The State of Adventure Gaming

By Randy Sluganski

PC
Data Figures

We now proudly present adventure game sales figures (you
know, the genre that doesn’t sell) for the month of January 2001:

Regarding the above figures for The Longest Journey–no, we
don’t know where PC Gamer got that ridiculously low figure of 351 copies
sold. I do know that PC Data sales figures are deceptive, as they do not take
into account copies ordered online or from overseas.

As for Avault’s claim
that Dracula Sanctuary has sold 100,000 copies, with all due respect to
Avault, for they are a fine webzine, we verified with a Dreamcatcher spokesperson
that this figure is completely erroneous. But if a mistake is to be made and repeated
all over the World Wide Web, then at least for once it is in an adventure game’s
favor!

Me So Horny

Most likely I’m a little touchy, especially
after a constant barrage of emails from Eidos defending their lesbian advertising
for their Fear Effect 2 game (Eidos actually sent private emails to gaming
mags and webzines, snickering at the “controversy” that their ad campaign
is causing) and Gathering of Developers (G.O.D.) printing a calendar featuring
Catholic schoolgirl strippers (maybe this is a tease for a new Duke Nukem game–Pope
Nukem–in which Duke is heard to mutter, “I’m kicking Protestant butt
and popping cherries and I’m all out of Protestants”), but now it seems that
this Full Metal Jacket mentality is hitting a little too close to home.

Click
on the homepage for Dreamcatcher
and what is the first graphic that pops out but a woman on a table, her breasts
jutting skyward. Yes, this is a scene from the game, but there were also hundreds
of other scenes that could have been chosen (the accompanying photo is our representation
of what the scene from Dracula Sanctuary would have looked like had Pamela
Anderson played the part of Jonathan Harker’s wife). Most likely some sexually
arrested adult decided that it would add more profit to the coffers if “the
adventure company” could subtly sway the most coveted consumer of all, the
teenage male, to purchase their new Playstation conversions.

When
will we start to see equal time for female adventure gamers? Why not a graphic
of Count Dracula jutting skyward (I’m referring to his fangs of course)?

Play
Mysty for Me

We receive questions on a daily basis regarding the anticipated
release of Myst 3: Exile. To assuage some of your worries, we contacted
the charming Susan Weyer of Presto Studios, who was more than glad to provide
the following information for JA readers.

JA: Will the DVD and CD-ROM
versions of Myst 3 be released simultaneously?

No. The CD-ROM
version will be available May 7, 2001. Plans are underway to make the Myst
III: Exile DVD Collector’s Edition available Q3 of 2001. The only DVD version
will be the collector’s edition.

JA: Will the DVD and CD-ROM
versions be the same price?

Typically, a DVD version runs
approximately $10 more. We do not have a price point for the DVD Collector’s Edition
at this time.

JA: What is this special CD-ROM Collector’s
Edition of Myst 3?

This collector’s edition will include
a Pewter Squee toy, Prima’s Official Strategy Guide, “The Making of Myst
III: Exile,” the soundtrack, and Atrus’s Journal. The price will be $59.95
USD and will be available by ordering online here.

JA: How many CDs will comprise the CD-ROM version?

The
game will be released on four CDs.

JA: Are there any plans
to package Myst, Riven, and Myst 3 as one package?

I haven’t
heard of any plans as of yet. Perhaps once Exile has had its day in the
sun, TLC will consider packaging a trilogy, if there is enough interest for the
product.

JA: What will be the suggested retail price of
Myst 3?

Currently the CD-ROM version is listing at $44.99
and the CD-ROM Collector’s Edition at $59.99. Check out the preorder page at myst3.com.

JA: Finally, is there, as yet, a suggested playing time
for Myst 3?

We’ve always said that Exile is comparable
to the size of Riven and should take approximately 40-60 hours to complete–depending
on the gamer. Some like to lounge around more than others.

