'Adventure game'. What a terrible name for a genre.
Let me clarify. Fighting ninjas whilst in the middle of a house that has been lifted up and is spinning within a tornado would definitely be an adventure for me. This happens in No One Lives Forever 2. But call NOLF 2 an 'Adventure Game' and people (gamers, anyhow) will give you funny looks. Similarly, running through the jungle, jumping over quicksand pits and dodging wild animals is definitely an Indiana Jones style adventure in my book. But Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is called a platformer (despite the name). Traveling to the bottom of the sea, huge caverns under the land's surface, a city built in treetops and an island that only certain people seem to be able to find is basically a perfect plot for an adventure novel. Ever heard anybody refer to Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn as an adventure game? I doubt it.
But 'Adventure Games' have a unique playing methodology, right? Using incredibly odd solutions to solve the problems of NPCs? That's basically every Tony Hawk's game since Pro Skater 3!
Let's look at other genres. First Person Shooter - it's pretty clear what sort of gameplay you're getting here. Real Time Strategy - same deal, as with Turn Based Strategy. Flight Simulator, Hunting Game,
This doesn't stop at the Adventure genre. Take a look at the title 'Role Playing Game'. Hang on a minute, how many games are there in which the player does not actually play a role? "Oh, no thanks, I don't want to play a role in this game, I'll just sit back and watch". I don't think so. 'Simulation'. Hang on, isn't basically everything within a computer generated environment simulated?
To solve this, people generally attach the label 'point and click' to 'Adventure Games' but the truth is that not all of them are real adventures. My first game consisted of finding cereal for breakfast. Thrilling stuff! Admittedly it is mostly amateur games that do this, and I struggle to think of a commercial title that couldn't be called 'Adventurous'. But the fact remains that 'Adventure' applies to a much wider range of games than the label usually implies.
And no, I haven't thought of a more fitting name for the genre, nor will this be the last pointless rant I post on here ;)
9 comments:
Interactive puzzle game?
Games are interactive as a rule.
How to kill this group of three men with flamethrowers whilst I hold only a pistol is a puzzle. And guns count as inventory items! Plus then we'd get shoved into the same genre as Peggle.
;)
Yes, I'm hard to please :D
Non-time-critical storytelling via applied logic?
No, seriously, genres just build up in cultural contexts while they are more or less valid. Using a computer not to calculate food for your livestock or write petitions to your local authorities, but to explore an underground cave by parser was certainly the first real "adventure" to experience with your brand new personal computer.
Now, when culture evolves, genres flow into one another and become less and less selective. There you have it.
"Non-time-critical storytelling via applied logic?"
I like this :D
Graphical interactive fiction works for me.
Actually, whilst writing this I thought about making a comment with regards to "Interactive fiction" and the fact that it was a more fitting title, whether graphical or not. I guess "Graphical Interactive Fiction" seems to be a pretty good label :).
Heh... I loved this post. I'm a huge fan of the adventure game and I don't think the genre gets half the props it really deserves. Now, most adventure games get thrown into an "action" title so that people aren't put off by it.
I say that's crap!
Hah, that's sadly true ._.
That's why we're here, to make the change :D
You may not even read this because it's on such an old post, but...
http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=*&Query=adventure
I guess adventure indicates an element of the unexpected, the exciting, and a risk of danger. Mostly Adventure games don't really have anything to do with those, except maybe the unexpected. I guess some games can be exciting, but that doesn't really describe adventure games either. I still call them adventures or graphical adventures, but I think of them like interactive movies. You can't really call those mid-90's FMV games as "interactive movies" because they weren't really all that interactive. Adventure games are the closest thing we've got to interactive movies. Verses Text adventures as interactive fiction
Keith aka Uhfgood
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