Have Modern Gamers Lost the Patience For Puzzles? 622
Brainy Gamer has an interesting reflection on old puzzle games and why their style of gameplay seems to be a dying art. According to the author modern gamers seem more interested in combat and seem to have lost the patience for difficult puzzles. "Despite my fondness for the adventure games of yore, it appears the days of puzzles in narrative games have come and gone. Puzzles - especially the serial unlocking variety found in the old LucasArts games - seem to have become a relic of a bygone era. Where they once provided a necessary ludic element to a—clever and often complex narrative - designed to add challenge and force the player to earn his progress through the story - few modern players have the patience for such challenges anymore."
This thread has been eaten by a grue (Score:5, Funny)
...
"Modern gamers"... (Score:5, Funny)
...as opposed to ancient gamers? Preindustrial gamers? Renaissance gamers? Pre-war gamers?
Wanted to respond to this... (Score:0, Funny)
... but the comment thing was just too much of a hassle to figure out.
Also, not enough blood or tits.
Re:You can't be serious... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:7th guest, 11th hour (Score:2, Funny)
"I don't think you CAN do this..."
Re:"Modern gamers"... (Score:5, Funny)
Ahh. The Renaissance gamers. Now those guys knew how to have fun. Games just haven't been the same since they replaced quill pens with graphite pencils.
Re:Plug for the powder game (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks t0qer
for the very interesting
poem about a java game
It was touching
and yet
left me confused
wanting more
Re:perhaps they realize.. (Score:5, Funny)
Wow. That was a triumph!
Re:Summary anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The opposite for me (Score:4, Funny)
That's an interesting combination of post and sig.
Please (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This thread has been eaten by a grue (Score:5, Funny)
What is a grue?
rj
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Plug for the powder game (Score:5, Funny)
I have to say, I've never read such a honest and touching poem about the complex relationship between a man and his java game.
Re:Ever heard of a little game called Bioshock? (Score:5, Funny)
Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any failure will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record, followed by death.
Portal can be a pretty harsh puzzle game, too...
Re:This thread has been eaten by a grue (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Modern gamers"... (Score:3, Funny)
Like those of us that played Space Quest, Kings Quest or Leisure Suit Larry (who were looking for love in the wrong places)
Re:Plug for the powder game (Score:5, Funny)
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Java.
Write once,
run anywhere.
Yeah. Right.
Re:"Modern gamers"... (Score:4, Funny)
...as opposed to ancient gamers? Preindustrial gamers? Renaissance gamers? Pre-war gamers?
Giant enemy crabs?
Re:This thread has been eaten by a grue (Score:5, Funny)
Just turn off the light and wait.
Modem Games (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This thread has been eaten by a grue (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't know. I haven't seen one.
You are lost in a maze of twisty little threads, (Score:5, Funny)
all alike.
Actually, that is a pretty good description of slashdot.
Re:Plug for the powder game (Score:5, Funny)
Gentoo eh? You must have compiled your JDK wrong! Try setting ARRAY_OUT_OF_BOUNDS_EXCEPTION=false before you do the build.
WELL ! (Score:3, Funny)
HAVE THEY ?!?!?!
Re:"Modern gamers"... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This thread has been eaten by a grue (Score:5, Funny)
I'm guessing you never typed "What is a grue?" in a Zork game.
rj
Re:This thread has been eaten by a grue (Score:5, Funny)
That faint flapping sound you hear is a badly overworked whoosh-bird trying to remain airborne.
rj
Re:perhaps they realize.. (Score:3, Funny)
Unbelievable! You, [Subject Name Here] must be the pride of [Subject Hometown Here].
Re:Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This thread has been eaten by a grue (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Modern gamers"... (Score:1, Funny)
I know what you mean. Writing up character sheets in the scriptorium, pumicing details out every time you gained a level, the hideous palimpsests the rulebooks became once you were done putting in the errata, the DM having to run one of the PC's because the player was burnt for heresy...
Re:You are lost in a maze of twisty little threads (Score:2, Funny)
My favorite story about this was the game where all the commands were of the form "verb noun" where only the first four letters counted. The correct action was to "scream bear" which caused the bear to run away. However, if you got really frustrated at trying to guess the correct command and wrote "screw bear" instead, the bear also ran away.
The guy who wrote the article said that he was rather surprised at that result...
Renaissance gamer man (Score:4, Funny)
In those days the game world was smaller, and a single person could, through diligent gaming, acquire a thorough knowledge of every character class.
Take L30n4rd0, the wizard/technologist/tank/healer/DPS/accountant. And he was good at all of them.
Nowadays there's just too much to learn; you have to specialize :(
Re:You are lost in a maze of twisty little threads (Score:1, Funny)
Floppy? You think floppies were "really early"? You're kidding, right? The early puzzle games came on cassette tapes, and took half an hour to load. The really early ones came on punched cards.
Also, you're on my lawn. Fix that.
Re:You are lost in a maze of twisty little threads (Score:2, Funny)
ME: Pick up saber
Computer: I don't understand "pick up"
That's when I tended to eject the floppy and try to see how far I could toss it.
Usually a quick look around would help you find the right word. The good old times when one had to actually read the text and not mindlessly click the highlighted words in the text.
ME: look
Computer: You are standing in a dusty room. The ceiling is clogged with webs from long dead spiders and the windowpanes have gone blind, giving the room an abandoned feeling. A musty odour fills your nostrils. The floor is covered in a dusty carpet. In the twilight you can make out a door to your east and when to the north.
An ancient knight's armour with a big claymore, once placed at the western wall has fallen over, it's parts now scattered on the carpet.
ME: pick up claymor
Computer: I don't understand claymor
ME: puck up claymore
Computer: Learn to type you moron!
ME: take claymore
Computer: You stagger under the weight of the big sword. You can barely carry it and how someone could weild this in a fight is beyond you. ...
Re:perhaps they realize.. (Score:2, Funny)
He's just grumpy becuase he found out that the cake was a lie!!!
Re:Strange comment (Score:3, Funny)
Shhh! Some game developers will figure out the obvious corollary - that if they only increase the size of the possible solution space until it is becomes impractical to try a breadth-first search, they will have created the next Day Of The Tentacle.