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Articles
ADVENTURE - THE GENRE
THAT DOES SELL
This month we have the
cumulative sales figures for any adventure game that has sold at least
1,000 copies by the end of June, 2002. As always, these figures were
compiled by PC Data and do not include online sales or any sales outside
of North America; both of which comprise a large portion of adventure
game purchases. Nor, have we recently discovered, do they include
sales from Electronics Boutique or Wal-Mart. To see them just click
here.
 KATE
(HIC) WALKER
Recently, Elena
Steingrad, editor of the wonderful History-Adventures
suggested that maybe, just maybe, the game Syberia had been
sponsored by liquor maker Johnny Walker and provided much evidence
to support her theory.
The story was then picked
up by Tally Ho at the Gameboomer's
Forum and started to spread like wildfire over the internet. Egads,
subliminal advertising in an adventure game (please read the postings
at both forums for the full story and all the responses)!
Alas, it wasn't long before
Cedric Orvine, the Public Relations Manage of Microids, appeared on
the scene and squashed all of these juicy rumors. But it was fun while
it lasted and it also served to prove that you can't slip anything
past an adventure gamer!
AND THE EARTH SHOOK…
 The
September issue of PC Gamer has a wonderful review of Syberia
by Chuck Osborn. He states that "if you appreciate well-crafted
stories over carnage, it's an adventure that genre fans won't want
to miss" and awards the game a score of 80%.
Now 80% may not sound like
a high score to some of you, but considering the history of the current
staff of PC Gamer and adventure game reviews, this is tantamount to
Hitler wearing a yarmulke; to Pauley Shore receiving an Oscar for
Best Actor; to Jeff Green not picking his nose in his Computer Gaming
World picture; to, well, you get the point.
I CAST MY VOTE FOR PAMELA ANDERSON IN HER UNDEROOS
The fan-made King's
Quest IX website has a fun poll asking who you would like to see
make a cameo appearance in their game: Roger Wilco, Quest For Glory
Hero, Leisure Suit Larry, Sonny Bonds (who in the heck is Sonny Bonds?)
or Gabriel Knight. Stop by and cast your vote. Just make sure you
mark the chit properly.
THIS IS FOR THE SKINNY
ONES & THE FAT ONES
We've always considered
our readers to be of above average intelligence, yet every once in
a while we receive an email or see a post somewhere complaining (use
whiney voice here), "I don't understand what the grades mean.
What does an 'A' mean, what are the pluses and minuses for?"
To appease these few who seem to have never grasped the concept of
letter grades when in high school, we have given in to their silly
demands and will now be posting (sound of trumpets blaring) our grading
system at the end of every review. Now for those of you who fall asleep
long before reaching the end of our reviews, here is, for the first
time in history, our review grades and what we think they mean:
OUR GRADING
SYSTEM
A –
The hallowed few. The games that should be in every adventure gamer’s
collection. These include: The Longest Journey, the Gabriel
Knights and Syberia.
B –
Games that contain one or two features that keep them from being
perfect. Could be poor voice acting or minor bugs. Include Bad
Mojo, Black Dahlia and Dracula: Sanctuary.
C –
The road most traveled. These are the games that seem to be uninspired.
The talent is present, but an appreciation for the genre is not.
Includes Mystery of the Druids, Road to India and
many others.
D –
These are the games that attempted to capitalize on a trend (full-motion-video,
etc.) and forgot to include the adventure aspects. Includes Return
to Zork, Timeline and Temujiin.
F –
Bottom of the Barrel, bargain bin bombs. These are the games that
will turn you into an action gamer. A Fork in the Tale, The
Daedalus Encounter and Johnny Mnemonic are just a few
in this category.
Dungeon
of Shame – These are the Ed Wood’s of adventure games.
Games so bad, that they are good in a perverse way. The Scroll,
Spud and Silverload are honored members of the Dungeon.
