Optimization vs Fun

The other day I began working on a new character in Marvel Heroes.  I immediately went to the forums and looked for a build for that character.  Looking through the first few pages, I didn't find anything current for that hero; a recent patch had changed some powers around and builds hadn't been updated to take it into account yet.  I was annoyed; how would I know where to spend my points leveling up?  Then I stopped and thought.

Why was it so important for me to find a build to copy?  The powers are well described, and I can actually try them myself and see what feels good to me.  If I end up gimping my character I can always respec.  I used to play games without turning to guides.  Back before the internet was a thing, that was the default.  You couldn't just go to gamefaqs or a game's forums to get help, you either plugged away and solved it yourself, bought a hint guide (if there was one) or called a long distance hint line.

It's human nature to want to do things correctly, and to look for the optimal solution.  But sometimes I wonder if we're sacrificing our own fun to do it.  Noone plays tic-tac-toe for fun because the game has been solved.  The optimal solution is known, so there's no challenge and no choice.  Any game without a random element is subject to that; presumably chess will one day be solved in the same way when we have sufficient computing power.

I wonder if that's part of why adventure games died out.  How much fun is an adventure game if you can look up the puzzles anytime you're stuck?  It's so easy to do now, there's nothing preventing it but your own self-control.  I recall how proud I was when I finally finished Planetfall, oh so many years ago.  One puzzle in particular had me stuck for hours, trying to figure out what to do next.  Would finally succeeding have meant anything if I had looked up an answer somewhere instead of figuring it out on my own?

In the end, I abandoned my search for a build and assigned points on my own.  Maybe it's not optimal, but so far I'm having fun with the character.  And really, shouldn't it be about the fun?

XYZZY

I've always enjoyed logic puzzles.  Teasing out answers from incomplete information is my idea of fun.  So it should be no surprise that one of my favorite genres of PC game is the adventure game.  When I was in elementary school, oh so many years ago, one of my teachers had a number of text adventures for the class computers (an Apple IIe, a Commodore 64, and a Commodore Pet.)  In particular, I remember Infocom's Wishbringer (one of the few Infocom adventures I finished without hints) and The Pawn by Magnetic Scrolls (never did finish that one).

Playing those was my introduction to the puzzling and sometimes arbitrary world of adventure games.  When I got an Apple IIgs for Christmas, the first games I recall buying for it were Planetfall and King's Quest IV.  Trying to outrun the giant in King's Quest IV is still one of my most frustrating gaming memories.  Later, I discovered the much more forgiving adventures being created by Lucasarts.  Day of the Tentacle is still my favorite adventure game of all time.

Over time, though, the adventure game genre began to wither.  Sierra lost their touch and faded away.  Lucasarts stopped making anything that wasn't Star Wars.  Independent developers kept making games, and some of them were great, but the big studios focused on flashier fare.  You can't blame them, impressive graphics sold games and adventure games were never about the graphics.  Shelf space was limited, and games like Doom, Quake, or Half-Life were where the big money lay.

In recent years, the adventure game seems to be having a resurgence.  I think digital distribution is a large part of this; shelf space is no longer at a premium, so lower budget games with smaller audiences still have a place.  The massive success of Double Fine's Kickstarter didn't hurt either, of course.  Now we have Telltale Games releasing more story-focused adventures like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us.  Lucasarts' last great hurrah, Grim Fandango, is getting a well-deserved re-release.  And me, I couldn't be happier.  I've played and enjoyed games of all genres over the years, but adventure will always be my first great love.