[Luckylooks]

I'm asking the question because I'm curious to know who is actually playing adventure games. I'm 24, none of my friends play, my younger siblings have no clue as to what adventure gaming is... Only some of my older coworkers know what it is, and they only know about stuff like king's quest or monkey island. I'm under the impression that the demographics right now is from mid-20s to mid-30s maybe? I don't think any teens or children are playing adventure games right now, they seem to be more focused on action oriented games. When I was a kid I used to play both and I have a feeling that it helped me develop certain parts of my brain that I wouldn't have developed if I had only played games like mario or what not.

I have a feeling that the reason why adventure gaming is on the ''decline'' is that adventure gamers per say fit in a certain type of personality, i.e maybe a bit introverted, and I think, I'm not sure, that introverts are less in quantity than extroverted people and maybe that's why adventure games are less popular, does that make any sense? what are your thoughts on this subject?

[misslilo]

Mid-20s to mid-30s? Well, I can't say if that's true or not.
I would have thought most adventure gamers today to be around my age(in the 40s) and older, lol...
As for being either intro- or extroverted... isn't there a middlething, because I wouldn't call myself either.

I have to say, that I don't meet many - if any - adventure gamers here in denmark.
My coworkers are mostly family people, with a busy life after work.
I'm guessing, that if they DO play PC games, they prefer something they don't have to think too much about.

When I mention my taste in games, they look at me with this weird expression on their face, as if they don't know what the hell I'm talking about.
They definitely don't understand my passion for it, lol

Of course I too remember the golden age of adventure gaming and cherish the memories from back then.
But that doesn't mean I don't keep up with the newer games. Just don't expect me to feel the same as I did then
The time from you were young will always have a special place in your heart - to me it was the 80's for music and (mostly)90's for adventure games.

[Squinky]

I'm 22, and I'd say that probably about half of the people I meet these days have at least some passing familiarity with some of the more well-known adventure games (though far fewer of them are actually avid "fans of the genre"). However, I skew from the average quite a bit because I'm a programmer, and the types of people I know tend to be more familiar with gaming in general than most people are.

Regarding personality, we've actually had this discussion before.

[Milad241]

I am 22 and living in Iran.i only know 3 or 4 people familiar with adventure games and they all age more than 20!

[Jelena]

I'm 43 and started playing adventure games in my late 30s.
I'm the only one in my circle of friends and family as well who plays adventure games. That's why it was such a relief to find this forum to get to know others who share the same passion.
Just as misslilo I get these weird smiles from my coworkers if I ever tell them about my adventure gaming. They have heard about computer games, but never about this genre.
I've tried to get my husband and children to play games with me but they refuse vehemently. My son likes to show his friends my collection of games and they all think I'm such a strange mum.

[ShadeJackrabbit]

Teen here. I have one friend who would probably play an adventure game if it was good enough. One friend I have enjoys them, but rarely has enough time to play them. Another of my friends doesn't think the genre is going anywhere very good right now. Another is an amateur adventure developer. Another has only played Day of the Tentacle, and loved it, but finds the genre boring right now. I have another friend who loves any type of game, and last I checked was getting some new speakers so she could play 5 Days a Stranger.

My mom loved Myst, but has a lot of trouble with adventure games right now (discerning hotspots mostly). My uncle plays tons of games, from Half-Life 2 to Syberia. My Dad has very little time for games, but will play on occasion. My grandmother has only played the Myst and URU, but enjoyed them.

[starla9]

I am 25, female, maybe on the lower end of the general adventure game demographic, as I was in single digits when Sierra was still making adventure games. I've met very few people my age with the same passion. They might have played an adventure game kinda by accident here or there, but don't really know what they are, or think they are all like Myst. Now I like Myst, it was made in my hometown and forced my parents to buy a CD drive, but arrrrrgggghhhhhh!

