[jacog]

I want to hear from people who like to play games belonging to the genre generally known as "adventure games", but who don't necessarily consider themselves gamers. I have seen a few mentions in various threads of people like you, but would like to hear some tales.

They'd be folks who never played games in their life, and never thought they'd even enjoy playing them, but perhaps one day discovered that they liked adventure games, and are now big fans of the genre.

I want to know what got you hooked, what you like to play, and I really am fishing to dispel some myths here like "women and elderly people don't play games" and suchlike.

[colpet]

I got hooked playing Riven in 2000. Before that I played the odd solitaire game on the computer. I always enjoyed doing puzzles (GAME magazine subscriber for almost 20 years). I'm also an avid reader. I loved the solitarty exploration and the way my mind was engaged by the fantasy world in Riven. It was a marvelous experience. I have since played close to 140 games, all PC adventure and almost all point and click. I have no interest in console games, nor in any other computer games. I specifically like quiet peaceful games that challenge my brain. I am finding that there are fewer games for my specific tastes. I'm not fond of dialogue/character driven games, and refuse to play anything that uses a keyboard for controls. As such, I can see myself playing less and less as time goes on. That's not so bad since I have many books to catch up on.

[jacog]

Originally Posted by colpet

What would you like to know?

Ohhh just general stuff... what was the first game you played that caught your attention? How did you come across it, did someone say "hey, you might like this just try it..." or did you perhaps read about it somewhere? Do you play adventure games regularly now, and what are your favourite games? Anything related to how you got hooked basically.

[colpet]

Just amended my post .

[Jelena]

I discovered adventure gaming through my sister at the age of 35 I think and started playing the Myst games, not that hooked from the start. Then I started studying part time/working part time and strangely got some time to spend on gaming. Still the Myst games. By that time I was hooked and started to look for other games than the Myst games and eventually ended up here. I´m 41 and a mom of two teenage kids. The fact that I haven´t been working for almost a year now has also made me play adventure games a lot more. I now consider myself an adventure gamer.

[Dara100]

As a teen I was sidelined with a case of mono for about six months and my parents were desperate to find things for me to do. They bought me a sweet Pac Bell 486 with a cd player and a game called MYST. That was the beginning. No internet, barely enough ram and crashing every ten minutes, but I loved it! Started researching what would make the comp run better and not only did it start a gaming passion but led to me learning to swap parts and eventually building my own boxes, which I still do.

Today I have a game collection, mostly adventure, numbering around 500. Almost every title you can name and many you can't, including the rarest Alice: An interactive Museum for which I was recently offered $500 but will never sell. Even back then I'd open every box carefully and all my games are intact and even in the cellophane/plastic they came in and I've played every one.

As for women and older people playing adventure games I know quite a few. The Myst/URU sites are rife with them and I know when I'm ready to kick off they'll have to pry my mouse out of my cold dead hand.

[tsa]

I started playing adventure games somwhere in the mid 1980's on the Commodore 64. I have a rule that I don't play for more than two hours straight, but I don't play games every day anyway. Right now I'm often on Unitl Uru, but I also found time to play the El Ammo demo. What got me hooked was, I think, the fact that here is a story to most adventure games. Mindless shooting or racing never could interest me much. I also like games like Boulderdash, where you have to solve problems.

[MadTricks]

Im new on "scene", but the game what got me hooked was Silent Hill and resident evil3 on PSone. In Re3 there are puzzles, but they are "action-game-puzzles"...still i began to love games where puzzles are, action/puzzle was my favourite category on PS. Then I got PC(a bad one) , I played Indiana Jones and Fate of atlantis almost to the end, but on PC adventure wasnt my favourite, I prefered stratecic games. Then I got new computer, about 1.5 years ago, and somehow somewhere i had Syberia, I was never heard of it, until i begun to play...and this was my best gaming experience, Syberia was instantly my favourite game. Then Syberia 2 ,year later...
And now im here, in adventuregamers.com

[colpet]

@ Jacog: Well, did you dispel any myths?

[Melanie68]

As a kid, I had a Vic-20 computer and I think the main games I played on it were arcade type games. I never had any consoles and the only other computers (Apple and PC) I had access to were at my aunt and uncles (my uncle worked at IBM) and they mainly had educational games like Oregon Trail.

Adventure gaming was never on my radar as a kid (no Sierra, no LucasArts). I'm 38 now so when the big Sierra and LucasArts games were out, I was in veterinary school and never even heard of them. When I was 30, I found a uber-cheap copy of Myst and decided to try and loved it. I went on from there. When I started I was looking for games that could be relaxing and fun after being at my stressful job.

[bulldog]

I started playing Adventure games about a year ago. I was playing on the big fish game web site just doing like little download games then i saw "Law and Order" so I downloaded it and I have been playing adventure games ever since. I'm a 29 year old stay at home mom of a 3 year old and I do Karate in my spare time. I never thought that I would be playing games.... but I have found that it relaxes me and I'm not as tinse.

[jacog]

Originally Posted by colpet

@ Jacog: Well, did you dispel any myths?

looking good so far. myst seems to be guilty of turning many a person on to this genre. and i do notice a trend here of people who like to read too. we feel that if we somehow could get book chains to sell adventurish games we'd get new recruits and outsell all the other crap.