Plusses
& Minuses – Darned if we know. We didn’t know
what they meant in high school and college and we don’t know
what they mean now.
TCHOTCHKE AGAIN - BLESS
YOU AGAIN
 Our
10
Best Adventure Tchotchkes column continues to generate responses.
Reader Joel
Comm sent us this great picture of a Myst puzzle in a bottle
and recently I found a Myst board game at Kay Bee Toys for
only $5. Scorpia has a lot of great tchotchkes from the past, her
favorite being "Dragon egg soap. With a mini-dragon inside. It's
still in there. The soap is still in the box, even. This was a promo
from SSI for the Dragonlance games. And yeah, it's shaped like
an egg (just in case you were wondering.)
So now I'm wondering,
does this mean that Scorpia never takes a bath or that she takes baths,
but doesn't use any soap (oh, I'm gonna catch heck for that one!)?
IT'S NOT RANK
I've recently found a favorite
new site (well, other than JA) and it's named Game
Rankings. Now all that this site does is rank games and other
webzines, but being a stats freak I find all of this information fascinating.
At the time of this writing, Just Adventure is tied for first (out
of 330 sites) for best articles/reviews, in the top ten for the number
of articles voted for and we are in the top fifty for hits (the amount
of times JA reviews have been linked to from Game Rankings). Not too
shabby for a site devoted to a "dead" genre, eh?
 Stop
by when you have some time, click on the link in the left-hand column
for 'Sites' (under Statistics) and cast some votes for JA. It will
make the adventure genre look good, it will make JA look good, and
it will also make you more sexually attractive to the opposite sex
(okay, I made-up that last part).
IF YOU DEVELOP IT, THEY WILL COME
Reader Mary Payne sent
us a link
to the following excellent article from the University of Florida
website. As the link may be down by the time this article is posted,
we are taking the liberty of posting it in full. It's nice to see
the banner being raised for storytelling over blood n' guts in gaming!
The year
is 1914. American fugitive Robert Cath jumps from his speeding motorcycle
to board the Orient Express, where he finds his friend has been
murdered.
It's not
the latest Tom Clancy spy novel or the plot of next summer's blockbuster.
Instead, it's a video game. Video games are presenting a new venue
for storytelling and academic study.
Two University
of Florida researchers who have analyzed storytelling games say
they can be richer and more involved than books or films and are
a medium that needs more attention from scholars.
Video games
stem from a long tradition of storytelling, with aspects that are
exclusive of narrative, said Sean Fenty, a UF graduate student whose
studies focus on new media. Contrary to analysis that dismisses
the narrative aspects of video games, Fenty's thesis asserts they
provide another vehicle to express stories.
Research
on video games has shown they help users develop better hand-eye
coordination and have better attention to detail. Interactive narratives
offer this and more: A user has the power to take meaningful action
in a dilemma and see the results of the decisions and choices that
are made.
Some video
games have not only the gaming aspect, but also are intertwined
with a sophisticated and complex plot.
"Just
as film has proven itself capable of producing great stories like
Citizen Kane and Casablanca," Fenty argues, "the computer
game is beginning to show that it too can be a vehicle of great
narrative."
What sets
the narrative in a video game apart from that in a book is the active
role a player takes in the story. Unlike books or films, players
have a direct impact on outcomes and story lines.
The majority
of research now being done in the gaming field is measuring the
violence and gore contained in some games, but more work is beginning
to be done to evaluate the importance and impact of interactive
narratives, according to Fenty.
Jane Douglas,
a UF associate English professor who specializes in interactive
fiction, says a video game can hold the visual stimulation of a
film and be just as engaging as a piece of literature. Douglas supervised
Fenty's thesis work.
 "Video
game narratives provide a much more intense experience than some
movies or books," Douglas said. "Users can feel as if
they are immersed, and some games last 40 to 50 hours."
Douglas,
who teaches an interactive narrative course at UF, said more students
are taking an interest in this aspect of game design because of
increasing consumer interest in stimulating narrative within a game.
