The Past/Future of adventure gaming

[Welshy]

Reading a little blog about adventure gaming and its planted some thoughts in my brain.

Adventurous Gameous: The Rebirth

Basically, the question asked is - Will the popularity in adventure games continue to rise? If so, can it stay that way for long if the genre cannot evolve any further?

I especially like this part about TT: "I don't doubt that the rise in adventure games has been partially if not almost entirely down to them."

Personally I doubt we will see a continual rise in popularity - although im sure the new Monkey Islands will help a bit.

Thoughts?

[PariahKing]

It'll get more popular but it'll never be mainstream as say Halo.

But I'm OK with that.

[Secret Fawful]

Originally Posted by PariahKing

It'll get more popular but it'll never be mainstream as say Halo.

But I'm OK with that.

Well, actually there is an adventure game that is as mainstream and talked about and well known as Halo. It's called Myst. Seriously, even the least nerdy jocks and preppies are people I have heard praise this game. I've never played it myself though, so I don't know why it's so praiseworthy, but it is indeed one of the most mainstream adventure games ever made.

[Marduk]

I think the decline of adventure games was largely down to the way that so many of the early ones tried to not only defeat the player but often make it impossible to finish the game if they missed something important early on. (This was one of the things Ron Gilbert was trying to put a stop to with Monkey Island).

Even after MI, when so few adventures followed the old tactic, there were still often player defeating puzzles and it would be years before the internet was widely accessible so that people could just look up hints. (I don't think there were any books just for walkthroughs but even if there were I can't imagine too many people buying them. We don't pay to cheat, do we?)

As Pariah said; Adventure games may never be quite as popular as halo or GTA or whatever else but I do think people are looking for something more from games. For a while now the stories of most games have been becoming more and more advanced and I'm certain that this is something the consumers are asking for and not something being forced upon them (why would developers want to waste resources on extra content when they don't need to?)

Today was the very first time I have ever seen an adventure game advertised on TV. And I'm not talking about reviews on some games show that nobody watches but a whole advertisement paid for by Nintendo; "Another Code: R" and I really think that means something.

So yes, adventures may never be as popular as more 'action packed' games. But I think that if the right game was to come along, a game with a great story and just the right levels of excitement, suspense, humour, intrigue, (etc etc etc) it can attract floods of people that nobody ever expected.

Originally Posted by Secret Fawful

Well, actually there is an adventure game that is as mainstream and talked about and well known as Halo. It's called Myst. Seriously, even the least nerdy jocks and preppies are people I have heard praise this game. I've never played it myself though, so I don't know why it's so praiseworthy, but it is indeed one of the most mainstream adventure games ever made.

Myst came out in 1993, before adventure games started 'dying out'. Yeah, it was the world's best selling game before the sims but by that time Adventure games were an obscure genre and the titles within it were generally unknown among the unwashed masses.

[Rather Dashing]

The capacity for adventure games to evolve really does exist. Loom and Maniac Mansion did things that no other adventure had ever done, providing interfaces not yet seen. You can see the interface simplifying over the years, from guess-the-text parsers to verb bars to selections of a few verbs to single click.

And there is an adventure game as popular and mainstream as Halo. It's called Portal.

The idea that adventure games have one future that they'll all stick to doesn't sit well with me. I'd like to see a lot of people go off in radically different directions when it comes to puzzle-driven narrative games.

[LuigiHann]

My facts could be mostly wrong, but the idea that rang the most true to me was that the adventure game scene hasn't gotten any smaller --- it just stayed the same size while video games became hugely mainstream. So now instead of being a large chunk of the small computer games market, it's a tiny spot in the massive video games market.

[Welshy]

I would say the market definitely had shrunk over the years and has been doing so since, say, around 1997/8 until now, and still were not seeing too many. They used to flood the market and only now are these types of games coming back onto the shelves but its still few and far between. Hopefully we will see more.

Rather_Dashing
Personally I wouldn't count the likes of Portal as a true adventure game but more simply a puzzle game, although i'm sure some people might. Maybe the reason were not seeing so many old school adventure games is that they have evolved and aspects of them have mixed into other genre's? Our Zelda's, Portals and MMO's.

