The State of The Universe
and its relationship with adventure gaming...
When I saw Scurvy's
request for articles to put on his website, my first thought
was:
“I wonder what's on TV
tonight.”
“Hah! If he thinks that
he is going to get quality articles about real issues submitted to his web
page, he's got another thing coming, all the people who can write are being
paid to do it, and so living on an island somewhere, playing squash and line
dancing.”
I then felt smug for all
of thirty seconds, then decided I would have to prove myself right and submit
a meaningless rant, just to show Scurvy what a big mistake he made, expecting
anything from the ragtag bunch of free-loaders and older gamers, pining for
a lost era, that frequent his site, hoping they can download hours of his
work for absolutely nothing. Except for you of course, dear reader, who I
am sure has donated his/her last dollar, which was going to go on surgery
for your dying pet/mother in law, to the 'Help Support Scurvyliver Campaign'.
Unlike me, who is a tight git.
Then I was struck
by a heavenly vision, and so decided to write the best darned article I could.
Then I changed my mind, and so wrote this. Enjoy. Or don't, I don't care.
Well.. I do, if you don't sing my praises, you will crush my gentle spirit,
so be warned.
******
Adventure gaming is dead.
Or so they say. They being people we don't agree with. If adventure gaming
is dead, what is Syberia? What is The Longest Journey? Are these but the death
throes of a dying genre? And why are these death throes coming years after
PC Gamer - the well known oracle of the trigger-happy teenager demographic,
declared it dead and buried, and the grave danced upon by games like Quake
(whatever number they've got up to), and Unreal Tournament. But adventure
gaming is far from dead - it's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Elvis, it
simply went away for a few years to farm mice on a Hawaiian island, and now
is back with a vengeance.
Look at the release schedule
at JustAdventure.com - this dead genre is certainly producing a lot of quality
games. Sam & Max 2, The Mystery of the Mummy, the list goes on.
Ahem... Adventure Gaming is alive and kicking, this is shown both by the quality
commercial releases, and the freeware, independent games, such as TNB. I feel
that the current adventure games are better, in almost all respects, compared
with those of several years ago. There are many exceptions, of course, but
The Longest Journey, and Syberia, both exceed games such as Sam & Max,
or Broken Sword, in the depths of their storylines, and the way you can relate
to the main characters. Unless you are a talking dog, or a white rabbity thing,
I think you will agree.
In conclusion, with it's large, and ever growing fanbase, as the computer
literate grow older, adventure gaming has a great future ahead of it. And
if I'm wrong, I'll eat your hat. No, the blue one. With the feathers. Yeah,
that's it.
*** Mr X
***
(Not a Pseudonym.)
(Well, it is a
pseudonym,
but not a very good one.)
(You try thinking of a
better one!)
(Go on, lets hear
it.)
(Oh, that is pretty good
– I think I’ll go and sulk in a cornetto, or a corner, whichever takes my
fancy.)