10 ms·

Why Adventure Games Suck (1989)

150 points by networked 7y ago

the_af 7y ago
Interesting and amusing read. Of course Ron Gilbert is a well-known authority on Adventure Games, but the original Old Man Murray article is even better (and funnier). In case anyone hasn't read it yet: "Who Killed Adventure Games?" http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html (As an amusing aside, point-and-click adventure games were considered to be for "clever" gamers in 90s Spain and Latin America; gamers who mocked action games as simplistic. But there was nothing "clever" or "cerebral" about most adventure games; they were mostly arbitrary and nonsensical. And fun, of course!) Before I read the Old Man Murray article I was already frustrated with (some) adventure games, even though I absolutely loved the Space Quest series (the original, 16 colors and text input!), and of course Interactive Fiction (aka text adventures). IF games in particular had something of a rennaissance some years (or decades?) ago and they evolved into something way more complex and with better UX than what we remember from the old Zork days.
- soneca 7y ago
  Interesting thing about life in the 90s without internet is that we were able to consume something without being part of any larger culture around it. I loved and played a lot of adventure games. All LucasArts' and a few others. I never even heard of this cultural trace of adventure gamers thinking of themselves as more clever and looking down to action games players. For me it just something easier to play because it didn't depend on reflex or accuracy (I was never good those types of games) and I liked the story. I am the type who loves cutscenes up to today. In any game.
  - the_af 7y ago
    I learned about this phenomenon (looking down I mean) from the forums of Home of the Underdogs, which gathered people from all over the world. This was 2004 I believe. But also from magazines we got from Spain. For some reason adventure and text adventures were really big in Spain, and along with it the notion (in their subcommunities) that action games were for the "dumber" crowd. It wasn't a vicious sentiment, like you would have nowadays, just a feeling of superiority from adventure gamers. They also reacted fiercely when game designers started introducing action gameplay in adventure games, creating action/adventure hybrids. The feeling was that they were "dumbing down" adventure games. Which, if you read the Old Man Murray article, is of course a hilarious notion. I loved adventure games too! As I said, I cut my teeth with the original (and punishing) Space Quest series, and to this day I have fond memories of it. I also learned quite a bit of English from the series :)
    - soneca 7y ago
      Me too, I learned a lot of English. I would play Monkey Island and Indiana Jones with a dictionary on the side. I remember taking hours in one of the first King Quests, that used typed text input, that the right verb was to "pick-up' a cup. Not take, not get, which were the only ones I knew at the time for picking up things.
      - indigochill 7y ago
        Especially confusing since "get" to my knowledge has been the conventional keyword used for this action in the vast majority of parser games and MUDs (maybe "take" in some cases, but "pick-up"? Really?). I'm a native English-speaker and that still probably would have stumped me for a while.
        galonk 7y ago
        Since "pick up" should not be hyphenated, as a native English speaker I don't think I would have ever guessed it!
        soneca 7y ago
        That's probably on me though, not the original game. Let's keep in mind that this is a memory from ~30 years ago, so not that reliable in general
        the_af 7y ago
        Back then, when there was no internet (or it wasn't widespread), Sierra On-Line games were vicious. Not only the wrong action meant instea-death, hope-you-have-a-savegame, but they were also sometimes impenetrable in an age where there weren't internet forums to ask for help. (There were hint books you had to buy, which in my mind were a scam). For example, in Space Quest 2 there was a puzzle where some strange creatures tell you that in order for them to open a passage, you just had to "say the word". Keep in mind I was just learning English back then. The answer was you had to literally type "the word".
  - ip26 7y ago
    That isolation really contributed to a sense of wonder & discovery for me. The growth of game guides and later the internet pulled back the curtain, so to speak. Not all bad of course. The dev console in Oblivion both broke me of my video game habits & got me interested in programming.
    - blaser-waffle 7y ago
      The console is still a must-have part of most Bethesda games. Was just playing Fallout 4 last night, no mods, and things bugged out bad enough to run to the console...
  - el_benhameen 7y ago
    Man, LucasArts' 90's games were the best! I have vivid memories of feeling totally immersed in Monkey Island and Loom in particular. Do you have any recent favorites with a similar feel?
    - lentil_soup 7y ago
      I really enjoyed "Thimbleweed Park" also by Ron Gilbert. It came out a couple of years ago, the look and feel is just like the old ones, the humour as well. I was completely immersed.
    - the_af 7y ago
      About a decade ago or so, there was a spate of fan-made games using the free Adventure Game Studio. I recall fondly Yahtzee's "7 Days a Stranger", which sparked some sequels. A horror game with the look of a LucasArts game and some experimental gameplay.
- naravara 7y ago
  When I first got an iPad I was almost certain this was going to herald a great resurgence of point-and-click style adventure games. I still don't really understand why it didn't. Unwillingness to pay for software I suppose? The interaction is perfect for a touch screen, the display is amazing, and the casual demographic seems like the ideal one to pick it up. Even puzzle games, like Phoenix Wright, would have worked well. It's really a shame that stuff like Candy Crush ended up dominating the space instead. There are some bright spots, like "The Room" or some Professor Layton games, but they're few in number.
  - soneca 7y ago
    Hovering the mouse was an essential mechanic in all the best point-and-clicks. Games that don't give a hint that an object is interactable on hovering are impossible to play. Games that highlight all interactable objects from start are boring and cut all the fun of discovery. That could be a a reason.
    - rabidrat 7y ago
      What about 'drag-to-hover' and 'tap-to-interact'? I don't feel like this is an unsolvable UI problem, when some core apps have 3-finger-pinch-and-drag-while-swiping gestures.
      - soneca 7y ago
        Never saw a 'drag-to-hover' design, but guessing from the name, could be a very neat solution to the problem I mentioned. Worth trying. Startup idea: buy the rights of a critically-praised-comercially-failed adventure game from the 90s, port it to iPad with this mechanic. :) I would play.
        leni536 7y ago
        No need, just install scummvm on any android device (I don't know if it's available on iOS) and play the many Lucasarts titles. It has 'drag-to-hover' and 'tap-to-click' as well.
- Chathamization 7y ago
  I remember Doom in particular being considered the poster child for what some considered to be lowbrow gaming. Of course people dividing entertainment into highbrow and lowbrow groups is nothing new - it's common for people to think of someone who's entertained by Shakespeare to be more "cerebral" than someone who's entertained by Twilight.
