Ad-ven’ture Game–The Definition

By Adam Rodman

Adventure gaming is the topic of Just Adventure, but what is it, anyway?
Well, in order to synthesize a proper definition, I pulled out my handy
Webster’s New World Pocket Dictionary, Second Edition and got crackin’ …

ad-ven’ture n – 1. dangerous undertaking 2. exciting
experience

game n – 1. amusement or sport with competing players
2. wild animals hunted for sport

An adventure game certainly isn’t dangerous, so the best definition for
adventure is number two. I’m also pretty sure that playing an adventure
game does not involve wild animals, so the best definition for adventure
game (from the definitions of adventure and game) is:

ad-ven’ture game n – an exciting amusement or sport with
competing players

That’s a pretty broad definition. It could be referring to a friendly
game of soccer or a bowling tournament. As we all know (hopefully), an
adventure game is played on a:

com-put’er n – an electronic machine that rapidly calculates
or correlates data

Factoring that into the definition, we get:

ad-ven’ture game n – an exciting amusement or sport with
competing players played on a computer

There are some critical problems with this definition. One: unless you
consider mouse clicking or keyboard tapping a form of strenuous entertainment,
adventure gaming is not a sport. Two: most adventure games are single
player. So, the modified definition is:

ad-ven’ture game n – an exciting amusement played by
a single person on a computer

This could be referring to an adventure game, just as easily as it could
be referring to Doom, Minesweeper, or Fly! This brings up
a big question–what makes an adventure game different from other computer
games? Most people will agree that an adventure game:

1. Is not combat-based,
2. Is focused on character development, and
3. Has a universal goal.

Unfortunately, not all adventure games fit these rules. Myst, for
example, has absolutely no character development, and Redjack: Revenge
of the Brethren has a lot of combat. But, for the most part, adventure
games have those three attributes. Considering this, the definition for
adventure gaming would be:

ad-ven’ture game n – a genre of computer entertainment
that is centered around a character with a universal goal and is not
combat-based

Voila! So I have discovered the definition of adventure gaming. Don’t
be surprised if the Third Edition of the Webster’s New World Pocket
Dictionary has this definition in it.