even chaos, that we are accustomed to when we step out our front doors. And so they end up not only lacking cohesion, but also dimension. I feel like the games take me by the hand and lead me from point A to B, no questions asked.

The elements in the games - character, details, narrative expositions, items - have nothing to do with each other and exist for the sole purpose of waiting for you to click on them.

I've played only a few underground games, and mostly forgot about them. But it seems that they merely mimic what many commercial games do, and what they do is mimic as well. Which imparts a feeling of sheer drone mechanics, and the world never cracks open for me. I feel like I'm just.....playing a game.