The State of Adventure Gaming

By Randy Sluganski
December 1999

M.I.A.

Have you seen this woman?

Missing: Katie Scarlett
Race: Caucasian
Age: 25-35
Height: 5'5"-6'5"
Weight: 100-150 lbs.
Sightings: Reported writing in a UK domain. Reported editing RPG materials for Just Adventure but this cannot be substantiated. A spokesperson for JA disclosed that he had never received any materials from K.S.
Warning: Do not approach or attempt to apprehend. K.S. holds a black belt in the ancient Oriental art of the poison pen. Please contact the appropriate authorities immediately.

Mother of All Adventure Trivia Quizzes

No, we did not forget the trivia quiz we promised for this month. But December is so busy that we have pushed it back to January--a more relaxed month. We want you to be able to escape from the hustle and bustle of the holidays; from the bone-chilling cold and the ice blizzards that will inevitably arrive. We want you to pour yourself a nice cup of steaming hot chocolate (with marshmallows), curl up and relax in your favorite easy chair in front of your computer--and then scream and pull your hair in frustration as you attempt to conquer our (drum roll please) Mother of All Adventure Trivia Quizzes!

Sanitarium 2?

No, not really, but I made you look huh! Actually, I just paid a visit to Dreamforge Studios, the creators of Sanitarium. What a thrill it was not only to meet these talented people, but also to find out that the head writer for Sanitarium is a friend from my past! Dreamforge and ASC are currently hard at work on Werewolf the Apocalypse and granted me a sneak peak and some exclusive information. Come January, when the moon is full, we will be showcasing Dreamforge and giving you the inside skinny on how a game is produced from start to finish.

Newsletter, Get Yer Newsletter Here!

That's right, over 600 of you have already signed up to receive our newsletter that begins next year. What will be in it? I don't know. Will it be weekly or monthly? I don't know that, either. Will it have new information on adventure games or just rehash what is on the site? Geez, why are you asking all these questions? Now that I've made the newsletter sound so interesting, if you have not yet subscribed, then just send an email to randy@justadventure.com and put "subscribe" in the header. Then you too can be as informed as I am.

GameBoomers--Up All Night!

Well, at least until 9:00 p.m. Then the future Boomers come out to play. Tired of all your friends whispering behind your back and calling you "adventure game geek?" Do you have a spouse who stares a hole through you whenever you start talking about the newest adventure game you're playing? Then it's time to visit GameBoomers and discover a world full of people who share your interests! Open 24 hours a day, lurkers welcome. Take your shoes off and sit for a spell.

Viva La Revolution!

Finally, adventure gamers have begun to speak out as one voice united against the adventure genre backlash. Adrenaline Vault and Gamespot are but two of the recent miscreants to receive hundreds of emails from angry adventure gamers. Dreamcatcher, SouthPeak, and Cryo all have new adventure games in production thanks to the support of adventure gamers. But the battle has just begun ... and next month we will take it one step further. How? Be here as Just Adventure lays the cornerstone in the most important step we shall ever take to revitalize the adventure genre. It will be controversial, it will not be easy, but as always--it will be exciting!

Over 20,000 Served

That's right, last month almost 20,000 unique readers visited Just Adventure, making us the largest genre-specific site on the Internet, and we have you (and you and especially you) to thank for our phenomenal success. How does our readership compare to other "big" sites on the World Wide Web? Well, according to the sites I contacted, that is "privileged" information. But a magazine like Next Generation has, according to their most recent Statement of Ownership, a paid circulation of 183,000 copies per issue. And that is our goal for next year at this time: to have a monthly readership as large as a magazine like NG or PC Gamer. If adventure publishers and advertisers are now starting to listen to our collective voice (and they are!), then imagine the influence our pocketbooks will have when we increase our visitors tenfold!

Happy Holidays!

We at Just Adventure would like to wish all of our readers Happy Holidays regardless of your religious denomination. May you all receive lots of new adventure games as gifts and have visions of Gabriel Knight running through your head. Now please put your hands together for the wonderful people who make Just Adventure possible:

• Audrey Wells of Kentucky does an excellent job maintaining the Links page;
• Harriet Gurganus of North Carolina is masterful with the Upcoming Releases page;
• Cindy KM of Georgia scours the 'Net for the popular Eye on Adventure column;
• Adam Rodman of North Carolina, whose introspective reviews and articles show wisdom beyond his age;
• Tom Houston, the thinking man's game player, of Connecticut;
• The Adventure Coalition, the only web ring on the Internet to share articles between sites;
• Our guest reviewers from Italy, Poland, Russia and all corners of the globe.

If Just Adventure has proved anything at all this year, it is that the adventure genre is not dead. Adventure gamers from around the world have rallied around us in a show of support and our numbers grow larger by the day. God willing, we will be here for another millennium with lots of new adventure games to share.

As for me, I'm Randy Sluganski from Pittsburgh, and I'm outta here until next year.