[Adventurere No.1]

i already started writing an article about three decades of adventuring where i notice that every decade of those past years of Adventure has some sort of Characteristics on it own
analyzing
i started to write about the 80's and left the 90's and 00's for later on, though i found it good for my skills (which are poor) in writting more being nostalgic as the usual ... so i want to do that and i need your to put out hand on the three decade that pasted and maybe at the end we can see/write about how the fourth would be ... here is what i wrote (DRAFT).
so far

80's: those years with no hesitating or a 2nd thought are the years Of Sierra and Ken Williams we surly can not forget the great impact of LucasArts too through the last of that decade , and as much as their time was not such big period in the 80's (only 3 years) but it was much so great.

so how can someone describe the start of Adventure Games through the 80's, i guess this would take a whole book to be stated fairly , so i will say it was the birth of the genre the accompanied also with the birth of IBM and PC technology/interface,
i can tell that all people worked at this era/decade to create adventure games where like REAL great artists, making an impossible dream, fighting all the odds and if i am not extracting they where giving a message to the world that all those Cassette and Cartridge's platforms with nothing but some games that simulate your reflexes without any space/use for the mind of the player and the need for thinking, just to hit the button at the right time,just big a waste of time i must say ...
sometime (even now) i hear someone would say this game was not bad it killed/passed the time and i how much i hate to hear it ,because those people of that era were no less than Movie Directors and Great Novelists and maybe more.

ok if i talked about 80's more then i will never talk about anything else, i wished this would not lead me to nostalgia but ... here it is.
from text phaser to that with graphics to point and click and mouse usage! i can say clearly the 80's wrote down the roles , the dictionary of Adventure gaming.
... i have to stop here .


90's: are the years of gaining the time for getting rewarded for everything that happened back at the 80's ... when you think you seen it all , the 90's comes with a great number of developers and designers that bloomed , glowed and shined , sierra was evaluating more and had the best achievement same as Lucasarts was booming and many other showed then, with ideas they(sierra&Lucas) had never even thought of .. the breakthrough of Myst and Riven and the selling numbers they made just put Adventure gaming to top of its time .. if someone did think that the 80's were just a experiment then all that have changed in the 90's ....

.................................................. ..................


Ok that what i wrote and you can throw it in the garbage or try to help me to get something good out of it... i am thinking that 3 or 4 would work on this and everyone would take an era/decade that he/she thinks sees it more deeply and at the end we can write something good which might evaluate Adventure gaming and also may determine the fourth upcoming decade of adventure games

if you have any bad shit any kinnda of depressing trolling post i will be glad to hear because i am sure more will have better things to say.


P.S: i did speak easily as this is what i am good at i do not have a big vocabulary to phrase or point to some scientific expression ,sorry.

[Intense Degree]

Originally Posted by Adventurere No.1

I am thinking that 3 or 4 would work on this and everyone would take an era/decade that he/she thinks sees it more deeply and at the end we can write something good which might evaluate Adventure gaming and also may determine the fourth upcoming decade of adventure games

[What follows is my opinion. It is meant only as constructive criticism and not as personal criticism and I hope that is clear from the below.]

Lofty goals A1. Not necessarily a bad thing, but you may need to slow down a little. Some initial observations I would make.

1. Being honest, your English is not up to a standard that makes it easy to read, or frankly comprehensible is some parts. Now don't get me wrong, your English is much better than my Egyptian Arabic(!), but I wonder if you would be better writing in your first language. Nothing to stop you getting it translated and proof read afterwards. I'm sorry if this seems harsh, but I want to be honest.

2. The scope of the subject is massive. Really massive. Unless you plan on writing a book I don't know if it can easily be done justice in an article.

3. You writing shows your opinion and enthusiasm in broad terms but is not backed up at all by any facts. You do not mention a single game in the 80's to illustrate a point. You talk about the fact that Sierra/Lucasarts were influential but say nothing about how or why.

4. Similarly you go on to say "I can tell that...", but how? What shows us this?

5. Again, if the 80's did lay down the rules of adventure gaming, what are they?

So, in summary, my initial advice would be:

1. Start smaller. Maybe stick to "The 1980's rules of adventure gaming" - that sounds interesting to me and is still a big topic in its own right.

2. Think about and plan what you want to say in the article before diving in and writing. Try and give it some structure so it flows from point to point.

3. Do tell us what you think, but make sure you say why you think it and give some examples to explain your points.

Hope that helps.

