Decline Can we please stop calling RPGs without gameplay Adventures?

[V_K]

The defining trait of an Adventure game are puzzles. 90% of the time it's "use the correct item in the correct situation" kind of puzzles, sometimes it's more abstract ones - but there must be puzzles. They are the main gameplay mechanic for Adventures. Everything else - story, dialog, whatever - is secondary to puzzles. I know that the TellTale decline of recent years have tarnished the genre definition, but can we be better than using it as a standard?

RPGs without combat (or with very weak/easy/unimportant combat) thus are not Adventure games with stats - unless they prominently feature puzzles. Puzzle-heavy RPGs like Wizardry 7, Arx Fatalis or BT4 have much more claim to the title of "Adventure games with stats" than the likes of PST or Disco. Not to mention actual, monocled Adventure games with stats like Quest for Glory series or The Council.

So could we please stop calling games with no puzzles Adventures? It's insulting to the genre, and even more insulting to real RPG/Adventure hybrids that are actually good.

 

[Duraframe300]

So what are we calling modern adventure games that barely feature any puzzles? (And if so, *logical*/super easy ones)

(And I'm not even talking Telltale style here)

 

[V_K]

So what are we calling modern adventure games that barely feature any puzzles? (And if so, *logical*/super easy ones)

Steaming piles of shit?

 

[Ranarama]

I've been playing this awesome adventure game:

 

[pidstuff]

The defining trait of an Adventure game are puzzles.

Spoiler

Well I'm puzzled how anyone could like those pieces of shit games.

 

[Norfleet]

I've been playing this awesome adventure game:

SHAMEFUR DISPRAY! As penance, you must commit sudoku!

 

[mondblut]

Damn, adventurefags don't want to take it in.

Hey, flightsim dudes, there is this one game that likes to dress up as an RPG and demands access to RPG locker rooms and toilets... wanna have it?

 

[agris]

Puzzle-heavy RPGs like Wizardry 7, Arx Fatalis or BT4

 

[V_K]

Puzzle-heavy RPGs like Wizardry 7, Arx Fatalis or BT4

The point was, a game doesn't have to be good to qualify - it just has to contain copious amounts of puzzles. Which BT4 does. That its RPG credentials are rather weak, brings it even closer to "Adventure game with stats" description.

 

[agris]

Quantity over quality eh?

 

[Grauken]

The defining trait of an Adventure game are puzzles. 90% of the time it's "use the correct item in the correct situation" kind of puzzles, sometimes it's more abstract ones - but there must be puzzles. They are the main gameplay mechanic for Adventures. Everything else - story, dialog, whatever - is secondary to puzzles. I know that the TellTale decline of recent years have tarnished the genre definition, but can we be better than using it as a standard?

RPGs without combat (or with very weak/easy/unimportant combat) thus are not Adventure games with stats - unless they prominently feature puzzles. Puzzle-heavy RPGs like Wizardry 7, Arx Fatalis or BT4 have much more claim to the title of "Adventure games with stats"

You'll get Wizardry 7 only when you pry it from my cold, dead hands

 

[V_K]

The defining trait of an Adventure game are puzzles. 90% of the time it's "use the correct item in the correct situation" kind of puzzles, sometimes it's more abstract ones - but there must be puzzles. They are the main gameplay mechanic for Adventures. Everything else - story, dialog, whatever - is secondary to puzzles. I know that the TellTale decline of recent years have tarnished the genre definition, but can we be better than using it as a standard?

RPGs without combat (or with very weak/easy/unimportant combat) thus are not Adventure games with stats - unless they prominently feature puzzles. Puzzle-heavy RPGs like Wizardry 7, Arx Fatalis or BT4 have much more claim to the title of "Adventure games with stats"

You'll get Wizardry 7 only when you pry it from my cold, dead hands

Challenge accepted.

 

[Catacombs]

I've been playing this awesome adventure game:

I couldn't resist:

Solution

 

[Roguey]

So what are we calling modern adventure games that barely feature any puzzles? (And if so, *logical*/super easy ones)

(And I'm not even talking Telltale style here)

I call them walk and talkers. If there's no other people, it's a walking sim.

 

[Falksi]

I've been playing this awesome adventure game:

Looks like Bioware's new Dialogue wheel.

 

[V_K]

I've been playing this awesome adventure game:

Looks like Bioware's new Dialogue wheel.

I'm not following Bioware, have they inclined that much recently?

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Agree with topic starter. Perhaps, the more apropriate term is IF (interactive fiction). Or, even more specifically, SIF (slightly interactive fiction).

 

[V_K]

Or, even more specifically, SIF (slightly interactive fiction).

Yeah, that's an important qualifier. Regular IF would normally require a parser.

 

[octavius]

So could we please stop calling games with no puzzles Adventures?

I call them interactice novels (if lots of text like PST) or movies (if lots of dialogue and 3PP).

 

[Absinthe]

I don't think they qualify as interactive fiction games either. I think Visual Novel is the closest description, honestly, but it doesn't fit the regular image of a VN. I guess if we call it a 3D isometric VN we will pretty much get the image across, even if the isometric descriptor will annoy people for being technically incorrect.

 

[Gregz]

Visual Novel

 

[Bigg Boss]

We can stop calling RPG's RPG's. Call them adventure games.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Can we stop using words to denote things? Let's use sounds instead!

 

[Viata]

I've been playing this awesome adventure game:

I couldn't resist:

Solution

There is always that guy to commit sudoku, I guess.