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Originally Posted by EvoG
I think this leaves us with action. The one thing that truly separates AG's from todays mainstream games is anything involving twitch response gameplay. Remove driving, shooting or platforming, and all you're left with is the story, the world(exploration) and its characters. The only obstacles you can introduce to make the world interactive are all cerebral, be it inventory manipulation, dialogue or world interaction. Any good game or story has some sort of conflict or challenge, or you're simply a passive observer. Mind you, I'm keeping in context as to why AG's are not mainstream successes, and that those that are, they follow suit with action and THEN the other elements. But then again, lots of games don't have blistering action and are successful.
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I know that there are games that enjoyed critical success, like Beyond Good & Evil, and those that made lots of money, like Fable and Knights Of The Old Republic. These games are rich with adventure game elements (story, exploration, some puzzles, a very consistent and deep world, memorable characters), but they also feature combat and action.
So do you think that the developers and publishers think that action is a vital element to include to ensure more commercial success for the adventure game? Do you feel that most people outside the niche market of 'hardcore' adventure gamers would be interested in a game that doesn't require any kind of action? Or does it not matter to them as long as they get a great story and everything else?
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So, as Intrepid magniloquently put  , what happened?...AG stories today are DULL. Writing is bad, the stories are flat and the worlds are boring....I do not want to go to Egypt or Atlantis or solve any more murders.
...I'm not mocking AG's mind you, as I briefly spilled my gaming pedigree, but I AM mocking todays AG's that seem to WANT to distance themselves from mainstream. Simple fact is that developers want to compete for the biggest piece of the proverbial pie and by whose fault we may never know, AG's wont give them that...
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So you're saying that adventure games need to get out their rut of producing the same old, tired, overused stories, themes, and gameplay. And because of this nobody else besides the diehard fans is interested. That other people are finding the excitement and quality in other kinds of games.
It's true that adventure games as we know it are no longer the desirable genre to market successfully. I think this explains why developers no longer have the generous budgets they once had during the 'golden days' of Sierra and Lucas Arts. But also there's the fact that the games industry is far, far bigger today than ten years ago, it's much more expensive to make game and advertise it. As technology and PCs have steadily improved, allowing for once impossible ideas to be realized, the adventure game seemed to ignore all the progress happening around it, didn't take advantage of it. Which in turn caused everyone else (that is, those other than loyal fans) to stop paying much attention and look for the new excitement elsewhere.