Scooby
Doo Unmasked

This has nothing to do with adventure games, but … This
past week I attended a children’s convention with my son Jacob and one of the
attractions was as a stage show featuring Yogi Bear, Fred Flintstone, and Scooby
Doo. After the show had ended, I got to wondering (oh, oh, I smell trouble here),
what does Scooby look like under that big head? So in the spirit of Happy Days
(I’m sure you all remember the Howdy Doody episode), I snuck backstage, and
just as the characters removed their heads, I stuck my hand through the curtain,
snapped a picture, and then ran like Yogi filching a picnic basket before security
could catch me. (Anyone out there reading this and shaking their heads at how
pitiful I am, well, I sleep peacefully knowing you would have done the same thing
if you were in my shoes.)

And now for the first time anywhere–Scooby (and
Fred) unmasked (please have all children leave the room):

Please
Send Your Blank Checks To …

We will only have our survey online
for a limited time. (If you do the survey we might send you a
million dollars.) There is nothing you can do for us that is more important
than completing the survey. (If you do the survey we might send
your choice of Brad Pitt or Pamela Anderson Lee to your house.) If you
have not yet done so, the please take a few minutes to help out the adventure
community. (If you do the survey we will cook a gourmet dinner
for you.) And please ignore the dumb messages that people are posting accusing
us of planting subliminal messages in the survey. (You did not
read this.)

The
Following Wasn’t Written by Me, but Read it Anyways (A Special Report from Adventure
Game of the Month Founder Patrick Dodson)

Oprah. We all know her from
her TV show, and her book club is famous. There are a few hints out there coming
from her like protests of violence and her own book club, and most of these hints
would indicate that if Oprah would be a gamer, she’d be an adventure gamer. We
can just picture Oprah in one of her shows discussing adventure games and the
positive influence on learning, and most of all, how violence doesn’t always solve
things.

Books are very similar to adventure games. They both have strong
plots and secondary plots with a central character and secondary character and
supporters and interesting characters related to the story and mysteries to solve
along the way. If that seems familiar, you’re darn right it is! People who like
to read mostly like to also play adventure games, which is why the basis of my
idea for the AGOTM Club was based on Oprah’s book club. Only here it’s not books,
it’s adventure games. But the basis stays the same. A new adventure game is chosen
every month by readers using a poll system, and that game won by the poll is played
the next month.

So far, we’re in our second month of operation. We have
played and solved the Riddle of the Sphinx, and now we are Cracking
the Conspiracy. We are going to play The Longest Journey next month
(April). We have lots of members who play from all over the world. This could
be your chance to be part of a community and play games you love together and
discuss about them along the way. Maybe you’ll even win things in the future.

I
have lots to be thankful for, and I want to thank the staff of JA and the board
for being so supportive of me. I want to thank Jeff Tobler for creating a wonderful
game and support. I also want to thank everyone else I might have missed. My friends,
I wouldn’t of been able to take this on without your help and supportiveness.
It’s a community that thrives with interaction, and I had no idea that AGOTM Club
would be so successful. It’s because of you, the community.

Call
Me Crazy

Last month, we ran an article entitled “Enough” that
had to do with a teaser in the March issue of Computer Gaming World for
the best games of 2000. When I complained that there was no mention of a best
adventure game, a few members of the CGW editorial staff were quick to
point out that indeed they had chosen an adventure game of the year and that I
was mistaken. When I was dumb enough to suggest that maybe our article had inspired
them to belatedly include an adventure game, I was informed that this was impossible
as the April issue had long since gone to press and that my assumption was ridiculous.

Can
someone then please explain to me, and I’m just asking a question here, if the
April issue had already gone to press when the March issue was released, how then
is there a letter in the letters-to-the-editor column in the April issue from
a reader commenting on the March 2001 issue? How can this be if the April issue
had already gone to press? Some sort of time-space continuum? Is there something
I am missing here? Since I no longer seem to be on a speaking basis with any of
the fine employees of Ziff-Davis, maybe one of my friends at Imagine Media can
enlighten me.

No, It’s Not a Misprint

The April issue of PC
Gamer has a wonderful six-page feature article about the future of adventure
games in North America. Finally, a positive front-page report on what is right
with the genre and the influence of adventure games on other genres.

