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[PotatoCurry]

must also have something to do with "short attention span" & "instant gratification" of the gamer generation these days 

when you play FPS/Action/typical console game you get an instant gratification of what you did right away (shooting/killing bad guys etc..),
whereas on adventure game, you need to do lots of reading & thinking 

i know most of my friend really hate game cut-scene, reading story etc, they just want to skip and play the game right away.

[virtualpsycho]

Great stuff, keep 'em comin'

Thanks.

[mylesblasonato]

Hi there,
I also did research in my Masters Degree regarding game design as a whole with the focus on "how much freedom is too much freedom" as well as "new gamers".
During my studies i looked into some of the classic genres including classic adventures. What i found is that as much as we don't want to believe it, adventure games aren't selling as much as blockbusters from the likes of Epic and EA, the reason for this is because while all the other genre's got bigger budgets the adventure games didn't.
As a designer i look back into the days of Monkey Island and me along with anyone will tell you that MI had some of the best graphics for it's time as well as challenging gameplay which is what the traditional gamers wanted back then. However as time went on and the industry evolved new gamers started to appear, people that have never played games before started to play games and because of this designers decided to cater more to this market to maximise sales. In doing this the designers realised that point and click games were simply to hard for new gamers and therefore focused on games that required less thinking and more action (FPS games).
Another point is the graphics, people will tell you that graphics isn't everything, but to the majority that play games it is. Just take a look at Xbox and 360 game sales. Like i mentioned above, back in the day adventures had the best graphics to offer and today they simply don't. I remember people buying MI and Day of the Tentacle for it's charming artstyle but the fact is that today adventures are near the bottom of the ladder when it comes to graphics. To summarise:

1) Traditional gamers liked challenge, modern day gamers, not so much.
2) Point and Click games had the best graphics, they simply don't anymore.
3) Point and Click games just don't have the budget/backing as other games.

Now when I talk about sales, remember that the industry was once small and so what seemed like a lot of money back then is not anymore so to say that adventure gamers aren't selling as well would be wrong, because they are selling like they did back then which for back then was good but for now not so good because other genres are making more than what they did back then which means that it's grown. Now that's not to say that the genre is dead because it's not as TellTale have proved as well as Qauntic Drea, with their soon to be released Heavy Rain. If you talor the game design/mechanics around the new audience as well as give them great graphics with a big budget then there is no reason why adventure games can't be  as popular as they once were.

Cheers
Myles Blasonato.

[virtualpsycho]

Thank you Myles b.

Very insightful.

That is the last and final submission that will be taken into consideration for this research project. Much appreciated.

The deadline has no past.

[Kaz]

Wow, who set the question? Is that inherent bias supposed to be an academic approach?   Perhaps 'relative decline in mass market appeal' but 'unpopularity'? Try telling that to Big Fish or Her Interactive. The games industry is up 16% on the year before in the middle of a recession and adventures hang on to their 6% share. They're not unpopular, it's just that people of a certain age and gender don't get to hear about them.

This is a market issue, not a player issue. Places to look:

1) The horrendous advances charged by console game manufacturers which force developers to spend millions marketing console games and thus to swamp retail shelves. I could show you a city game outlet with its entire stock of PC games on one rack next to the staff toilets .

2) Absence of marketing channels. Take a look at the pictures of the editorial staff of any mainstream games magazine. Exclusively young and male. Totally unrepresentative of the gaming demographic, but the magazines dominate the readership with a very, very, narrow agenda. There is no print adventure specialist magazine in the US or UK. Actual average age of gamers is 35 and the gender split is even (NPD). The magazines and retailers do not realise they are ignoring the majority of the potential market.

3) The state of adventure publishers in the US is also worth considering. A number of them have seen their developer lists change dramatically, which begs the question why they can't hold on to their developers. One well known one last year - 42 games, 38 developers - everybody leaves. Why? Small firms, small marketing budgets, possibly tight cash-flow? Or something else?

4) The decline of the PC - popular in the 90's and early 00's with Email and the rise of the Web, the younger generation uses mobiles for those functions and plays games on consoles.

But it's about to turn round. See Steve Ince's excellent article at AdventureGamers. He contends the HOG is in decline and the adventure game will take over. We just need better distribution channels to replace the retail outlet, which fell off a cliff last Christmas.

Cheers

Noel
Arberth Studios

[virtualpsycho]

Cheers Noel.

I am in the process of playing your debut title which is pretty good.

Thanks for contribution.

Much appreciated.

Sean.

[virtualpsycho]

Here is the completed dissertation, thank you all contributors.

Much appreciated.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mwztoz2mmtk

 

[Mnemonic]

Umm, you called Jane Jensen an "uninspired developer"? That's blasphemy!
In case you still care, even after finishing the work, I recommend reading this interview with Scott Bilas (Gabriel Knight 3 programmer). Particularly this paragraph:

"There is one that sticks in my mind, though. Jane had a puzzle that we had to kill which was unfortunately replaced with the famous "cat hair mustache" puzzle that the game's producer designed. The gaming site Old Man Murray gave us an award for killing adventure games because of the cat hair puzzle, as I remember. The team hated that puzzle, but we were trying to ship a game, and so we just let it go. Funny to think about it now."


I was wondering, are you an adventure gamer yourself or did you choose this topic just because it's "controversial" and more likely to yield some interesting reactions?

[Akusa]

OK, maybe this is a country barrier but at least i would have used footnotes instead of braces.
It would have increased the readability of your text. But big thumbs up, its a good text

@Mnemonic: I think he did not targeted Jane Jensen but all of the development team while i also have to disagree there (its more or less a problem of technology switching with a team that has no experience in 3d and game engine programming).

[virtualpsycho]

@ Mnemonic

I am an adventure gamer through and through. At I started at the age of six for adventure games and seven with first person shooters (21 now). Even though I may have arrived late to the scene to witness their prime, I backtracked myself found out everything I could about and played as many as I could. The whole thing about criticising someone in particular, Akusa has answered that for me. Thank you for interview article, very intriguing.

@ Akusa

I would have used footnotes but the college had a particular format to follow. The format was unalterable according to their guidelines. Thank you for compliment, you know after a while of looking at it, you forget whether you did a decent job or not.


@ ALL

Just to clarify, all the information presented was based upon the readings and responses received. Responses have been added to text in appendices and texts were referenced in both references section and bibliography.

Thank you.

Opinions were not used at all as that would jeopardise the strength of the research.

[virtualpsycho]

Thank you to all the participants and contributors for this study once again.....

Just a late and final update.

The final result I received for this study and dissertation individually was 68%. Two percent away from a first. Was very delighted with it, thank you once again.

Take care.