The State of Adventure Gaming

By Randy Sluganski

From My Keyboard to God's Ears

Just Adventure is taking over the world. Seriously. The lovely Cindy Kyser Morgan, who does our Eye on Adventure column, is now also a reviewer for Computer Games Magazine, home to another world-famous Cindy (big smooch blown your way Yans!). The cute-as-a-button Audrey Wells, who does our Just (Free) Adventure Games column and also maintains our links page, is now the monthly adventure columnist for Computer Gaming World. How did Audrey score such a prestigious job? As we have been advising adventure gamers for months—she opened her big mouth and complained about their pathetic lack of adventure game coverage and for once they listened. Boxes on retail shelves across North America feature prominent quotes from JA reviews. Newspaper editors have written asking for our opinion on the resurgence of the genre. PC Gamer crowned us "the best adventure site on the web," and we were asked to make another appearance on the internationally broadcast Into Tomorrow radio show, but we had to respectfully turn down the offer because ...

The Rugrats Aren't the Only Ones Running Rampant in Paris

That's right, I'll be dancing my way into the hearts of Frenchwomen across Gay Paree from December 17 to 21. Cryo Networks and Dreamcatcher have invited yours truly to a private preview of their 2001 lineup. Just Adventure will be the first anywhere, in the entire civilized world (which excludes parts of Cleveland, Ohio, and Mississauga, Ontario), to bring you behind-the-scenes information on a new online adventure, The Fog, and a top-secret project that I am not yet allowed to mention! Plus you can rest assured that I will be knocking on closed doors in search of scoops and an interview with the president of Cryo. How will Cryo handle an Ugly American in their midst? How do you say Big Mac in French? Will Paris burn? Be here next month, same Just Adventure time, same Just Adventure channel, for the answer to these and other questions of national importance.

Don't Bogart That Kangaroo Tail

After France, we will be making a virtual visit to Australia as we prepare for Adventure Survivor 2—The Outback Edition! This time we want you, our readers, to choose the eight adventurers who should be on the island. As I am sure you remember, the sole survivor of our first Adventure Island Survivor was Tex Murphy, who then sealed his victory with a speech graciously written by Tex Murphy creators Chris Jones and Aaron Conners. We can only imagine what may happen this time around!

The other seven island rejects—Guy Threepwood and his significant other, Simon the Sorcerer, April Ryan, Edward Carnby, Twinsen, Laura Bow, and Grim Fandango's Manny—are all ineligible. Who would you choose to be stranded together in the wilds—Gabriel Knight, Larry Laffer, that silly-looking bald guy from Nightlong? Simply email me at randy@justadventure.com with the word "Survivor" as your subject header. Suggest as many, or as few, characters as you wish by January 21, 2001, and the top eight vote-getters will suffer the misfortune of appearing in Adventure Survivor 2—The Outback Edition!

The Hotel—Closed for the Season

Recently, a special adventure project was cancelled due to lack of funding. The Hotel, an online adventure game, lost its sponsor. Many readers were quick to attribute a lack of support from the adventure community for the cancellation, which in small part is true. Some placed the blame on specific adventure message boards that refused to publicize the game because of their dislike of Just Adventure. But I hardly think that a barely read message board moderated by zealots is the cause, either. Rather, the reason The Hotel went out of business is because of Just Adventure.

For you see, the developers of The Hotel asked Just Adventure if we would sponsor their website—and we could not. And the reason we could not is because the majority of the companies that make adventure games do not support Just Adventure with any advertising. Look around the site. Do you see any advertisements for Escape from Monkey Island, Myst 3, Stupid Invaders? Now look in the magazines that continuously slam adventure games and glory at the two-page advertisements that cost tens of thousands of dollars. The only companies that have ever supported our efforts are SouthPeak and Dreamcatcher. (And yes, every time we give a Dreamcatcher game a good grade, some idiot is sure to write and say, "The only reason you gave that game an A is because the distributor advertises on your site." Of course I never receive such emails after reviews of games like Time Machine, Pompei, or The Forgotten.) The sad truth is that if we don't soon receive support, then we may also close our doors, and anyone who knows me realizes it won't be for lack of trying.

