View Poll Results: What is the true foundation of an adventure game? | |||
The story. | 59 | 69.41% | |
The puzzles. | 7 | 8.24% | |
I really can't decide; they're both equally important. | 19 | 22.35% | |
Voters: 85. You may not vote on this poll |
|
LinkBack | Thread Tools |
02-15-2004, 08:50 AM | #1 |
Retirement is stupid
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Central Oregon, USA
Posts: 960
|
Story vs. Puzzles: Please chime in
The statement has been made, in a Site Feedback thread that I believe most people are overlooking, that "most true adventure gamers" would place a great deal of importance on puzzles. I quote "Puzzles are as integral to adventure games as weapons are to an FPS. Ya can't have one without the other..."
I myself stated in the same thread that I'm in vehement disagreement with the idea that puzzles should exist as anything other than a service to the development of the story and characters--and if puzzles are in the way of those, the game is weaker for it. Now, since I've been informed that my statements do not represent those of "most true adventure gamers", I thought I'd actually pose the question. Should the story serve the puzzles? Or the other way around? What is truly the foundation of the adventure genre? For what it's worth, I'll do my part to keep it civil and not participate in the discussion. But I am sincerely interested to see if we can arrive at any sort of consensus--and I promise to freely admit I am wrong if the numbers prove it to be so.
__________________
*/* Evan Dickens */* Retired Editor-in-Chief "An episodic sociopathic lagomorph? The mind boggles." |
02-15-2004, 08:59 AM | #2 |
Banned User
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,346
|
Might I suggest off the bat that to ask a group whose average age is 22 or so what the "foundation" of adventure games is will most definitely lead to a skewed result that may well vary widely from the adventure gaming public as a whole, including the views of the many people who come to Adventure Gamers home page for news and reviews but don't frequent the forums?
(In fact, I will almost guarantee it.)
__________________
Time flies like the wind; Fruit flies like bananas. |
02-15-2004, 09:05 AM | #3 | |
Retirement is stupid
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Central Oregon, USA
Posts: 960
|
Quote:
But settle down, will you, at least wait and see what the results are before calling the poll unfair.
__________________
*/* Evan Dickens */* Retired Editor-in-Chief "An episodic sociopathic lagomorph? The mind boggles." |
|
02-15-2004, 09:08 AM | #4 |
Under pressure.
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
Posts: 3,773
|
Why don't you ask the same question on the JA and Gameboomer forums?
--Erwin
__________________
> Learn more about my forthcoming point & click adventure: Bad Timing! > Or... Visit Adventure Developers: Everything about developing adventure games. |
02-15-2004, 09:09 AM | #5 |
Banned User
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,346
|
Sorry... I'm on a sugar high from Valentine's Day candy. hehehehehe
__________________
Time flies like the wind; Fruit flies like bananas. |
02-15-2004, 09:09 AM | #6 | |
Tactlessly understated
|
Quote:
|
|
02-15-2004, 09:12 AM | #7 | |
Retirement is stupid
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Central Oregon, USA
Posts: 960
|
Quote:
__________________
*/* Evan Dickens */* Retired Editor-in-Chief "An episodic sociopathic lagomorph? The mind boggles." |
|
02-15-2004, 09:18 AM | #8 |
Banned User
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,346
|
Unfortunately, neither of their versions of UBB forum software allow for polls anyway.
__________________
Time flies like the wind; Fruit flies like bananas. |
02-15-2004, 09:20 AM | #9 |
comfortably numb
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Helsinki
Posts: 541
|
AG iZ d4 l33t d00dz b04rd!!
(Also, I voted for story.) |
02-15-2004, 09:20 AM | #10 |
Banned User
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,346
|
Regardless, the early results show exactly how this poll is going to go. Therefore, by near-unanimous decree of the assembled, 1st-person slideshow puzzle-oriented games ("Myst-clones") are by their very nature an inferior species.
Fuck that.