  - santoshalper 7y ago
    Which is funny, because that would not have been true at the time. Shakespeare was pop culture.
    - soneca 7y ago
      Some big literature classics in Brazil (I suspect other places too, Dickens maybe?) were published as weekly columns on newspapers. Kind of the soap opera of the times. Now they are treated as high brow art, with the good and bad parts of this stereotype (e.g. sophisticated/boring).
      - bear8642 7y ago
        Dickens' novels were most definitely compiled from newspapers - that's part of the reason for some unnecessarily verbose sentences
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - blaser-waffle 7y ago
        As were many US sci-fi classics. A Canticle for Libowitz was published as three short stories. Lots of Asimov was the same.
    - Chathamization 7y ago
      In addition, my understanding is that while Shakespeare was well regarded during his life, he wasn't particularly held in much higher regard than many of his contemporaries. The excessive elevation of Shakespeare (Bardolatry) seems to have been a process that occurred over decades and centuries. It's gotten to the point where it's hard to have a unbiased opinion. People aren't given a copy of King Lear and Tamburlaine and asked which one they prefer. People are usually told ahead of time that Shakespeare plays are wonderful works, that viewing them as wonderful is a sign of intelligence, and people are usually exposed to many plays by Shakespeare and none by his contemporaries. Our society probably has a much larger impact on how we view these works than the works themselves.
PaulHoule 7y ago
One word: Danganronpa.
- degurechaff 7y ago
  and zero escape
dudul 7y ago
I'm gonna react to the 2004 date instead of the original 1989 publication date. Runaway was released in 2001, Myst in 1993 and the sequel in 1997, Lucasfilm Indiana Jone in 1992 (a game of such quality that fans demanded a movie based on it), Broken Sword 1996, etc. These are just the few I bothered looking up. There has been a good amount of adventure game masterpieces between 1989 and 2004. Lots of bad ones, but also a fair count of great ones. There have been rough times for adventure games, but they were not dead between 1989 and 2004.
- TremendousJudge 7y ago
  You realize that the author is Ron Gilbert, who made a bunch of good games after he published this article, right?
- cwbrandsma 7y ago
  Personally, I call Zelda Breath of the Wild an Adventure Game (non-linear tho, most the games you listed are linear), and is one of the greatest games I've ever played.
lordleft 7y ago
I so desperately want to like adventure games. I love the visual styles, I love the storytelling opportunities, but the idea of being defeated by an opaque puzzle infuriates me.
- jordanpg 7y ago
  Indeed, this is the only genre of video game I really care for. And yet even as I keep buying and playing the games, I am always disappointed. I don't know what the future of adventure games looks like, but it definitely does not involve inane inventory "puzzles."
- _ZeD_ 7y ago
  try monkey island. they may be complex puzzles (and at least in the monkeywrench puzzle even opaque for me as an italian kid with no idea of the word "monkeywrench") but at least they are funny :D
- baud147258 7y ago
  Well, you can still settle for reading/watching Let's Play of them.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- dfxm12 7y ago
  Check out Kentucky Route Zero. It has all the visual styling and storytelling of an adventure game, but no way to be defeated by opaque puzzles.
- netjiro 7y ago
  Try the walking games, like Firewatch, Gone Home, Ethan Carter, Edith Finch, Dear Esther? Dour though. Revolution (Broken Sword, etc) tend to have fewer puzzles outside the context of the story than Lucas Arts (Monkey Island, etc). Some of the modern groups have built some really good stuff. Try Resonance for a great brain fry, or Technobabylon, Gemini Rue, Shardlight, Cathy Rain for lighter noggin usage. IIRC telltales Sam and Max had fun story and humour while light on puzzles. adventuregamers.com has a large library of reviews with a general scoring and som "good" and "bad" points. I've found their taste to be relevant enough to look at, while figuring out which good/bad to look for or avoid respectively.
tibbon 7y ago
There did seem to be a huge gap for many years in the existence of good adventure games. I have fond memories of many ones from yesteryear, but then it largely felt that anything that was out was pretty boring or just trying to copy them. And last week I started playing Disco Elysium, and it's everything I ever wanted from something like an adventure/rpg and more.
- TremendousJudge 7y ago
  I was going to say exactly the same about Disco Elysium. While classed as an RPG, I'd say it's more of an adventure game disguised as an RPG. The game is just point and click, talk to people, interact with the world, and solve puzzles. The leveling up mechanic makes it much more interesting to play, but it's not really the core gameplay
  - pampelondan 7y ago
    Well it is RPG indeed (unless someone understands it as "Ravage, Pillage, Grind"), but on the adventure spectrum it is more lika a choose-your-own-adventure game. The game interface is pretty much dialogue trees, at some point close to the end of the game, the game even poke at it not-so-subtly. Puzzles in those kind of games are prone to brute-forcing all dialogue choices.
egypturnash 7y ago
"If I could have my way, I'd design games that were meant to be played in four to five hours. The games would be of the same scope that I currently design, I'd just remove the silly time-wasting puzzles and take the player for an intense ride. The experience they would leave with would be much more entertaining and a lot less frustrating. The games would still be challenging, but not at the expense of the players patience." looks at her unfinished copy of Thimbleweed Park (Ron Gilbert et al, 2014) hahaha sure Ron, sure you would
- the_af 7y ago
  I couldn't go past the first few scenes of Thimbleweed Park either. I think I would have loved it when I was a teenager, but the point-and-click genre is just not for me anymore. (Also, and I know this is heresy, I couldn't finish the much lauded Psychonauts back then either). I think I simply had more patience for this kind of games when I was younger. I'm more willing to give experimental Interactive Fiction a go though. Some real gems there. edit: also, and this is stretching the "adventure" definition, I absolutely loved "The Return of the Obra Dinn" by Papers Please author Lukas Pope. I loved that game. At this point I'll play anything made by Pope, that's how much I trust the guy.
  - aequitas 7y ago
    Pope nailed in with Obra Dinn in how he implemented the detective gameplay and story telling. The game had me with several wtf story moments. This is one of those games that I'm reluctant to start playing as I don't want it to end to soon but can't stop playing once I've started it. Also worth watching are these insights into the game design (and a chance to enjoy the soundtrack again) (spoiler warning): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMi6xgdSbMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMi6xgdSbMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0qxLrFycrc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0qxLrFycrc
  - egypturnash 7y ago
