Video games are a medium based around control. Take away a player's ability to control something and it is no longer a game and there is no longer a player. Just a viewer.

When you take into consideration games that allow the player to control some form of avatar, whether it be a fighter, driver, football player, etc. there are really only two forms of control: direct control and point and click. In direct control, the player has instant control over the avatar and if no input is being given then the players avatar is static. This is the more common control method and would include such games as: God of War, Bioshock, Burnout, and Madden. The other form, point and click, the player rather than having direct control over an avatar they are pointing and telling the avatars or characters what to do. Some examples would include: Diablo (and clones), LucasArts adventures, and most RTS games. A major difference with point and click is the avatar or character will often have a personality and AI of its own that takes some of the control away from the player. In Diablo and many of its clones the player's avatar will attack enemies automatically that are near them even without the player's input. In a LucasArts adventure game a player will click on an item of interest and then the main character will find its way to that item and interact on its own as the player watches.

I don't like point and click based games. I just can't get into them...



...and I wish I could for PIGEON SAKES!

I wish I could because I am drawn to games that have great characters, an interesting setting, a strong story and that bring you into the world that the designers have created. But when I'm pointing and clicking I can't get drawn into that world. I feel like I'm a viewer from the outside giving advice to characters who are not me. In games like Half-Life 2, Indigo Prophecy, and Shenmue, where I have direct control, I am those characters. I am killing combine with Alyx Vance, I am cleaning up after just murdering someone in the diner's bathroom, and I am trying to find the man who murdered my father and possibly kick his ass someday (come on Shenmue 3). But then there is Sam and Max, Monkey Island, and Syberia. Their settings and environments are beautiful, the characters and dialogue are engaging, the story is interesting, and I can't stand playing them. The thing is I really believe that if these games had a form of direct control I would love them.



In the old days of PC adventure gaming I loved the Sierra adventure games and not the LucasArts point and click games and the difference was only how the game controlled. Walking around as Leisure Suit Larry or the main character from King's Quest was much more interesting to me than clicking and telling Guybrush what to interact with next. The thing is LucasArts had infinitely better writing and artwork than the Sierra games. Leisure Suit Larry was a blob of pixels and Sam and Max where animation quality hand drawn characters. But the ability to walk Larry wherever I wanted to go and to type anything I wanted into that little text input at the bottom of the screen made it for me. Granted the text input wasn't the greatest way of control either but it at least gave you the feeling of being able to do anything you wanted. It definitely gave my younger self some enjoyment while typing in every dirty word and action I could think of into it.



The main thing is I just don't see the advantage to point and click control as far as adventure games are concerned (strategy games and Diablo clones are more understandable although I don't play either very often). Grim Fandango took the basic LucasArts adventure game template but gave the player direct control over Manny and suddenly I'm given one of my favorite games of all time. Why did we need all these different buttons for looking, talking, grabbing, etc. when Grim Fandango is able to do it all with just an interact button. Often times in point and click games you miss something because you had the wrong interaction button selected, and once you realize that you spend a bunch of wasted time trying out each button over every object just to make sure you didn't miss something in the room. It's not fun, at least for me and it shouldn't be fun for you either.

"Give me direct control or give me death!"
-Patrick Henry, 1775

I also can't stand Myst and all those "point and click first person pre-rendered static screen adventure puzzle" games that were popular for awhile.



Lately, I've been getting more interested in what TellTale is doing with their episodic adventure games but the whole point and click control scheme has put me off. I'd love to hear from some of you in the comments of how their control scheme works and if it's any improvement over the old style of games.