[Adventurere No.1]

agree totally , because what you said are all facts ..no one point is not correct

but maybe i didnt make the idea itself clear , not even close

... all that i wrote is not even a draft its something you can call it like a start to understand what i am wishing to happen, i dont or can not write something that Massive as you said!, that why i posted this now so maybe when all these forums are archived pretty soon, maybe (just maybe) some of you guys who speaks English as the 1st language can start it .

believe me its something that i want and i know that can not , but as i said maybe it would be a nice idea if we made some thread (forget about this, call it just a suggestion) that we can all discuss the 3 decades of Adventure until this moment .

thanks alot Intense Degree

[Arial Type]

Originally Posted by Adventurere No.1

80's: those years with no hesitating or a 2nd thought are the years Of Sierra and Ken Williams we surly can not forget the great impact of LucasArts too through the last of that decade , and as much as their time was not such big period in the 80's (only 3 years) but it was much so great.

This is already all so wrong. 80's was the era of interactive fiction with Infocom, Magnetic Scrolls and Scott Adams on top. Sierra only shared the market, not monopolized it.

[Adventurere No.1]

here we go!

i know that zork was out there before Ken even started anything , but to talk about an era i guess not talk about who was the 1st, like Stephen King wasnt the 1st Horror storyteller but the 80's was his era ,if that makes any scene for you

but then here we go

[chrissie]

Hi Adventurere

I don't know whether you're familiar with this site but it seems it could be a good starting point for what you are suggesting?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_game

[Adventurere No.1]

i know it , but that is a survey ,i was looking for a players discussion where every one shares what he knows, felt and think of.

that why i liked Arial Type post by say "Here we go" as a start... because this is how it should be.. never wanted just stating some facts A-b-c...

[Arial Type]

Originally Posted by Adventurere No.1

i know that zork was out there before Ken even started anything , but to talk about an era i guess not talk about who was the 1st, like Stephen King wasnt the 1st Horror storyteller but the 80's was his era ,if that makes any scene for you

What about Clive Barker, John Saul?

I am no IF expert, but even I know that Infocom produced around 40 games in ten years period, and the company's business was very successful up until the end of 80's. The same goes to other IF giants. So it might be a good idea to check Wikipedia or other articles before starting such a huge work.

[Adventurere No.1]

Originally Posted by Arial Type

such a huge work.

sure its Mr Arial that why i said would not do it myself or by myself alone , i need your help ...
or maybe not and it was just a bad idea..

i dont know but what pulled me was that i found out or lets say noticed that every decade from 80's-90's-00, had a catch that i can not put my hand on
like if we say the 80's Adventure was an experiment or just the start of something new like the 70's was the start of heavy metal.
90's was the time of the big hits and the great smashing copies selling
00's was the blooming time for all,.. freewars and indies and fans works to take the genre back to it golden days.

until now the living time of '10 and with all those kickstarters and the come back of many of the classic designers...

i thought there is something here should be examined ... or lets just say interesting .

[chrissie]

Originally Posted by Adventurere No.1

00's was the blooming time for all,.. freewars and indies and fans works to take the genre back to it golden days.

until now the living time of '10 and with all those kickstarters and the come back of many of the classic designers...

i thought there is something here should be examined ... or lets just say interesting .

I disagree that the 00's were a blooming time for all! The games since at least then have not had the level of backing from publishers they enjoyed in the previous decade(s)! Hence the many freewares & indies produced by developers dedicated to the genre which for the most part they've had to finance themselves!
The mainstream gaming media generally has since then attacked the genre quite viciously & still do so there have been difficult years with many AG developers not being able to get the support to develop & publish games. Most of the backed games come from mainland European countries where the genre tends to be more popular but many are not released in multiple languages! It's still the case now otherwise why would there be so many kickstarter campaigns? Despite that there have been some very good AGs produced!

I think the advent of instant download, & ports to DS, ipods & that sort of thing where you can 'game on the go' may start to give a new lease of life to AGs generally through access to a wider range of people who never knew what they were missing! - but there's still a way to go!

[Arial Type]

Well, if the idea is to split 30 years into 3 significant periods that influenced further development of the genre, then maybe it makes sense. Although I'd still call 80's Text vs. Graphics era. 89-90 were the years of Infocom demise and the first fully mouse-driven Sierra release (King's Quest 5). After that all text ags went underground, and the fight between story- and puzzle-driven games started, followed by crisis and episodic boom. That's how I see it. You have more of a marketing approach. It might be also interesting, like analyzing why Myst, the best-selling adventure (and one of the best-selling PC games) ever released, didn't survive the 00's.

[Adventurere No.1]

Originally Posted by Arial Type

Well, if the idea is to split 30 years into 3 significant periods that influenced further development of the genre, then maybe it makes sense.

if you agree to that at least ,how about you draw a Graph Curve for the time between 1980 until 2010 ...
i can try ... though i would like you to do it as i had my off time to Adventures for long years in that period ..

ok lets say (i wish i can really draw it) .. maybe someone has the tool. anyway.

