This question has been haunting my mind for a long time and I have not yet found a satisfactory answer to it. A computer game takes no doubt a lot of time, effort and skilled, as well as talented, people to produce. I am not sure whether adventure games have lost their popularity due to the fact that they are not being produced anymore, or whether they are not produced anymore because they are not popular enough to sell. Another possibility is that adventure games have lost their popularity because there are simply no good adventure authors out there any more, because lucasarts has in an inexplicable way stopped investing in them and no other companies seem to take the risk.
I believe that adventure games can become popular again provided some really good ones come out again. In the Amiga era the legendary Loom has written a history of its own. To me Loom is the unsurpassed Adventure game, a brilliant story through a brilliant gameplay, with enough beautiful graphics and the right portion of mystery and magic. Loom had everything that made a great adventure game, it was a fascination, it forced the gamer to think and solve riddles in a unique and mostly beautiful way.
Riddle solving and mystery are two very important elements of adventure games. However, an adventure game is much more than that. Otherwise it would be enough to create games of riddles, like "Notpron - The hardest riddle online". But notpron can really not be compared to adventure games because it lacks the magic, it lacks the beauty and the aesthetic, which is inevitably present through a story that has been well written from the literary point of view but which also allows the gamer to dive into a world of fantasy. Notpron is just a boring math.
First of all, the goal of the adventure game should be to make the gamer travel into a fantasy world. The more the gamer can identify with the hero and feel intensely the events and happenings of that imaginary world, the more successful the adventure game is. So it is about getting engrossed and be given the opportunity to escape from the real world into a fantasy one. That is the similarity that exists between good adventure games, good fantasy films like "Lord of The Rings" or "Matrix" and good literature. The difference between films, books and the adventure games is that in a game we are given the chance to actually act, to involve ourself directly with the story. This allows the gamer to identify more intensely with the hero and his surroundings. This makes the game more interesting since one is not a passive viewer or reader but an active person that becomes a living part of the adventure game and has the power to control it.
To create a successful adventure game is an art, by all means, and this might be the answer to the question "why it is so difficult to create a masterpiece of its kind that will touch the hearts and minds of many people".
"Lord of the Rings" has a plot that would make an incredible adventure game. Instead, when they produced a computer game they chose it to be a normal and quite dull action game. On the other hand, it would make little sense in producing it as an adventure game since the plot is already known. There would simply be no riddles to solve, no tension in finding out the end, and thus no point in playing the game. An action game also uses the same plot but the plot is no longer the most important element there, it rather becomes of a secondary importance.
I wish that the great era of adventure games will return. That the technological means that are nowdays available to programmers will be used in a tasteful way, along with the talents of writers and graphic artists to produce unique and breathtaking adventure games. Because art is there to uplift the human soul and even it might sound strange, an adventure game has the potential of using the virtues of many different arts in a single unit. Adventure games can become the entertainment of the future.
EDIT: I just found out through blogger
that another fellow blogger posted at exactly the same time as I did, a very intersting posting about adventure games.
7 comments:
I think the biggest problem with adventure games is that they take a lot of time to create. Just look at Dreamfall. It took 3 years to make that game and it's very, very incredibly small. So publishers and developers don't want to risk so much money in a product that takes a long time to create and will have a small ammount of content. They prefer to take the easy way out - make an action game for which they can make lots of content easily while having the same game mechanics used throughout the game. It easier, cheaper and faster.
Thanks a lot for posting your opinion in my blog!
Thats valuable feedback because I was not aware of how long it can take to create an adventure game. What really puzzles me is how come people don't demand adventure games. I find games like those you described repetitive and boring to play. I remember that game "Harbinger". An action game, like a shoot em up, with many different levels that all have the same principle though, you just have to shoot the enemy. The only real difference was that the enemies were becoming more and more as the levels advanced. It did had some brilliant hints that guided one through the game in the form of a story. The whole thing let me down, when the story almost destructed itself in the end and nothing essential or great took place. I ended the game with a great sense of dissatisfaction.
I ll have to read more on Dreamfall in your blog!
βασικά όπως τα λέει ο dan είναι (και εγώ μεγάλωσα με παιχνίδια όπως το monkey island) το πρόβλημα είναι αφενός αυτό που λέει ο dan και αφετέρου οι ηλίθιοι επενδυτές. κανένας δημιουργός σήμερα δεν κατασκευάζει ένα παιχνίδι με δικά του έξοδα και κανένας επενδυτής δεν δέχεται να "διακινδυνεύσει" τα χρήματά του σε ένα παιχνίδι που δεν θα είναι τριδιάστατο. Η τριδιάστατη τεχνολογία όμως έκανε ασύμφορα τα adventures.
δες και το σχόλιο της αγγλικης βικιπαίδειας στο άρθρο Simon the Sorcerer series.
The decision to switch to 3D was made as a result of pressure from potential publishers
κάτι τέτοια με τρελλαίνουν.
A quickt translation of my greek friend's comment:
"I agree with Dan (I also grew up with adventure games like the monkey island.) The problem is on one hand what Dan says and on the other hand the silly investors. Nowadays no game author creates a game on his own expenses and nobody accepts to risk his money on a game that will not be 3dimensional. But the 3 dimensional technology made adventure games very expensive."
@lucinos: It is very interesting that the dawn of the 3D technology might be one of the reasons that adventure games ceased to be produced. Thats something I had not heard before either. Of course a 3D adventure game would be simply amazing. It would be a step towards adventure games in virtual reality. When our technology advances that much, to make virtual reality a form of entertainment available for the public, a revolution will take place. This reminds me of the holographic games that the Star Trek crew used to play. I dont know how far we are from this.
Still, when an adventure game has a strong plot, when it is created in a unique and artistic way, it does not need to have a great technology behind it, such as the 3d one. I mean look at books, they have no pictures and yet it is interesting to read them. That must be principle behind text-adventures. I have enjoyed some text adventures in my mobile phone in the past. If only they would have kept on producing games the way they were, like monkey island or loom. There was no need to create anything better. People often believe that they have to make changes all the time, but sometimes the best thing can be achieved through the classical way. Classical music is classical and you cannot create an advanced or better version of it. You can only create other types of music like modern or electronical by the use of technology.
For this is how adventure games should be held, like the classical era of computer games, non-digital creations, maybe for smaller audiences, but big enough to support them and apreciate their brilliancy.
Is it my idea or do we reach again the famous conclusion that quality does not sell?
Γειά σου πατριώτη! :))
I am also happy about this! Do you think adventures are a libra thing, or/and a greek thing? (We are both libras).
I dream of a greek adventure game and dare to say that I am writing a book with a plot that could be used for such a game. It is in english though and not sure it will ever become something. I do it for fun.
You have a nice blog and I ll stop by to comment!
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