Articles

Randy Has a Senior
Moment…..

And forgets to renew the
Just Adventure domain name! Yep, on January 2nd – 4th, visitors to JA were greeted with a page that the
domain name was for sale. To be honest, it wasn’t so much that
I forgot, but rather that Network Solutions had been sending the
renewal notices to an incorrect email address. Thanks to everyone
who phoned or emailed (in panic!) and to those who tried to purchase
the domain name, looks like you now have a ten-year wait.

Dreamfall: TLJ2 + Stubbs the Zombie = WTF?

As one adventure game
after another signs with either a major publisher – Paradise with
UbiSoft, Keepsake with
Dreamcatcher – or with a publisher
known for supporting adventure games – Scratches with GotGame
Entertainment – it came as something of a shock to hear that
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey 2 – arguably
the most fervently anticipated adventure
of the past 5 years – was to be published by… Aspyr
Media?!

Known mostly for their
Mac conversions (Aspyr has 60% of the Mac entertainment market)
and Stubbs the Zombie, Aspyr is a small publisher
located in Austin, Texas and while I wish them the best are we to
believe that none of the aforementioned larger publishers had no
interest in TLJ2 or is this a case of David outbidding the Goliaths?
Rumors abound – and we’ll refrain from posting them – but in the
meantime we’ll continue to patiently wait to hear from anyone at Aspyr.

Once You Get Them Going, They Go On and On…!

Eric McConnell had a great
idea one day – why not gather all
of the famous and soon-to-be-famous independent developers of adventure
games in one virtual room and engage them in a roundtable discussion?
Well, it took some maneuvering, but eventually fourteen developers
participated.

From the elusive Jonathan
Boakes (Darkfall)
to the husband and wife team of Mikael & Eleen Nyqvis (Hope
Springs Eternal), Eric presented
a series of twelve questions and the varied responses make for some
interesting and provocative reading. If you’ve not yet read
A
Chat With Independent Developers, well, what are you waiting
for? If you’re and independent developer who would like
to be included in the next chat, then just drop Eric an email.

And Throw in a
Porno Movie & a
Fifth of Jack Daniels Too

A recent lazy weekend
afternoon offered an opportunity to stop by a local Electronics
Boutique for my usual ‘search for the hidden
adventure games’ routine. Other than the clerk, I was the only
person in the store (and as usual was occupied rescuing the adventure
game boxes from their dark corners and putting them front and center
on the racks).

In comes a young male
who appears to be about 13, maybe 14 years old. Surprisingly, he
walks right past the console games towards
the pc selection. After watching him pull a few games from the rack,
he finally decides on Ubi Soft’s Far Cry. Small problem though,
the game is rated ‘M’ and is not supposed to be sold
to anyone under the age of 17.

The
boy takes the game over to the clerk and – although I
can’t hear what he is saying – the clerk is whispering
and both he and the boy are eyeing me suspiciously. So naturally
I suspect the clerk will sell Far Cry to
his underage customer if I leave the store – which I do – except
I then loiter outside the entrance. Needless to say, a few minutes
later the kid
leaves the store with a package and when I ask him if the clerk sold
him that copy of Far Cry, he stutters with
a red face, ‘uh,
yeah.”

The problem is that too
many of the young clerks who are asked to enforce the ESRB ratings
are themselves avid gamers who identify
with the plight of younger gamers and have no qualms about selling
a “Mature’ rated game to an underage customer.

Considering that Electronics
Boutique participates in the ESRB
retail partnership program – an
initiative intended to promote ratings awareness – you have to
wonder how many other EB stores are not enforcing
the policy?

But I Hear it Makes Great Toilet Paper

Since Greg ‘The Vede’ Vederman
was named Editor-in-Chief of PC Gamer, the magazine has degenerated
into a narrow-minded representation
of the industry. In fact, their review section is now broken into
four categories: Shooters, Strategy, Roleplaying and The Gamut, which
is meant to cover all other genres (i.e. those devoid of violence).

