[Jeysie]

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

Because we've seen that he's looking for the answer, and because we can relate to this. Who among us has not asked himself, "I wonder if there's some other reality beyond what I see?"?

We don't find that out until *after* the beginning of the movie, when he's talking with Trinity in the bar, IIRC. During the very beginning of things he's just Joe-Schmo tinkering with computers, as far as we know, who people are after for some unknown reason.

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

Because we can relate to how the bureaucracy has mistreated them, and because we can sympathize with his inadequacy as an ordinary person to deal with the bigger issues.

We don't find out the former until after he's already spent the beginning of the story doing nothing puttering around his house. I'll concede the latter, however.

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

We can't relate to what he's going through, because his situation is so alien. We can't sympathize, because the details of his past are glossed over. We can't even understand him! This is nothing like the earlier examples.

He's an ordinary guy now far away from home in an unfamiliar place, forced to deal with things he doesn't yet understand.

I can understand some of the feelings that sort of thing might generate. True, the specific details are alien, but then, I've never had my house bulldozed to create a bypass or had people running around thinking I'm the technological Messiah, either.

Unless they've made an adventure game story involving a D&D and computer geek who spends her days pushing paper around in an office and her nights surfing the web and playing games, I'm never going to play a story that isn't at least partially alien to me.

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

I'm looking for some humanity. I'm looking for something I can relate to or sympathize with. I'm looking for a believable character. A good story is not built upon obscure plot points, it's built on a good character. If we take Grim Fandango, for instance, we can relate to Manny's aspirations; we can sympathize with him for the work he has to do to get there; we can understand his relationships with the other characters. We don't understand the story until later, but it doesn't matter because the character is likable.

Well, when I played the beginning of Grim Fandango, I don't remember knowing much about Manny either, other than that he was a sarcastic, cynical (dead) guy forced for some unknown reason to have a job helping the souls of the recently dead on their journey to the afterlife because he's unable to make that journey himself for some other also unknown reason.

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

No more so than any other generic AG hero. It's no more a measure of his personality than the theft.

True, it's an artifact of the game being comedic, but still, you need the right sort of characters for a comedic game to work. For instance, in the game King's Quest 6 the main character there is very polite and comments on and to people with eloquent language and a noble bearing, yet at the same time a bit shyly and uncertainly in parts. There's not a lot of snarky comments floating around (not from him, anyway). As such, the game has a more serious bent.

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

How do we know this? I certainly didn't. Maybe I just missed those lines.

While I admittedly can't be entirely sure my perception isn't colored, I have tried to be careful and make sure I didn't say anything specific that hasn't been mentioned or implied in some bit of dialogue or message during the first bit we've played.

Since you don't seem willing to pend judgement, I was trying to not have to spoil you, but if you want a little of the truth about the plot, feel free to read...

Spoiler:

Finding out more about Foster's past and Foster himself *is* the point of the game, essentially. The game is one big character and universe exploration.

At any rate, I think I'm going to have to agree to disagree from my end. It is probably at least partially a side effect of the fact that you dislike adventure game tropes and I enjoy them, but while I do have some of my own issues with this game, I admittedly either don't see the things you're mentioning as being problems, or find it odd to single this game out for having them (when I think there are plenty of other stories/games that also have them).

Plus we're starting to get a bit off-topic.

As Ninth said, if you honestly don't like the game, it's OK, nobody's going to force you to keep playing. This is supposed to be fun, so if you're not having fun there's not much point.

Peace & Luv, Liz