Adventure Gamers - Forums

I think youre asking for trouble here

This genre has never fit neatly in classification, nor should it. What separates a game from being perceived an adventure is the depth and focus of other mechanics. For example planescape torment in many ways could be called an adventure game, but its strongly rooted in rpg mechanics and lets face it, a game is more likely to take on the rpg label because it is just a more widely understood and accepted label. Especially for the mainstream, adventure is most likely applied if they just have nothing else to call it

zane - 10 February 2017 09:04 AM

I think youre asking for trouble here

This genre has never fit neatly in classification, nor should it. What separates a game from being perceived an adventure is the depth and focus of other mechanics. For example planescape torment in many ways could be called an adventure game, but its strongly rooted in rpg mechanics and lets face it, a game is more likely to take on the rpg label because it is just a more widely understood and accepted label. Especially for the mainstream, adventure is most likely applied if they just have nothing else to call it

I believe the best definition of what makes an adventure game is given by Charles Cecil:

“Adventure games entwine the story with the gameplay. They are absolutely, inextricably linked.”

The shooting part of an FPS is independent from the story. The fighting and other skills used in an RPG are independent from the story. But in an adventure, the way you advance the game is by considering the story presented by the game and doing what is necessary within that situation to advance the plot.

If you think about it in this way, it is a very clearly defined genre.

BitingWit - 10 February 2017 09:31 AM

I believe the best definition of what makes an adventure game is given by Charles Cecil:

“Adventure games entwine the story with the gameplay. They are absolutely, inextricably linked.”

The shooting part of an FPS is independent from the story. The fighting and other skills used in an RPG are independent from the story. But in an adventure, the way you advance the game is by considering the story presented by the game and doing what is necessary within that situation to advance the plot.

Then lets go back to planescape, a game that is very deeply entwined with its story. Nearly the entire game can be spent with dialogue choices and exploration centered around problem solving, the combat can be ignored. Not unlike a game like QFG which was marketed as adventure but contained trivial battle mechanics. Still you wont find many people making that case for planescape because of its rpg association.

tomimt - 10 February 2017 12:50 PM

I’d even argue that RPG elements aren’t an integral part of Planescape Torment, as it doesn’t reallu encourage experimenting with different kinds of charcater builds. In fact there’s only one kind of build that allows you to get all the story and that’s a charcater with high intelligence and wisdom, as all the other builds wont be able to unlock some of the Nameless One’s memories and puzzles left behind by the previous incarnations.

If anything P:T is more like interactive fiction with poorly done RPG elements in it.

I get the impression you’re thinking like a collector rather than a roleplayer there though - you might need high int/wis to unlock more of the memories and maybe to get the ‘best’ ending, but there are other paths through the game if you commit to other decisions and focus on the character interactions. Solving the mystery isn’t the only story there.

Advie try oxenfree, if that aint AG then KZ0 neither
In anycase , try it if you like stories
Also check this if it tickles your fancy,

and play this

BitingWit - 10 February 2017 09:31 AM

“Adventure games entwine the story with the gameplay. They are absolutely, inextricably linked.”

The shooting part of an FPS is independent from the story. The fighting and other skills used in an RPG are independent from the story.

Not necessary, you can avoid conflict by using other skills in DeusEx or Torment
And it becomes part of narrative, it depends on game not genre
Its a story in ReDead to take out bandits, its wild west so they need to shoot and conquer dont make them AG and so on
Infact puzzles in AGs are mostly independent from story same as fighting in game nowadays
Some really stupid puzzles that doesnt fit story even break immersion

Cecil is type of a guy who can be asked if his definition holds up now and he would answer, my fav Dev in AG biz

nomadsoul - 13 February 2017 05:19 AM

Cecil is type of a guy who can be asked if his definition holds up now and he would answer, my fav Dev in AG biz

He said something very similar in AdvX2016. I can’t remember his exact words. I’m sure it can be found on youtube.

Advie - 07 June 2017 10:10 PM

again? lol
http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2017/05/31/point-and-click-is-dead-again
read til the end!

What a confusing article. “Point and click is dead!! Here is a non-PnC title (Syberia 3) to prove it!!”

Wow, I am just fascinated how many times journalists need to write a stupid article about how the genre is dead. Just these past few months, 3 traditional point and click adventure games(The Wardrobe, Paradigm, and thimbleweed park) came out, and all three got great reviews.

Lets start with parser games. Ideal parser game is a game that lets you interact with game world anyway you can parse and you you have to figure out ways to interact with world to reach your goals. From that point of view adventure games without parser are nearly adventures, because ammount of finding ways to interact with world dries down and games come even more inventory centered. (Strangely enough, games with hand icon give player more ways to interact with people and inventory items than they give player ways to interact with lifeless objects in enviroment.) Typical MYST clone was low on inventory and therefore nearly point and click adventure. Then again, games about making choices remove steps in interacting with game world. From that point of view, choice based games are very far removed from ideal where you can interact with game world almost any way and have to find ways to reach your goals.