I got my start with King's Quest V which my computer expert uncle bought for me when I was 8. He'd shown me how to type in DOS commands when I was 6 so I could play Battle Chess and it went on from there. (I must admit my favorite thing about Battle Chess was seeing all the death animations (my grandmother was horrified), I'd willingly use the cheat functions to facilitate this). I've always loved books, and I think adventure gaming can be a natural extension for many people who love books. Both things require patience and slow-burn thinking, which I think the action game oriented market do not really want in their games (not that action-intensive games don't require strategy, quick thinking and patience as you die over and over and over again...just not my kind of patience )

My little brother, now 21, also started playing them with me. He has much broader tastes (he will willingly die in an FPS over and over until he gets his strategy right...I just like to watch in admiration and/or filial concern for his sanity) but I think we are similar...maybe a little introverted, detail-oriented, people that like good stories.

I met a great group of people through our shared love of the Gabriel Knight games, and at the time we ranged from our teens to the 40s. I had a non-any-kind-of-gamer friend play GK1 once. She immediately got frustrated at the first dialogue tree. "Which one do pick? Which one do I pick?" she kept asking, feeling faintly insulted that the game hadn't given a hint as to which answer was the right one. "You pick whichever one you want, you can choose them all," I told her. I don't think she understood (or liked) the idea that the point of the dialogue was to gain more information about the story and characters...not pick choice C off a multiple choice test and move on.

[DustyShinigami]

I'm 20. I played only a few adventure games in the middle of the 90s (about 4-5 i think) but i had a blast playing them. I would have loved to have played a lot of the old classic adventures back then that i've played now (especially from LucasArts). I do enjoy reading, even though i don't read as much as i'd like. I used to read a lot of Goosebumps books when i was younger; now it's mostly fantasy. I'm like my mum and enjoy a good story.

I, to, play a mixture of games and if i find a game good fun then i'll play it regardless of graphics. If it has a good story and characters etc. then that's a bonus! I've only recently got into Half-Life 2 but so far i love it and found myself quite attached to the characters. I definitely won't play any sports/racing games though. And i'm not really a fan of tactical/war FPS, RPGs (with the exception of a few) or strategy games. The FPS i like are normally different, unusual or have a horror theme.

I have mentioned some adventure games to people in the past but big surprise they've never heard of them. Unfortunately, i don't have many friends. But the friends i do have don't play adventures. There's only 2 that do/have. One of them, I'm not sure what games he plays now, plays all sorts and he even lent me Riven years ago and a few years later i lent him Broken Sword 3. He's in his late 40s i think. And my other mate has done/does occassionally but doesn't so much anymore. He's kinda getting sucked into all these next-generation action games, which is quite sad in a way. He played the likes of Sam & Max Hit the Road, Broken Sword 1 & 2 and Day of the Tentacle years ago and he has played some recent adventures too.

My other mate and his brother don't and never will. They're also into more fast paced action games and sometimes seems to be all about the graphics for them. There aren't many old games they play or re-play, normally the graphics put them off and if there's puzzles they'll just give up as they can't do 'em. My mate even struggles with the puzzles in the new Tomb Raider games. There aren't many old classic games from the 90s they play now, either on PC or PlayStation.

My sister occassionally plays some but normally gives up. It's annoying when she pesters me to install some on her computer but then never ruddy plays them. Again, she prefers action. Failed getting my dad to play any games let alone adventures, my mum would never touch a computer if she could help it and even if she learned how to control a game, she'd just forget the next time she plays lol. And as for my brother, well... he's 24 but he won't play anything he's never done before. He's afraid of getting stuck on the puzzles and he can't control 3D games. Not that he'll practice though. It took me years to get him into Broken Sword 1 & 2 and when i did, he couldn't stop playing them, which kinda became a bit annoying after a while.

Whew, rambled on a bit there. Sorry if i bored anyone.

[Lady Kestrel]

I'm about to enter my 6th decade, and I have only one friend, half my age, who loves adventures as much as I do. I've been playing them for about 9 years now.

[Kazmajik]

I started playing Infocom text adventure games around 1985, when I was 15 or 16. Although I got into them by myself at first, I found that they were more enjoyable to play with other people sometimes. Adventure games are some of the only games that allow for a group of people to gather around the same computer and share in the experience. I moved on to Sierra adventures in the 90s like many others here, which I still consider to be the golden age of the genre.

I think that when I got into the games, there weren't a whole lot of choices available back then. Nowadays, it seems more like the newer games are all about showcasing the latest developments in graphics technology. And we've been inundated with many, many choices but far too little quality.

