The following post was originally posted on Adventure-Treff.de yesterday as a column in German language. I have to appologize if the German version is better formulated, but I guess that you will get my point anyway. 
I said some things in this column that I really wanted people to hear - no matter if they agree or not, so I thought that an English translation would make sense. Here it is :
“I try not to limit my thinking about the powerful nature of the story because it´s a computer game. I think that we can make computer games that are just as good as any other form of entertainment.” It was the year 1993 when today’s adventure icon Jane Jensen spoke these words during the creation of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the fathers – a year that would change my life. Growing up with Larry, Monkey Island and similar games I nearly couldn’t believe what was going on on my screen.
While I used to think that adventure games were only meant as a humorous way of spending your time, in Sins of the Fathers I experienced something entirely different for the first time. A mature game with extremely well fleshed out characters, a brilliantly written plot and the type of atmosphere that soaks you in like a great book that you just can’t put out of your hands - a game that didn’t have to hide from what was going on in Hollywood at the time.
Perhaps I was too young to describe my experience with adequate words at the time, but even then it seemed to me like Jane Jensen had opened the door to a new world. Like a promise of an exciting new era her words seemed to me - an era in which talented authors would lead us to the maturity of the adventure game genre with mature storylines, psychologically fleshed out characters and the provocation of true emotions.
Well, in the meantime 18 years have passed, I’m 29 now and Jane’s words still ring in my head. Unfortunately, though, the excitement of these times has turned into disappointment and disillusion. In retropect, I can say that real autor games have stayed the exception since the release of Sins of the Fathers while especially the German publishers release one wanna-be-funny game after the other. And even the allegedly more serious titles, that are out there as well, seem so incredibly empty to me with their shallow characters and stories that I feel nothing but fooled as a mature player.
Of course, you’ve got your great exceptions like Overclocked here and there, but until this day that type of game has remained the exception. Instead we’re seeing plenty of games that are being written by not too talented authors, if they were even written by classical authors at all, that – with their often rather childish type of graphics – seem to be adressed to an audience that I don’t belong to. Of course I don’t want to disallow anyone to look forward to games like Haunted, Deponia or Die Viehchroniken. Generally it is not my intention to [blip] the sub-genre of humorous comic adventures, just because they don’t struck my personal nerve. But what is lacking is a serious counterweight of real author games, that are aiming for a mature audience and don’t give me the feeling of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
To get to the point: I’m seeking for true emotions, deep psychological conflicts, characters that feel like real human beings – characters that don’t give me the feeling the totally empty and shallow main protagonist only exists because there’s gotta be some you control while you’re solving tons of more or less creative puzzles. Well, I’m not looking for occupational therapy, I am looking for interactive experiences that make me forget the world around me like a good book. The fact that nearly no one out there satisfies my needs impressively shows that the adventure game genre, which likes to call itself story-driven, not only can’t compete with other mediums of storytelling like films, but in fact is lightyears behind these other mediums.
In the last year Heavy Rain has proven how different things can be. Now one could argue that Heavy Rain had a budget that “normal” adventure developers can only dream of, but this is a statement that couldn’t be more wrong. Because in the end Heavy Rain had to offer some basic virtues that can be regarded completely seperately of the budget. That the provocation of emotions and the usage of complex characters is not a question of money is for example proven by Dave Gilbert and his Blackwell series – even if it uses comic graphics. We are talking about virtues here that players in fact should demand as self-evident. Virtues, that nearly no publisher or developer seems to even care about.
We can find a key role for all of this in the not existing relevance of real authors. And only if publishers and developers finally understand how much power to create interactive experiences with depth that take the mature audience by the hand and that have the potential to appeal to a new audience they would have in their hands with good authors, we can change something. I’m sure that there are enough good authors out there – as proven by Daedalic with Kevin Mentz in A New Beginning. However, there simply is a lack of sensibility when it comes to the people in charge and for me that is nothing but an infamy 18 years after Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
In this sense, dear adventure genre: I have grown up since my first encounter with Sins of the Fathers. Unfortunately, you missed to through the same process at the same time. Over 20 years I spent with you, but the time has come to get rid of your puerile clothes. For the time being, I still stick with you, aside of all my disappointment and frustration, but there might come a day when I will turn away from you in biterness if you don’t finally realize that the time has come for a radical change. Some people might see me as whistle-blower for my words, but all that I want is to witness the day when the words of Jane Jensen are the rule and not a seldom exception!
I said some things in this column that I really wanted people to hear - no matter if they agree or not, so I thought that an English translation would make sense. Here it is :
“I try not to limit my thinking about the powerful nature of the story because it´s a computer game. I think that we can make computer games that are just as good as any other form of entertainment.” It was the year 1993 when today’s adventure icon Jane Jensen spoke these words during the creation of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the fathers – a year that would change my life. Growing up with Larry, Monkey Island and similar games I nearly couldn’t believe what was going on on my screen.
While I used to think that adventure games were only meant as a humorous way of spending your time, in Sins of the Fathers I experienced something entirely different for the first time. A mature game with extremely well fleshed out characters, a brilliantly written plot and the type of atmosphere that soaks you in like a great book that you just can’t put out of your hands - a game that didn’t have to hide from what was going on in Hollywood at the time.
