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lakerz

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Why don’t you play more adventure games?

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Joined 2018-12-01

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I am doing some research into why people do not play more adventure games. It could be anything, just provide a reason. This will be very helpful.

Thank you.

     
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Total Posts: 8720

Joined 2012-01-02

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What?
Who said? And why would you claim it into a fact that needs studying?

     
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Total Posts: 1239

Joined 2016-04-08

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Well, I’go first with probably the main reason of everybody: lack of time. Although I try to play between 15 and 20 adventure games a year, so I think I play enough.

Another reason would playing other kind of games as well. In my case, RTS games. I love Age of Empires, Warcraft, Starcraft, and that takes time.

And for me there is a third reason: I translate adventure games into Spanish, so testing the translations needs a lot of time

     

Currently translating Strangeland into Spanish. Wish me luck, or send me money to my Paypal haha

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Total Posts: 259

Joined 2017-05-18

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Various reasons but mostly because

a) I’m more into other games like shooters or RPGs so that’s where most of my gaming time and money goes..

and b) I’ve played way too many absolutely terrible, boring and badly translated or annoying adventure games in the past so today very few adventure games actually interest me.

I would say on average I play between 2 and 4 new adventure games a year (if even that) and it’s usually from the very few studios I know and trust. The ones I do play though are almost always great and well worth it. There are games I chuck in the bin before finishing though because they’re that bad.

Give me a game with an interesting story, interesting characters, interesting puzzles that make sense and an interesting world to explore and I’m a happy guy. Sadly for me, too many adventure games these days don’t have any of those. I’m picky when it comes to the genre.

Simply put, too many terrible games compared to the very few good and fewer great ones.

     
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Total Posts: 401

Joined 2003-09-16

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I haven’t been playing PC adventures mostly because my computer is too old to play the newer games, but also because the niche adventures (Myst-like) that I prefer are rarer now. I find myself playing more games on my iPad. Mostly ‘escape the room’ games or games like Alleys and The Room. The last Adventure I played on my PC was The Witness, and I played Eyes of Ara on my iPad last year.
Anyhow, the vast majority of new games being released do not appeal to me - especially the trend of dumbing down games in lieu of narrative, and the inclusion of active time events. So, even when I upgrade my PC console, I’ll be playing older games like Obduction and Quern.

     
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Total Posts: 860

Joined 2017-12-19

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Right question, wrong forum.

People here are probably among the last people on the planet playing adventure games. The real question is, why did some people stop playing them, making the most popular genre at one time a present-day niche?

I guess some of those played them as kids, but then “grew up” and found other interests. As for the rest of them, maybe they just follow whatever is trendy, and when adventures kind of evolved into action adventures and quests in MMORPGs they switched to those.

But why people who actually play adventure games don’t play even more adventure games, well, it’s probably a question of time, and in some cases lack of inspiring new releases.

If you browse the forum here or similar forums elsewhere many adventure gamers are unbelievably picky players. If it’s 1st person instead of 3rd person, they don’t play. If it’s pixelarts, they don’t play. If the game doesn’t have voiceovers, they don’t play. If the game has dead-ends, they don’t play. If the game is not available outside of Steam, they don’t play. (OK, that’s actually a good reason…)

Anyway, the point is, even if there are 100 new games released, they may not meet the criteria that some people have for their games.

In some rare cases it can be that the game is simply not available in English, but only in German/Spanish/French/Russian/Japanese. In some cases that can be fixed with fan patches though.

It might be helpful if you actually specified the kind of game that you would expect people to be playing more, so we could try to come up with more specific answers for that particular subset of adventures. Like, why people don’t play more 1st person pixelarts comical science fiction murder parodies with parser input? (Because there aren’t any, as far as I’m aware of…  Tongue )

     
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Total Posts: 401

Joined 2003-09-16

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GateKeeper - 25 January 2019 07:47 AM

Right question, wrong forum.

People here are probably among the last people on the planet playing adventure games. The real question is, why did some people stop playing them, making the most popular genre at one time a present-day niche?

I guess some of those played them as kids, but then “grew up” and found other interests. As for the rest of them, maybe they just follow whatever is trendy, and when adventures kind of evolved into action adventures and quests in MMORPGs they switched to those.