I don't play adventure games exclusively, so I don't know what to make of the introverted question. Like I said before, I've had some great times playing adventure games with friends. The games lend themselves to that. It's not as much fun for the other person to just watch someone play, say, Bioshock, because they can't participate as much, whereas any of the Gabriel Knight games can be very succesful shared experiences.

[mgeorge]

Well as much as I hate to admit it, I'm over 50. Yikes!

Yes yes, I'm a very old man. Never even had a computer l until I was over 40. The first computer game I ever played was Amber Journeys Beyond that I picked up at Staples. I liked the box art and have always loved a good horror story. I remember it was 5 bucks and took me over a month to finish it. Why so long you may ask? Well, I sucked at puzzles then and still do!

I then bought a game called Lighthouse, that had a crying baby as part of the plot. Very freaky. But it was just to hard for me and I gave up on it along with AG's in general.

I then found Half Life about a year after it came out and got hooked on FPS's. Problem was, I never did find anything as good as my first real love, and as far as straight shooters go, still haven't. I then found Thief, Deus Ex, System Shock 2 and more recently Vampire Bloodlines and even more recently Bioshock, all of which I've played multible times. I now play many Thief fan missions because of the lack of good quality games nowadays. (plus FM's are free!). But as much as I love Garret and his world, I needed something new so recently turned to AG's.

So far I've enjoyed the change of pace. As to my real life friends, they consider computer games childish and make fun of me for playing them.

Foolish friends.

[VOLKANA]

I'm 26 and i've playing adventure games since i was 17. I don't know any people in my age playing adventure games (mostly RPG). But i'm sure that this is the reallity...

[skeeter_93]

I'm 30 this year, and a girl. Been playing adventure games since I was little (6ish), Micky Mouse space adventures and Murder on the Missisippi on the Commodore 64. But I think getting the LSL/SQ/PQ pack at about 10 years old really did it.

[Fien]

I turned 60 this month.

This may sound strange to some of the younger posters here, but I was absolutely mesmerized when in the mid-80s a friend showed me this little black-and-white guy (I later found out his name was King Graham ) walking across the screen of his brandnew Atari computer. And when the little guy fell into the ocean and started drowning, you could type SWIM and he would start swimming!! Incredible. I've been playing all kinds of adventures ever since.

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by Fienepien

I turned 60 this month.

Congratulations Fienepien!

[Melkor]

In two weeks I'll be 24, don't know how that happened, but I guess I had it coming (I'm sure most of us do). Been playing since I was a toddler, pretty much. Learned my first DOS commands before I could walk (or so they say), and when I was a kid I used run back and forth between my dad and his computer, asking him about the meaning of all the weird English words.

Sadly, I don't play as many adventures as I used to, but when I find the time I sit down with one. And that's an important aspect of it for me - actually sitting down with a game, much like you do with a movie. It's much more fun letting yourself getting really immersed.

I'm confident there will be a new awakening in the genre, I have confidence in people like Telltale and Autumn Moon, and all the small houses popping up here and there can only be good. Adventures are such an efficient format, and seeing as the gaming industry has gone the way of the movie industry, I'm sure quality games will soon pop up more than ever before out of smaller businesses.

Oh, yeah, congrats with the big sixty!

[colpet]

I'll be 50 in the fall.
I started gaming in 2001 with Riven and fell in love with Myst-like games. Since then I've played close to 200 PC adventures. The type of games I like are not being developed much right now, consequently my game playing has lessened over the past 2 years.

[Max Gruber]

I' m 15, and I' ve already played 21 Adventure games.

[Lucien21]

There was a survey last year that showed the age spread.

http://www.adventuregamers.com/blogitem.php?id=21

I'm in the 35-39 range myself.

I thing Adventuregamers skews to the younger end of the adventure market. Some of the other websites have a older membership (I think)

[RLacey]

I'm 21, and know quite a few people my age who used to play adventure games. That they don't anymore is probably revealing of the general quality of games in the genre as compared to other genres. And that's where they haven't simply stopped gaming entirely.

I'm not sure that it's necessarily about how old you are. I can't remember not having a computer, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s there were a lot of adventure games, so it doesn't surprise me that I played them.