[LuigiHann]

When I said "the market" I was (at least as my intention) referring to the group of people that want to buy adventure games. There's still a market for adventure games, but the markets for other types of games have grown so much that most gaming companies don't see it as a worthwhile focus. That was the point I was going for.

Portal is an adventure game. Sure, the puzzles are a bit rigid and structured, especially at the beginning, but that was also the case with, for example, Myst 3. It's a design choice but it doesn't nullify its adventure status, in my opinion.

[MusicallyInspired]

If it evolves, it'll survive and grow. If people keep complaining about wanting to keep 2D graphics and P&C interfaces, it will die again.

My facts could be mostly wrong, but the idea that rang the most true to me was that the adventure game scene hasn't gotten any smaller --- it just stayed the same size while video games became hugely mainstream. So now instead of being a large chunk of the small computer games market, it's a tiny spot in the massive video games market.

That's an interesting observation. I've never really looked at it like that before.

[Rather Dashing]

Originally Posted by Welshy

Rather_Dashing
Personally I wouldn't count the likes of Portal as a true adventure game but more simply a puzzle game, although i'm sure some people might. Maybe the reason were not seeing so many old school adventure games is that they have evolved and aspects of them have mixed into other genre's? Our Zelda's, Portals and MMO's.

I disagree. I do think there is a difference between puzzle games and adventure games, and even puzzle games with a narrative and adventure games. But Portal is definitely full-on Adventure.

An Adventure game is a game in which the puzzles move the story forward. The structure of Portal may have been designed in such a way that the narrative was wrapped around the puzzles, but all the same it's not in the same league as, say, "Professor Layton".

The lack of an inventory or other such mainstays of the genre doesn't really change much. It's an adventure game to me in the same way that Loom is.

[Marduk]

Originally Posted by Rather Dashing

And there is an adventure game as popular and mainstream as Halo. It's called Portal.

I would quite like to see adventure games go in "radical different directions", too, but I think one of the defining aspects of the genre is that it lacks action. Otherwise it's just an Platformer, Sandbox or FPS with puzzles.*

Sadly, this may have been one of the contributing factors in the genre's lack of popularity.

But now that consumers are actually seeking stories in their games is probably one of the factors in their revival, as an Adventure is nothing if not a self contained story that moves at your pace that you can feel involved in. TTG has really latched onto this with making their games episodic. To me that is a different direction that some have even considered radical (I don't know if they're the first game company to come up with this but kudos if they are ), which allows for contained stories.


*An exception to this might be ‘In Cold Blood’ by Revolution Software which gives you the option of using your gun to shoot enemies (unless the situation requires stealth) but it isn't required. Actually, no... It's a stealth game with puzzles, forget I mentioned it.

Originally Posted by LuigiHann

When I said "the market" I was (at least as my intention) referring to the group of people that want to buy adventure games. There's still a market for adventure games, but the markets for other types of games have grown so much that most gaming companies don't see it as a worthwhile focus. That was the point I was going for.

I understood what you said You're saying that the adventure games market has remained the same while the entire games market has expanded exponentially.

And I think there's a good chance you're right.

It doesn't seem so long since computer games were viewed as an obscure form of entertainment for kids and the nerdy. But a lot of that market was made up of youngsters who wouldn't have had much attention for Adventures, even SMI and its successors. I think they’d have been behind the demand for games with much more action. (I’m certain they might be the reason why so many console games in the mid 90s were scrolling platformers).