But why people who actually play adventure games don’t play even more adventure games, well, it’s probably a question of time, and in some cases lack of inspiring new releases.

If you browse the forum here or similar forums elsewhere many adventure gamers are unbelievably picky players. If it’s 1st person instead of 3rd person, they don’t play. If it’s pixelarts, they don’t play. If the game doesn’t have voiceovers, they don’t play. If the game has dead-ends, they don’t play. If the game is not available outside of Steam, they don’t play. (OK, that’s actually a good reason…)

Anyway, the point is, even if there are 100 new games released, they may not meet the criteria that some people have for their games.

In some rare cases it can be that the game is simply not available in English, but only in German/Spanish/French/Russian/Japanese. In some cases that can be fixed with fan patches though.

It might be helpful if you actually specified the kind of game that you would expect people to be playing more, so we could try to come up with more specific answers for that particular subset of adventures. Like, why people don’t play more 1st person pixelarts comical science fiction murder parodies with parser input? (Because there aren’t any, as far as I’m aware of…  Tongue )

Well said.

     

Total Posts: 310

Joined 2018-12-01

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Advie - 24 January 2019 03:24 AM

What?
Who said? And why would you claim it into a fact that needs studying?

I am not sure what you mean. What fact?

GateKeeper - 25 January 2019 07:47 AM

Right question, wrong forum.

People here are probably among the last people on the planet playing adventure games. The real question is, why did some people stop playing them, making the most popular genre at one time a present-day niche?

I guess some of those played them as kids, but then “grew up” and found other interests. As for the rest of them, maybe they just follow whatever is trendy, and when adventures kind of evolved into action adventures and quests in MMORPGs they switched to those.

But why people who actually play adventure games don’t play even more adventure games, well, it’s probably a question of time, and in some cases lack of inspiring new releases.

If you browse the forum here or similar forums elsewhere many adventure gamers are unbelievably picky players. If it’s 1st person instead of 3rd person, they don’t play. If it’s pixelarts, they don’t play. If the game doesn’t have voiceovers, they don’t play. If the game has dead-ends, they don’t play. If the game is not available outside of Steam, they don’t play. (OK, that’s actually a good reason…)

Anyway, the point is, even if there are 100 new games released, they may not meet the criteria that some people have for their games.

In some rare cases it can be that the game is simply not available in English, but only in German/Spanish/French/Russian/Japanese. In some cases that can be fixed with fan patches though.

It might be helpful if you actually specified the kind of game that you would expect people to be playing more, so we could try to come up with more specific answers for that particular subset of adventures. Like, why people don’t play more 1st person pixelarts comical science fiction murder parodies with parser input? (Because there aren’t any, as far as I’m aware of…  Tongue )

I would appreciate it if you didn’t try to change the thread topic Smile

I was looking for subjective answers, not objective reasoning why people do certain things. Although I am certainly not against that topic, maybe we could have another thread to discuss it?

     
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Total Posts: 8471

Joined 2011-10-21

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I’ll just repeat what’s already been said by others:

The main reason is lack of time. I have maybe 4 evenings each week where I could have a 3-hour block for gaming. Subtract from that all the films and series I watch together with the missus, and there’s maybe 4-6 hours left?

Subtract from that my tendency to “Wiki walk” (e.g. quickly opening Wikipedia because I can’t think of the name of Led Zeppelin’s bass player, and suddenly realizing two hours have passed, I have 27 browser tabs open and am reading about the fabrics used in making tennis balls) with Wikipedia, IMDb, TV Tropes and YouTube being prime candidates for this, and I maybe spend an average of 2-4 hours each week actually gaming.

And then I also play other genres, mainly RPGs, sports games and Civilization games, and all those are FAR larger time sinks per individual game than adventure games. While I may play them in about equal numbers, the time playing adventure games is far less in comparison.



This also means that I hardly ever play any new games, but there’s a plus side to that: I can be really selective and pick only the ones I’m pretty sure I’ll actually like…

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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Total Posts: 683

Joined 2010-02-05

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It boils down to time and what I’m in the mood to play.

