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Kurufinwe · 12-30-2011, 08:04 PM

Time for more stats!

Ooh, shiny!

We all know that the most important element in an adventure game is the graphics. So let's look at what the games in the top-100 had, starting with the technical side of the question:

I really would have thought that 2.5D would be much higher, but I guess all the Myst-clones, FMV games, and SVGA 3rd-person games ended up being the largest part of the list.

Note also that real-time 3D is at 19/100. It's still not the dominant tech, but it's being slowly assimilated by the genre. So you people who think the definition of "adventure game" is "a game that can run on my 10-year-old computer", know that you're missing some good games.

The other factor is the style of the graphics:

Note how you have far more games with FMV characters than FMV/photo environments. That's mostly all those ugly FMV games with live actors pasted over cheap 3D renders of the room. (Not that all those games were bad; the Tex Murphy games, for instance, were brilliant. But green screen on crude 3D is something that always takes me a bit of time to get used to.)

Unsurprisingly enough, the top-100 confirms the genre's love of hand-drawn graphics. I found it extremely weird that there were slightly more games with hand-drawn characters than environments. It would seem weird to stick hand-drawn characters in, say, 3D environments. And then I realised that there are actually two games that do just that: Hotel Dusk and its sequel Last Window.

The true Golden Age of adventures

When looking at the years at which the games were released, it's useful to have both the raw number of games (top) and the results weighted by rank (bottom):

I think those graphs are absolutely amazing: they give a perfect picture of the history of graphic adventures. We may have our gripes about some games on the list, but I think these graphs confirm that the top-100 is a very fair and accurate representation of the genre.

You can clearly distinguish several periods:

1987–1993, the Sierra-LucasArts era: The classical era. The graph shows the companies perfecting their craft, releasing more and more great games. 1990 to 92 have the same number of games on the list, but the quality is steadily increasing, climaxing in . . .
1993, the golden year, the turning point: 1993 is the year when the Sierra/LEC classical style reached its peak, with games such as GK1 and Sam & Max. But it's also the year when Myst and The 7th Guest shook everything up. Sierra and LEC had failed to see the potential of the CD-ROM, but these two games showed that the new technology could be used to create a completely new experience. 1994 was a slow year, when everyone was trying to build the infrastructure to catch up with Myst, but the best was to come . . .
1995–1998, multimedia madness: The glorious era. After the success of Myst, people over-evaluated the potential of the genre for commercial success. And nobody really knew what might work. So for a few years, you had games that combined the inventiveness and risk-taking of independent productions with the budget of Hollywood movies. Those were crazy, nonsensical years. Those games that we got from this glorious period are to be treasured, because it will never happen again: those games were commercially disappointing (or outright failures) and the bubble burst, leading to . . .
1999–2003, the death of a genre: After the end of the multimedia madness, the new hot technology was real-time 3D. And this time, the genre was utterly unable to embrace the new tech to renew itself. Those were the lean years, with just a few 2.5D gems to tide us over.
2004– , recovery: Looking at the list and at the graphs, things have been going better and better. 2010-2011 were around the levels of 1990-1991. We'll never see another 1996, but maybe a new 1993 is around the corner, just in time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Golden Year of Adventure Gaming.

A last one for the road

Finally, a fun (or depressing, depending on your point of view) little stat. It is well established that adventure gaming has a larger-than-average proportion of female gamers. But you wouldn't know that from the gender of the player characters in the Top-100:

(For those wondering how many Myst-clones there are on the list, you have your answer here: 14.)

Bearing in mind that Kate Walker and Chell are counted twice, that makes a grand total of eight women who had the honour of having a game of their own in the Top-100... Then again, I'd be hard pressed to name 8 female adventure game designers, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Discuss.