[badmonk]

Originally Posted by Rather Dashing

And there is an adventure game as popular and mainstream as Halo. It's called Portal.

sorry but i would not class portal as an adventure game! its a puzzle/platform played in first person!

i'd say adventure titles were major big when they first came out, then sort of 'died' out (apart from the hardcore fanbase) now i believe they are making a comeback and grabbing a whole new audience

heavy rain for the PS3 looks like its a 'next gen' adventure title with point 'n' click elements and some QTE thrown in, def worth checking out if you have a PS3 and into adventure games

http://e3.gamespot.com/video/6211160/

[PariahKing]

I feel kind of like this debate over whether something is or isn't an adventure game is a bit silly. Metal has fifty bazillion different genres within it but overall they're still within a brand known as metal. Portal qualifies as an adventure game just as much as this bit of True Scottish Pirate Metal is legitimately metal, despite it's occasional accordion rifts and bits of instruments from the 1500s. Is it within the exact same genre of adventure games? No, not really but it's still close enough to be called one.

Don't have to be a purist when it comes to the genre...

[corruptbiggins]

To me there seems to be a kind of snobbery wherein only 2D point & click games are allowed to be known as adventure games.

[PariahKing]

Originally Posted by corruptbiggins

To me there seems to be a kind of snobbery wherein only 2D point & click games are allowed to be known as adventure games.

Yeah. It's silly. Did all the old text adventure games before point and click not count? Do we randomly make an exception for Grim Fandango instead of agreeing it shatters the argument?

I really don't understand the obsession with 2D.

[badmonk]

Originally Posted by PariahKing

I feel kind of like this debate over whether something is or isn't an adventure game is a bit silly. Metal has fifty bazillion different genres within it but overall they're still within a brand known as metal. Portal qualifies as an adventure game just as much as this bit of True Scottish Pirate Metal is legitimately metal, despite it's occasional accordion rifts and bits of instruments from the 1500s. Is it within the exact same genre of adventure games? No, not really but it's still close enough to be called one.

Don't have to be a purist when it comes to the genre...

i hear ya but thats like saying mario is an FPS
i know i am being a bit silly but come on, portal is not in the adventure game genre, puzzle/platform yeah, but adventure..........sorry but nope!

and its not really a debate more a fact, halo is an FPS, gears of war is a third person shooter, sam & max is adventure, thats just how the industry calls the shots not me or others on this forum but the games industry puts games into genres.

[Scrawffler]

I think (and hope!) that the Monkey Island series will have a fair amount of impact in the gaming industry. Adventure games were quite overlooked for a few years, so long-time fans will think of the newer point and click games as nostalgic whereas newcomers will see them as original.

And like others have already said, there's still room for the genre to grow and evolve. And that might also explain why there is some confusion as to whether or not certain games could be considered to be adventure games.

I agree that the overall genre will become fairly popular again, just not necessarily as mainstream as some action games and whatnot. But still popular.

[badmonk]

Originally Posted by Scrawffler

I think (and hope!) that the Monkey Island series will have a fair amount of impact in the gaming industry. Adventure games were quite overlooked for a few years, so long-time fans will think of the newer point and click games as nostalgic whereas newcomers will see them as original.

And like others have already said, there's still room for the genre to grow and evolve. And that might also explain why there is some confusion as to whether or not certain games could be considered to be adventure games.

I agree that the overall genre will become fairly popular again, just not necessarily as mainstream as some action games and whatnot. But still popular.

like i said in above post, check out heavy rain (PS3), which is as near as damn it to a next gen adventure title as you can get!
i think this will def appeal more to the masses!

[PariahKing]

Originally Posted by badmonk

i hear ya but thats like saying mario is an FPS
i know i am being a bit silly but come on, portal is not in the adventure game genre, puzzle/platform yeah, but adventure..........sorry but nope!

See the problem I have with this argument is Loom. Portal is not that dissimilar from Loom in terms of associated qualities and yet Loom is universally accepted as an adventure game.

[badmonk]

Originally Posted by PariahKing

See the problem I have with this argument is Loom. Portal is not that dissimilar from Loom in terms of associated qualities and yet Loom is universally accepted as an adventure game.

hey tbh i dont really care what people want to class genres of games as, like i said its the industry but i am sure Loom was a point 'n' click adventure title by lucasarts where you went around collecting musical notes etc and are we talking about the same portal game which is a puzzle/platformer played in first person by valve?

we might have 2 different games mixed up so apologies for that