IF....

[NigeC]

IF....
The Monkey Island series never happened and was released today with modern standards do you think it would be a success?

Do you think the lack of MI would of impacted the way indie games are viewed today?

Would engines such as Wintermute, AGS, Sludge etc be as popular without it?

I never live by IF's and BUT's but i thought it might be interesting to hear your views

[ad7venture]

I don't know about the "if it wasn't".  I don't think it would be any more of a success than Sam & Max if it were released today.  We have a lot more toys than we did back then so nothing will have the same impact.  I think adventures are still a relevant genre and always will be.  They've been declared dead more than zombies but they're still alive and kicking.  There's a place for a stronger story and story puzzles.  I know I still enjoy them when they're written well. 
A toast to the engines who have made amateur adventures what they are.  That's even a more important segment of the genre to me.  I play mostly amateur adventures and amateur puzzle games and that's all I want to ever write.

[Kickaha]

The games that Sierra and LucasArts made inspired a generation (or more) to try their hand at game making.

There wouldn't be the current activity in amateur Adventure game making if Sierra and LucasArts had never been.  Well that's my guess as we can't restore a savegame and see.

If "Monkey Island" was made now it probably wouldn't be an Adventure game.  Might be a success.

[ad7venture]

If "Monkey Island" was made now it probably wouldn't be an Adventure game.

If Lucas Arts released it, it would be called Monkey Planet and there would be a lot of light sword insult fights.  All the monkeys would look disturbingly like Yodas and the Pirates like Sith Lords.  You could choose to be a monkey Yoda, a Sith Pirate, or a Space Ship.  There wouldn't be any puzzles because they are linear, but you would be able to kill your adversaries in hundreds of different ways and the planet would be fully destructible.  Oh and, it wouldn't just end up that the Darth Vader pirate ended up being Luke's, I mean Guybrush's, father.  You could also choose to have him be his mother or a wino.

[Squinky]

Dammit, I thought this was going to be a thread about interactive fiction!

[KFMN]

If it was released now, in full 3D blablabla it would fail. Monkey Island didn't work in 3D well in MI4 and wouldn't do so either now. Also only a limited amount of people would actually buy the game.

[ad7venture]

Dammit, I thought this was going to be a thread about interactive fiction!

It is, I was just borrowing from other genres.  You're too rigid.

[Erwin_Br]

Dammit, I thought this was going to be a thread about interactive fiction!

Hey, me too!

But it is indeed amazing to see how Sierra and LucasArts have influenced so many people. You can't count the number of fan games on two hands plus your feet of Monkey Island alone! The same goes for Sierra's "insert title] Quest" games.

--Erwin

[ad7venture]

Speaking of which, how did text adventures take the interactive fiction title?  I think I got in a discussion with Nige about that when we were trying to put a category on our game.  What exactly is it that all the other people that write interactive fiction supposed to call their games?  It's just a little bit bold if you ask me. What's wrong with TA?

[Erwin_Br]

Speaking of which, how did text adventures take the interactive fiction title?  I think I got in a discussion with Nige about that when we were trying to put a category on our game.  What exactly is it that all the other people that write interactive fiction supposed to call their games?  It's just a little bit bold if you ask me. What's wrong with TA?

I don't know. I don't remember the term IF being used in 1979, when Zork came out. Then again, I was born in 1980, so that might explain it

--Erwin

[ad7venture]

I could be wrong, but I think they started using that title after graphic adventures came out.  Like, OURS is interactive fiction and yours isn't, or maybe it's just because it's more like book fiction.

[Imari]

This reminds me of the old argument between adventure gamers about which is the True ( ::holds up a flaming sword here, eyes to the sky:: ) form of the Adventure Game --- Myst-style or Monkey Island-style. 

[ad7venture]

This reminds me of the old argument between adventure gamers about which is the True ( ::holds up a flaming sword here, eyes to the sky:: ) form of the Adventure Game --- Myst-style or Monkey Island-style.

That had to be the silliest one of all time.  Most of the people that hated Myst so badly never played it, or played it for 15 minutes and were mad that it wasn't hand painted.  There were a few too many Myst style games that had dead worlds without characters, though.  It was a lot harder to add them at the time because of the realistic graphics so it was understandable, plus the games centered more on moving object type puzzles.  The real problem, as far as I'm concerned, was the wholesale categorizing.  It's a Myst clone because it's an adventure in the first person.  I don't really notice that much in other genres.  They seem to get the idea that it's a genre so some aspects of the game will be alike.  Now it's moved on to -- you have to write a role playing game or else you're writing a Myst clone or a Monkey Island Clone.  That one gets me because I don't like the control oriented type game play.  That's completely different than puzzle solving.

[NigeC]

They guy who created Lassie, said without th MI series Lassie wouldn't of happened, specially CMI, which gave him the "ooh i can do that!" moment

i realized after the original post the "IF" might prick ears up for interactive fiction, you wanna try doing it some time, great fun! Try TADS HTML its comes with a great workbench system

[Kickaha]

I play one text adventure a year, at the UK Adventure Convention.  Quite a different mindset is required to that for playing a graphic adventure.  But there's room in text adventures to do interesting work.

Myst inspired Jonathan Boakes of "Dark Fall" fame.  Perhaps that's art - something which inspires rather than just entertains?  (No I don't that definition but I do like games which leave me with ideas.)