Point, Click, Adventure!

In this video, Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert discuss a less celebrated genre of video games: Adventure Games. Schafer brought up the topic of how adventure games seem to have died. Even Gilbert had to agree that, proportional to the rest of the video game market, adventure games are not what they used to be.

Gilbert says that the reason adventure games may not be gaining popularity is because gamers are not as patient as they used to be. The pleasure in a game used to be gained from the challenge of solving a challenging puzzle. Due to the changes in the gaming industry, a lot of people are used to the instant gratification of shooting someone in the face with a shotgun. This mentality doesn't really fit well with a game that requires you to take a break when you get stuck and come back in an hour or two to look at a puzzle in a whole new light.

Interestingly, there is a game based around Tim Schafer looking for old jokes before he goes on stage. I began to play it with the intention of completing it, but soon realized what a monstrous task that would be. I managed to piece together 2 jokes, out of the apparent 22 total jokes. I probably won't ever get the 22 joke perfect ending without cheating, because I don't feel compelled to spend that much time on the game. Even though he is only in one single room, the game still has quite a few puzzles in it.The ending of the game if you manage to complete all 22 jokes, is an unlockable moon-walking mode.

Schafer and Gilbert talked about how the feeling of accomplishment that you get when you finally figure out a puzzle is the real reason a lot of people play adventure games. I really felt that while playing through this one. Each puzzle was challenging, but not so hard that I felt they were unfair to the player. The game also has quite a few jokes about Tim, and also some meta jokes about adventure games, like when he says the chair is hiding something, underneath it. I believe they put that part in just to avoid the pixel hunting that they mentioned in the video.

When I was growing up, I played a game called Myst. The whole idea of Myst was to try and figure out why you were on the island, and what you can do to get off of it. It really felt like an old school adventure game, and also had the elements of a good puzzle that Gilbert and Schafer talked about. However, there was a good deal of pixel hunting I did when playing, though that may have been due to my lack of skill at the game. Personally, I distinguish adventure games and puzzle games into two different categories. Puzzle games, to me, are games that the primary objective is to challenge the player and activate critical thinking in order to progress. I feel like adventure games should maintain a sense of exploration, like Myst had. But some people lump those two categories together into the same genre, and I can certainly see their point.