By that definition, you could say Portal isn't really a game either. You can play around with the physics and so on, but you still have to line up everything in the right sequence to advance.

In these cases, the game is in figuring out what to do the first time around. Every playthrough after that is mainly story.
This was the biggest obstacle with text adventures. Some of the best modern text adventures go out of their way to avoid wording traps.

Way back, I was trying to beat an old text adventure with pictures called Oo-Topos. The computer I was using didn't interpret Apple software 100% accurately, but this game seemed to work fine. I got to a certain trapped room where I revealed a hidden button. Pressing it did nothing, and I kept dying. I tried everything I could to advance the game in other ways. Finally I bought a hint book. The solution was to press the button.

I never did get past that spot.

The longest I was stuck in Zork Nemesis came right at the beginning. I don't consider it a spoiler to say it was necessary to drag the handle of a door rather than click it. There's nothing in the game to hint that dragging is an option, and I don't remember it being an element of later puzzles. Rest of the game's puzzles were straightforward and fairly simple. The door handle was just an interface gimmick.

Fairly common device, unfortunately. Even Myst had a cheap spot where you're supposed to notice your movement cursor is still active before a transition video starts playing.

I've never played Portal so I wouldn't know, but if there's a conditionless algorithm that'll win the game, regardless of timing, then I'd say it's not a game.

It can, of course, still be good entertainment. 'The Longest Journey' for instance, is one game I really enjoyed - even though it's not a game (of chance nor choices, that is).

Each to his/her own, though - different people have different likes/dislikes; cRPG is my favourite type of game, followed by strategy games - preferably with so many choices along the way that it's ok to mess some of them up - not a big fan of 'unforgiving' games =)

I accepted a gift code of their's once, for the Pinball Gold Pack. I sent a pm to thewishingwell on May 10th to thank him for it. I hadn't noticed he'd disabled his PM since then, but I was definitely able to contact him before, though I never got a response back.

My concern hasn't been for whether he's a member of the team, so much as it is worrying that he's either an altruistic millionaire, or, more realistically, the possibility that he could merely be running around with stolen credit card information, though the latter scenario is one that I'd rather not dwell on...

Color me underwhelmed like many here. My main contention is that www.dotemu.com tends to corner the DD market on adventure games like this and that's how I look at it as GOG's unofficial "little sister" site.

In fact, Atlantis 2 has already been available on dotemu, as well as Atlantis 3 and Atlantis Evolution, for some time. In fact, there is a promotional sale going on where you can buy Atlantis 2, the very same as GOG's offering, for $5, and the whole bloody trilogy for $10 while there is an Anuman Interactive sale afoot this weekend.

I'd rather GOG focus on releases you can't find elsewhere (or at least on bloody dotemu, Normality is also being sold on there!) that fits its niche on the Digital Distribution market. This "hold off on EA releases" is a gigantic cocktease. Considering how expansive the backlog of EA games is and how much GOG faithful hanker for it (and will be willing to plunk down cash), I wish they'd have focused on them since the announcement was made at summer's start. It's not like there are only two or three good games under that publisher's banner that GOG has to play a game of dangle-the-carrot-in-front-of-the-donkey to hype them up for weeks before they are finally released. There are scads of 'em.

Oh well. I can wait.

You have to exploit the properties of user-relocatable exits and entrances, along with various other elements in the room, in specific ways and an overall specific sequence. You can vary your exact placement and timing, but you have to practically break the system to find alternate solutions. Nevertheless, on the first playthrough, you have to think hard in unusual directions to make any progress.

Puzzle games are a bit like solving a crossword or figuring out a riddle every day. You're not playing a game with strategy and ongoing adaptation by an opponent. You're putting your brain to work to find that specific puzzle's specific solution. When you figure it all out, you move on to another and keep only whatever universal solving tricks you picked up along the way. It's not meant to be dynamic and replayable like Civilization or the wider open RPGs. In the broadest sense, though, it's still a game of wits and problem solving. But every time you revisit such a game, you're just retracing your steps, with all the challenge gone. The first playthrough is unique as a game experience.

RELEASE THE NEVERHOOD!!!