Once upon a time it was easy. Just 15 years ago most games slotted into their categories with librarian-pleasing snugness. Take the adventure game.

1. Have Fun with Adventure Games
Once upon a time it was easy. Just 15 years ago most games slotted into their categories with librarian-
pleasing snugness. Take the adventure game.
In 1985 they were text games with a focus on storytelling and puzzle solving. Five years later it was the
same but with animated graphics and mouse clicks replacing the typing. But defining the genre now is
like hugging fog. The once firm borders of adventures have crumbled and their ideas have diffused out
into the wider gaming ocean. Today the definition of an adventure game depends on what school of
thought you embrace.
Dan Connors, head of adventure specialists Telltale Games, sees the genre as a broad church. His
definition is inclusive not exclusive. It includes Heavy Rain and Uncharted as well as his company's more
traditional efforts such as the Back to the Future adventures.
"In the late '80s and early '90s it was very clear cut," he says.
"Now you could attribute the dialogue trees in Mass Effect to
adventure games. A lot of the scripted storytelling in Valve's
games comes from adventure games. I think adventure games
went out and permeated every single genre because they've
always remained the best way to interact with characters in a
world and to interact with an environment."
A lack of violence or death is also a common trait of
adventures, he adds. But even then Cecil's definition has grey areas thanks to the likes of L.A. Noire,
which lets players skip the action and focus on its adventure-inspired detective work. While the exact
definition may be debatable, the origin of the adventure game isn't. The first adventure is the aptly
named Adventure, a 1976 text game created by Will Crowder on his workplace's PDP-10 mainframe
computer. It let players explore a world described in text by inputting verb-noun commands such as 'go
north' or 'get torch'. As well as exploring there were puzzles to solve and monsters to encounter.