Did Point And Click Adventures Ever Die?
Mark Lovegrove thinks we got the wrong end of the stick.
Foreword
There is an awful amount of people in the world today that have it stuck in their minds that at around 1995 and 1996 adventure games died when 3D games took over. Am I perhaps one of the only people that doesn't believe this? Sorry, but I don't even feel there was ever a "demise" either.
Why?
This is how I see it. LucasArts were probably the first company to create a smash hit point and click adventure, remember Maniac Mansion? Now, over several years LucasArts created some fab adventure games, Sierra came along and did too. I think everyone will agree that the two leading software houses in the point and click creation scene were once deffinatley LucasArts and Sierra. God knows how much money these two companies raked in. Then, some other smaller companies started forming as they realised LEC and Sierra were working with one of the most popular genres beside RPG at the time.
Everyone at that time played a point and click, even if it was a demo. Sam & Max, Kings Quest, Space Quest or Day Of The Tentacle, most people played them and got engrossed in them. All this time more and more companies were investing in making smaller less heard about point and click adventures, they couldn't rival the giants.
Then along came 3D, Cormack and Romero, and started a new ball rolling. Now, it was never said that people disliked point and click adventures from that point, the only people who said that were really the people who hadn't played them. Everyone started to buy bigger better PC's which it would just seem to *them* a waste of time to play p&c's on. But all these people had still heard of LucasArts, and this is when the shock came. LucasArts never said that money couldn't be made with point and click adventures, people assumed this. Why did they assume this? Because LucasArts realised more money could be made working with 3D.
So, LucasArts pulled out of the scene to a fair degree and so did Sierra, so everyone instantly thought "oh my God! LucasArts have left us, that must mean point and clicks are shit! They must realise no one wants to play them anymore!!". Of course these people didn't give time to think about the other hundred or so point and click companies. This bugs me, I dunno about you.
So, where does the story go from here? Well, things you may think are still looking bleak for the adventure game and point and click industry. But maybe not so? The internet. The internet really got going in the mid 90's when LucasArts & Sierra stopped reeling off point and clicks, and of course the internet brought its advantages and disadvantages. Sadly, net gaming became a big big thing and the amount of people playing games rose from 40% to 80%. There were no real net possiblities with point and click adventures, and sadly that's the way its going to be for a while. Multi-player / net play point and click adventures are something to desire, but no-one is prepared to work on, yet.
And Today?
Where are we today then? Is it not a possibility that there are now in fact *more* companies creating point and click adventures nowadays than there were back when LucasArts and Sierra were creating adventure after adventure? The problem people just brush them over because their stereotypical view is that adventure games are dead. What they really mean is LucasArts don't create adventures as regularly anymore. And that fans don't count as developers. The cheek.
A Revival?
What is there to revive? If someone wants to email LucasArts and tell them to please please please make more point and clicks again so the rest of the developers look like they're working in a strong genre then go ahead, but I'm sure they'll say no! There's got to be something we can do as a collective to show the rest of the world we never died away, we just lost the best developers. If someone could do a survey of point and click COMPANIES over the last 3 years or so, and compare it too that of the three years when point and clicks were at their most popular, I BET you'd find the most recent years have had more point and click companies.
I admit, if you were to do a list of point and click GAMES, then there would be more in the list of the three years when point and clicks were at their most popular. And I admit that yes, I don't have a particularly strong argument but I do have points and views.
What do you believe or think? Did the genre die out and its time for a revival? Or did the genre never enter a demise, people just saw it in the wrong light? Do we need a revival, or do we just need a better campaign?
Mark Lovegrove
Note: Yes, I know Sierra made a point and click before LucasArts :p
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