    Obra Dinn was SO GOOD, I made pages of notes in a notebook and had a great time. Not sure it really qualifies as an "adventure" though. I finished Psychonauts. Once. I have tried to replay it and I just cannot, there is so much of it and I really do not want to slog through the tutorial area just so I can re-experience the Milkman Conspiracy. Thimbleweed might have been better if I'd played it on the "light" version; the "full" version is mostly "lots of extra 'jokes' about how adventure games were better back in 1993".
deleted 7y ago
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logfromblammo 7y ago
While playing through the Deponia series, I noticed that all the fiddly little puzzles, like the rail-car switching puzzle, had a "skip this puzzle" button. Yay for learning that some people don't want to go insane on brute-forcing all the possible solutions to advance the story. Even so, there were still a lot of attempts made at overcoming an obstacle, using normal logic, that failed because they required a joke punchline instead, such as... finding a straw in a needle stack. Modern I.F. games are a lot better in that respect, because you can code in a half-dozen solutions for the same puzzle, without creating new voice and graphic resources for all those alternate solutions.
bregma 7y ago
YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK BUILDING. AROUND YOU IS A FOREST. A SMALL STREAM FLOWS OUT OF THE BUILDING AND DOWN A GULLY. > enter building
- kyuudou 7y ago
  THERE IS NO DOOR OR OTHER VISIBLE ENTRANCE. YOU SEE A LARGE SNAKE EMERGING OUT OF THE STREAM.
derefr 7y ago
I haven’t seen a good analysis of it yet, but has anyone seen a list of “Guidelines for creating a good/entertaining ‘Troll’ Game” (e.g. IWTBTG, most Mario Maker levels, etc.)? It seems like such a guide would almost be an inversion of some of the principles in this guide: in troll games, you tend to learn only by dying; the puzzles always require things you forgot in the previous room, and you can’t go back, so you must commit in-game suicide to try again; etc. And yet, given that these guidelines are for the sake of making an entertaining game, how does inverting them then also make for an entertaining game? Can troll games even be entertaining without the context of having played good games that do follow these rules? It seems like having a mental model of these sorts of guidelines from previous gameplay, allows the player to predict a sort of meta for how things like puzzles should work; and only in that context would an inversion of good design principles carry a comedic punchline. I guess it’s similar to the question: can you create satire that makes sense without knowing what it’s satirizing?
- ukabwlsbeux 7y ago
  The IWBTG maker has a rarely updated blog in which he talks about game design in stuff he has played or made which I enjoy. Maybe check this out? This post seems relevant. https://kayin.moe/?p=2653 https://kayin.moe/?p=2653
- jtolmar 7y ago
  Defender, one of the Mario Maker trolls, wrote a big guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13ZoqeblLs45HuEfTtsOrq6X0LAuEnA8nB721_doxE38/edit#heading=h.2imojds67fn4 https://docs.google.com/document/d/13ZoqeblLs45HuEfTtsOrq6X0... I'm sure it's possible to make an original troll game (never bet on an artistic idea being impossible), but it certainly seems to make it harder. I've noticed that when the Mario Maker troll community tries to make Super Mario World trolls instead, it's just not as funny. The hacking tools for SMW allow vastly more freedom than MM's editor, since you can always patch the game's code. The decrease in quality might be from a lack of restraint, but I think the element of fair play that MM has is important as well. Everything in MM behaves the way it was programmed by non-trolls (more, Nintendo seems actively anti-troll), so every subversion comes from the level maker showing that they know something about how the game works that the player doesn't.
djsumdog 7y ago
I subscribe to Grumpy Gamer's RSS feed and I think this was the article that got me started on this blog. I recently played Milk Maid of the Milkyway. It's a super cute indie title and it's an adventure game. Despite the beautiful dialog and wonderful music, it still had a lot of the issues that Grumpy Gamer touches on that killed the original genre. You end up clicking everything on everything, looking up hints for objects you didn't realize were even clickable, and have stupid puzzles like putting a frog in a random hole and poking it with a needle so a guy oils a gear. By contrast, Red Strings Club is an indie adventure game that gets this totally right. It's story telling with game mechanics and you don't need any hints or need to solve any insanely stupid puzzles to get through it. Night in the Woods is another great Indie adventure game that's more about story. It doesn't have the same level of puzzles as other adventure games, but the puzzles all make sense. The game has a lot of mechanics that keep it going forward so you don't get stuck. Life is Strange is another one that's more story driven. I had trouble with it initially. It's slow and was difficult for me to get into, but I'm glad I stuck with it as the story is really interesting and does some very bold stuff for a game. I haven't tried the 2nd one yet. Telltale got a lot of this gene right I think. People complained how you don't really affect the story in Telltale games and that is true, but it is also very difficult to create those types of games with true multiple outcomes (especially if you have sequels planned. You only want 2 ~ 3 maximum outputs at the end. Mass Effect was good about being more complex; they had to plan for certain characters simply not being in future games -- but Bioware too ultimately collapsed the story down into very few possibilities by the end anyway). Finally, Quantic Dream does a super good job of this (Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls, Detroit). They've been PS4/Sony exclusives for a while, but I heard some of these games are making their way to PC. They are slow games you can't run through, but they don't require insane puzzles and keep moving. Detroit does a really good job with totally different narrative paths and endings, and they don't skimp on the writing, even on endings people would rarely get to.
martijn_himself 7y ago
Tangential question, does anyone have any tips for someone who has lost all interest in video games? I used to like them as a teenager and whenever I pick up a game now (I'm in my early 40's) I am just completely bored. Part of it I think is because it requires some form of mental engagement after a day's hard work?
- ramblerman 7y ago
  Nah, then they would be fun on a Saturday morning. I think it's just age. I still buy the occasional title on steam, but hardly play beyond the 1h mark. The only ones that caught me surprised were Factorio and dota2 both of which I then ended up playing far too much. The first singleplayer, and the second with a group of RL friends.
- ghaff 7y ago
  I think at least part of it is that whether its fast twitch or dense strategy/simulation, it takes a fair commitment to really get into a lot of games. Personally, I've always liked the idea of complex games (especially strategy and simulation) but I mostly didn't have the patience for them and that's even truer today. I did like Infocom games though I didn't finish most of them.
- sethammons 7y ago
