Letters

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The letter below is unedited. I did, after much soul-searching insert some of my own responses (in bold), not to get in the last word, but some of the ‘facts’ that the writer espouses are – to me - so far off the mark that I would not want anyone to take them at face value. The writer did use his real name with the email, which is a rarity for a critical letter and which is also much appreciated (I have not though posted his real name or email address below)

Keep in mind that we are all entitled to our own opinions and the writer is entitled to disagree with my opinion as I am entitled to disagree with other’s opinions. After all – agreeing to disagree in a cordial manner - is really what has kept the adventure community strong.

"Far be it from me to question the opinions of Tim Schafer, whose last game in 1998 was the now classic Grim Fandango (which, supposedly, never lived up to Lucas Arts sales expectations), so I’ll leave that choice in your hands."

Here we have a class A lesson at poorly disguised demagogy.

A: The writer starts with a "Far be it from me to question ... Tim Schafer". Nice going, although not nice enough, considering he IS going to do *exactly* that. The "Far be it..." line is a blatant lie thrown to cheat the reader into thinking that the writer is just quoting, not supplying his own opinion (which he does).

That is not my own opinion, Lucas Arts has claimed for years that Grim Fandango never met their sales expectations. Just because a game has received rave reviews, does not mean it was a financial success - Randy

B: The writer then presents Schafer as the creator of a commercial flop. The man behind Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and what is considered to be Adventure games swan song, Grim Fandango, Gamespot's Game of the Year 1998, is presented as the creator of a commercial flop. This from an editor for an Adventure games site, whose players' intelligence is considered above average.

I’ve yet to ever meet anyone who considered Grim Fandango to be the ‘Adventure games swan song’ - Randy

C: He then goes and "leaves the choice to our hands"? Sure, but not before debunking Schafer a little more, right?

Right.

"The adventure genre has surely seen better days ... never again enjoy the dominance ... late 1980’s and early 1990’s, but some of the core elements of adventure games such as strong plots, puzzles and character development have influenced many other genres ... the reason why the adventure genre will never die. Never."

You hear me? NEVER! NEVEEEEERRRRR!

Sorry.

Back to the subject, what dominance again? The Adventure genre was always a niche genre. It was simply that a couple of decades ago the niche was much bigger than it is now. The King Quest games sold on eye candy and brand recognition alone. The Lucasarts game used the franchises such as Indy and Sam and Max, as well as company created Monkey Island for their games, and both Sierra and Lucasarts carved a name for themselves. But other than that we are talking about a marginal market, based on a devoted crowd that kept coming. Once that crowd grew up, got other hobbies, the income from the niche market was not enough to cover the large budgets games like Grim Fandango had. The genre is not "dead" as anyone who plays Adventure games is concerned, but for everyone else it is long gone, unlike RPG, RTS, FPS, Sports, etc. They still make war simulators, flights simulators and SF simulators, but you don't see those games topping E3 or anything. As a matter of fact even the Text Adventure/Interactive Fiction genre is far from being dead, for any frequent visitor of Xyzzy, the IF Archive, and other sites, although one *could* get that impression by visiting sites like justadventure.com which completly ignore that much "alive" genre. And Latin is a living language. Just ask any monk. Just because you are a fan of a marginal, niche, dead genre doesn't make it alive, sorry.

The core elements of adventure games are being used in other genres, which is another part of the reason the genre is dead. Saying that the genre is not dead because one can find those elements in other genres is ignoring the simple fact that gamers no longer need to play Adventure games if they want good story, they can play other genres as well. Not to mention that strong plots and character development existed in RPG games since early days as well, and puzzles are, how should I put it, one of the reason people DISLIKE playing Adventure games, since they are not immediately available to the casual gamer and demand some extra work and thought to a point that one can spend many hours NOT progressing through the game in search for the solution.

"But for some reason there are certain developers ... it always seems to be the ones who have not had a successful game in years - who love to sound the death knell."

Right. Such a fine example of a witty, sarcastic understatement. This is beyond demagogy, this is 5 year old logic. Due to the death of the Adventure genre, many of the genre developers found themselves either out of a job, or out of a mean to develop the games they wanted. Just ask the developers working on Full Throttle 2 and Sam and Max 2 how do they feel about the state of the genre. Those people don't throw mud at the genre because they didn't have a succesful game in recent years. They didn't have a succesful game in recent years BECAUSE the genre is dead. Those who adjusted to the change survived, those who didn't, found themselves unable to develop or sell their games due to a low market share and profit expectancy (e.g. the Lucasarts games) And if failing to make a succesful game deprive you of the right to have an opinion, does it mean that failing to make ANY sort of game (like the editors of say, JustAdventure) deprive you of the right to even think about having an opinion?

