Tim Schafer says Graphics Killed Adventure Games

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<putxhere@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1111782445.469672.151430@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Ran across this at Just Adventure
>
> http://www.justadventure.com/articles/State_of_Adventure_Gaming/March2005/SOAG_Mar05.shtm
>
> so if you accept what he says at face value, then it only stands to
> reason that graphics will eventually kill all the other genres also

I just think Tim is a huge Infocom fan. ;)

Jonah Falcon
 
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In article <1111782445.469672.151430@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
putxhere@yahoo.com wrote:

> Ran across this at Just Adventure
>
> http://www.justadventure.com/articles/State_of_Adventure_Gaming/March2005/SOAG
> _Mar05.shtm
>
> so if you accept what he says at face value, then it only stands to
> reason that graphics will eventually kill all the other genres also

Haven't read the article, yet, but I can see the argument that graphics
destroy the "imagination" part of adventure games, less important in
some other genres.

While an extreme position, it's not TOTALLY far-fetched...

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On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 04:08:21 GMT, Miss Elaine Eos
<Misc@*your-shoes*PlayNaked.com> wrote:

>In article <1111782445.469672.151430@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
> putxhere@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>> Ran across this at Just Adventure
>>
>> http://www.justadventure.com/articles/State_of_Adventure_Gaming/March2005/SOAG
>> _Mar05.shtm
>>
>> so if you accept what he says at face value, then it only stands to
>> reason that graphics will eventually kill all the other genres also
>
>Haven't read the article, yet, but I can see the argument that graphics
>destroy the "imagination" part of adventure games, less important in
>some other genres.

I don't buy this to be honest. There is no reason why you can't have good
graphics AND a great game too. I think the real situation is that having great
graphics shows up the limited imagination of the developers. Instead of just
"using your imagination" and assuming that something just happened, they now
have to show it. They have to do the work, animates stuff, script it etc.
Whereas before they could leave all the work up to us.

>While an extreme position, it's not TOTALLY far-fetched...
 
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putxhere@yahoo.com wrote:
> Ran across this at Just Adventure
>
>
http://www.justadventure.com/articles/State_of_Adventure_Gaming/March2005/SOAG_Mar05.shtm
>
> so if you accept what he says at face value, then it only stands to
> reason that graphics will eventually kill all the other genres also

After reading it, I'm not sure he really says anything at all. He just
seems to be musing about stuff. First he extols the original excitement
of text based adventure games, then he acknowledges that they too were
limited, just like graphical adventure games. Throw in some random
musings about the nature of "freedom" in video games and in the end,
you really don't come away with the idea that he's definitively said
anything.

Jojo
 
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On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 13:24:42 GMT, Memnoch
<memnoch@nospampleaseimbritish.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>>In article <1111782445.469672.151430@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
>> putxhere@yahoo.com wrote:
>>
>>> Ran across this at Just Adventure
>>>
>>> http://www.justadventure.com/articles/State_of_Adventure_Gaming/March2005/SOAG
>>> _Mar05.shtm
>>>
>>> so if you accept what he says at face value, then it only stands to
>>> reason that graphics will eventually kill all the other genres also
>>
>>Haven't read the article, yet, but I can see the argument that graphics
>>destroy the "imagination" part of adventure games, less important in
>>some other genres.
>
>I don't buy this to be honest. There is no reason why you can't have good
>graphics AND a great game too. I think the real situation is that having great
>graphics shows up the limited imagination of the developers. Instead of just
>"using your imagination" and assuming that something just happened, they now
>have to show it. They have to do the work, animates stuff, script it etc.
>Whereas before they could leave all the work up to us.

That's really getting pretty far afield from his argument. The claim
he's making is a stronger (for that matter, almost ad absurdum)
version of one of the major claims made by many Interactive Fiction
advocates (Notably Andrew Plotkin, unless I'm mistaken, though he, I
think, avoids actually saying that the one is per se superior to the
other): that the non-graphic medium hides the range of action in a way
that graphical games can not. In a Sierra or LucasArts style game,
you immediately know exactly which actions the simulation supports for
a given object (Because you can do exactly those actions which show up
on the command bar, verb list, magic coin or whichever), whereas when
you're preseted with a command prompt, though most actions are just
going to get you a "You can't" message, you don't know *which* actions
are going to work until you try them. In both cases, there's only
going to be a few valid things to do with any given object, but in a
text adventure, as far as the player is concerned, those actions
*could* be *anything*. Whether or not this is important, it is
absolutely *true*.
 
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In article <6e1g419j0orb2i3hj7idtng8e2cirv6bij@4ax.com>,
Memnoch <memnoch@nospampleaseimbritish.ntlworld.com> wrote:

> >Haven't read the article, yet, but I can see the argument that graphics
> >destroy the "imagination" part of adventure games, less important in
> >some other genres.

> I don't buy this to be honest. There is no reason why you can't have good
> graphics AND a great game too. I think the real situation is that having great
> graphics shows up the limited imagination of the developers. Instead of just
> "using your imagination" and assuming that something just happened, they now
> have to show it. They have to do the work, animates stuff, script it etc.
> Whereas before they could leave all the work up to us.

Right. I'm suggesting that this "ruins" the game. (An extreme
statement that nonetheless conveys the correct idea.)

--
Please take off your shoes before arriving at my in-box.
I will not, no matter how "good" the deal, patronise any business which sends
unsolicited commercial e-mail or that advertises in discussion newsgroups.
 
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putxhere@yahoo.com wrote in
news:1111782445.469672.151430@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

> Ran across this at Just Adventure
>
> http://www.justadventure.com/articles/State_of_Adventure_Gaming/March20
> 05/SOAG_Mar05.shtm
>
> so if you accept what he says at face value, then it only stands to
> reason that graphics will eventually kill all the other genres also
>

I can (partially) agree with the statement, but definitely not with the
underlying reasoning. The introduction of graphics was directly
responsible for changing the economics of producing an adventure game; much
like expensive special effects changed the economics of making movies.
Nowadays, to make a "bleeding edge" graphical computer game requires so
much money that it must be a blockbuster in order to turn any profit. Most
backers aren't willing to take the chance, and even when they do, they want
to be sure that they can tap into the biggest market (FPS on platforms).

This doesn't mean that adventure games are dead, only that most of them
will be less than state of the art with respect to graphics. The Nancy
Drew series is a good example; each game can be produced with a relatively
low cost, and the graphics improvements from game to game are only
incremental. However, that series has proven to be very profitable, and
shows no signs of death.

--
Murray Peterson
Email: murray.spamtrap2@shaw.ca
URL: http://members.shaw.ca/murraypeterson/
 

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