It’s An Adventure Out There
Part 2

By Dan Benge
November 10, 1998

Identity Crisis

There seems to be some sort of debate whether action adventures and “standard”
adventures can coincide with each other. Some of the more snobbish are
turned off by those games which feature a little bit of coordination,
taking the stance that they just don’t belong and shouldn’t even have
“adventure” as part of their genre. They go to even worse lengths
by telling those people who play action adventures to seek out the action-games
newsgroups rather than the adventure gaming ones.

This reminds me of that endless debate: “Is it a breath mint or
is it a candy mint?” well, Certs certainly can be both, and so can
adventure games.

I grew up in the arcades. Some of you only play Pac-Man via MAME
or some other emulator. I was there when it became the rage. At that time
I was also enjoying text adventures on my Commodore 64. I also still play
action games. So to me, games like Alone in the Dark or Twinsen’s
Odyssey are second nature.

But there are those who never played a twitch game and are coming into
this genre when companies are trying to appeal to both demographics. For
instance, Bethesda’s Redguard has a few people in a tizzy. No matter
how you tell these people that the story elements outweigh the action
elements, they still cross their arms and shake their heads. The story
can be the most detailed in the universe, the characters as deep as the
ocean but the action element is the instant turn-off. Even a game like
Realms of the Haunting which lets you customize it will be scorned
by certain people.

I personally believe that the action/adventure was the natural step up
from the point-and-click type of adventure games. I believe that the action/adventure
has been evolving ever since Jordan Mechner created Karateka on
the Apple IIe. Karateka may have not been an adventure game, but
it sure told a story as you kicked your way through the palace. Then King’s
Quest provided a way to use sprites and graphics to represent your
character on the screen. This provided a new outlet to add action-type
movements. So the melding of something like Karateka with its action
and story-telling, and King’s Quest with its sprite-based graphic
interface, was inevitable.

Action/adventures provide a much, much more intense experience because
to me, walking the character around in real-time is much more immersive.
Death is generally part of that experience. I literally jumped out of
my seat when playing System Shock because I knew that danger can
lurk around every corner. This could also be a turn off to the “traditionalists”
whose adventure games have conveniently removed the death element so there
is hardly any risk left. It’s like they’d rather ride the magic-motion
machine down at the mall rather than ride a real roller coaster which
may be a little more dangerous and much more exciting.

I think another big fear here is that action adventures will replace
the traditional point-and-click adventures, which is a load of hogwash.
Alone in the Dark came out with critical acclaim in the early 90s,
yet there have been hundreds of point-and-click titles published since
then.

What makes an action/adventure? Well, obviously it has to have some sort
of arcade-like action in it such as running, jumping, or fighting. It
also has to have a strong plot, detailed characters, puzzles and a sense
of purpose to what you are doing. Tomb Raider (even though it was
fun) is not an action-adventure as it’s more concerned with platform jumping
than story. But something like Twinsen’s Odyssey where you interact
with other characters and get involved into a rich story is definitely
action-adventure. If Twinsen didn’t have the running/jumping/ball-throwing
elements, you’d have seen something like a Grim Fandango clone
over a year ago. So I don’t think adding those elements makes it an instant
action-only game.

I think the ultimate resolution to this debate is that if you don’t like
action/adventures, don’t play them, but don’t judge me because I like
them as much as the traditional adventure games. I do think it would be
nice if companies would allow you to select just how “arcadey”
it is, but many times that’s just not possible.

However, if you’ve never played them, perhaps you should try refining
your eye-hand coordination. Developing joypad/keyboard skills will open
up a plethora of games that you may decide you like after all. Like everything
else in life, practice makes perfect.

Please don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against traditional adventure
games, but why limit the already shrinking genre?

Stupid Employee Tricks

I’ve been shopping at my local Electronics Boutique for well over two
years, and I have seen clerks and managers come and go. But none have
been more annoying than this guy I will simply name “Rico Suave.”

The first day he was working, I was looking for a 2D accelerator to replace
my old graphics card. Rico decided that I should buy a Monster 3D-II card
as my 2D card of choice. If you know anything about 3D accelerators, you
will understand why this is rather funny. So I tried to convince him that
this was an add-on card. Except he was the employee, so his knowledge
was much greater than mine. Of course it wasn’t an add-on card.

So I took the box, turned it over and pointed out the words “Add-On”
and he then went on and started helping another customer.

Rico not only had a Ph.D. in computer video hardware, he also had connections
and expensive friends. That same night a bunch of his posse came in and
he started offering his employee discount right in front of other customers.
He had the nerve to consult his manager about this too, and let’s just
say that she wasn’t too fond of this abuse of power.

So this is what I want from you: this will be the season when these stores
will be getting outside help from the unknowledgeable, so I want you to
send me in stories of your hilarious encounters with ignorant computer
store or software store employees …

I will select the best ones and post them up in a couple of weeks.

See you next week!