Fine, but I can’t play Dreamfall either. Because it throws blood into the mix.

Why do adventure games DO this?

Ultimately, I don’t think it revolutionized anything. It more recapitulated all of the things that had made adventure games great up to that point. What it lacked was the freedom of movement that Dreamfall teases you with. But TLJ is so broad and covers so much ground, you feel like you got to explore everything, especially because of those witty observations.

TLJ may not have reinvented the wheel, but it was a really fun ride for Dawn and I, and it hooked my mother too. I hope Dreamfall shows you things that you like too. It ws a strange game to play so soon after TLJ.

As for April Ryan, I thought it was great that she was an aspiring artist having trouble finding her art/self. And the setting of her apartment near school definitely had me hooked. But then I was disappointed by the repetitiveness of the protagonist’s motivation. Again we see a girl bored of a life that seems to be full of opportunity (to meet interesting people or learn interesting things) but just isn’t motivated to take advantage of it. And instead of her journey being a consequence of her looking for something that will fulfill her, the journey finds her, and effectively wraps around her subjecting her to a destiny she has not sought.

Why is she suddenly so eager to follow these bread crumbs? Why is it more interesting to wander about trying to enter a forbidden building or to understand the gibberish some old stranger spoke? The premise that the only thing that fulfills her is going with the flow and not really understanding why…that premise has been bothering me a lot about protagonists in recent adventure games. Kate Walker, April Ryan, Zoë Castillo, Ann Smith… All women that find themselves so lost it’s good enough for them to follow someone else’s journey.

I think that as a player, one can empathize with a character’s journey if it is the character herself that chooses to take that journey. We have plenty of examples of protagonists who seek their own journey. Manuel Calavera does not care about his job but is so frustrated with it that goes out of his way to change his situation, and by doing so, gets involved with revolutionaries and mafias. Even while he is being pushed to this world of good vs bad, his personal motivation remains: guilt and worry for Meche. When he gets to be one of the hot-shots in Rubacava and then again in the ship, always starting at the floor and earning his way up, you can just feel how Manuel lives to be outstanding and how he was really miserable in that travel agency at the beginning and breaking away from all of that was exactly what he would have done.

I can go on with Guybrush Threepwood, whose personal motivation is to be a mighty pirate and earn to love of Elaine Marley. Indiana Jones who we all love for his sassy, shameless, adventurous and flirty nature, has the motivation of finding overly protected relics because he’s an archaeologist and loves danger. Sam&Max invent the profession of freelance police and love to solve quirky mysteries in their own quirky way, if only to pass the time.

Playing as a woman who has no personal goals or motivation and suddenly is found by a journey that she takes on without having shown any reason to do so really turns me off. If on top of that, this girl’s only charms are half-witted sarcasm, a fit body and a cute accent, well… I guess I would sympathize with her if she chose a journey of being a gym’s spokesperson, or if she was the new girl in town and wanted to fit in, or if she was trying to become a comedian and was quite amateurish. If her journey enabled her to achieve these goals or maybe modify them, then those traits would be immensely relevant and I would not complain.

I would really love to see a female character that inspires me with her way of taking on life. I think oriental RPGs do a better job in this regard.

“To do this, I had to continuously press the Esc key, which ended up cramping my left hand after awhile; it would have been far nicer if I could have used one of the mouse buttons to do so.” Right-clicking the dialogue area did the trick – in the version I played, at least.

I though the best part of the game, and the thing that got me hooked on it, was April’s diary which was sort of addictive and a great way of rewarding the player, and the easy but fun puzzles. Besides, the fairytale-esque world of Arcadia and the gritty realism of Stark were captivating and created an interesting atmosphere. (Did I get them right…) Yeah, I liked it, though the dialogue was sometimes annoying. The first time I plyed it through, the game didn’t support my PC’s sound card and it suffered from stuttering audio.

# 2 – Indeed. As a citizen/resident of the US, I try to refer to the country as “United States”, “US” or “the States” and the continents as North, South, or Central America, rather than using the word “America” to describe the loudest country therein. My only question is–How do I refer to myself? As a Statesian?

# 4 – I’ve enjoyed your written diaog, and I don’t think voice acting adds all that much, while, I imagine, does add greatly to the expense. I will certainly play ‘Chivalry’ either way.

# 5 – Yes!

# 6 – I’m one of those who use hints when the puzzles start to get in the way of the story for me. Even used a couple in yours–like in that disco dance contest!

I’d been wondering whether to play TLJ, since it has been compared favorably–and endlessly–to one of my favorites, Syberia [skinny-Statesian-chick-in-Europe--oh well]. In spite of Kate’s preposterous clothing and whiny friends, I really liked the concept and gameplay. After your review, I’ll give TLJ a try. Cheers

And I’ve seen quite a bit of good game writing/dialogue, particularly in IF games and in Dave Gilbert’s work.

Deirdra, critical as you are, please be that one person on this planet to agree with me that the dialogue in Broken Sword 3 was awful (not to mention the voice acting)!

I think the european doing america thing is a valid point, but not in all cases. Spellbound makes the desperado series of games set in the wild west(a real time strategy sort of game). The stories, dialogue and acting are better than in most american made games in this genre. I think stilted dialogue an over-extending your audiences patience are universal irritants!