For an "adventure game", I appreciate...

good pictures (I prefer "still frames")
a good story (with no graphic violence)
interesting puzzles (not too difficult)


If I "demand" expensive and "labor intensive" details,
many games may Never be completed.

Especially when Many very good developers
struggle, to get paid fairly, for their work.

Some of them may be tempted to give up.
They would love to complete their game,
if they can afford the low pay.

I have to admit I don't like the slide show format. I want to look closer at something or get farther away from it and I can't and it's annoying.
Anything, from the node to node (I believe that's what it's called) that Billy uses in LHOD to a full pan is better as far as I'm concerned.

And speaking of Bill, are you tired of action/RPGs yet? Thinking of a new AG?

Gil.

I think what people are calling "slideshow" in this thread is the "node to node" (node-based movement) with no panning -- Games like Barrow Hill, the Carol Reeds, or the first Dark Fall.
For example, from ***the Jave synopsis of Barrow Hill at JA+***
And from the ***Barrow Hill review at Adventuregamers***


Many games with panning are also node-based. In the Kheops games, you can pan 360, but you hop between nodes to move around.

The Carol Reed games are exactly what I was thinking of when I said I don't like the slideshow format. Especially indoors, I turn abruptly from one unrelated view to another and it leaves me disoriented. If that is node-based movement, Billy uses it a great deal better in LHOD. He never jams me in a corner and makes it impossible to for me to relate to where the rest of space is. I don't feel constrained in LHOD, as if I'm wearing a spacesuit, unable to see anything else around me and with someone holding my arm to keep me from turning.

I have played Barrow Hill and had much the same reaction thought not as strongly.

Evidently I need a crash course in correct terminology.

Gil.

Jenny, that's how I meant it - I thought the two were interchangeable. If not,
I also need a crash course in correct terminology.

Jema,
You're correct that they are interchangeable, but I don't think everyone realizes that. I thought they were different at first too. I even thought "slideshow" was different from "snapshot." I thought "snapshot" just meant still frames while "slideshow" meant you saw the images move to the side when they were changed, like they did with the old slide projectors they had when I was in elementary school, like ***this one***, or ***this one*** or even some of ***these***. And the only game I knew that did that was Chateau D'Or on an old 233 MHz computer, so it was confusing to see games like Myst referred to as "slideshow" games.

But after seeing so many reviews, articles, and forum posts in recent years that used both "slideshow" and "snapshot" to describe any game with movement like the original Myst, or the first two Dark Fall games (or ***Last Half of Darkness***), it became obvious I had the wrong idea and they were the same thing. In fact, "slideshow" seems to have overtaken "snapshot" as the description. I guess few people remember those old slide projectors where you saw the slide move to the side when it was being changed, which is why I still like "snapshot" better.


I agree it's better when there are more views and that they relate to one another. If Carol Reed games disorient you, don't ever play S.P.Q.R. Not only do you land in completely different areas over 100 feet away, but they are absolutely nothing like what you were clicking on from the previous view. In S.P.Q.R., you pretty much are wearing a spacesuit (actually a time travel device). Of course S.P.Q.R. had other problems, like that so much of your time was spent reading one scroll after the other. But it had many fans who enjoyed the historical aspects of the game.

This was also the huge downer for Myst and games of that ilk, I used to just keep getting lost. It's a very disorientating system. The only game where I managed to persevere was Barrow Hill. That is one game that I should have loathed but it just drew me in and was the gem of that year.

Getting lost can happen in games with panning too. Remember the jungle maze in Beyond Atlantis (Atlantis 2) where the game apparently rotated you at the end of each click? You wouldn't know which direction you had come from and it made it very difficult to map the maze.

True but in Myst I seemed to spend more time re - finding locations I'd already been to than on the puzzles. You either have an eye for the slideshow system or you don't and I, as a general rule, don't.

It remains one of the few adventure games I've never finished (in fact Ive never finished any of them come to think of it:-)).

I love slide show type games. Please make more and more and more of these.

Boooooooh! to that. I'd have nothing to play:-)

"Getting lost can happen in games with panning too. Remember the jungle maze in Beyond Atlantis (Atlantis 2) where the game apparently rotated you at the end of each click? You wouldn't know which direction you had come from and it made it very difficult to map the maze."

Map? You don't just blunder through?

I got lost in the jungle in BS2 and that's 3rd person.

Okay, so there are degrees and degrees of ickiness with the slide show format since, for me, LHOD has none. At least I'm not looking at disembodied hands out in front of me with lanterns or weapons in this format, as you can in games of another genre where you can look everywhere by panning. That would drive me around the bend.

Gil.

Degrees of ickiness: Yes, for me too. It really depends on the game. I've enjoyed a lot of slide-show type games, while the movement in some others felt very awkward. But as I said before, some 360 spinning can be disorienting too, unless I can slow it down.

Disembodied hands: So funny! I enjoy RPG games, but I have to agree with you here. I play in 3rd person exclusively, and absolutely love an open world format. But I want to see my entire avatar, not just the arms. The only time I switch to 1st person is to better aim with archery or to look closer at objects during searching.