New Year’s 2009: Out with the Old, In with the Less Old

Written by
Jack Allin — January 1, 2009

Happy new year, adventuredom! I trust everyone has had an enjoyable (and safe) holiday season, preferably with a new game or two in hand.

The turn of a new calendar year is always a time for both reflection on days past and anticipation of days future... and occasionally the odd hangover, possibly for the same reasons. I had every intention of doing a kind of “year in review” wrap-up of 2008, but I’ve always been more of a forward-looking sort of guy. (Having a memory like a sieve might go a long way to explaining that.) So I won’t spend long on the year now left behind. We all lived through it, so it’s not like I’d be telling you anything you didn’t already know.

I will say that the year felt… shall we say, underwhelming from an adventure perspective. Oh, we had our fair share of games, and plenty of good ones at that. But few are destined to be considered classics. Perhaps somewhat uncomfortably, the notable exceptions include individual game episodes, a portable puzzle collection and a genre-blending hybrid that was originally released in 2007. That’s not to diminish those games in any way, as each stands as a worthy example of the genre’s diversity, which is part of what we love about it. Still, it highlights a rather distinct void of truly standout titles among the more traditional adventures for the year. Some would argue that’s been an ongoing issue since the “golden era”, but it did feel more pronounced last year than in others.

On the topic of “best of” considerations, I’m sure many have noticed that Adventure Gamers has never done an official year-end awards feature. Rest assured that we’re not against it on principle (no matter how incredibly clichéd), so it’s for entirely practical reasons that we’ve rejected the idea so far. The problem is simply that none of us have played all the games, or even enough of them to compare fairly. If ten games are nominated and most of us have played no more than four or five, there’s simply no viable way of measuring games against each other. There are ways to ignore this insurmountable issue, but no legitimate way to overcome it. So to date we’ve chosen not to adopt one of the lesser, compromising solutions. But having said that, we will once again take a close look at the notion this year, and if there’s a high enough degree of staff input, the tide may finally turn. (I’m not being a tease – I don’t know either!)

Before turning our gaze to the year to come, I’ll make one final observation about 2008, as what began in the old will impact the new. I’ve noticed at least three separate portents of bad news for the genre emerging these last twelve months. Now, there’s nothing easier than predicting doom and gloom. The appeal of being cynical is that it’s the one time you don’t mind being wrong. But I’m not trying to be cynical, nor am I pronouncing disaster. What I am saying is that there are some trends occurring which don’t bode well for the genre’s success. How much tangible evidence we see in 2009 remains to be seen, as it could be more relevant to 2010 and beyond, but it’s coming. This time I am being a tease by not naming these issues, but only because I plan to cover each individually in future blogs. If I open the can of worms now, they’ll be crawling everywhere.

So… 2009. With 365 untarnished days ahead of us, I considered writing another list of new year’s resolutions for the genre. But then I revisited last year’s resolutions and realized to my great dismay (but no surprise whatsoever) that so few of them were realized in 2008, or accomplished on such a limited scale, that the list would look almost identical this year. Sigh. Hopefully I can put check marks beside more of them a year from now and move ahead to new and loftier goals.

As far as individual games, even with dark clouds visible on the horizon, there’s good stuff to keep an eye on. First and foremost is Jane Jensen’s long-awaited (and several times thwarted) return to the genre with Gray Matter. Will we actually see the game this year? Impossible to say, for anyone at this stage. With a release “date” of only “2009”, it’s clear even the developers don’t have a firm grasp on the timeframe just yet. The new interactive movie-adventurelike-quicktime action thingie from Quantic Dream, Heavy Rain, should gain some traction this year as well, though that seems an even longer shot for release this year than Gray Matter. And with the likes of a new Telltale series starring the beloved claymation characters Wallace & Gromit and the first feature-length adventure from the developer of Samorost coming, there’s even more to look forward to. Much of the remaining excitement can be summed up in one word: sequels! Chances are, at least a handful of anyone’s most-anticipated games this year will have a number at the end. It may not be the most original approach, but more of what we already like is never a bad thing.

On a site level, Adventure Gamers will once again look to make improvements in key areas. We have at least two exciting new features planned, with many other enhancements under consideration. The only issue – as always – is simply finding the time necessary to make it all happen. There’s never as much as we need, and one result of that will almost certainly be a new (volunteer) hiring spree. We consider applications on an ongoing basis, of course, but at some point we’ll probably make a more widespread appeal to nudge those still on the fence. But if you’re reading this and are interested in helping, why not beat the rush?

Apart from that, more games, more coverage, more screenshots, more articles, more blo…. well, hopefully more blogging! Remember what I said about time? So we’ll see, but we’ll try.

And with that, I’m off. It is a holiday, after all, and I need more aspirin. Happy gaming, folks, and best wishes for a great year from all of us here at Adventure Gamers.