  Similar. 37 yo. I loved NES, Sega, and SNES. I really enjoyed Doom. Later, half life and a couple counterstrike mods. Heros of might and magic, StarCraft 1 and 2. Nowadays, nothing perks my interest really. I did really enjoy Breath of the Wild and Ori and the Blind Forest. Everything else is just kinda meh. I have scarce time. Something has to be really worth it to take away from family time, home projects, chores, work, professional development, working out, and hobbies (reef aquarium, banjo, audio books, and smaller interests like ATV, bows and guns, and emergency prep).
- _thejrk 7y ago
  Try new genres. I used to love FPS and action/adventure games but now I play cities skylines or satisfactory and have a lot of fun.
- 7y ago
pixelperfect 7y ago
Sierra adventure games were my favorite single-player games from my childhood. I understand why a lot of people don't like them, e.g. many of the puzzles have nonsensical solutions, it's possible to get stuck because you didn't get an item in an area that you can't return to, etc. And the games haven't really aged well. But for the time they were my favorite.
- TheBlight 7y ago
  It'd be interesting to me to play the KQ series but with the parser replaced with something more state-of-art.
  - bzzzt 7y ago
    The later games in the series used a 'point and click' interface, but are still filled with arbitrary or unfair puzzles, some badly written dialogue and cringe-worthy story moments.
- kyuudou 7y ago
  The two I played were the first Leisure Suit Larry which was so funny, and the first Police Quest which I really loved but never finished. I ended up watching a playthrough of PQ on youtube. I think the designer was a former CA city cop and was very intent on the developers designing the following of police procedures to the tee e.g. if you forgot your gun somewhere the game ends/have to start back at last save point.
RootReducer 7y ago
Adventure games are still not dead! Amanita Designs is making some of the finest games around - in particular, their masterpiece Machinarium. Anyone who even has a passing interest in adventure/point and click games owes themselves the pleasure of playing it. Sublime music and art, a lovely wordless story, interesting setting and characters, and well-designed puzzles.
- rabidrat 7y ago
  Yes, I love Machinarium and I wish I could upvote your comment multiple times.
- vetinari 7y ago
  There's a bad taste left by Machinarium developers. It was originally sold for Android here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.net.machinarium.Machinarium https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.net.machin... That is now abandoned and left to bitrot. I don't know, whether they were expecting that people will purchase it again, but for me the effect was, that I won't touch anything made by them again.
jstimpfle 7y ago
I finished Grim Fandango because it is a wonderful, beautiful, heart-breaking game. Still dear to my heart. But let me be honest, I looked up most of the solutions. I don't have a sense for the weird solutions to a good chunk of the problems. Often I don't even know what is the problem. I purchased the HD remake of the game on Steam in 2015 to experience it once again. Just followed the solutions. It was much like watching a movie (a very good one). I remember I once played a Broken Sword game (I believe it was The Sleeping Dragon) and that was an exception in that it was super easy to solve. Disappointingly easy :-)
- jmckib 7y ago
  I haven't tried it, but there's a website where you can get hints for these adventure games, if you don't just want to follow a walkthrough. You've reminded me I need to give another shot at Grim Fandango. http://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/grimfand.php http://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/grimfand.php
reaktion 7y ago
I played through "A Short Hike" this week (because it was free on the Epic store.) Easily the most enjoyable indie adventure experience I've had: a unique but intuitive flying mechanic, simple "quests", and a short (<5 hour) overall gameplay time.
jmilloy 7y ago
> There is nothing more frustrating than solving pointless puzzle after pointless puzzle. Each puzzle solved should bring the player closer to understanding the story and game. A friend of mine was recently complaining about how adventure games and even rpgs (in both video and board game formats) lack significant character development, even the best ones with great worlds and stories. I don't personally have enough experience to have an opinion, but I thought it was interesting that the relevant guideline here shows exactly that: it mentions "story" but not "character". (I'm not sure what is meant here by "game"). Maybe my friend is not wrong.
- zokier 7y ago
  For (C)RPGs the problem might be that developers try to give players so much freedom that the character ends up being more of a blank slate, and it is pretty difficult to write meaningful development for that. And even when the character is not a blank slate then it might be something very bland/average so that most people can identify with and immerse in that character. As it turns out, most people don't really seem to want to play a role, they want to play their own thing which is very different. Think how much character development a play writer can write if they expect the actors to form their characters on a whim? And the actors being not professional ones who would be very good at it but your average common people.
Eric_WVGG 7y ago
a classic blog post on this topic from "Old Man Murray": https://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html https://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html "Who killed Adventure Games? I think it should be pretty clear at this point that Adventure Games committed suicide."
strictnein 7y ago
Makes me think of the Kings Quest games. In Kings Quest 5 you could find a pie and then you could eat it. But you needed it later to throw in the face of a Yeti. Still loved those games though
- zanderwohl 7y ago
  First thing I thought of, too. There were lots of things you could do that would make the game unwinnable. Like in the first one, leaving a gate open would allow a goat to wander off and you needed the goat later. In another one, you there was a fire that would go out X screen changes after finding it for the first time, and you needed embers from it. This article seems to directly call out a lot of the King's Quest mechanics and puzzles.
dukoid 7y ago
Btw: Can somebody please make a VR version of Machinarium? O:)
acabal 7y ago
> Never require a player to pick up an item that is used later in the game if she can't go back and get it when it is needed. It is very frustrating to learn that a seemingly insignificant object is needed, and the only way to get it is to start over or go back to a saved game. This reminds me of Return to Zork, in which on the very first screen the player sees a small plant growing out of a rock. If the player misses or ignores it, or if they choose to cut it or tear it out instead of gently digging it out, they won't able to defeat the last boss.
justaguyonline 7y ago
Interesting, I feel like the Author is describing what a well done Visual Novel does in their critics of the whole Adventure Game Genre. To summarize lazily: "remove the stupid puzzles and just take the reader on a wild ride for a couple of hours" Maybe they kinda predicted YUNO and the whole VN explosion in Japan that came soon after their article was published. Or a least the reason why the demand was there. Granted, these games still cost 40+ bucks and deliver 20+ hours of gameplay, which differs from the vision the Author outlined. But that seems to be because the extra effort does lead to better returns (and maybe that consumers want 20+ hour games), so it's a good thing.

