This is the first, and likely last, time in my life I've been called pretty. Setting aside what you guys think about Primordia, I'm definitely going to bask in that!
And yes -- there are two basic strategies with such things: exaggerated braggadocio intended to make one's success and fame a self-fueling fire and exaggerated humility designed to avoid a backlash. Usually I pursue the latter approach, with the occasional humblebrag thrown in ("It's crazy how Steam's weird rating system makes Primordia the 15th highest rated game" and so forth).
That said, when I played through Primordia to test the Spanish translation, I found the game better than I remembered in some respects (such as the banter) and worse than I remembered in others (generally puzzle-design/pacing issues, but also secondary characters' voice acting, certain animations, and certain polish issues). While I have generally found every adventure game from my childhood worse than I remembered it, I still think that Primordia does not rate as a true classic for a variety of reasons: (1) in almost every instance, the classics pushed the genre forward (e.g., King's Quest III's timer and spell variety; QFG's novel gameplay; Loom's "easy to win" design and non-traditional interface; KQV's verb bar; SQIV's amusing time travel (albeit something of a gimmick); Monkey Island's puzzle design; GK's real-world setting and great length; Blade Runner's non-traditional gameplay and detective mechanics; The Last Express's real-time gameplay; Grim Fandango's production values and epic sweep; etc.). It's true that we have a tendency to call any semi-competent adventure game from the post-parser age a "classic," but if we're being realistic, games like Beneath a Steel Sky (for all it inspired Vic) or IHNMAIS or Kyrandia or Dragonsphere (a personal off-the-beaten-path favorite) are not really classics. I think Primordia on its best day through the kindest lens is comparable to some of these well-made older games, but it doesn't rise to the level of a "classic" along any metric, except maybe the visuals in Vic's close-ups, which are pretty unbelievable. For all SQIV and GK had great cinematics, I don't think any of them are quite as striking as, for example, Primordia's first 10 seconds.
[EDIT: On re-reading this, I realize my "variety of reasons" stopped at 1. I guess the others I was thinking of probably related to length, technical quality of graphics in comparison to the then-state-of-the-art (almost every "classic" adventure had cutting edge graphics -- Loom especially in this respect, whereas Primordia's graphics are plainly not cutting edge, regardless of the art quality), puzzle variety, and cultural impact.]
