Articles

By Randy Sluganski

THE STATE OF ADVENTURE GAMING - July 2002

ADVENTURE  - THE GENRE THAT DOES SELL

This month we have the cumulative sales figures for any adventure game that has sold at least 1,000 copies in 2002. As always, these figures were compiled by PC Data and do not include online sales or any sales outside of North America; both of which comprise a large portion of adventure game purchases.  To see them just click here.

What I find most interesting is that while the magazines would have you believe that adventure games do not sell, these figures clearly show that old adventure games like Myst, King’s Quest VIII, Amerzone, etc. continue to have a long shelf-life, while old action games like Doom, Duke Nukem, et al have disappeared off the charts.  Why?  Because they are games that are based on their now outdated graphics while an adventure game, like a classic novel, will continue to appeal to a player’s cerebral side years after its initial release. 

OOPS!  I DID IT AGAIN!

We’re usually pretty good at keeping secrets at Just Adventure.  There are games we are aware of months before they are publicly announced, but developers have – for obvious reasons – asked us to maintain silence.  So when we were informed at the E3 that Syberia 2 was in production, the light bulb did not flash above my head that this was confidential information and I then proceeded to blab this scoop on the site.  This in turn forced Microid’s hand and they were forced to admit that the news was true, months before they intended to issue a public release.  For causing all of this confusion, our apologies to Microids and we even promise to not mention Fish Files 2!  Oops (just kidding Cedric!).

BUT ON THE OTHER HAND…

Supposedly a sequel to the wonderful Ico has been canceled.  This is dreadful news as the low sales figures (70,000 sold) reflect poorly on the tastes of the console community.  The same old clichéd racing and sports games continue to boast of sales in the hundreds of thousands, yet an innovative game that approaches art, tanks.  But does the blame really rest on the shoulders of the console gamers or is this just another instance of poor marketing?  Ico – a game that would readily appeal to any adventure gamer – was marketed only to the male teenage demographics that read Gamepro and Electronic Gaming Monthly.  Console publishers, unlike their pc counterparts, have yet to realize that different genres can appeal to a wide variety of people and still insist on aiming all of their marketing at the teenage male demographic.  It is for this reason that the PC version of Shadow of Destiny will also fail.  The only attempt Konami has made at advertising the game is PC Gamer and Computer Gaming World and while both may be fine magazines, neither one has a reputation for unbiased adventure game reviews in the adventure community.  So what happens is those who are not adventure gamers will be turned-off by the slanted reviews in the magazines and those who are adventure gamers will have difficulty finding any positive information on the game outside of the little news provided to Just Adventure. 

OUR CUP RUNNETH OVER

By the end of August, we should have added close to another 100 adventure game reviews to our database.  Besides the regular addition of reviews of newer games, we will also be adding over 30 reviews from Scorpia’s collection and have recently unearthed over 40 “lost” reviews of Ray Ivey!  We will also be spotlighting these reviews individually every Tuesday and Thursday for the remainder of the year.  Plus, look for another huge influx of walkthroughs as we continue our efforts to remain the best darn adventure webzine in the history of civilization.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME

I thought it bad enough when recently reading the instructions from a Nintendo Gamecube game – Eternal Darkness - that listed the following warnings:  Seizures, Repetitive Motion Injuries, Electric Shock, Motion Sickness, Laser Device.  Jeez, I thought, these warnings are scarier than the game.  But then I loaded a simple racing game called Test Drive onto my Xbox only to be greeted by the following onscreen admonition (and I paraphrase here as the actual quote is too lengthy to post verbatim): 

The cars in this game are not real; they are video game images.  Do not attempt to duplicate these driving tricks in your real car as you could be injured or killed.

Honestly, are video gamers as stupid as all of these warnings would have us believe?  Maybe adventure games should also take such cautions.  For example, how about this for Gabriel Knight 3:  Warning!  Gluing cat hair on your driver’s license in an attempt to alter you appearance is a federal offense.  Or before playing Beyond Atlantis:  Warning!  Please do not book a tour through any travel agency to visit the city of Atlantis as it is a myth.  Except for Dreamcatcher employees who actually believe Atlantis exists.