150 points by networked 7y ago

Interesting and amusing read. Of course Ron Gilbert is a well-known authority on Adventure Games, but the original Old Man Murray article is even better (and funnier). In case anyone hasn't read it yet: "Who Killed Adventure Games?" http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html (As an amusing aside, point-and-click adventure games were considered to be for "clever" gamers in 90s Spain and Latin America; gamers who mocked action games as simplistic. But there was nothing "clever" or "cerebral" about most adventure games; they were mostly arbitrary and nonsensical. And fun, of course!) Before I read the Old Man Murray article I was already frustrated with (some) adventure games, even though I absolutely loved the Space Quest series (the original, 16 colors and text input!), and of course Interactive Fiction (aka text adventures). IF games in particular had something of a rennaissance some years (or decades?) ago and they evolved into something way more complex and with better UX than what we remember from the old Zork days.

soneca 7y ago
Interesting thing about life in the 90s without internet is that we were able to consume something without being part of any larger culture around it. I loved and played a lot of adventure games. All LucasArts' and a few others. I never even heard of this cultural trace of adventure gamers thinking of themselves as more clever and looking down to action games players. For me it just something easier to play because it didn't depend on reflex or accuracy (I was never good those types of games) and I liked the story. I am the type who loves cutscenes up to today. In any game.
- the_af 7y ago
  I learned about this phenomenon (looking down I mean) from the forums of Home of the Underdogs, which gathered people from all over the world. This was 2004 I believe. But also from magazines we got from Spain. For some reason adventure and text adventures were really big in Spain, and along with it the notion (in their subcommunities) that action games were for the "dumber" crowd. It wasn't a vicious sentiment, like you would have nowadays, just a feeling of superiority from adventure gamers. They also reacted fiercely when game designers started introducing action gameplay in adventure games, creating action/adventure hybrids. The feeling was that they were "dumbing down" adventure games. Which, if you read the Old Man Murray article, is of course a hilarious notion. I loved adventure games too! As I said, I cut my teeth with the original (and punishing) Space Quest series, and to this day I have fond memories of it. I also learned quite a bit of English from the series :)
  - soneca 7y ago
    Me too, I learned a lot of English. I would play Monkey Island and Indiana Jones with a dictionary on the side. I remember taking hours in one of the first King Quests, that used typed text input, that the right verb was to "pick-up' a cup. Not take, not get, which were the only ones I knew at the time for picking up things.
    - indigochill 7y ago
      Especially confusing since "get" to my knowledge has been the conventional keyword used for this action in the vast majority of parser games and MUDs (maybe "take" in some cases, but "pick-up"? Really?). I'm a native English-speaker and that still probably would have stumped me for a while.
      - galonk 7y ago
        Since "pick up" should not be hyphenated, as a native English speaker I don't think I would have ever guessed it!
        soneca 7y ago
        That's probably on me though, not the original game. Let's keep in mind that this is a memory from ~30 years ago, so not that reliable in general
      - the_af 7y ago
        Back then, when there was no internet (or it wasn't widespread), Sierra On-Line games were vicious. Not only the wrong action meant instea-death, hope-you-have-a-savegame, but they were also sometimes impenetrable in an age where there weren't internet forums to ask for help. (There were hint books you had to buy, which in my mind were a scam). For example, in Space Quest 2 there was a puzzle where some strange creatures tell you that in order for them to open a passage, you just had to "say the word". Keep in mind I was just learning English back then. The answer was you had to literally type "the word".
- ip26 7y ago
  That isolation really contributed to a sense of wonder & discovery for me. The growth of game guides and later the internet pulled back the curtain, so to speak. Not all bad of course. The dev console in Oblivion both broke me of my video game habits & got me interested in programming.
  - blaser-waffle 7y ago
    The console is still a must-have part of most Bethesda games. Was just playing Fallout 4 last night, no mods, and things bugged out bad enough to run to the console...
- el_benhameen 7y ago
  Man, LucasArts' 90's games were the best! I have vivid memories of feeling totally immersed in Monkey Island and Loom in particular. Do you have any recent favorites with a similar feel?
  - lentil_soup 7y ago
    I really enjoyed "Thimbleweed Park" also by Ron Gilbert. It came out a couple of years ago, the look and feel is just like the old ones, the humour as well. I was completely immersed.
  - the_af 7y ago
    About a decade ago or so, there was a spate of fan-made games using the free Adventure Game Studio. I recall fondly Yahtzee's "7 Days a Stranger", which sparked some sequels. A horror game with the look of a LucasArts game and some experimental gameplay.
naravara 7y ago
When I first got an iPad I was almost certain this was going to herald a great resurgence of point-and-click style adventure games. I still don't really understand why it didn't. Unwillingness to pay for software I suppose? The interaction is perfect for a touch screen, the display is amazing, and the casual demographic seems like the ideal one to pick it up. Even puzzle games, like Phoenix Wright, would have worked well. It's really a shame that stuff like Candy Crush ended up dominating the space instead. There are some bright spots, like "The Room" or some Professor Layton games, but they're few in number.
- soneca 7y ago
  Hovering the mouse was an essential mechanic in all the best point-and-clicks. Games that don't give a hint that an object is interactable on hovering are impossible to play. Games that highlight all interactable objects from start are boring and cut all the fun of discovery. That could be a a reason.
  - rabidrat 7y ago
    What about 'drag-to-hover' and 'tap-to-interact'? I don't feel like this is an unsolvable UI problem, when some core apps have 3-finger-pinch-and-drag-while-swiping gestures.
    - soneca 7y ago
      Never saw a 'drag-to-hover' design, but guessing from the name, could be a very neat solution to the problem I mentioned. Worth trying. Startup idea: buy the rights of a critically-praised-comercially-failed adventure game from the 90s, port it to iPad with this mechanic. :) I would play.
      - leni536 7y ago
        No need, just install scummvm on any android device (I don't know if it's available on iOS) and play the many Lucasarts titles. It has 'drag-to-hover' and 'tap-to-click' as well.
Chathamization 7y ago
I remember Doom in particular being considered the poster child for what some considered to be lowbrow gaming. Of course people dividing entertainment into highbrow and lowbrow groups is nothing new - it's common for people to think of someone who's entertained by Shakespeare to be more "cerebral" than someone who's entertained by Twilight.
- santoshalper 7y ago
  Which is funny, because that would not have been true at the time. Shakespeare was pop culture.
  - soneca 7y ago
    Some big literature classics in Brazil (I suspect other places too, Dickens maybe?) were published as weekly columns on newspapers. Kind of the soap opera of the times. Now they are treated as high brow art, with the good and bad parts of this stereotype (e.g. sophisticated/boring).
    - bear8642 7y ago
      Dickens' novels were most definitely compiled from newspapers - that's part of the reason for some unnecessarily verbose sentences
    - deleted 7y ago
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    - blaser-waffle 7y ago
      As were many US sci-fi classics. A Canticle for Libowitz was published as three short stories. Lots of Asimov was the same.
  - Chathamization 7y ago
    In addition, my understanding is that while Shakespeare was well regarded during his life, he wasn't particularly held in much higher regard than many of his contemporaries. The excessive elevation of Shakespeare (Bardolatry) seems to have been a process that occurred over decades and centuries. It's gotten to the point where it's hard to have a unbiased opinion. People aren't given a copy of King Lear and Tamburlaine and asked which one they prefer. People are usually told ahead of time that Shakespeare plays are wonderful works, that viewing them as wonderful is a sign of intelligence, and people are usually exposed to many plays by Shakespeare and none by his contemporaries. Our society probably has a much larger impact on how we view these works than the works themselves.

