Okkkk, what I was saying is that action - even in an adventure game - is not reflexive action. Just because you find it boring doesn't make it any less a cognitive action.
I agree. I have played games with mixed adventure/action, and enjoyed them. The disagreements expressed herein may be arise only from gradation.
My impression is that, when people say they don't like action games, they are referring to ones like
Doom or
Wolfenstein or other "splatterfests." Those don't generally involve
much strategy, although I have watched hubbie play them, and he does have to think about his approach to a battle, which weapon to use, when to amp up his health, etc. But the chatter around those games seems to center on the cool weapons above all else.
Other games that are more RPG-like in content involve significant strategy: long-term planning, designing your characters and adjusting attributes in order to progress in the game, husbanding resources, and lots of other "cognitive work."
Diablo, for one, has had significant staying power and has generated a devoted and extensive fan community because it tests a gamer in a wide range of ways. Chatter about those games encompasses a much wide range of issues, and clearly the game's complexity (and graphic beauty) accounts for its longevity and replay value.
When you get to the Adventure Game category, weapons and timed combat are (thankfully, in my opinion) generally not relevant issues. The focus is almost entirely upon reasoning. Adventure gamers get upset when an adventure game inserts adrenalin-based scenarios. (On the other side, my hubbie would be irritated if one of his action or RPG games inserted a
puzzle of almost any kind. lol)
As for repetition, the "Action" genre certainly holds no monopoly, in terms of game play. One need only play Broken Sword 3 to know that! (the endless shoving around of crates...)
So, I think we all have to be conscious of how we define these genre and our reaction to them, clarifying what we mean when we say we like one form and not the other. Whatever challenges you mentally is good, and if that is seeing how many monsters you can blow to smithereens, well that is still better than zoning out to prime time reruns or reality TV shows.