12-30-2011, 08:04 PM	#205
Kurufinwe Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Santa Barbara, CA Posts: 3,038	Time for more stats! Ooh, shiny! We all know that the most important element in an adventure game is the graphics. So let's look at what the games in the top-100 had, starting with the technical side of the question: I really would have thought that 2.5D would be much higher, but I guess all the Myst-clones, FMV games, and SVGA 3rd-person games ended up being the largest part of the list. Note also that real-time 3D is at 19/100. It's still not the dominant tech, but it's being slowly assimilated by the genre. So you people who think the definition of "adventure game" is "a game that can run on my 10-year-old computer", know that you're missing some good games. The other factor is the style of the graphics: Note how you have far more games with FMV characters than FMV/photo environments. That's mostly all those ugly FMV games with live actors pasted over cheap 3D renders of the room. (Not that all those games were bad; the Tex Murphy games, for instance, were brilliant. But green screen on crude 3D is something that always takes me a bit of time to get used to.) Unsurprisingly enough, the top-100 confirms the genre's love of hand-drawn graphics. I found it extremely weird that there were slightly more games with hand-drawn characters than environments. It would seem weird to stick hand-drawn characters in, say, 3D environments. And then I realised that there are actually two games that do just that: Hotel Dusk and its sequel Last Window. *The true* Golden Age of adventures** When looking at the years at which the games were released, it's useful to have both the raw number of games (top) and the results weighted by rank (bottom): I think those graphs are absolutely amazing: they give a perfect picture of the history of graphic adventures. We may have our gripes about some games on the list, but I think these graphs confirm that the top-100 is a very fair and accurate representation of the genre. You can clearly distinguish several periods: 1987–1993, the Sierra-LucasArts era: The classical era. The graph shows the companies perfecting their craft, releasing more and more great games. 1990 to 92 have the same number of games on the list, but the quality is steadily increasing, climaxing in . . . 1993, the golden year, the turning point: 1993 is the year when the Sierra/LEC classical style reached its peak, with games such as GK1 and Sam & Max. But it's also the year when Myst and The 7th Guest shook everything up. Sierra and LEC had failed to see the potential of the CD-ROM, but these two games showed that the new technology could be used to create a completely new experience. 1994 was a slow year, when everyone was trying to build the infrastructure to catch up with Myst, but the best was to come . . . 1995–1998, multimedia madness: The glorious era. After the success of Myst, people over-evaluated the potential of the genre for commercial success. And nobody really knew what might work. So for a few years, you had games that combined the inventiveness and risk-taking of independent productions with the budget of Hollywood movies. Those were crazy, nonsensical years. Those games that we got from this glorious period are to be treasured, because it will never happen again: those games were commercially disappointing (or outright failures) and the bubble burst, leading to . . . 1999–2003, the death of a genre: After the end of the multimedia madness, the new hot technology was real-time 3D. And this time, the genre was utterly unable to embrace the new tech to renew itself. Those were the lean years, with just a few 2.5D gems to tide us over. 2004– , recovery: Looking at the list and at the graphs, things have been going better and better. 2010-2011 were around the levels of 1990-1991. We'll never see another 1996, but maybe a new 1993 is around the corner, just in time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Golden Year of Adventure Gaming. A last one for the road Finally, a fun (or depressing, depending on your point of view) little stat. It is well established that adventure gaming has a larger-than-average proportion of female gamers. But you wouldn't know that from the gender of the player characters in the Top-100: (For those wondering how many Myst-clones there are on the list, you have your answer here: 14.) Bearing in mind that Kate Walker and Chell are counted twice, that makes a grand total of eight women who had the honour of having a game of their own in the Top-100... Then again, I'd be hard pressed to name 8 female adventure game designers, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Discuss. __________________ Currently reading: Dune (F. Herbert) Recently finished: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J. K. Rowling) [++], La Nuit des Temps (R. Barjavel) [+++] Currently playing: Skyrim Recently finished: MCF: Escape from Ravenhearst [+], The Walking Dead, ep. 1 [+++], Gray Matter [++]