PaulHoule 7y ago

One word: Danganronpa.

degurechaff 7y ago
and zero escape

dudul 7y ago

I'm gonna react to the 2004 date instead of the original 1989 publication date. Runaway was released in 2001, Myst in 1993 and the sequel in 1997, Lucasfilm Indiana Jone in 1992 (a game of such quality that fans demanded a movie based on it), Broken Sword 1996, etc. These are just the few I bothered looking up. There has been a good amount of adventure game masterpieces between 1989 and 2004. Lots of bad ones, but also a fair count of great ones. There have been rough times for adventure games, but they were not dead between 1989 and 2004.

TremendousJudge 7y ago
You realize that the author is Ron Gilbert, who made a bunch of good games after he published this article, right?
cwbrandsma 7y ago
Personally, I call Zelda Breath of the Wild an Adventure Game (non-linear tho, most the games you listed are linear), and is one of the greatest games I've ever played.

lordleft 7y ago

I so desperately want to like adventure games. I love the visual styles, I love the storytelling opportunities, but the idea of being defeated by an opaque puzzle infuriates me.

jordanpg 7y ago
Indeed, this is the only genre of video game I really care for. And yet even as I keep buying and playing the games, I am always disappointed. I don't know what the future of adventure games looks like, but it definitely does not involve inane inventory "puzzles."
_ZeD_ 7y ago
try monkey island. they may be complex puzzles (and at least in the monkeywrench puzzle even opaque for me as an italian kid with no idea of the word "monkeywrench") but at least they are funny :D
baud147258 7y ago
Well, you can still settle for reading/watching Let's Play of them.
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dfxm12 7y ago
Check out Kentucky Route Zero. It has all the visual styling and storytelling of an adventure game, but no way to be defeated by opaque puzzles.
netjiro 7y ago
Try the walking games, like Firewatch, Gone Home, Ethan Carter, Edith Finch, Dear Esther? Dour though. Revolution (Broken Sword, etc) tend to have fewer puzzles outside the context of the story than Lucas Arts (Monkey Island, etc). Some of the modern groups have built some really good stuff. Try Resonance for a great brain fry, or Technobabylon, Gemini Rue, Shardlight, Cathy Rain for lighter noggin usage. IIRC telltales Sam and Max had fun story and humour while light on puzzles. adventuregamers.com has a large library of reviews with a general scoring and som "good" and "bad" points. I've found their taste to be relevant enough to look at, while figuring out which good/bad to look for or avoid respectively.

tibbon 7y ago

There did seem to be a huge gap for many years in the existence of good adventure games. I have fond memories of many ones from yesteryear, but then it largely felt that anything that was out was pretty boring or just trying to copy them. And last week I started playing Disco Elysium, and it's everything I ever wanted from something like an adventure/rpg and more.

TremendousJudge 7y ago
I was going to say exactly the same about Disco Elysium. While classed as an RPG, I'd say it's more of an adventure game disguised as an RPG. The game is just point and click, talk to people, interact with the world, and solve puzzles. The leveling up mechanic makes it much more interesting to play, but it's not really the core gameplay
- pampelondan 7y ago
  Well it is RPG indeed (unless someone understands it as "Ravage, Pillage, Grind"), but on the adventure spectrum it is more lika a choose-your-own-adventure game. The game interface is pretty much dialogue trees, at some point close to the end of the game, the game even poke at it not-so-subtly. Puzzles in those kind of games are prone to brute-forcing all dialogue choices.

egypturnash 7y ago

"If I could have my way, I'd design games that were meant to be played in four to five hours. The games would be of the same scope that I currently design, I'd just remove the silly time-wasting puzzles and take the player for an intense ride. The experience they would leave with would be much more entertaining and a lot less frustrating. The games would still be challenging, but not at the expense of the players patience." looks at her unfinished copy of Thimbleweed Park (Ron Gilbert et al, 2014) hahaha sure Ron, sure you would

the_af 7y ago
I couldn't go past the first few scenes of Thimbleweed Park either. I think I would have loved it when I was a teenager, but the point-and-click genre is just not for me anymore. (Also, and I know this is heresy, I couldn't finish the much lauded Psychonauts back then either). I think I simply had more patience for this kind of games when I was younger. I'm more willing to give experimental Interactive Fiction a go though. Some real gems there. edit: also, and this is stretching the "adventure" definition, I absolutely loved "The Return of the Obra Dinn" by Papers Please author Lukas Pope. I loved that game. At this point I'll play anything made by Pope, that's how much I trust the guy.
- aequitas 7y ago
  Pope nailed in with Obra Dinn in how he implemented the detective gameplay and story telling. The game had me with several wtf story moments. This is one of those games that I'm reluctant to start playing as I don't want it to end to soon but can't stop playing once I've started it. Also worth watching are these insights into the game design (and a chance to enjoy the soundtrack again) (spoiler warning): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMi6xgdSbMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMi6xgdSbMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0qxLrFycrc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0qxLrFycrc
- egypturnash 7y ago
  Obra Dinn was SO GOOD, I made pages of notes in a notebook and had a great time. Not sure it really qualifies as an "adventure" though. I finished Psychonauts. Once. I have tried to replay it and I just cannot, there is so much of it and I really do not want to slog through the tutorial area just so I can re-experience the Milkman Conspiracy. Thimbleweed might have been better if I'd played it on the "light" version; the "full" version is mostly "lots of extra 'jokes' about how adventure games were better back in 1993".

