Whoah, no need to be defensive, akane. As I had stated, I do think there ARE more traditional adventure games that deserve as much attention from the press and gamers as possible. They merit the attention. However, the
reality is that, because of the
perceived notion that the genre has nothing new to offer (at least in terms of ideas and such), most of the media choose to not cover it and consquentially most people - other than the hardcore adventure gamers, especially those who frequent communities online like this one - wouldn't know about it, or for that matter, some of the better quality games that fall within the genre of adventure game.
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Originally Posted by akane_t
Can you clarify your statement? Is it the non-adventure gamers you mentioned who find that the typical adventure games offer only boring and redundant conventions or is it you who feels that way? I'm not sure why someone who have never played or been a fan of AGs would find what's offered in the typical adventure games boring or redundant. They would not be interested in what these typical adventure games have to offer in the first place, right?
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Actually, many of those (whose comments I had read in other gaming communities and news blogs) who enjoyed games like Dreamall and Indigo Prophecy happen to be adventure game enthusiasts (i.e. they loved games like Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, old school Sierra and LucasArts, and the Myst series, as well as The Longest Journey) who had moved on to other kinds of games (FPSs, RPGs, etc.). They themselves collectively implied or outright stated that they have moved on because they got sick of the lack of quality of adventure games in the past several years. So then a title like Dreamfall comes along they're terribly excited.
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I know that the adventure games as a genre has largely become a niche in the gaming industry and do not enjoy the commercial success or industry recognition that it used to get but the fact is that there still is a good number of people who continue to enjoy and spend money on games that some of you find boring, redundant, and lacking in artistic merits. It also is true that there are still talented teams like Telltale, Kheops, House of Tales, Frogwares, and Cyan, that continue to make adventure games. It has customers and vendors who are willing to supply them with wares. It's not what it once was but is still commercially and artistically viable. In my book, adventure games are definitely not dead.
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The truth is that many gamers - especially those who loved adventure games and decided to move on - do find adventure games, as we know it, to be boring and redundant. That may make you upset, but what do you about it?
And remember, NEVER have I stated that I personally think that the adventure genre is dead. I am just being observant and trying to figure out how all this has come to pass. I personally think the adventure game is alive and doing reasonably well now (it's been two years since I wrote The Cold Hotspot). What I was addressing was that as a whole, it doesn't get as much coverage as it might deserve. Why is this? I'm thinking it's that the media thinks there's nothing fundamentally new about it compared to what's going on with other games - for example, like Will Wright's upcoming
Spore, Epic's
Gears of War, Bethesda's
Oblivion, and other titles that are getting tons of attention. The media need to report on whatever's new and exciting. That's their job, to increase and maintain readership. Why would they want to post a headline that says: "New 2D point-n-click linear adventure game announced" and risk getting disinterested readers and advertisers?
Yes, the adventure game has become a niche market, and yes, its fans will claim there's nothing wrong with it. But I think that's part of the problem. Since you feel so strongly about the adventure game, shouldn't you also feel that it deserves more coverage so that more people out there would know about, say, TellTale's games, or Harvest Moon's, or other good quality games, and potentially fall in love with them and want to play more games like them?
There's plenty of room for diversity within the genre, and there's definitely room for improvement in terms of design and quality, and of course there's tons of room for getting more people interested in these kinds of games.
