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Originally Posted by samIamsad
Well, it's helluvalot more freeform. And really, "this" adventure games covered here often suffer a lot from such an arbitrary definition what such an adventure game could be and could do within its theme and concept. But you've already noticed that this is more of a recent thing for yourself already.  |
But far less so.
A couple of points. Snarky noted that a site like JA+ is stricter in its definition - but look what happened when I reviewed Doom 3 on this site. This site, however, quite clearly delineates itself to adventure games and reviews them almost exclusively. Certainly the JA+ forum is much tighter in its definitions when this subject comes up.
Truth is, despite the occasional meander down a new path, AG'ers quite clearly shows the scope most people are willing to accept as "adventure games" as per the definition. It's a wide umbrella but there's still a clearer delineation of subgenres and what comprises an adventure game than in this other second form which is being suggested in this thread.
If there is a community of people with this idea of a new genre looking for somewhere to talk about them, if they googled for "adventure games" they'll find this site quite high up the top amongst a long list of sites that quite clearly advocate the one, old genre of "adventure". If there is a wide enough, organised group who want to perpetuate this new genre and legitamise it, why aren't there more people looking for tips or discussions on Zelda et al on this very site? Aside from a few misplaced words from journos and relative newbies to the gaming scene via consoles, methinks the wider gaming audience already have a good idea what an "adventure" is.
Games like Ico, Zelda, Silent Hill and Metroid are still quite different to eachother in play terms. Their only real similarity, as sethez pointed out, it their decision to have a continuous gameworld and some concession to the occasional puzzle. But this isn't something that can actually define a genre, as the style of play is also important. These games DO rely on exploration, but then so does Far Cry and that couldn't be filed in the same place. They're more complicated than that title, but require drastically different skills of the player in essential areas.
That's why they're "action" whatevers.