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logfromblammo 7y ago

While playing through the Deponia series, I noticed that all the fiddly little puzzles, like the rail-car switching puzzle, had a "skip this puzzle" button. Yay for learning that some people don't want to go insane on brute-forcing all the possible solutions to advance the story. Even so, there were still a lot of attempts made at overcoming an obstacle, using normal logic, that failed because they required a joke punchline instead, such as... finding a straw in a needle stack. Modern I.F. games are a lot better in that respect, because you can code in a half-dozen solutions for the same puzzle, without creating new voice and graphic resources for all those alternate solutions.

bregma 7y ago

YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK BUILDING. AROUND YOU IS A FOREST. A SMALL STREAM FLOWS OUT OF THE BUILDING AND DOWN A GULLY. > enter building

kyuudou 7y ago
THERE IS NO DOOR OR OTHER VISIBLE ENTRANCE. YOU SEE A LARGE SNAKE EMERGING OUT OF THE STREAM.

derefr 7y ago

I haven’t seen a good analysis of it yet, but has anyone seen a list of “Guidelines for creating a good/entertaining ‘Troll’ Game” (e.g. IWTBTG, most Mario Maker levels, etc.)? It seems like such a guide would almost be an inversion of some of the principles in this guide: in troll games, you tend to learn only by dying; the puzzles always require things you forgot in the previous room, and you can’t go back, so you must commit in-game suicide to try again; etc. And yet, given that these guidelines are for the sake of making an entertaining game, how does inverting them then also make for an entertaining game? Can troll games even be entertaining without the context of having played good games that do follow these rules? It seems like having a mental model of these sorts of guidelines from previous gameplay, allows the player to predict a sort of meta for how things like puzzles should work; and only in that context would an inversion of good design principles carry a comedic punchline. I guess it’s similar to the question: can you create satire that makes sense without knowing what it’s satirizing?

ukabwlsbeux 7y ago
The IWBTG maker has a rarely updated blog in which he talks about game design in stuff he has played or made which I enjoy. Maybe check this out? This post seems relevant. https://kayin.moe/?p=2653 https://kayin.moe/?p=2653
jtolmar 7y ago
Defender, one of the Mario Maker trolls, wrote a big guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13ZoqeblLs45HuEfTtsOrq6X0LAuEnA8nB721_doxE38/edit#heading=h.2imojds67fn4 https://docs.google.com/document/d/13ZoqeblLs45HuEfTtsOrq6X0... I'm sure it's possible to make an original troll game (never bet on an artistic idea being impossible), but it certainly seems to make it harder. I've noticed that when the Mario Maker troll community tries to make Super Mario World trolls instead, it's just not as funny. The hacking tools for SMW allow vastly more freedom than MM's editor, since you can always patch the game's code. The decrease in quality might be from a lack of restraint, but I think the element of fair play that MM has is important as well. Everything in MM behaves the way it was programmed by non-trolls (more, Nintendo seems actively anti-troll), so every subversion comes from the level maker showing that they know something about how the game works that the player doesn't.

djsumdog 7y ago

I subscribe to Grumpy Gamer's RSS feed and I think this was the article that got me started on this blog. I recently played Milk Maid of the Milkyway. It's a super cute indie title and it's an adventure game. Despite the beautiful dialog and wonderful music, it still had a lot of the issues that Grumpy Gamer touches on that killed the original genre. You end up clicking everything on everything, looking up hints for objects you didn't realize were even clickable, and have stupid puzzles like putting a frog in a random hole and poking it with a needle so a guy oils a gear. By contrast, Red Strings Club is an indie adventure game that gets this totally right. It's story telling with game mechanics and you don't need any hints or need to solve any insanely stupid puzzles to get through it. Night in the Woods is another great Indie adventure game that's more about story. It doesn't have the same level of puzzles as other adventure games, but the puzzles all make sense. The game has a lot of mechanics that keep it going forward so you don't get stuck. Life is Strange is another one that's more story driven. I had trouble with it initially. It's slow and was difficult for me to get into, but I'm glad I stuck with it as the story is really interesting and does some very bold stuff for a game. I haven't tried the 2nd one yet. Telltale got a lot of this gene right I think. People complained how you don't really affect the story in Telltale games and that is true, but it is also very difficult to create those types of games with true multiple outcomes (especially if you have sequels planned. You only want 2 ~ 3 maximum outputs at the end. Mass Effect was good about being more complex; they had to plan for certain characters simply not being in future games -- but Bioware too ultimately collapsed the story down into very few possibilities by the end anyway). Finally, Quantic Dream does a super good job of this (Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls, Detroit). They've been PS4/Sony exclusives for a while, but I heard some of these games are making their way to PC. They are slow games you can't run through, but they don't require insane puzzles and keep moving. Detroit does a really good job with totally different narrative paths and endings, and they don't skimp on the writing, even on endings people would rarely get to.

martijn_himself 7y ago

Tangential question, does anyone have any tips for someone who has lost all interest in video games? I used to like them as a teenager and whenever I pick up a game now (I'm in my early 40's) I am just completely bored. Part of it I think is because it requires some form of mental engagement after a day's hard work?