If you have any adventure game “warnings” that you feel could save a life, send them to randy@justadventure.com and maybe we’ll include them in a future column.

12 MILLION SOLD AND NOT A SINGLE PERSON WAS KILLED – OH, THAT’S WHY THEY DON’T LIKE IT

It used to be that the video game magazines were the last place to expect a kind word regarding the adventure genre. Yet in the July issue of PSM (Playstation Magazine), reviewer Stephen Frost had the following to say about Scooby-Doo: Night of 100 Frights:

 “Looking back at this game, I’ve come to the conclusion that it should have been more of a graphical adventure along the lines of Broken Sword.  That way, the whole sense of discovering clues and solving an actual mystery could be retained.”

Keep in mind that PSM is aimed at teenage, male gamers so this comment by Stephen Frost was not only surprising, but very welcome.  Now let’s look at some recent comments from the supposedly mature PC Gamer and Computer Gaming World.

The July issue of CGW featured a review of Alfred Hitchcock Presents:  The Final Cut by Charles Ardai.  The game received a deservedly poor grade, what was not deserved though was this:

Hitchcock died in 1980; the adventure game genre died around 1998.  And although there have been periodic attempts to revive both – Hitchcock in a posthumous TV series, adventure games in periodic European imports – Mary Shelley taught us how likely such experiments are to succeed.

What an asinine remark.  I didn’t realize that Escape From Monkey Island, Riddle of the Sphinx, The Crystal Key, the Nancy Drew series, Myst 3 (AND MORE!) – all games that have sold more than 150,000 copies – were made in Europe.  Maybe Mr. Ardai needs a good map as he seems to be living in the nineteenth century.

As for PC Gamer, nothing they would write about adventure games would surprise me, but take a look at this from the June PCG News Ticker:

Timely programming:  The Sci Fi Channel is readying a four-hour miniseries based on eight-year old PC smash phenomenon Myst.  Much like the game, after 15 minutes you’ll get frustrated and turn it off.

Let me see if I understand this, Myst has sold over 12 million copies in eight years, yet PC Gamer can’t seem to find one, not one, reviewer who understands the game.  Yet this same magazine recently drooled over the new Doom at E3.  Correct me if I’m wrong here, but isn’t the new Doom the same as the previous Dooms in that you just kill everything in site?  Yet PC Gamer loves to slam adventure games because all the players get to do is solve puzzles, the same as in adventure games from five years ago?  Isn’t this new Doom the same as the one from five years ago?  Oh wait, the graphics are better so somehow that makes the game better.

Rob Smith and Jeff Green, the editors of PC Gamer and Computer Gaming World respectively, are both great people and we correspond with them on a regular basis, but when will they realize that there is room for all genres in the world of PC gaming and not just the genres that their staff members like?

BUT IF WE STOCK THEM, THEN SOMEONE MAY BUY THEM AND IF SOMEONE BUYS THEM, THEN WE MAY HAVE TO STOCK THEM

Recently the following post appeared on Google at comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure:

I just discovered (or re-discovered) one reason why adventure games are selling so poorly.  I just tried to buy Watchmaker at Electronics Boutique today, and was told that their single copy came in today and was also sold today.  I asked about restocking time, and they indicated that they had no intention of buying another copy -- since "adventure games don't sell too well".  Talk about circular reasoning...

It's pretty bad when the only serious retailer of computer games in the entire city decides to understock adventure games -- no wonder they don't sell too well.