No, but I Will for a Cookie

While we're on the subject of advertising, I once received an email from a reader who berated me for using the word "sucks" in a newsletter, so imagine my shock when I visited a competitor's adventure site and at the top of the page was a banner advertisement that featured a woman unzipping her cut-off jeans and the question, "Would You Do It All For the Nookie?" Rather than crawl on a soapbox and rant about sexism and stereotypes and rather than dismissing the advertisement due to the age of the individuals running the site, let me just assure our readers that if we ever have to debase our site with this type of putrid advertising just because we are part of some network, well, that'll be the day I replay The New Adventures of the Time Machine.

We Don't Need Your Steenkin' Business

Sometimes I feel like the Rodney Dangerfield of adventure gaming. Witness my recent communications with Capcom. Now for those of you who don't own console systems, Capcom has a knack for creating wonderful games—like Street Fighter and Resident Evil—and then beating them to death with dozens of sequels. Recently they decided to make a dedicated effort to attract the computer crowd by releasing some of their survival horror games at an affordable price. Now you're about to find out why console games that are ported to PC usually end up in the budget bin a month after release.

Companies like Capcom deal primarily with teenagers. They heavily advertise in magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly and comic books. When their products are ported to computer, they continue to advertise to the same market instead of attempting to attract the predominately adult computer crowd, not realizing that the teenagers who want to play one of their games will have probably already done so on a console system. So when approached by an adult, they do not know how to react. As our readers know, we have recently attempted to broaden our scope to include console and survival horror games in a belief that these are genres that an adventure gamer would enjoy. Capcom, though, seems to have a different viewpoint on the matter. A Capcom press representative, after I had the audacity to inquire as to review copies of their computer products, wrote to me, "... we are being extremely strict about adding new websites to our online product reviewers list as we feel we are already covering major videogame websites." In other words, "we really don't care about your 100,000 readers or computer adventure gamers." If you don't care about us, then who are you marketing these games to? Aren't they considered action/adventure games? How many of you out there can even name the two games that Capcom recently ported to computer? Chances are you never will know—until you see them in the bargain bin at your local Electronics Boutique.

Take a Walk on the Mild Side

We are always quick to point out inequities in the gaming business, but for once I would like to congratulate someone on his professionalism and dignity. Every month in PC Gamer, William R. Trotter writes an opinion column entitled "Desktop General." In the January issue, he reprints a letter received from an irate reader. In a previous opinion piece, Mr. Trotter was thinking out loud in print about a 1942 battle and ventured into the always-dangerous "what if" territory. The irate reader, who had actually participated in said battle, took Mr. Trotter to task for playing armchair general and having the "audacity to second-guess the actions of those of us who risked their lives in battle ..."

Now in an age where gamers, many of whom have probably never even seen a dead body, insist on more realistic death scenes in their games, in an age where most columnists defend their insipid morals with smart-ass replies, Trotter took the high road and simply replied, "On behalf of all wargamers, I salute Mr. Hawkins and his comrades for their valor and sacrifice. Sometimes, the words, ‘It's only a game' seem pathetically lame."

We desperately need more people like William R. Trotter to represent mature gamers.

Please, Just Poke My Eyes out with a Fork

Steven Kent is a god in this industry. His reviews have appeared in every major publication in the United States. He has written a splendid book—The First Quarter: A 25-Year History of Videogames. His word can literally make or break a game. So when I received my Sunday paper on December 10 and opened Access Magazine: America's Guide to the Internet, a weekly insert that has more readers then the combined circulation of every monthly gaming magazine, and saw the article "Best Games of the Year" as chosen by Contributing Editor Steven Kent, well, I was pretty excited. What would be his choice as best adventure game of the year, I gleefully wondered—Escape from Monkey Island, The Longest Journey, Dracula Resurrection?