Perhaps I was too young to describe my experience with adequate words at the time, but even then it seemed to me like Jane Jensen had opened the door to a new world. Like a promise of an exciting new era her words seemed to me - an era in which talented authors would lead us to the maturity of the adventure game genre with mature storylines, psychologically fleshed out characters and the provocation of true emotions.
Well, in the meantime 18 years have passed, I’m 29 now and Jane’s words still ring in my head. Unfortunately, though, the excitement of these times has turned into disappointment and disillusion. In retropect, I can say that real autor games have stayed the exception since the release of Sins of the Fathers while especially the German publishers release one wanna-be-funny game after the other. And even the allegedly more serious titles, that are out there as well, seem so incredibly empty to me with their shallow characters and stories that I feel nothing but fooled as a mature player.
Of course, you’ve got your great exceptions like Overclocked here and there, but until this day that type of game has remained the exception. Instead we’re seeing plenty of games that are being written by not too talented authors, if they were even written by classical authors at all, that – with their often rather childish type of graphics – seem to be adressed to an audience that I don’t belong to. Of course I don’t want to disallow anyone to look forward to games like Haunted, Deponia or Die Viehchroniken. Generally it is not my intention to [blip] the sub-genre of humorous comic adventures, just because they don’t struck my personal nerve. But what is lacking is a serious counterweight of real author games, that are aiming for a mature audience and don’t give me the feeling of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
To get to the point: I’m seeking for true emotions, deep psychological conflicts, characters that feel like real human beings – characters that don’t give me the feeling the totally empty and shallow main protagonist only exists because there’s gotta be some you control while you’re solving tons of more or less creative puzzles. Well, I’m not looking for occupational therapy, I am looking for interactive experiences that make me forget the world around me like a good book. The fact that nearly no one out there satisfies my needs impressively shows that the adventure game genre, which likes to call itself story-driven, not only can’t compete with other mediums of storytelling like films, but in fact is lightyears behind these other mediums.
In the last year Heavy Rain has proven how different things can be. Now one could argue that Heavy Rain had a budget that “normal” adventure developers can only dream of, but this is a statement that couldn’t be more wrong. Because in the end Heavy Rain had to offer some basic virtues that can be regarded completely seperately of the budget. That the provocation of emotions and the usage of complex characters is not a question of money is for example proven by Dave Gilbert and his Blackwell series – even if it uses comic graphics. We are talking about virtues here that players in fact should demand as self-evident. Virtues, that nearly no publisher or developer seems to even care about.
We can find a key role for all of this in the not existing relevance of real authors. And only if publishers and developers finally understand how much power to create interactive experiences with depth that take the mature audience by the hand and that have the potential to appeal to a new audience they would have in their hands with good authors, we can change something. I’m sure that there are enough good authors out there – as proven by Daedalic with Kevin Mentz in A New Beginning. However, there simply is a lack of sensibility when it comes to the people in charge and for me that is nothing but an infamy 18 years after Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
In this sense, dear adventure genre: I have grown up since my first encounter with Sins of the Fathers. Unfortunately, you missed to through the same process at the same time. Over 20 years I spent with you, but the time has come to get rid of your puerile clothes. For the time being, I still stick with you, aside of all my disappointment and frustration, but there might come a day when I will turn away from you in biterness if you don’t finally realize that the time has come for a radical change. Some people might see me as whistle-blower for my words, but all that I want is to witness the day when the words of Jane Jensen are the rule and not a seldom exception!
I wrote down a rough outline for a mature adventure game about a year, maybe 18 months ago.
Had me no luck in finding me some partners in crime on that one.
-Fred
Had me no luck in finding me some partners in crime on that one.
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
Oh crap, i was meant to give you some character designs for that. Geez, talk about brain farts. Sorry about that Fred ^^Fred Buer wrote:I wrote down a rough outline for a mature adventure game about a year, maybe 18 months ago.
Had me no luck in finding me some partners in crime on that one.
A Good article Jack. I think perhaps part of the reason you haven't found what you're looking for is the lens of nostalgia. You discovered Sins of the Fathers at a certain time and it floored you, so whether you like it or not, every game will probably be measured up to that experience.
I totally agree with the want for emotional connection to characters. In my game blog this week i explored why horror games frighten the pants off me, and it had to do with the complete atmospheric immersion into these worlds so that as a character, you actually are fearful of death (even though in games you can easily reload/retry). That emotional immersion is rare, and even rarer when we can link it to a fictional character's plight.
Funnily enough the best examples of emotional immersion in the last few years i've found in RPGs. Mass Effect, Persona 4, and The Witcher all have me invested in their worlds and the characters that inhabit them (though to be honest, with The Witcher i'm more interested in the grey area presented by the moral choices). In the adventure genre you mentioned Heavy Rain, and that definitely had me invested from start to finish.
Still, looking back, it is amazing how Gabriel Knight, Tex Murphy, Wing Commander, and other games of that era were able to present such engaging characters and stories that we love to revisit to this day. Emotional immersion is still out there today, but it takes other forms, mainly cause the Adventure game is no longer a popular or money making genre in the industry. I challenge anyone to not be moved and engaged playing through Flower.
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