Comments on: adventure games and me http://malvasiabianca.org/archives/2008/07/adventure-games-and-me/ Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:36:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Michael Abbott http://malvasiabianca.org/archives/2008/07/adventure-games-and-me/#comment-101276 Michael Abbott Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:33:07 +0000 http://malvasiabianca.org/?p=807#comment-101276 I'm so glad you mentioned the Infocom games, especially Planetfall. I have a feeling not many gamers these days would believe a text adventure game - with no glitzy visuals, weapon-based gameplay, or physics modeled motion - could be as thoroughly engaging as many of these games were. Planetfall evoked, for many of us, a truly meaningful and pure emotional response. I miss that in video games today, though I haven't given up on the resourcefulness of today's designers and storytellers to find ways to engage us deeply again. I think the adventure games you mention so fondly still have much to teach us. I'm not hopelessly nostalgic enough to think they represent some kind of perfect heyday of gaming, but they did what they did so very well, didn't they? :-) I’m so glad you mentioned the Infocom games, especially Planetfall. I have a feeling not many gamers these days would believe a text adventure game - with no glitzy visuals, weapon-based gameplay, or physics modeled motion - could be as thoroughly engaging as many of these games were. Planetfall evoked, for many of us, a truly meaningful and pure emotional response. I miss that in video games today, though I haven’t given up on the resourcefulness of today’s designers and storytellers to find ways to engage us deeply again.

I think the adventure games you mention so fondly still have much to teach us. I’m not hopelessly nostalgic enough to think they represent some kind of perfect heyday of gaming, but they did what they did so very well, didn’t they? :-)

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