The State of Adventure Gaming
By Randy
Sluganski
September 1998
Hello fellow adventure gamers! (Many
thanks to Evan for suggesting I make that phrase my trademark!)
Okay, enough
of the in-jokes already. Oftentimes you can’t help but wonder if any thought is
given to the columns and articles you have written. Sure, I know from the page
impressions that we have many readers, but are we making an impact? Well, a few
days ago I had occasion to visit my local Best Buy (my hard drive decided to do
a Princess Di) and–lo and behold–there was now an area devoted to and clearly
designated as the adventure games section! Is it mere coincidence that
I write about Best Buy’s (and others) neglect of the genre and a month later find
that this small miracle has occurred? Of course, at least half of the games in
this new adventure section did not belong there–Nightmare Creatures and
Fallout among others–and games like Riven and X-Files were
still in the action section. But, hey, it’s a start! Just remember, be a pest
(like yours truly) and gently remind the store managers in your area that adventure
games do exist.
The response to our survey so far has been phenomenal (except
for one reader who seems to have misplaced her sense of humor)! If you have not
filled it out, please do so now! I am truly amazed not only by the large amount
of female adventure gamers but am also greatly encouraged by the enormous contingent
of younger adventure gamers. This can only bode well for the future of adventure
gaming. We will let the survey run for a few more weeks so that those of you who
were on summer vacation or have just returned to your college dorm can voice your
much needed opinion. Don’t be surprised if the input from the survey makes JA
an even better site than it is now.
What’s in the works for JA this month?
Well, this is the time of year that all gamers, not just adventure, love the most.
For the next four months we will be deluged with new game releases. Good games,
bad games, games we never even heard of until they are released. Just this month
alone the adventure fan can expect Morpheus, Redjack, Quest for Glory V, Heart
of Darkness, Grim Fandango and Redguard. Rest assured that we will
have reviews and maybe even walkthroughs of every one of these new releases. Also,
check those new adventure release box covers and print ads closely, ’cause I have
a sneaking suspicion you may find some quotes from JA on them! Plus, we are all
hard at work on new Blast from the Past reviews and I am currently having my armor
cleaned for another visit to the perversely popular Dungeon of Shame. Andy will
dig up some more “dirt” on Sierra, Evan’s busy burrowing deep into those
clearance bins, Peter is always busy redoing the graphic quality of the site and
don’t forget to visit Matt’s excellent new “Daily News” page. Plus,
we have a new member, Linda Shaw, who is an expert on the “puzzle” type
adventure games and will, I’m sure, be contributing many helpful walkthroughs
to the site. She will surely be a rose among many thorns.
I hear many of
you asking though, what about JA’s fearless founder, Craig White? When will we
be reading some output from his skillful pen? This is where I need your help,
dear reader. If each and every one of you reading this column were to send Craig
an e-mail and put in the header “Write Darn You,” then I am sure that
with this type of encouragement we would once again begin to see a plethora of
articles from Mr. White!
Finally, some have advised that we be careful and
not delude ourselves into thinking that we are the second coming. I am sure that
none of us here believe that, but I would like to think that we are the first,
coming your way every day with our best effort to give you the scoop in adventure
land. We want this to be the site that brings together adventure gamers
from all over the world to share their experiences. We can, with our continued
support of new releases and web sites such as Just Adventure, once again bring
the adventure game to the forefront of the industry.
‘Til next month.