Naa. That's just crazy talking.

Many of those same people who were working on Full Throttle 2 and Sam n Max 2 have formed their own companies and are now working on the adventure games Vamprye Story and Bones. There are also a few unannounced adventure projects by some other ex-employees. I think that answers your question as to how they feel about the state of the genre - Randy

" ... Tim Schafer’s first new game in seven years, Psychonauts, to be published by Majesco after being dropped by Microsoft."

Sublime is us. Again with the seven years, not to mention "being dropped by Microsoft". Didn't that use to be a compliment once? Not that for one second the writer stops with the slur to admit that Microsoft dropping an action adventure game is yet another example of the genre's demise.

The game was dropped by Microsoft – that is a fact, not a slur. And I have no idea why it was dropped, yet you immediately assume it was because it was an ‘action/adventure’ - Randy

" For some strange reason, the author of the preview in a short interview, asks the following incongruent question"

Lemee see, the author of the preview asked a question because he was interested in the interviewee's opinion on the matter, and thought that the interviewee's opinions would interest his readers, since, the interviewee wrote and directed several of the Adventure genre's greatest and most defining games ever. That's the "strange reason" for you.

"and really, who better to ask then someone who hasn’t made an adventure game in seven years"

Not to mention, who is better to criticise those remarks than someone who is an editor for a site called "JustAdventure"? Isn't that a bit like asking the NRA spokesman to comment on the gun problem in the US? Doesn't being an editor for an Adventure site debunks Randy Sluganski "objectivity", even his right to comment on said remarks? Another thing, in case anyone forgot by now, this started with a "Far be it from me to question the opinions of Tim Schafer", remember?

Since I did not state my opinion on this before - I will now – I personally find it disheartening that someone of Tim Schafer’s stature so easily dismissed the adventure genre – a genre he helped define. Instead of wishing the best or offering solutions, he instead summarily dismissed all of the adventure games currently in development as meaningless - Randy

"CGM - What do you think killed adventure games?
Tim’s response (and as you will read, he takes it at face value that adventure games are dead):"

How dare he agree with the reporter? Shocking! I mean, he actually answers the question as if he doesn't think the genre is alive? I fail to see what was Schafer supposed to do, lie? He thinks the genre is dead, so he "takes it at face value". If one thinks the genre is alive, fine, but since when does one person's opinion (Sluganski) disable another one (Schafer) from taking a statement he agrees upon at face value? Of course, far be it from him to question the opinions etc.

Now, what I want to know, is how does the writer rebute Schafer's opinion, and for that, we have the next glaring argument:

"Graphics killed adventure games?! Adventure games are dead!? Well, for once, I’m at a loss for words, and the few that do come to mind would probably get me in hot water so I’ll just shut up."

Ja. Apparently other from slur, finger pointing, demagogy and irrelevant argument, when it comes to actually JUSTIFYING his argument, the writer basically says "No it isn't and I can only use swear words to defend my argument". "Adventure genre is alive and your mother wears army boots" would be quite appropriate. No where in this artice does the writer even refers to the arguments presented by Schafer. Nowhere does he explain whether or not the Limitations presented by graphics did or did not help the genre or hindered it. Nowhere does the "Adventure games are dead" get any coherent rebute other than "people are still makeing adventure games". True, and people are also still following Scientology, and watch shows like Jerry Springer. The genre is dead in the eyes of the majority of gamers, casual and hardcore. The genre is dead in the eyes of once industry leading companies like Sierra and Lucasarts. The genre is dead in the eyes of industry leading publications like CGM, Gamespot, PCGamer, IGN etc. The genre is dead in the eyes of PC Data's sales report. It may not be dead in the eyes of Adventure gamers, but neither are the Monkees in the eyes of their fans.

Funny thing about the Monkees, my wife and I actually saw Mickey Dolenz in concert just last week and not once did he claim that rock-n-roll was dead just because the Monkees no longer exist - Randy

And, for my final act: "Neither Doublefine nor ... Majesco’s ... have yet to respond to multiple requests to speak to Tim Schafer regarding his remarks ..."

Right, and neither would I if anyone would spam my inbox (multiple times!) with that kind of demagogic slur.

How do you consider two requests (one by phone) to Majesco and two to Doublefine to ask if Tim would be interested in speaking about his comments in CGM spamming? In my opinion, not receiving a response just points out the poor job that p.r. firms, publishers and developers do. If you don’t want to talk about and help promote their newest game, then they simply won’t respond - Randy