Letter Regarding Randy's May 1999 State of Adventure Gaming Column

Letter 1

From: Jeremy Hedges [e-mail address deleted]
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 1999 8:03 PM
To: randy@justadventure.com
Subject: pamela anderson lee?!?!?!

Dear Randy,

I was extremely offended by your unethical used of Mrs. Lee's name throughout your editorial on the Just Adventure(+) website. The fact of the matter is, I laughed so hard that I soiled myself and was forced to go change my undergarments. Well, not really, but it makes for a good story.

Had there been an auditorium audience accompanying me while reading your recent "State of Adventure Games" (May 1999 in case you've forgotten which one you shamelessly plugged Pamela's name in), I would have led the standing ovation for your incredibly good sense of humor in the article. I know, I know, you're probably really good at writing witty stuff, but I've been so deprived of true genius humor since Comedy Central stopped showing Monty Python. I've had to revert to re-reading Douglas Adams (and he's still funny!) and surfing the net in hopes of something silly.

And I'm only 17. Yes, I'm one of those computer nerds who has been using computers since he was 7 and I'm a huge Sierra fan (just like the rest, I've played 'em all) and I'm not going to go off about how I feel that Sierra should start making adventure games again or anything. Their days have gone by, it is time for a new wave. Sorry, didn't mean to preach. I just want to say that, I am a writer (a very novice writer) and hope that someday I will be able to work (at least as a hobby) for a wonderful organization such as Just Adventure. I love your site, your articles, reviews, features, coughs, sneezes, etc. I applaud your efforts and hope that you didn't receive too much hatemail about the Pamela thing, because I think it was hilarious, brilliant, and smelled like Pine-sol.

Well, I'm sure you don't have time for these things, so I'll be going now. Thanks again.

Cheers!

Jeremy

Letter 2

From: Daniel Gomes [e-mail address deleted]
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 1999 10:37 AM
To: 'randy@justadventure.com'
Subject: State of Adventure Gaming

Randy

Hi, my name is Daniel Gomes and I'm writing from Brazil. Despite everyone's thoughts, there's people here that love adventure games (I mean, Brazil doesn't have only Carnaval and women shaking butts and underdeveloped persons :<)). I've been playing adventure games for a while, though I've never saw a text one (my first adventure was Darkseed, just don't laugh). In my country, too, we are experiencing here a terrible decadence of the genre. As you may or may not know, it's naturally very hard to get games here. Only the most famous titles have the chance to hit the shelves and usually they are action titles like Quake, Unreal and Half Life. We also have the language problem, since English isn't our second language (far from it), what makes things dificult for the companies that distribute games, since most of the time the game has to be translated or subtitled. As you can expect, in the case of adventure games, things get even worse. Unless that very famous titles, like Myst, nobody knows what the hell Blackstone Chronicles, Morpheus, Zero Critical or Sanitarium means. Generally speaking, the few adventures we have access are the ones from Lucas Arts (thanks god), some from Red Orb (like Myst and Riven) and some from Sierra. I recently found a copy of Broken Sword 2 in a store, and you couldn't imagine the height of my satisfaction jumps.:<).

My purpose with this mail is to congratulate JA+ and staff for the job of keeping the genre alive. The way that this and other adventure related sites are joining forces to reach this objective makes me feel that adventures won't die, and that we still have some hope. Mind you, I'm not the radical folk who doesn't play any other kind of games (I finished all Dooms and Hexens and Heretics), but adventures are really the ones that are in the top of my list. Nothing compares to walk endlessly in Riven or to help Gabriel and Grace in The Beast Within. I guess adventures are the best way to get out from our everyday life and reach another experience (even though sometimes is nice to kick some alien's ass). And sites like JA and others are trying to keep this alive, and we only can say "thanks" for being here.

This is getting pretty long, and to finish, I'd just like to say that the article about the State of Adventure Gaming of this month was incredible. The guys at work were staring at me as I couldn't stop laughing reading the inspired article. Congratulations for the article, and I hope we can see more of this kind (humorous, funny and any other adjective that my bad English doesn't allow) in JA. It can just add to the already excellent mood of the site.

Thanks for your attention

Daniel

PS. I know that everything I said was pretty positive, but I have a few complaints do make. Your reviews are getting each time shorter. I know you are busy people, but it would be nice to see something more detailed. I know what you're saying now "Screw you, your stupid and senseless South American". (Hey guys, no preconception here, right? You are supposed to be "intelligent" and "smart" people :<))