How about Half Life: Counter Strike, with Rune as the runner-up? Gee, Steve, why not Madden 2001 or Frogger 2 as the best adventure game of the year? I cannot even begin to exaggerate how much harm such clueless choices do to people's impressions of the adventure genre.

If you would like to write to Steve and share your thoughts on his choice of Best Adventure Game of the Year, you can reach him at skent@accessmagazine.com. As it is the season of giving, I am sure that the editorial staff of Access Magazine would also love to hear from our readers, so in the spirit of giving, they are Stephanie Chang, Dennis Barker, and Jill Harrington.

Monkey Wearing Eye Patch Arrested, Says, "I Thought I Was Eating a Banana"

In our July State of Adventure Gaming, we made it a point to mention that the European versions of The Longest Journey and The Devil Inside had both been released with bugs and we fervently hoped the problems would be corrected for their North American releases. Not one person wrote to question the veracity of the story. Not one.

Many times we will not even mention a bug in one of our reviews because all computer systems are configured differently and what may not run on one system will work on another. This is usually not a bug but more a problem with trying to program for every different piece of available computer components. Some bugs are show-stoppers; the game cannot be finished without a patch. The only time we ever even mention a bug is when numerous consumers are experiencing the same problem or if the company has already released a patch.

So imagine my surprise when I received tons of hate mail and was accused of being a liar when I had the audacity to review Escape from Monkey Island and complain about the bugs in the game. For gosh sake people, when the company that made the product releases a patch for the game, that means they are acutely aware they have released a substandard product. Never mind that I have since read four other reviews complaining about bugs, that posts on Internet newsgroups have complained about bugs, and that unmoderated Monkey Island forum posters have complained about bugs—for some reason I can't fathom, many hardcore adventure gamers seem to believe that because it is a LucasArts product, the problem should be swept under the rug. Sorry, but it would be a grievous disservice to our readers if we were to show such favoritism.

But it is just not LucasArts that is guilty of rushing products out the door in hopes of realizing a Christmas cash cow. Interplay has already, within a week of its release, produced a patch for Giants. Bethesda just posted a patch for Sea Dogs. And this is just a small part of a problem that is industrywide, especially during the holiday season. Maybe we are the problem, for by purchasing these faulty products we only give the impression that we do not care if it works correctly, we just want it in time to put under the Christmas tree.

Sir Lancelot Does a Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma'am, Calls Ziggy JAVE, Infuriates All the Young Dudes

In response to numerous inquiries, yes, the JAVE (Just Adventure Virtual Encyclopedia) was my idea, but it was not me who brought it to life. It seems that one of our readers, Valerie Davis (aka Ziggy) shared the same dream I had (now that's a scary thought!)—to document every adventure game ever made in encyclopedia form on the Internet. Val's imagination and creativity are what have brought the JAVE to life. I explained to her what I wanted and how it should look, and she quite simply exceeded my wildest expectations (hmm ... I wonder how I could transfer that attribute to my wife?). If you have not yet visited the JAVE, then take a look now while it is still in its infancy, for I promise you that the JAVE will one day be the definitive source for adventure gamers worldwide.

Ray Gay? Randy Dandy? Matt Phat?

Find out for yourself when you visit the JA Forum (yes, this is a blatant plug). Rub elbows with the movers and shakers of the industry, and then when they tell you to quit touching them, join with the staff of Just Adventure and adventure gamers from around the world as we talk adventure games until the wee hours of the morning. And this month we have a special Escape from Monkey Island contest for our Forum posters, so what are you waiting for?

And to All a Good Night

Regardless of what holiday you celebrate or how it is pronounced, may you have a blessed and safe holiday season. Thank you one and all for your support and enthusiasm as together we continue to work to reestablish the adventure genre worldwide.

We will be taking a break from December 23 until early January. In the meantime, catch up on some articles you may not have read, play some new adventure games, and please, please write to the individuals or companies that we tell you about and inform them of your satisfaction or dissatisfaction regarding the treatment of the adventure genre. If you do not speak out now, it may be too late next year.