Saturday 21 April 2012

Weekly Poll Discussion

Last week’s poll was the first one that actually went the way I expected it to. The question was “Do you actually still play old adventure games or do you just like reading about them?” It seemed most likely that fans of old adventure games would still have an interest in new adventure games, and it also seemed likely that readers of this blog would play adventure games in some form. Therefore option two was pretty much always going to win. What I couldn’t predict was which of the other options would come in second place, and the result shows that my uncertainty was well founded.

Yes, but I also like to play modern adventure games too.                                          42 Votes (56%)
Yes, the old classics are the only ones worth playing!                                              11 Votes (14%)
No, I prefer to play more modern games and read about the old ones for nostalgia.     11 Votes (14%)
I don’t play adventure games at all. I just like reading about them.                              11 Votes (14%)
I despise adventure games and your stupid blog too!                                                 0 Votes (0%)

Of course the thing I’m most happy about is that no-one chose option 5. :)

This week’s poll covers a topic I’m interested in at present. I currently love two genre TV series in a way I haven’t in years, so I thought I’d find out what you guys like to watch. Obviously I can’t possibly cover every series out there, so please comment on any other recommendations. Just to clarify, this poll only covers shows that could be considered fantasy, horror or sci-fi, and only shows that are currently still running.


The first person to guess the two shows I’m obsessive about gets 10 points. (How well do you think you know me?)

On a totally separate note, last night the amount of page views for The Adventure Gamer blog passed 50000! While this is not a monumentally impressive amount of hits, it’s a lot more than I expected when I set out to blog my way through adventure games at the end of last year. To celebrate this milestone, I thought I would share some stats from the site, some of which are fairly predictable, while others are not so and even somewhat humorous.


• Out of those 50000 views, well over 1000 of them have been referred from Chet’s CRPG Addict blog. The Adventure Gamer was formed in response to his awesome efforts and I think it’s great that so much of my own community share that origin.

• The most popular search keywords (other than variations of the site name itself) that have resulted in a visit to The Adventure Gamer are “The Black Cauldron” (30 times), “Roberta Williams Sierra” (27 times), “Below the Root” (11 times), “Gender Identity Disorder” (8 times), “how do tie fighters land?” (6 times) and “Roberta Williams Naked” (6 times). It's actually a little concerning that people are coming across my site when looking for information on gender identity disorder, just because I wrote about Bill / Rebecca Heineman in my introduction to Tass Time in Tonetown. I’m sure Ken Williams would be stoked to know that people are still trying to see his wife naked after all these years. As for the tie fighter question, well it seems only fair that we try to get to the bottom of that one for whichever poor reader(s) came to The Adventure Gamer looking for the answer to one of life’s more important questions. I believe Tie Fighters can land on planetary surfaces, but generally they are entered through a hatch in the roof of the cockpit, so they usually dock within larger ships, attached to docking racks that allow entrance from above. Perhaps another reader can explain how landing might otherwise be performed?


How many millions have pondered the landing capabilities of the imperial tie fighter.

• The top five countries to visit the site are: United States (19580), Australia (4488), United Kingdom (3390), Finland (3305) and Canada (2550). I wonder how many of those 2550 views are by our resident scientist Canageek?

• While Windows still has a hold on the general operating system (it’s used by around 70% of readers), things are not so rosy for Microsoft’s browser. Internet Explorer was used for only 12% of The Adventure Gamer views, with Firefox leading the way (40%), followed by Chrome (19%) and Safari (13%). A sign of the times!

• Finally, the most popular games so far from a number of hits point of view are Leisure Suit Larry, Maniac Mansion and Below the Root, although I assume the latter is due to it being the first game I played through rather than being of particular interest to readers.


The little underdog just keeps on winning!

Thanks for everyone’s support so far in keeping this blog alive. I think I’d still write it even if there were only a few readers, but the fact we have a little community building here is something I’m extremely happy about. I hope we can build on it and that one day I’ll be marking milestones every 500000 views rather than 50000. Now, back to Captain Blood...

30 comments:

  1. This is TIE Advanced x1, not TIE Fighter.

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    1. Dammit, can't believe I missed that, I skipped right over the caption.

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    2. I see your geekiness exceeds my own.

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  2. I know Mad Men can't be called speculative fiction by any means, but really, you should do yourself a favor and watch it as well.

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    1. Yep, my wife and I are big fans of the show. I only watch about four shows, and that's one of them.

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  3. The only one of these shows I've been watching is The Walking Dead. It's good, so I voted for it.

    I've been thinking of checking out Fringe and possibly Doctor Who, but haven't even really heard of the other shows listed.

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  4. I'm going to assume you're a Dr. Who fan, and then Fringe (although my other choice would be Game of Thrones, I'd suspect you might have read the books and be less interested in the TV show).