Stuart Moulthrop,
a professor at the University of Baltimore who specializes in interactive
media, agrees. Moulthrop notes that while European scholars are
engaging in serious study of video games, similar research is only
just beginning to take hold in the U.S. academic world.
"There's
a major difficulty about taking games seriously," Moulthrop
said. "They are viewed as an entertainment form."
Video games
also offer more in-depth stories and richer characters, Fenty argues.
One such game, "The Last Express," has over 40 characters,
including the motorcycle-jumping fugitive Robert Cath, whom the
player becomes to interact with other characters. As the story unfolds,
the player meets personalities representing the major nationalities
of Europe and becomes intertwined in a story of love, myth and intrigue.
The first
commercially available video game was Pong in 1973, which had no
interactive narrative, as the object was to bounce a ball back and
forth across the screen. The first narrative story game was 1977's
Adventure. This computer game is solely text-based and was the first
role-playing game.
More money
has been spent on video games than on movies in the past two years.
A report released by the Wall Street Journal showed total videogame
software and hardware sales in the US reached $8.9 billion versus
$7.3 billion for movie box office receipts.
Just as
not all books are novels, not all video games are narratives. The
critical study of computer games is important because of the influence
they have on society and how this influence might be harnessed in
new and exciting ways, not only to entertain but also to teach,
Fenty said.
"Educational
titles like "Where is Carmen San Diego" and "Blues
Clues" will change the way we learn, and interactive narrative
like "The Last Express" will change the way we think of
literature," Fenty said.
Writer:
Piper Stannard, piperstannard@hotmail.com
WARNING! WARNING! DANGER WILL ROBINSON!
We had a lot of readers
take our game
warnings column to heart and send us their warnings that should
be included in the manuals of adventure games. Here are some of the
better ones we received:
For Hitchhiker's Guide
to the Galaxy: Warning: Sticking a fish in your ear will not
allow you to understand other languages, and may cause temporary
or permanent hearing loss (RoyThomas)
For Myst: Warning:
Do not try to enter books, may cause head injury if book is too
large (ShigatsuDream)
And my favorite: Warning:
Reading it (your article) might be bad for my eyes! God, I think
I have a case here. It is getting dark!! (Rick H.)
IS SHE REAL, OR IS SHE MEMOREX?
A few weeks ago, a post
by Jane Jensen asking Gabriel Knight fans what they would like to
see in a new GK game mysteriously appeared on the Sierra Forums.
Of course, the internet
being what it is, rumors began to immediately surface that Jane Jensen
would never post on a forum (though she did pop-up on Gameboomers
the very next day), that Jane Jensen would never ask her fans about
a new Gabriel Knight game, and that Jane Jensen is really a werewolf.
So was the posting by Jane
Jensen for real? Well, yes it was. Is she working on a new Gabriel
Knight game? Well, we know, but we can't tell. Are you really reading
this article? We don't know, are you?
IN WHICH RANDY GETS TO EAT HOSPITAL FOOD FOR HIS BIRTHDAY
If you're reading this
the day it was posted (August 13), then not only is today my birthday,
but I am also in the hospital recovering from surgery for lung cancer.
Not to worry though, I'll be back soon stronger than ever and looking
for that next great adventure game.
RED HERRINGS:
Look for an interview with
Mike Ryder, new President of Sierra, sometime this month! And we also
have planned an interview with someone with the initials D.E. Can't
tell you who though as it would give away a secret!
 Traitor's
Gate II?! Daydream
Software has verified that they are indeed working on a sequel
to this popular game that had the player stealing the crown jewels
in the Tower of London.
We've tracked down the
long-lost Lee Sheldon (Riddle of Master Lu, Dark Side of
the Moon) and our own Robert Freese is currently in the process
of knocking on his door.
Be on the lookout for our
new column - Adventure Road - that will update what many adventure
favorites current projects.
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