[Dragonrose]

Originally Posted by Two birds

Perhaps we should form an adventure gamer's summer retreat. Any hints you get you have to cajole other players into giving you.

That is actually a really cool idea. There's the added fun of the NOT stuck people being able to say "Nope! Not going to help you unless you go and get me cookies!"

After all, why should multiplayer gamers get to have all the fun playing with their friends? Adventure Gamers spend too much time playing with just themselves!

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Dragonrose

That is actually a really cool idea. There's the added fun of the NOT stuck people being able to say "Nope! Not going to help you unless you go and get me cookies!"

Jeez at this alleged adventure summit the challenges you need to go through to get hints apparently become actual cliché adventure puzzles? "I'll help you get the information you seek, but first you must recover my lost hen. I last saw her walk towards the blacksmith shop."

[TigerShard]

I loved your article Emily. I tell myself the exact same thing every time I go dig up a walkthrough "I just don't have the time to sit here all day and figure it out". I think that is one reason I didn't get as much enjoyment out of the end of MI2 as I could have. Some of the puzzles just drove me nuts, and the end of the game was so damn silly too. I guess I wasn't in a silly enough mood to think of the puzzle solutions.

Anyway, good luck with MI2, you'll need it.

[Dalixam]

Great article, I can relate completely. I was afraid I was the only one who felt like this. I think it also has something to do with getting older and having more things to do. I have to clean, cook, shop, do laundry, pay bills, work, etc. In my younger years when I got home from school I had nothing but time the rest of the day. (Well, maybe some homework). Also, with the world we live in today, I think our attention span has gotten smaller.

[Ninth]

Good article, very lively...

I can't relate that much, though, because I hate walkthroughs so much that I usually prefer to waste some time searching for the solution myself than using them.
I really have to be stuck for days to look at a walkthrough, and even then I hate it, and it spoils the game for me.

[maladroid]

Good job, there Emily. I really liked the amount of honesty you seem to have reponed (is that correst? Polylexicon translated that for me, hadn't heard the word before myself ) in it.

I think growing up does spoil the fun mainly because you always have something to do and can't help but feel kind of "guilty" when sitting in front of the PC for hours practically doing nothing productive but roaming through landscape screens birdwatching while you should be solving mind boggling puzzles!

Anyway I never was much of a patient gamer but things have definitely gonne worse during the last 2-3 years. I remember spending my whole Christmas hollidays sucking every bit out of Day of the Tentacle, not having the option of using Internet help. I only broke in front of the "squeeky mattress" puzzle, convincing myself to consult a walkthrough I dug up from a Net Cafe.
Ahhh...The days... Maybe this whole light-hearted approach with which we approached the whole adventure gaming bussiness was the reason we didn't mind putting all our time and effort trying to get every last drip they had to offer out of them (oh and the abundance of leisure time too, I guess).
I don't know, maybe this adult approach with which we compell ourselves to play a game spoils the fun. I mean I "love" playing games but when I was a kid I had tons of other options in what to do with my spare time, yet *chose* to invest it all into an adventure game which was then becoming my main interest for as long as it lasted. Nowadays I also choose to devote my limited spare time into a game but I feel like I somewhat *owe* it to myself, to the little untameable gamer still hiding in hybernation inside me. Maybe we're trying too hard to have fun with games, maybe I could just use some sex.. Dunno.

It could also be the vast amount of interesting games out there that won't let you have a moment's peace. I just find myself wanting to try so many different games (and I don't necessarily mean adventures) just to torture myself with lack of sleep or social life since the "legitimate" spare time of my day is too limited for rampant gaming..

Sorry for the "group therapy testimony", I just thought I'd share. I "know" you people for ages now but couldn't let myself open up till now.

Pan at will. There, I'll even make it easier for you


texallos

[fov]

I've never heard the word 'reponed' either.

I know what you mean about playing because you feel like you should - especially trying to cram as much as possible into your little bits of free time because you feel obligated to do so. I stay up really friggin late doing very little, just because I hate the idea of 'wasting' my few free hours. Then I get to work the next day very tired.

Once and awhile a game takes me by surprise, though, that makes the ones I'm not as excited about all worth it.

Maybe we're trying too hard to have fun with games, maybe I sould just use some sex.

No comment.

I think our attention spans have gotten shorter, particularly with the internet having everything 'right there' and the smaller and smaller bites that our media is packaged into. When I was a kid, you had like 4 minutes of commercials in every 30 minutes of television. Now it's more like 10. Everything's more fragmented, and I'm sure it has some impact on how our brains work.

"I'll help you get the information you seek, but first you must recover my lost hen. I last saw her walk towards the blacksmith shop."

-emily

[Dragonrose]

Originally Posted by Jake

Jeez at this alleged adventure summit the challenges you need to go through to get hints apparently become actual cliché adventure puzzles? "I'll help you get the information you seek, but first you must recover my lost hen. I last saw her walk towards the blacksmith shop."

I honestly never thought of it like that. I just wanted someone to go get me cookies.

[Claire]

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your article Emily, it was so fresh and original. Though the idea of having no phone and no internet for a week makes my toes curl!

[fov]

Thanks Claire!

Tell you the truth, it kind of made my toes curl too.