__________________
Time flies like the wind; Fruit flies like bananas. |
02-15-2004, 09:28 AM | #11 |
Knowledgeable
|
For me this question is rather redundant. While I think stories should be the driving force behind adventure games you really can't do without either stories or puzzles. They live in a symbiosis that make up a nice whole. They wouldn't do well (at least as adventure games) without each other.
With that said, I don't think it is necessary for the puzzles to be hard to solve. Playing adventure games is more of experience a story for me than a challenge. Frankly, I would even go so long as to say as that no AG puzzles have been really intellectually challenging. They most often just follow standard patterns that you have to learn and then most of it is rather easy to solve. And if I want more of a challenge I would play a pure puzzle game, because then I wouldn't have a story in the way for the challenge.
__________________
Rem acu tetigisti -- Jeeves Read my adventure game reviews here Blaskan Dragon Go Server Ragnar Ouchterlony |
02-15-2004, 09:36 AM | #12 | |
Retirement is stupid
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Central Oregon, USA
Posts: 960
|
Quote:
I really hope you realize I'm not on a mission to prove my point or to shut you up. I honestly want to know if the beliefs of Marek and myself are consistent with the feelings of the adventure community. Getting feedback from other forums would only help me gather an answer to this. At the least, if you're active on those forums you can encourage them to stop by here and let us know what they think. - Evan
__________________
*/* Evan Dickens */* Retired Editor-in-Chief "An episodic sociopathic lagomorph? The mind boggles." |
|
02-15-2004, 09:36 AM | #13 |
Magic Wand Waver
|
Well, since my statement caused the poll to be generated, here's my 2 cents worth. First, I voted for the "I can't decide", since there was nothing that matched my actual choice. Second, I truly laughed out loud at Kingzjester's comment, but actually, to make an analogy, what value would he place on an eight year olds' preferences, someone less than half his age? Not bib-wearing, perhaps, but also not widely experienced. That's how he and many others here seem to Jim and me. I'm not trying to start a flame-war, just trying to give a bit of perspective. Third, while I might be a tad more tactful than Jim, "Fuck that!", I'm not far from his viewpoint in fact, re usefullness of this poll.
FGM
__________________
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson |
02-15-2004, 09:39 AM | #14 |
merely human
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Chicago
Posts: 22,309
|
Ultimately, I don't place one feature over the other. The operative word for me is 'balance', BUT with a slight tilt towards story. If an adventure game focused too much on puzzling, screw it, I'd just as well throw it out and load up a game of Tetris. If it leans too much on the story and neglects to engineer some clever challenges, I'd feel I was being shortchanged and simply just pick up an anthology of Katherine Anne Porter's short fiction. Puzzles should not supercede the story, but story shouldn't dilute the fun and banter of puzzles, either. They should almost complement each other.
To explain the emphasis on the word 'but' above, I argue that the adventure game is, in the final analysis, a game with a particular reward. As in any game, emphasis is placed on challenge, on such elements as thinking, strategizing, deductive reasoning, etc., contingent on the concept and theme of each game. Games have their respective motives, or prize, for beating them. Monopoly is self explanatory in its name, the object is to control all the properties on the board or as much of it as possible, or to have the largest amount of capital. Monopoly has no inclusive story, the goal is simply as I stated. Tetris awards the player with scores and a harder level with the challenge to accumulate more points. Tetris has no inclusive story, the goal is simply to score as high as possible per player. Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon presents obstacles that, once surmounted, moves the player onward towards the next chapter of narrative. D'you see the difference? Not only does the adventure game reward the player with the satisfaction that s/he has solved a puzzle, but that solving it also rewards him/her with the next chapter of the story and the next environment to explore. That's the rub. Placing puzzles over stories dilutes the importance of the 'particular allure' of adventure gaming, that is, its narrative and exploratory qualities the player wants to experience. But leaning too much on story takes away from the challenges inherent in an adventure game as a game, the results could be a humdrum romp, with the player led by the hand. Conversely, a bias towards puzzles shoves the story into the corner, and what's your reward then? The satisfaction of solving a puzzle and moving onto the next one? That's not an adventure game, that's playing a stint of Breakout, 3D Lemmings, or Icebreaker. I voted for "I really can't decide; they're both equally important."
