Hello!
You said something I think needs attention:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by thedigitalmonkey
And then I started thinking about what just might be a new way of looking at the whole problem. In adventure games, and it's key that they are GAMES, plot, character development, world, dialogue, all come FIRST, and gameplay comes second.
What other genre is like this? None. Everywhere else, GAMEPLAY comes first, graphics are the close second, and then all that other stuff. Sure, stories and characters are greatly lacking in most modern games, and I'd love to see more, but they aren't essential.
|
It would be a fallacy to say that GAMEPLAY comes first in every other genre but the adventure genre. There are plenty of games that cater to other areas of game development. Graphics-whores understand this perfectly well.
Also, to say that "story" supercedes GAMEPLAY in the adventure genre is also misleading. What makes the games from the "golden days" so dang golden is the strong marriage between narrative and GAMEPLAY. In essence, the game world unfolds as you interact with it in a meaningful way (meaningful according to the mechanics of the game, of course). Story and character development are not considered more important in adventure games. Those games that push the adventuring to the side do so at the risk of making the adventure game nothing more than a novel requiring point and click in order to turn pages.
The essence of a TRUE adventure game is when narrative storytelling and player interaction with characters and environment are meticulously and purposefully intertwined. This is GAMEPLAY. To say that gameplay is, in fact, an element separate from story describes a game that is NOT an adventure game. (Or maybe it does indicate a poory designed one.)
The best of the best adventure games do not feel forced or disjointed. They are interactive stories that enable players to make choices which elicit narrative responses (whether open-ended or closed). This certainly does not indicate that adventure games put gameplay on the so called "back burner."
Kirk
