The State of Adventure Gaming

By Randy Sluganski
Voted the sexiest adventure gamer in the world
(any resemblance to Harrison Ford is purely coincidental)
June 2000

A Star Is Born

Whatever you do, wherever you go, make sure you are in front of your radio or computer monitor on Sunday, July 30, as Just Adventure goes live from coast to coast. From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST, I will be a guest on the Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline radio show live from Miami. The topic will be "Computer and Video Games," and you can be sure that the voice of the adventure gamer will be heard loud and clear.

Into Tomorrow has been on the air for five years and can be heard on the 77 stations of the Advanced Radio Network nationwide. It is also heard around the world on over 400 Armed Forces Network stations and via ZDTV radio. For those who would like to watch the show, there is also a live audio and video broadcast on the Internet. We will provide a link to the site the day of the show for your viewing pleasure and will also post a toll-free number in case you would like to telephone and ask any adventure-related questions. (Reports that I will later be posing in my Speedos for a Miami pictorial entitled "Adventure Gaming on the Beach" are not true.)

Longest Journey Madness

The Longest Journey hysteria is building to a fever pitch. Electronic Boutiques across the U.S. have been reported selling import copies from Europe. TLJ is number one on the Software First bestseller list, and CDAccess.com sold out of their allotment in one day and just received a shipment of another 100 copies. Magazines and webzines that never favorably review adventure games are recommending TLJ to their readers. TLJ is one of the most wanted games on the Game Trading Zone, and used copies are selling for upwards of $500 (okay, I'm making up that part about the $500). But I'm not making this up--Charles Herold has reviewed TLJ for The New York Times, and soon to be announced--a North American distributor! Step back, Lara, there's a new girl in town.

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor

See that link to CDAccess.com at the bottom of our front page? Well, every time you order a game from CDAccess.com through the Just Adventure link, not only do you show your support for the adventure genre but you also help pay for our server and ensure that we will be here for another month. Kirk Jensen, the owner of CDAccess.com, has been pumping in new adventure games at an unprecedented rate: The Time Machine, Beyond Atlantis, The Longest Journey, The Devil Inside, and scads more are all now available for your gaming pleasure.

Also jumping on the adventure game revival wagon is Alan McDonald and his online store, Playing the Game. Hard-to-find games like The Quivering, Spud, and Time Warrior are now available, with more to follow. Isn't it great to finally have visionaries like Kirk and Alan realize that there is an untapped market for these games?

UBI Clueless

Some companies should not be allowed to sell adventure games. Too often, good games are buried by bad marketing, then after suffering poor sales, the PR departments will chant their tired old mantra that there is no audience for these types of games. If ever a company needed to get a clue, then Ubi Soft is a prime example. As if it were not bad enough that one of the only places they advertised Amerzone was in adventure-hating PC Gamer, they now have three excellent adventure games--In Cold Blood, Arcatera, and Stupid Invaders--waiting to be released to little or no fanfare. Let's play Sherlock Holmes for a moment and study the following facts.

At the E3, not one Ubi Soft employee recognized Charles Cecil's name (the creator of In Cold Blood and the Broken Sword series) when we were attempting to find him to present the best action/adventure game award. They did not know who he was; they did not know where he was; some of them did not know about In Cold Blood. After the E3, I telephoned Ubi Soft (and was treated quite rudely I might add), I was informed that In Cold Blood was not to be released for the computer in the United States, and it was strongly hinted that I may not want to excite our Just Adventure readers about a product they would not be able to purchase. Never mind that 40% of our readers are from outside of North America. In Cold Blood will be released by Midway for the Playstation only in America, so if you really want to show Ubi Soft the power of our pocket books, then refrain from ordering it overseas and instead purchase the PSX version.

Stupid Invaders was constantly surrounded by laughing event-goers, but this was more due to the personality of the developer, Sebastien Hamon, and the high quality of the game than to any attempt at publicity by Ubi Soft. In fact, all of the adventure games were only available for viewing on one monitor apiece. Disney's Jungle Book, Rayman, Batman, etc., all had at least three monitors apiece. Twice we visited the Arcatera display for a demonstration of this fine-looking adventure/RPG, and twice there was no one available to show it to us. Of course, all of the Ubi Soft employees were aware of V.I.P. For those not aware, V.I.P. is a syndicated television show starring Pamela Anderson Lee as a high-heeled, bikini-clad owner of a private protection agency. Your typical American woman, if you will. An Ubi Soft employee informed me with great disappointment that yes, they had attempted to get Pamela Anderson Lee to attend the E3, but she had other obligations. Charles who?