__________________
platform: laptop, iPhone 3Gs | gaming: x360, PS3, psp, iPhone, wii | blog: a space alien | book: the moral landscape: how science can determine human values by sam harris | games: l.a.noire, portal 2, brink, dragon age 2, heavy rain | sites: NPR, skeptoid, gaygamer | music: ray lamontagne, adele, washed out, james blake | twitter: a_space_alien Last edited by Intrepid Homoludens; 02-15-2004 at 09:51 AM. |
02-15-2004, 09:45 AM | #15 |
Knowledgeable
|
That was well put Intrepid, it is very much how I feel about the adventure game genre. I voted for story though.
__________________
Rem acu tetigisti -- Jeeves Read my adventure game reviews here Blaskan Dragon Go Server Ragnar Ouchterlony |
02-15-2004, 09:47 AM | #16 |
merely human
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Chicago
Posts: 22,309
|
The choices were awfully polarized, so I voted for what seemed closest to my point of view.
__________________
platform: laptop, iPhone 3Gs | gaming: x360, PS3, psp, iPhone, wii | blog: a space alien | book: the moral landscape: how science can determine human values by sam harris | games: l.a.noire, portal 2, brink, dragon age 2, heavy rain | sites: NPR, skeptoid, gaygamer | music: ray lamontagne, adele, washed out, james blake | twitter: a_space_alien |
02-15-2004, 09:47 AM | #17 |
Banned User
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,346
|
Therefore, Myst is a 1 star game because the story is literally "shoved in a corner," being presented solely in a collection of journals in the library.
I repeat: fuck that.
__________________
Time flies like the wind; Fruit flies like bananas. |
02-15-2004, 09:48 AM | #18 |
Liver of Life
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,317
|
To put it simply, I'm interested in the story. Most puzzles, I've felt, are just obstacles keeping me from finishing the story too quickly.
But like has been said, I'd rather not have one and not the other because they're both important to a good game. |
02-15-2004, 09:54 AM | #19 | ||
merely human
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Chicago
Posts: 22,309
|
Quote:
EDIT: You forget, though, that upon each solving of a puzzle your were presented with a big new Age to explore and yet another little chapter to the story. Elaborating on my gripe, it could have a more dynamic reward - how about flashbacks of scenes of arguments b/t Atrus's sons, for example, to add a bit of suspense? That's what I meant. Quote:
__________________
platform: laptop, iPhone 3Gs | gaming: x360, PS3, psp, iPhone, wii | blog: a space alien | book: the moral landscape: how science can determine human values by sam harris | games: l.a.noire, portal 2, brink, dragon age 2, heavy rain | sites: NPR, skeptoid, gaygamer | music: ray lamontagne, adele, washed out, james blake | twitter: a_space_alien Last edited by Intrepid Homoludens; 02-15-2004 at 10:02 AM. |
||
02-15-2004, 09:55 AM | #20 |
Rabid Tasmanian Devil
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: New Hampshire
Posts: 1,158
|
In general, I think both are equally important, but there are always exceptions. Have very little story, and 9 gazillion puzzles, and you have a Myst-clone. Have a ton of filmed or animated sequences, and few puzzles, and you have a game you watch more than play, like Star Trek Borg or LSL5.
It's tough to find a game that walks a fine balance between the two, because breaking narrative flow to introduce a puzzle, or obstacle has to be done in such a way as to seem appropriate to the world that character is in. If I had to pick, I guess I'd rather have a strong story, as I'm pretty sick of encountering doors w/sliding tile puzzles, doors with control panels next to them, and doors with symbols that need to be both decoded and placed in any 1 of a zillion combos.... Upon further reflection, maybe I just hate doors. |
|