Case in point, the February
2006 issue’s feature column is ‘The
Top 10 Games of 2006.’ Of course, there is not a single person
at PC Gamer who has the cojones to include adventure games Paradise or Dreamfall:
The Longest Journey 2. In their petty world, they would
have you believe that there are not enough gamers interested in these
types of games.

The PC Gamer staff is comprised of gamers who have been emasculated
by violence in games. They would much rather drool over the umpteenth
Serious Sam mod, before they would ever consider reviewing a Nancy
Drew game. The truly sad part is that many consider them to be spokespersons
for the industry. In my opinion, the true spokespersons for the industry
are the almost 3 million consumers who have purchased Nancy Drew
games and not the less than 50,000 who have played the latest Serious
Sam mod.

On the other hand, Computer
Games Magazine continues to impress as they not only cater to all
gamers, but do so without being condescending.
Editor-in-Chief Steve Bauman and staff continually refine the magazine
to reflect the true diverseness of the gaming community. Btw, their ‘Most
Anticipated Games of 2006’ article features games from all
genres – not just what they project will be the best-selling.

So if you are an advertiser, where would it make the most sense
to spend your marketing dollars?

From the ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ Department

• So, I’m
  watching the Super Bowl bound Pittsburgh Steelers football
  game and during what seems about the 1,000th break,
  there is a commercial for LucasArts’ Star Wars
  Battlefront II?! Talk about missing your target
  audience. Does LucasArts
  marketing department possess some strange statistics that Star
  Wars geeks are wearing their Wookie pajamas and Darth Vader helmets
  while
  watching NFL Football?
  Update:
  Thanks to fellow Pittsburgher Jeremy Hedges for pointing out
  my misconception concerning the link between football and Star
  Wars by providing us with this picture of a true Pittsburgh Steelers/Star
  Wars fanatic:
  

• On G4 TV, a group of well-known developers in a roundtable forum
  were asked by the host their opinions of the potential for the Xbox
  360. One of them
  responded that it would allow him to blow things up in bigger and better ways.
  And we still wonder why the mainstream community looks upon gamers as idiots.

Beware Those Grues

If you miss The
Inventory,
then you might want to pay a visit to Adventure Lantern. While
it is still in its infancy, Adventure Lantern’s
editor Ugur Sener (who also writes for JA) informs us that the Lantern
can either be read on-line or downloaded to be printed. If the reviews
of Delaware St. John 2: The Town With No Name, Myst
V and numerous
other adventure games are any indication, then Adventure Lantern
looks to have a bright future.

Don’t Talk the Adventure Talk Unless You Can Walk
the Adventure Walk

So grasshopper, you think
you know everything about adventure games, eh? Well then maybe
you should strut your stuff at The
Just Adventure+ Screenshot Trivia Tourney. Many have tried
and failed, but now it’s
your turn. So don’t talk the adventure talk unless you can
walk the adventure walk (btw, you won’t see me there as I stink
at screenshot trivia!).

Don’t Forget to
Mark August 13th as My Birthday

If you’re like me and often forget what day it is (not to
mention the month and year) then you’ll appreciate Adventure’s
Planet downloadable 2006 adventure games calendar. This is a great
idea that was long overdue and I hope Adventure’s Planet turns
it into an annual event.

Buy Games at Just Adventure+!

Shameless plug
follows – The JA Online
Store is now the biggest
source for adventure games on the web with over 100 – that’s
right 100 – adventure games for sale. From the hard-to-find,
to bestsellers to Independently Developed we have them all and we’re
adding more every day. Best of all is that shipping and handling
for the USA and Canada is only $4 per order – try to find a
shipping rate that cheap anywhere else! International shipping rates
are unfortunately higher, but that’s the cost you pay for
not living in Pittsburgh. – end of shameless plug.