My first love in gaming was the adventure style games, namely the Sierra games. King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, I loved them all. During that era, I also thoroughly enjoyed the Might & Magic series.

Now as I play those old adventures again, its more for nostalgia. I still enjoy them, but I find I don't have much of a yearning for any of the newer adventure games. I'm much more attracted to rpg's like Fallout 1/2 and Arcanum.

I think the reason is because adventure games are typically linear, once you've played it & completed it there's only so much variance in what else you can do within it. But rpg's (especially the ones I mentioned above) leave so much room for your character to grow & become an individual, that you can play through & complete it in a large number of ways. There just seems to be alot more replayability from rpg's.

Okay.

I have similar feelings. Used to love adventure games, but I do feel they are something of a dead end for the medium. Other genres are continuing their legacy of focusing on the story, dialogue trees and humour. That's especially true for RPGs. Inventory puzzles (and puzzles in general, to some degree) sadly haven't been assimilated into other genres.

What I dislike about adventure games is the fact that most of what the player does fails. The ratio of unsuccessful actions to successful ones is just really bad compared to other genres. And it's not like the things the player does when he fails are necessarily wrong. The fact that adventure games nearly always only allow for one specific solution means that players often come up with stuff that's perfectly reasonable, but still doesn't work. And the "right" solutions are often highly illogical.

I think it's incredibly hard to make a point-and-click adventure game with consistently strong puzzle design. It's easier in "wacky" fantasy games like the Lucas Arts ones, where game designers can invent their own world with its own rules and logic. Adventure games set in the real world often end up as failures for this very reason. The big exception for me is Gabriel Knight 1, which somehow managed to consist mostly of puzzles the solutions to which didn't seem ridiculous. The sequels are another story, of course...

That said, I still enjoy adventure games. I think Telltale's Sam & Max episodes were very cool and a few of the recent German efforts were decent, too.

What exactly is the difference between adventure and rpg? Is rpg the same as adventure but without character advancement, like Longest Journey?

The key I guess is that the gameplay of so called adventure games consists (almost) solely of (inventory) puzzles and dialogue sequences, whereas in an RPG you have lots of combat and, yes, character customization. Another difference is probably that adventure games let you play a predestined story, while RPGs allow you to a certain, admittedly very small, degree to create your own story.

RPGs have never really hooked me the way adventure games do. I'd take Sam and Max or The Next Big Thing any day over Planescape Torment or Fallout 3.

Well said, Jaime. Doubt I could have said it better, although as far as the Fallouts & Arcanum go, I feel there's much more room to make decisions to create your own story....the Quest games sometimes have multiple solutions to each puzzle, but ultimately your still kinda being led by a dangling carrot. ;-)

Yeah, I first thought along the lines of RPGs offering you the choice between a couple of parallel story lines, but I realized that the truly freeform ones do actually give you enough room to create your own story.

While I don't think the gameplay mechanics of, say, Morrowind, really give you the ability to portray, say, the travails of a boisterous, superstitious nordic warrior, they do give you enough of a foundation as to allow you to fill in the blanks in your mind.

I have to add that I don't think letting the player modify the storyline is necessarily better than presenting a static one. I'm trying to make a distinction between different genres, not a value judgment.

My problem with adventure games really lies more with the puzzle design. I'm just not sure anymore how much of it requires lateral thinking and how much simple trial and error.

My problem with RPGs are the side quests. "Timmy fell down the well, you have to save him for me! Here, take this rope I have right here and do it for me" makes me want to kill them on the spot rather than feel they're poor desperate people in need of aid.

There has to be a better way of structuring RPGs. I want to see one where you start off adventuring because you're young and are bored and want to be all renowned/helpful/feared/rich/famous/etc. and then slowly start gathering clues of the main story. Then as you do, events from the main story start seeping into your adventures, and you're given a choice of either continuing your side quests, or focusing on the main story. And by choice I mean if you continue your adventures of helping bystanders and running off for treasure, you come back to some towns and find they're sacked or gone or under new rule by the baddies, and if you continue on the main quest you can actually be there defending the town.

Something like that. Something where you can still do all that you want, but there are consequences, unlike say Baldur's Gate where you find out what's going on but can still run around like you don't have a care in the world.

I started off on adventure games, also. I work on an adventure gaming website, and for awhile, adventure games were my whole world. Then I branched out just a little bit to simulations/time managements, like Sims 2 and Diner Dash. I liked those, but I love stories/characters the best. And now, I'm hooked of turn-based RPGs and strategies. So yeah, I agree with you, OP. <3

I just played Fable and loved it, and I'm now tentatively looking into action games, although I really don't much like FPS.

You know, the sidequests in the BG series and most cRPG's are optional, eh nondeplumage? :OD

It seems your options are do the side quests to get good gear and money, or spend forever hunting down enemies to get XP to level up and get money to buy good gear.

Well, "variety is the spice of life," as they say. :OD

I'm not saying get rid of them, I'm just saying it's be nice that they were structured to give a better story by having consequences to the world whether and when you decide to go on your free range adventures.

I actually think one of the Ultima games tried to do this.

If you want an adventure game that differs from one play to another, with multiple endings, then you have to try Heavy Rain. If you just increase difficulty from one play to the next it should change quite a bit.

PS3 exclusive, so if you don't have one I suggest borrowing from a friend if possible or maybe a games bar or something like that.

There was another adventure that was not just clone of other adventures with the same mechanics, but I just can't remember the name right now.