'80- '86 = below 0 ..
'86 -'98 = above zero and then up , up and more up and a big halt! maybe considering then Adventuring had reached its climax .
(then Sierra and Lucas shutting down) ,'98 - '04 = An almost flat line period, ...
'04 until '10 = down and down with a some little boosts once in a while but so rarely .

so if this is by any chance is near right ,how would we predict the upcoming decade (upon that past) ..

i am sorry to say that with signs of the games telltale been giving lately , i guess the real classic Adventure Games will be like something we only be happy to remember and that we really lived , something very good maybe like that era for Classical music of Mozart and Bach

[Arial Type]

Originally Posted by Adventurere No.1

if you agree to that at least ,how about you draw a Graph Curve for the time between 1980 until 2010 ...
i can try ... though i would like you to do it as i had my off time to Adventures for long years in that period ..
so if this is by any chance is near right ,how would we predict the upcoming decade (upon that past) ..

As I said, I know very little about IFs and that period - I started playing ags only in the mid 90's. But I'm sure the popularity of adventure genre in 80's was far from zero, simply because it was one of the few genres available at all. And I would say that the crisis started right after Doom and Quake came out, around mid 90's. But I'm afraid it requires more researching before drawing graphs. AG genre is the hardest one in terms of history and definitions.

[chrissie]

There's a link to a thread with AG graphs in your 'Wizarbox and Feminism' thread Adventurere!

Just scroll down:
http://www.adventuregamers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=596829#post596829

[Adventurere No.1]

thanks a lot ,and yea as it depends on the top 100s list but still True enough and somehow it is similar to my post above .

thanks chrissie you are a sweetheart

[Adventurere No.1]

Here it is again , it is such great survey thanks Kurufinwe you had made a great effort

The true Golden Age of adventures

When looking at the years at which the games were released, it's useful to have both the raw number of games (top) and the results weighted by rank (bottom):

I think those graphs are absolutely amazing: they give a perfect picture of the history of graphic adventures. We may have our gripes about some games on the list, but I think these graphs confirm that the top-100 is a very fair and accurate representation of the genre.

You can clearly distinguish several periods:

• 1987–1993, the Sierra-LucasArts era: The classical era. The graph shows the companies perfecting their craft, releasing more and more great games. 1990 to 92 have the same number of games on the list, but the quality is steadily increasing, climaxing in . . .
• 1993, the golden year, the turning point: 1993 is the year when the Sierra/LEC classical style reached its peak, with games such as GK1 and Sam & Max. But it's also the year when Myst and The 7th Guest shook everything up. Sierra and LEC had failed to see the potential of the CD-ROM, but these two games showed that the new technology could be used to create a completely new experience. 1994 was a slow year, when everyone was trying to build the infrastructure to catch up with Myst, but the best was to come . . .
• 1995–1998, multimedia madness: The glorious era. After the success of Myst, people over-evaluated the potential of the genre for commercial success. And nobody really knew what might work. So for a few years, you had games that combined the inventiveness and risk-taking of independent productions with the budget of Hollywood movies. Those were crazy, nonsensical years. Those games that we got from this glorious period are to be treasured, because it will never happen again: those games were commercially disappointing (or outright failures) and the bubble burst, leading to . . .
• 1999–2003, the death of a genre: After the end of the multimedia madness, the new hot technology was real-time 3D. And this time, the genre was utterly unable to embrace the new tech to renew itself. Those were the lean years, with just a few 2.5D gems to tide us over.
• 2004– , recovery: Looking at the list and at the graphs, things have been going better and better. 2010-2011 were around the levels of 1990-1991. We'll never see another 1996, but maybe a new 1993 is around the corner, just in time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Golden Year of Adventure Gaming.

.[/QUOTE]

[chrissie]

Adventurere, as far as I can tell it's just the lower graph that reflects the top 100 - the top graph shows the number of games produced, I think?

[Gabe]

Advie.1 are you considering to write an ag encyclopedia,that
would be swell.

[Kurufinwe]

Originally Posted by chrissie

Adventurere, as far as I can tell it's just the lower graph that reflects the top 100 - the top graph shows the number of games produced, I think?

No they're both based on the Top-100 (otherwise, it would mean that no adventure game was released in 2000, which would be crazy; it just means that no good adventure was released in 2000). The second graph is weighted by rank, i.e. 1 point for game #100, 41 points for game #60, 100 points for game #1, etc.

[Adventurere No.1]

i see , the more the number you get in one year the more it surely gives much better choices..

little of topic but the year 2008 was also a great one of quality and quantity productions with
Dracula 3
Perry Rhodan
Overclocked
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Sam & Max
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Nikopol
The Lost Crown
Outcry
A Vampyre Story
So Blonde
Chronicles of Mystery
The Tales of Bingwood:
Dracula: Origin
Murder in the Abbey
Sinking Island
and some others too...

which comparing to the graph and the years followed it was one of the best years in that last decade