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Re Profile
of an Adventure Gamer Letter 1 From:
Van der Meer [email address deleted]
Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2000 5:59
AM
To: TEXH13@aol.com
Subject: JA article Hello Tom, I read
your article about the demographics of adventure gamers. I agree with your statements.
But there's one thing I missed. You called the gamers 'adults'. There are lots
of young people who enjoy adventure games. I'm 18 years old and have played adventures
for over half of my life. Legally I'm an adult now, but according to your definition
years ago I was not part of the adventure gamers group. I'm just saying
that (thank God) there are lots of boys and girls who love adventure games. I
kinda missed that in your article. I liked the article all the same. Paul
van der Meer Tom's Response
Hi Paul: Your observations, regarding leaving the really young (boys
and girls) who enjoy adventure games out of the article, are perceptive, interesting
and correct. My intent in writing the article was to relate my own experiences
and that of the very large group of my contemporaries (these would be adults--18
and up) who either play adventure games now or who are part of a potential untapped
audience of people who might be attracted to these games. I am very much
aware, as you have pointed out, that there are a lot of younger people who play
and enjoy adventure games, and I didn't intend to slight them in any way. If fact,
I have a 9 year old grand-daughter and a 13 year old son who are very much into
adventure games. It's just that I choose (for the purposes of this article) to
restrict my presentation of the "profile" and the "demographics"
to the adults. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts or ideas on
how to expand the younger audience of potential adventure gamers. I know that
many of my adult friends are making an effort to interest and involve their children
and grand-children in the fun of playing adventure games. I'm not sure that your
gravitation to adventure games at an early age is all that common in young people
nowadays. Do you stick exclusively with adventure games or do you branch out with
more diversity and play other game genres as well? How about video games
vs. computer games? I have two Playstation games (Echo Night and Clock Tower 2)
that are purported to be adventure games. I haven't played them yet, because I'm
uncomfortable with the thought of using the console (so many buttons). Will the
video games makers continue to expand the number of games that are being developed
as adventure games? I believe that they will ... what do you think? Perhaps,
we should consider writing a follow-up article that focuses more on the younger
generation of adventure gamers. It would be interesting to see how different the
profile and demographics might be (???). Glad your liked the article and
hope that you understand why I restricted my thoughts and comments to "adults".
I appreciate your reaction and you are certainly correct to point out that younger
people can be "mature in their thought processes" and they are an audience
for adventure games that should be recognized and not left out.
Letter 2 From: [email address deleted]
Sent:
Saturday, February 12, 2000 7:36 PM
To: TEXH13@aol.com
Subject: Adventure
Gamer Demographics Dear Tom, I just recently discovered "Just
Adventure," and today read your article on the Demographics of Adventure
Gamers. Wow!! From the very first paragraph, I felt like your article was
the very embodiment of my personal experiences. What a revelation it was to read
an article that SAYS exactly what I've been THINKING for years now, and all along,
thought I was the only one that thought this. MYST was my very first adventure
game experience, and I too was hooked after that. In the beginning, it really
was so exciting to go to the nearest Best Buy or CompUSA and see all the choices
in Adventure Games. That gradually faded as the Adventure Games got literally
pushed out of the way by the "Hexen's," and the "Quakes,"
and the "Redneck Rampage's." Today, not only are there extremely
few Adventure Games on the market, it seems the few that are coming out are more
and more going to the 3rd person point of view, which for me is a real turnoff.
What I like best about Adventure Games is the ability to explore, and immerse
myself in the worlds that unfold before me, from the first person point of view. Anyhow,
I was also amazed that most of the character traits you list in your Adventure
Gamer Profile, really do apply to me. Thank you so much for your article,
and maybe the big-name game developers will discover this huge market. We who
are begging to spend our money on more adventure games. Best Regards, Mike
Letter 3 From: David Gough [email address
deleted]
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2000 3:02 AM
To: TEXH13@aol.com
Cc: randy@justadventure.com
Subject: Profile of an Adventure Gamer Hi
Tom Loved the article - it was like looking into a mirror :) Over
here in Western Australia we are faced with a similar problem of the disappearance
of adventure games from the shelves of traditional computer game outlets. It seems
that Europe is our last hope! Fortunately though, we have a small games
store here in Perth (Popcorn Entertainment) with a manager who just loves her
adventure games, but even she has problems tracking them down as distributors
just don't want to handle them. Together, we are trying to negotiate with some
of the small US game developers (many of whom have been found through Just Adventure+)
to see if we can distribute their games over here. Although we never get
to see many of the games released in the US or Europe, we sometimes get the surprises
(Reah, Liath, The Ring and Dracula were all released here before US). We also
seem to get lots of the "cast-offs" from other countries and can often
pick up classic adventure games quite cheaply - I do this for many fellow gamers
on UGTZ. But I guess what I'm getting to is that I agree we *must* somehow
get it through the thick heads of the suits in the game industry that we didn't
all migrate from console games to PC and we don't all crave the instant gratification
of blasting the heads off subterranian homesick ghouls (sorry Bob!). Perhaps
an email campaign to major distributors ... David :)
Letter 4 From: Georgette B. Clegg [email address
deleted]
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2000 3:06 PM
To: TEXH13@aol.com
Subject: Excellent article Dear Mr. Houston, As I read your article
I was struck by the similarities we share in how we developed the passion for
adventure games. I too got Myst as my first real game; I played it for two months
until I solved it. Soon I was a constant visitor to any store selling computer
games searching for another adventure game. It was really hard finding what I
wanted. I celebrated when I found games like 7th Guest, Rama, Alice or any number
of games I have bought over the years. Once I could search on the internet I had
an expanded opportunity to find just about every adventure game that came out.
I am retired from law and have time and money to indulge my real passion: adventure
games. I was the happiest when I found the sites for the Adventure Coalition and
the links to a community I feel I belong to. My friends, those who share
in this passion, feel the same way. With the graying of America, I would venture
to say that there are many more of us out there who could be powerful advocates
for this genre. How do we reach the publishers and makers of adventure games?
How do we create a an opportunity for US companies to be like Cryo, willing to
produce and publish absolutely amazing games. I hope our small virtual community
of adventure enthusiasts will grow in strength and numbers to finally reach those
who spew out only those violent, brainless shoot-them-up games. Maybe, they will
finally realize there are other markets waiting to be tapped. I am only grateful
there are others, like you, who feel as I do. Thank you for writing what
I feel. Georgette Clegg
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