Kudos
to PC Gamer Editor-in-Chief Rob Smith, who at this very moment is playing
The Longest Journey, for providing his readers with an optimistic report
on adventure games and gamers. Kudos also to the staff of Computer Games Magazine
for their choice of TLJ as adventure game of the year.

But Just
When You Thought You Had Heard Them All …

The same issue of PC
Gamer has a review of Dracula: The Last Sanctuary by Stephen Poole,
the reviewer who loves adventure games so much that it hurts to give them bad
grades. His newest opus awards Dracula: The Last Sanctuary a final score
of 50%. Why? There are too many puzzles in the game. Yes, you read that right–too
many puzzles. Or as Mr. Poole so ably puts it, “An achievement in cramming
as many puzzles into a game as possible.”

I would love to see his reviews
of Quake 2 (“I give this game a 40%–there is too much action in it”)
or Roller Coaster Tycoon (“I give this game a 55%–all you can build
are roller coasters”) or High Heat Baseball 2002 (“I give this
game 30%–all these damn guys do is play baseball”).

Seriously, though,
don’t be surprised to see a two-page color advertisement for Dracula: The Last
Sanctuary in the May issue of PC Gamer.

Wait,
There’s More …

There is a very popular television show on MTV called
Jackass. It is Beavis and Butt-head in the flesh as male twenty-somethings
explore new ways of purposely inflicting pain on each other. In recent episodes,
they have kicked each other in the groin, locked themselves in outhouses full
of human waste and then turned the outhouse upside down, and jousted with authentic
lances on BMX bicycles.

In this spirit of self-inflicted pain, we have created
the “JA+ Pop My Pimple Award” (thought I was going to call it the Jackass
Award, didn’t you?). There are still too many prepubescent, hormone-ravaged reviewers
out there who can’t stand the thought that an adventure game can be popular. I
don’t blame them: it is part of growing up and maturing. But I do blame the immature,
irresponsible editors who allow crap like the following Gamespot preview of Konami’s
Shadow of Destiny to be published unedited:

“In
the end, Shadow of Destiny seems the antithesis of a twitch game. There
is, in fact, absolutely no combat in the game. If anyone out there still cares
about narrative-driven, laboriously cinematic games, then Konami apparently has
you covered.”

Now if you owned a business and a magazine
or website provided the above analysis of your unfinished product, would you even
consider spending your advertising dollars with them? I doubt it, but just to
be sure I contacted Konami’s public relations and marketing departments and asked
them if they would like to make a public statement regarding Gamespot’s “preview”–no
response. Emails and telephone calls have both gone unanswered. Sort of makes
you wonder where the root of the problem really is, with the editors who allow
such crap to be printed or with companies that refuse to respond for fear that
the mighty Ziff-Davis or Imagine gaming empires put the kibosh on their new products.
I will, though, double-dawg guarantee you that even though Konami did not have
any extra reviews copies of SOD to send to JA–after all, we only review
adventure games–not only will Konami send Gamespot multiple review copies of
SOD, but they will also spend tens of thousands of dollars to advertise
Shadow of Destiny on Gamespot.

If a product is bad, it deserves an
honest opinion, but to slam a product simply because you don’t like the genre?
To the editor of Gamespot Video Games who allowed that preview to be published,
we at JA+ proudly present you with our first-ever “JA+ Pop My Pimple Award.”
Please proudly put it where it belongs.

Promises, Promises

As
adventure gaming positions itself to be the dominant genre by year’s end, let’s
close on a positive note. I recently had the good fortune to receive some of the
hardest-to-find adventure games in the world. An original boxed copy of Treasure
Hunter! Little Red Adventure! Opera Fatale and Genesys! And the adventure
game you never knew existed–Kama Sutra. Rest assured that JA will not
only be reviewing all of these but we are also currently working on reviews of
Arthur’s Knights, Necronomicon, Gilbert Goodmate, and many others. Plus
we have two ground-breaking interviews with LucasArts and the most in-depth interview
ever conducted with American McGee. We’ve done our part to support the adventure
genre, now you do yours by visiting Just Adventure.