ramblerman 7y ago
Nah, then they would be fun on a Saturday morning. I think it's just age. I still buy the occasional title on steam, but hardly play beyond the 1h mark. The only ones that caught me surprised were Factorio and dota2 both of which I then ended up playing far too much. The first singleplayer, and the second with a group of RL friends.
ghaff 7y ago
I think at least part of it is that whether its fast twitch or dense strategy/simulation, it takes a fair commitment to really get into a lot of games. Personally, I've always liked the idea of complex games (especially strategy and simulation) but I mostly didn't have the patience for them and that's even truer today. I did like Infocom games though I didn't finish most of them.
sethammons 7y ago
Similar. 37 yo. I loved NES, Sega, and SNES. I really enjoyed Doom. Later, half life and a couple counterstrike mods. Heros of might and magic, StarCraft 1 and 2. Nowadays, nothing perks my interest really. I did really enjoy Breath of the Wild and Ori and the Blind Forest. Everything else is just kinda meh. I have scarce time. Something has to be really worth it to take away from family time, home projects, chores, work, professional development, working out, and hobbies (reef aquarium, banjo, audio books, and smaller interests like ATV, bows and guns, and emergency prep).
_thejrk 7y ago
Try new genres. I used to love FPS and action/adventure games but now I play cities skylines or satisfactory and have a lot of fun.
7y ago

pixelperfect 7y ago

Sierra adventure games were my favorite single-player games from my childhood. I understand why a lot of people don't like them, e.g. many of the puzzles have nonsensical solutions, it's possible to get stuck because you didn't get an item in an area that you can't return to, etc. And the games haven't really aged well. But for the time they were my favorite.

TheBlight 7y ago
It'd be interesting to me to play the KQ series but with the parser replaced with something more state-of-art.
- bzzzt 7y ago
  The later games in the series used a 'point and click' interface, but are still filled with arbitrary or unfair puzzles, some badly written dialogue and cringe-worthy story moments.
kyuudou 7y ago
The two I played were the first Leisure Suit Larry which was so funny, and the first Police Quest which I really loved but never finished. I ended up watching a playthrough of PQ on youtube. I think the designer was a former CA city cop and was very intent on the developers designing the following of police procedures to the tee e.g. if you forgot your gun somewhere the game ends/have to start back at last save point.

RootReducer 7y ago

Adventure games are still not dead! Amanita Designs is making some of the finest games around - in particular, their masterpiece Machinarium. Anyone who even has a passing interest in adventure/point and click games owes themselves the pleasure of playing it. Sublime music and art, a lovely wordless story, interesting setting and characters, and well-designed puzzles.

rabidrat 7y ago
Yes, I love Machinarium and I wish I could upvote your comment multiple times.
vetinari 7y ago
There's a bad taste left by Machinarium developers. It was originally sold for Android here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.net.machinarium.Machinarium https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.net.machin... That is now abandoned and left to bitrot. I don't know, whether they were expecting that people will purchase it again, but for me the effect was, that I won't touch anything made by them again.

jstimpfle 7y ago

I finished Grim Fandango because it is a wonderful, beautiful, heart-breaking game. Still dear to my heart. But let me be honest, I looked up most of the solutions. I don't have a sense for the weird solutions to a good chunk of the problems. Often I don't even know what is the problem. I purchased the HD remake of the game on Steam in 2015 to experience it once again. Just followed the solutions. It was much like watching a movie (a very good one). I remember I once played a Broken Sword game (I believe it was The Sleeping Dragon) and that was an exception in that it was super easy to solve. Disappointingly easy :-)

jmckib 7y ago
I haven't tried it, but there's a website where you can get hints for these adventure games, if you don't just want to follow a walkthrough. You've reminded me I need to give another shot at Grim Fandango. http://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/grimfand.php http://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/grimfand.php

reaktion 7y ago

I played through "A Short Hike" this week (because it was free on the Epic store.) Easily the most enjoyable indie adventure experience I've had: a unique but intuitive flying mechanic, simple "quests", and a short (<5 hour) overall gameplay time.

jmilloy 7y ago

> There is nothing more frustrating than solving pointless puzzle after pointless puzzle. Each puzzle solved should bring the player closer to understanding the story and game. A friend of mine was recently complaining about how adventure games and even rpgs (in both video and board game formats) lack significant character development, even the best ones with great worlds and stories. I don't personally have enough experience to have an opinion, but I thought it was interesting that the relevant guideline here shows exactly that: it mentions "story" but not "character". (I'm not sure what is meant here by "game"). Maybe my friend is not wrong.

zokier 7y ago
For (C)RPGs the problem might be that developers try to give players so much freedom that the character ends up being more of a blank slate, and it is pretty difficult to write meaningful development for that. And even when the character is not a blank slate then it might be something very bland/average so that most people can identify with and immerse in that character. As it turns out, most people don't really seem to want to play a role, they want to play their own thing which is very different. Think how much character development a play writer can write if they expect the actors to form their characters on a whim? And the actors being not professional ones who would be very good at it but your average common people.

Eric_WVGG 7y ago

a classic blog post on this topic from "Old Man Murray": https://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html https://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html "Who killed Adventure Games? I think it should be pretty clear at this point that Adventure Games committed suicide."

strictnein 7y ago

Makes me think of the Kings Quest games. In Kings Quest 5 you could find a pie and then you could eat it. But you needed it later to throw in the face of a Yeti. Still loved those games though

zanderwohl 7y ago
First thing I thought of, too. There were lots of things you could do that would make the game unwinnable. Like in the first one, leaving a gate open would allow a goat to wander off and you needed the goat later. In another one, you there was a fire that would go out X screen changes after finding it for the first time, and you needed embers from it. This article seems to directly call out a lot of the King's Quest mechanics and puzzles.

dukoid 7y ago

Btw: Can somebody please make a VR version of Machinarium? O:)

acabal 7y ago

> Never require a player to pick up an item that is used later in the game if she can't go back and get it when it is needed. It is very frustrating to learn that a seemingly insignificant object is needed, and the only way to get it is to start over or go back to a saved game. This reminds me of Return to Zork, in which on the very first screen the player sees a small plant growing out of a rock. If the player misses or ignores it, or if they choose to cut it or tear it out instead of gently digging it out, they won't able to defeat the last boss.

justaguyonline 7y ago

Interesting, I feel like the Author is describing what a well done Visual Novel does in their critics of the whole Adventure Game Genre. To summarize lazily: "remove the stupid puzzles and just take the reader on a wild ride for a couple of hours" Maybe they kinda predicted YUNO and the whole VN explosion in Japan that came soon after their article was published. Or a least the reason why the demand was there. Granted, these games still cost 40+ bucks and deliver 20+ hours of gameplay, which differs from the vision the Author outlined. But that seems to be because the extra effort does lead to better returns (and maybe that consumers want 20+ hour games), so it's a good thing.