This month (January) I’ve played:
Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals
Lost Eden
Armed and Dangerous
Lake Ridden
Tacoma
Tsioque

December I played:
All you Can Eat
The Dame Was Loaded (Thanks mbday630)
LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens
Need for Speed Payback

     

I Am the Knight of the Order of the Sun!

Total Posts: 1891

Joined 2010-11-16

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I think “right question wrong forum” nails it.
We are the people who *are* playing adventure games. For me, why am i not playing more adventure games is the same question as why dont i play more games of any genre. If everyone played adventures as much as we do the genre would compete with rpgs.
The best answer to why am i not playing more games in genres i like is: i dont have time.
The best answer for the general population is probably: “.... Whats an adventure game? You mean like zelda?”

     

Total Posts: 260

Joined 2014-12-25

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Currently, I hardly play anything else.
But to help you out, let me quote a kid from an anti-adventure discussion at another forum:

“I have to think at school already, I don’t want to think in my free time, too.”

Yes, that’s exactly what he wrote. About adventure games and about puzzles in video games in general. Good night, civilization.

     
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LittleRose - 25 January 2019 03:01 PM

Currently, I hardly play anything else.
But to help you out, let me quote a kid from an anti-adventure discussion at another forum:

“I have to think at school already, I don’t want to think in my free time, too.”

Yes, that’s exactly what he wrote. About adventure games and about puzzles in video games in general. Good night, civilization.

Funny that’s one of the things I like about adventure games, and its also why I don’t care for Telltale “games”.

     

I Am the Knight of the Order of the Sun!

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Total Posts: 8720

Joined 2012-01-02

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Del.
Hell, too many none adventurers at this adventuring site.

     

Total Posts: 106

Joined 2003-09-13

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Personal opinion/taste ofc, but I stopped playing point & clicks cos I find the “gameplay loop” to be tedious. Imagine if, when you read a book of an interesting story, or watched an interesting adventure movie, that the character stopped every 2 minutes to filter through an inventory.

Or when they met another person they cycled through 8 different things to ask them… You’d put the book down thinking “this isn’t going anywhere”. Although there’s a case to be made that these things decrease linearity, which is a good thing, they definitely increase arbitrary busywork, which in the nature of “telling a story” seems to me, to be detrimental. A good story should flow and not feel obstructed at every step of the way. Point and clicks are effectively at their core, a series of obstructions in front of a story. This is why I feel some p&c developers have great potential as storytellers, they just choose a non optimal format to tell their story.

There are some nice streamlined point n clicks out there. But for every one of those you have another 10 that stick to the traditional, archaic, slow moving formula. Granted, it’s a good way to get story, exposition, facts and world-building across, in bulk at least. But I don’t personally derive “fun” from that format anymore. I discussed it before but I think I just grew to enjoy “action adventures” more over recent years, which point and clicks are most definitely not. They are storybooks with more interaction but less pace. Nowadays I find them fundamentally flawed because of it. So I wouldn’t say I don’t play (or stopped playing) “adventures” by any means. I just stopped playing point n clicks, because they feel somewhat an inferior way of telling a story.

That’s just in terms of my personal taste, I know their format is beloved by many and the storytelling aspect can be fine and exemplary in some instances. But it’s no secret I don’t play them anymore and probably wouldn’t even if you paid me to, so have had to put some thought into why that is, cos certainly in the 90’s I enjoyed the p&c format very much. I would say to devs to use the “traditional point and click” as the template. Well, you don’t want to release just a filled in template, do you. So expand it, streamline it and you never know…might catch the attention of action-adventure fans in the process.

     
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Total Posts: 111

Joined 2006-12-29

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LittleRose - 25 January 2019 03:01 PM

Currently, I hardly play anything else.
But to help you out, let me quote a kid from an anti-adventure discussion at another forum:

“I have to think at school already, I don’t want to think in my free time, too.”

Yes, that’s exactly what he wrote. About adventure games and about puzzles in video games in general. Good night, civilization.

Heh, as an academic I can actually kind of sympathize. Not to this extent obviously, but there have been times where I purposely avoided harder games because I had gotten enough challenge from my day job.

On the main topic: my attention is divided since I’m also into puzzle, tactics, strategy and platform games. I try to be picky about what I do play.

     

The golden age of mathematics - that was not the age of Euclid, it is ours. -Cassius Jackson Keyser

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