by Len Morse

Created on: June 15, 2009

Interactive entertainment media caters to the human spirit, enabling our collective desire for control.

The ongoing pursuit to be a character in an alternate reality is stronger now than ever, thanks to technological innovation and imagination. Whether it's in a fantasy world of knights and dragons, upon the high seas with plundering pirates, in a creepy mansion with skeletons and ghosts, or floating to unexplored planets with alien creatures, most of us have always longed for an adventurous escape from our everyday, humdrum lives.

We clamor for stories based on these and other scenarios, where we get to control the actions, speech, and sometimes thoughts of the main character in choose-your-own-adventure games. Although less popular, many of us also want to see more than one ending to a movie, to be able to answer that sometimes irritating "what if" question.

Our need for escape and exploration has been a boon to the gaming and film industries since they began. Instead of Wanderlust, we might dub it "Leisure-lust," since it can be quite powerful and certainly shows no signs of stopping.

== Adventure Game Evolution ==

Like a multiple-choice test with hormones, the computer game industry started with only text, but then grew into the colossal software packages we see today. Combine expanding technology with the demand for alternate universes that are increasingly life-like, and you get high fidelity, controllable entertainment.

Fans of Infocom's "Zork" series, popular in the 1980s, will fondly remember reading the descriptive text and entering short commands to solve puzzles and collect treasures. This was a text-only adventure game with moderately detailed descriptions that required imagination. The only graphics were a small map and some cover art for the box.

Then came graphic-intense games, where your mouse or specialized game controller was key in deciding what actions your character could perform. A good example is Sierra's "King's Quest" series, which evolved from basic images and movement in 1984 to a detailed 3D installment in 1998, as big steps were taken in the development of interactive technology and digital decision-making.

Graphics are sharper and more life-like, screens are bigger, clues are more numerous, and story plots are more complex. A game's text, formerly the only in-game communication from game designer to player, now usually appears as a quick narration or a spoken quote from a character.

Such heavy-duty puzzle/adventure games

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