This particular post encouraged over two-dozen responses, all from consumers with similar problems at their local Electronics Boutique.  We then contacted Howard Horowitz, the president and C.E.O. of GotGame Entertainment.  Mr. Horowitz in turn promised to contact Electronics Boutique at their Pennsylvania headquarters and attempt to correct this situation.  Well, lo and behold, it was not too long before posters who were complaining about the lack of adventure games at their local EB were instead posting the following:

I stopped in my local Electronics Boutique at lunchtime today, and am now the proud owner of Syberia, Jazz&Faust, Watchmaker, and Nautilus.  The sales droid I talked to last time was obviously mistaken -- they did bring in more stock

Thank you Mr. Horowitz for taking a stand to get more adventure games on store shelves and if you have a chain store in your area that is refusing to stock adventure games, please let us know and we will see what we can do to correct the situation.

TCHOTCHKE – BLESS YOU

Our Top 10 Adventure Tchotchkes article was so popular that it encouraged dozens of responses from readers about their favorite adventure tchotchkes.  Among some of the more interesting emails we received:

Charles Herold of the New York Times:  For the last 007 game they sent a locked metal suitcase with 007 on it (007 was the combination, too).  And I actually received a horseshoe set in a nice wooden box for some game or other, which may or may not be expensive but is certainly the heaviest tchotchke I ever received.

Cindy Yans of Computer Games Magazine:   I love that article... Nostalgia... You got quite a few things that I never saw, but I have a bunch of things here as well.... The Devil Inside Devil's Food Cake Mix, Zork Grand Inquisitor actual lantern, Normality Milk Carton, Koala Lumpur Fez, Baldur's Gate Premium Dark Ale, Uprising "thingie" that looks like your Time Machine Hour Glass, Toonstruck framed and signed cel, a zillion action figures and metal cast figures, It's pretty amazing how much junk you can accumulate in 7 years.

JA Fan Lous Crispino:   Loved your list of Tchotchkes!  Especially that Lava Lamp! Bet if they sold that in stores it might actually do better than the game did! (maybe they could sell the lamp, and give the game away as a Tchotchke!)

Don't know if this qualifies as a Tchotchke, but a few years back when "Angel Devoid" was released, they had a contest on their web site for free copies of the game, posters, etc. The grand prize was one of 10 Leather Motorcycle Jackets with the Angel Devoid Logo embroidered on the back.  I entered hoping for a free copy of the game, but I won one of the leather jackets!   Another example of the promotional item being better than the game! 

WHO’S YER DADDY?

Well, I know I’m going to get in a lot of trouble for showing you this, but I can’t resist.  Pictured below is a hitherto unpublished screenshot from Her Interactive’s upcoming August release of Nancy Drew: The Scarlet Hand.  If you look real carefully, you’ll discover Nancy’s favorite adventure webzine.  You go girl!

KICKSTANDS AT HALF MAST

The adventure community lost a dear friend recently when Roy Conrad, the gravelly voice of Ben in LucasArts’ classic Full Throttle, passed away from lung cancer.  Tim Schafer, developer of Full Throttle and the Monkey Island series, posted a wonderful memorial to Roy on his new development company’s – Doublefine – website. 

SIGHBERIA

Since the Canadian release of Syberia almost 2 weeks ago, not a day has gone by in which we have not received at least one email gushing over the quality of Benoit Sokal/ Microids latest offering.   Even The Longest Journey didn’t initially generate this kind of enthusiasm among adventure gamers.  Dreamcatcher’s September release date for North America may seem to be a long way off, but believe me, it will be worth the wait (I’m just hoping they don’t change the title to Beyond Syberia to Atlantis or Syberia: The Lost Tales of Atlantis).

RED HERRINGS

Look for an interview with Mike Ryder, the new president of Sierra, soon.  We hope to get the truth behind the rumors swirling around about new entries in the Space Quest and Kings Quest series.

We’re also working on obtaining interviews with Tim Curry (the voice of Gabriel Knight and countless other adventure games) and Tim Schafer who is currently developing Psychonauts.

We just found out about a few top-secret adventure projects that are still in the talking stage.  If they come to fruition, it will be great news for the adventure community and may turn more than a few of us into online gamers!

Cryo gone!?  We hope to have an article soon chronicling the history of Cryo and some of the wonderful games they developed over the years.