Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert have a rather
in depth conversation about what they love about adventure games, how modern
games/times have affected the adventure game platform of gaming, and how they
would change adventure games to appeal to the modern gaming audience. The two
most important aspects of adventure game play that arose out of their
conversation was dialogue and puzzle play. These two aspects accelerate all the
action within the game and make the game player feel like they are continuously
interacting with the game itself, something both Schafer and Gilbert feel has
been lost in modern games. After playing Schafer’s point & click game “Host
Master and the Conquest of Humor” I whole-heartedly agree with the significance
of the dialogue and puzzles. If not for the dialogue and the complexity of some
of the puzzles I was fully engaged in the game. When I got stuck in the game it
was the dialogue that enabled me to not get frustrated and reminded me that
everything I can interact with is a tool in order to solve the puzzle.
This issue of getting stuck by a puzzle was
another talking point discussed by Schafer and Gilbert. Each felt that it was
an important aspect of how point & click or as they call it, adventure
games, differ from modern games out today. In adventure games, if you got stuck
you had to use your brain in order to figure it out, or take a step back and
view the puzzle from another perspective but you were never just given the
answered – you worked for your game progression. This quality can been seen
again in Schafer’s game “Host Master...” when I got stuck on finding the last
clue that would allow me to beat the game. After clicking around I was forced
to walk away from the game (otherwise I would have thrown my netbook out the window)
and once I got away from it I began to use my brain to figure out what I needed
to do next. Unfortunately, I could not find the last clue and ended up using a
gaming walkthrough for the game which showed the answer to the puzzle that I
would never have figured out unless I did pixel searching with my mouse.
Gilbert stated that this would be the only change he would make to point &
click games – he likes the complexity of puzzles that force you look at the
game from different angles and that also force you to take a step away in order
to not get sucked into being frustrated by the game – but he would change the
pixel hunting aspect of these games as it takes away from the puzzle itself.
My game play of “Host Master...” and the
subsequent use of a walkthrough brings up another key point in Schafer’s and
Gilbert’s discussion. They feel that with modern gaming not only have gamers
and game creators moved away from engrossing dialogue that compliments the game
play but that the access to walkthroughs and cheats have taken away from the
game creators intentions and can actually take away the fun aspect of game
playing – trial and error. With modern games the focus is more on making the
game visually entertaining and making the game progression easy to follow. Modern
times have allowed the control to shift from the game creators to the game
player because a player doesn’t actually ever have to make an effort to figure
out how to beat a game instead they just look it up online. I agree with both
men that this aspect of modern game play has ruined the intentions of how the
game creator wanted the game to be played which then negates the purpose of the game. Each of them bring up great points but after playing "Host Master..." then playing a modern game - modern games are still more fun, at least for me.
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