Visit the Ubi Soft website and click on the U.S. link. You will notice that there is not one mention of the three games we have discussed. Now visit the U.K. site. There is a small link to some Arcatera previews. Of course, both sites contain headlines blaring the acquisition of the groundbreaking V.I.P. Stupid Invaders was named best adventure game of the E3 by Just Adventure and IGN. One would think this would be a selling point; instead, since it is an adventure game, it is swept under the carpet.

Since Ubi Soft only seems interested in advertising their action games, I offer the following suggestion to help them conquer the American market they so badly desire. Start an exclusive club. In honor of Pamela, christen it "Bring on Our Babe," or B.O.O.B. Imagine the attention and free publicity this would bring to the V.I.P. game. If an exceptionally tall member where walking down the street, someone could exclaim, "Wow, what a big B.O.O.B." Of course, if two members were spotted together it would be, "Check out those B.O.O.B.s." If this sounds interesting, then drop Ubi Soft an email and let them know that you too would like to be a B.O.O.B. Because right now, you have more chance of being a B.O.O.B. than you do of ever purchasing Stupid Invaders or In Cold Blood in North America.

Oh My God! They've Revived the Adventure Game!

The original article that was to appear here was so heavily edited and censored, by myself, that I have decided to do a rewrite. Let me just say that in response to a letter I wrote to PC Gamer concerning an unfortunate headline in the July issue, Editor-in-Chief Rob Smith has informed Just Adventure that the August "Alternative Lives" column by Michael Wolf will concentrate on the resurgence of the adventure genre and also spotlight some of the adventure games previewed at the E3. I guess our threats to publish nude pictures of Coconut Monkey finally paid off.

Coming Attractions

New walkthroughs of old games, old walkthroughs of new games, Simon the Sorcerer week (in which we find out who would be victorious in a celebrity death match between Simon and Harry Potter); reviews of Louvre, Paris 1313, Treasure Hunter, Time Machine; an exclusive interview with American McGee; Easter Eggs for Adventure Games; Rate the Adventure Game; and that damn quiz I have been promising you for the past year.

Our Thumbs Are Sore from Gaming, So Instead ...

A JA Lantern Raised to:

Gamespot (yes, that Gamespot) for actually conducting an entire interview with Ron Gilbert and not once asking him why the adventure genre was dead. As a follow-up, Gamespot asked their own staff members to name their favorite adventure game. The times they are a'changing.

A JA Lantern Lowered to:

Interactive Fiction and Adventure Gamer for erroneously reporting that Simon 3D had been canceled for U.S. distribution by Southpeak. Let's also not forget false reports that Martian Gothic was PSX only in the U.S. and that Myst 3 was only a rumor.

Our Semi-Annual Cheap Attempt to Get More Hits Through Search Engines

Harry Potter, Pokemon, Pamela Anderson, New York Yankees, John Rocker, Yahoo, Los Angeles Lakers, N Sync, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Howard Stern, Cindy Margolis, Sammy Sosa, The X-Men, Survivor, Britney Spears, MP3, and Spider-Man.

A Short Quiz

Okay, class, let's settle down. Now, children, if I were to ask you what is the best-selling adventure game in North America for the year 2000, what would be your answer? Harriet, your hand is raised. No, it's not Gabriel Knight 3. Why would you expect your adventure game to sell if the only place you advertise is in PC Gamer? A magazine, I might add, that is not read by any self-respecting adventure gamer. Yes, Tom? No, The Longest Journey is a good guess, but that game has not yet been released in America, although the European version of The Longest Journey is the number-one selling game at Software First and CDAccess.com. Annette, is that your hand I see raised or ... you shameless hussy, cover yourself up! Now you were saying? Yes, The Crystal Key is the correct answer. According to figures supplied by PC Data, as of May 1 The Crystal Key had sold 30,000 copies as compared to Gabriel Knight 3's 10,000. In fact, if we go by date of release, The Crystal Key has still outsold Gabriel Knight 3! What has this little exercise proved? That in today's marketplace the only thing that counts is marketing and advertising to your customer base. The days of expecting your product to sell on name recognition alone are over. Annette, could I see you after class please? The rest of you are dismissed.