I love computer games, even though, as a matter of course, I've always sucked at them.
Growing up I loved booting up Prince of Persia, Duke Nukem, Flashback... Wolfenstein 3D. I would watch the blocky graphics appear and ripple though loading times, hearing tinny music through my speakers, fingers poised over the buttons - before watching my character routinely die at Level 1 every time.
The total lack of hand-eye co-ordination that sabotaged my Rounders career would also undermine my future as a champion video games player. Oh well - I was resilient. I even loved downloading demos and sucking at those too.
Then one summer everything changed. I suppose adolescence should be shaped by tentative love affairs and less by TV, movies & computer games, but they seemed like far more fun and far less fumbling, so I wasn't too hung up by it.
Having finished my GCSEs, I went to my local game store and bought the 'Bounty Pack of Monkey Island' that I had spied there as a treat. This was a series I had seen praised on the internet for being well designed, challenging, wonderfully funny, and - get this - your character couldn't die! I was smitten. It turned out those games were some of the most famous games ever made (I had no idea) and had legions of fans, but I'd learn.
This was the world of Adventure Games. Story based games, you followed a character through a plot, exploring different locations, picking up items, interacting with other characters, solving any puzzles or problems in your path.
Did I mention you couldn't die?
In great games, the universe they created felt so expansive, it was pure escapism. You could be a wanna-be pirate, fighting a voodoo-ghost pirate who has claimed the waters of the Caribbean in one game (Monkey Island); or a Grim Reaper in another, ushering people to the next life, uncovering corruption in the Department of Death (Grim Fandango). Maybe you were a lawyer stuck in a tiny village, tasked with finding the heir to the local automaton factory - last seen headed east in search of woolly mammoths - by following the broken, clockwork trail left behind (Syberia). It was story-telling, ultimately - really wonderful story-telling. Just like films and books, but through another medium.
Another frustration about some other game genres I had was that they could go on forever. Either through having to constantly replay sections over and over, till you had mastered the beat-the-clock sequence; or by the continuous building of your empire, there was no clear point that you could stop and say - well that's the end of that game! Oh no, wait, there's more. There was always more. Adventure games had a conclusion, they had an end-point, where everything could tie up together, and you could be released back to your normal life.
Adventure games for years were the underdog genre.
Where first-person shooters ruled, fewer and fewer adventure games got made. It was great for journalists because every time a new game come out they always had the angle of 'is this the game that will reverse the fortunes of a dying genre...?'. (No, probably not, was the tone, the game was always a curio, an exception) Every time - same angle. Adventure gamers, who had a few games to get on with, thank you very much, were bored by it. They had games... they just weren't very high profile games.
But things seem to be changing - the Nintendo DS, the iPad, the Wii - suddenly games aren't all about new graphics and technology - arcade casual fun has suddenly come back, and with it the desire for games that anyone can play - and adventure games were always pretty 'simple', or perhaps rather 'refined' in their easy use of mouse point and click. They're also the most similar to conventional media in how they tell a story. Anyone can play.
Interestingly, the proportion of girls that play adventure games are a lot high than other genres. But that's not for here. Programs like 'The Guild' by Felicia Day are a brilliant example that gamers are not just adolescent boys in their basement.
They're weirdos from all walks of life.
Me included.
Hurrah!
MBx
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