    Also, you should surely have had True Blood in there, and it would have got my vote. As it happens, I've gone for American Horror Story, only because it got crazier with every episode, mostly in a good/entertaining way. Other things you might have considered including: Alphas, Terra Nova, Falling Skies and Dexter (would Dexter count?). Although I hear Terra Nova got cancelled.

    Not watched Supernatural since season 1, never watched Misfits (although heard it's good), never watched The Vampire Diaries, and Fringe is on my "to watch" list (I have the first season on DVD somewhere). No idea what Eureka is, anyone know if it's worth a look? As for the rest, The Walking Dead has been okay so far (even if they stayed on the farm too long), and I'm hopeful the next series will be better. Game of Thrones has been entertaining, but with quite a high turnover of main characters (unusual for a TV show), which might make me lose interest (perhaps it's done better in the books? these things usually are). While I still watch Doctor Who, I haven't been fond of the whole River Song stuff, hoping it'll get a bit better too.

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    1. True Blood was an oversight! I had it in mind when creating the poll, but it slipped my mind somewhere along the line.

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  5. Finland 3305? Probably not all by me...

    I'll bet on Game of Thrones and Walking Dead being high on your list, just for the sake of their grimness.

    My own vote went for Doctor Who, mainly because I adore both the old and new series; the other choice would have been Game of Thrones, but I suspect it will get enough votes from others. Eureka is too corny to be good drama, but neither does it work as a comedy. The teenage romances of Vampire Diaries are something that I find hard to stomach. Fringe is a getting more and more convoluted each season. Others I haven't seen yet.

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    1. Once again Ilmari gets the points! Both Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead are awesome, and you're right that the grimness has a lot to do with my preference towards them. I've read George Martin's books and loved them, so the show being brought to life on the screen is like a dream come true. They're doing an excellent job!

      Out of the other shows, I've seen Fringe (which is pretty good), The Vampire Diaries (my wife watches it but I'll admit it's a guilty pleasure) and one season of Supernatural (very cool), but none of them impress me as much as the two mentioned above.

      I tried to watch Doctor Who, but the hammy acting really turned me off. Might have to give it another chance some time when there's nothing else to watch.

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    2. Yeah, the amount of Finland hits was a bit surprising, but then Scandinavia seems to play a big role in my life in general. So many of my favourite bands come from Scandinavia, with a lot being from Finland specifically. Shape of Despair, Skepticism, Amorphis, Swallow the Sun, Rapture, Dolorian. You guys seem to produce the best doom metal on the planet. Must be something in the water up there! ;)

      I'd love to visit Finland one day. Maybe when my daughter is old enough to appreciate it.

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    3. Do you get much from Canada? Or is it all me? (I wouldn't be surprised; I'm on both your RSS feeds, and read pretty much every comment.)

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    4. Ay caramba, I got it right! I probably wouldn't recommend Doctor Who for you Trickster, because it is very low on the grimness scale (it's after all a children's show) - the main attraction in the show is its quirkiness that might not appeal to everyone.

      Although I myself am not a huge metal man myself, it's a very popular genre here. Probably something do with the hard weather - it's usually freezing cold, everything looks grey and something cold and damp is falling from the sky, so we must have some outlet for our feelings. If you ever do visit this country, hopefully it's on some of the ten randomly distributed beautiful days we get in a year! ;)

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    5. Hi, I must be responsible for the other 1650 visits from Finland (until more readers announce themselves). I've been first lurking in the background at CRPG Addict's blog since his early posts, and then later here as well - checking both blogs multiple times each day in hope for updates.

      For some reason I finally decided to come out of the closet, and maybe even become a regular commenter. Thanks for the blog and keep up the good work!

      -Fenrus

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    6. Welcome Fenrus! Very happy to have you along for the ride. :)

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  6. I'm guessing Game of Thrones and Doctor Who for you.

    Personally, I'd put Game of Thrones, even if its juvenile pornographic elements are a little over the top. Yeah, the books had sex, but the show is just absurd.

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  7. I'm guessing... Dr Who and Walking Dead.

    I have lots of friends who rave about Misfits. Fringe is on my watch list, as I've seen the first episode enjoyed it quite a lot. I was going to watch the Walking Dead, but I heard the last series took what was a page from the comic and drew it out over all the series.

    Also I believe TIE fighters don't 'land', they dock to an attachment that connects the roof of the fighter to the ceiling. In fact a Google image search has an example of this.

    http://www.dk.co.uk/static/html/features/starwars/locations_gallery/images/13%20TIE%20Fighter%20Hanger.jpg

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  8. I'd guess Game of Thrones and Dr. Who. I haven't seen many of these shows though.

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  9. Even though you've already answered, I would have guessed Game of Thrones and ...uh...I don't know, Fringe maybe? My own favorites of those would definitely be Doctor Who and Eureka, but since you don't strike me as the type to watch much UK based shows, I excluded Doctor Who and Misfits from the group. Haven't seen Walking Dead, Supernatural, American Horror Story or Vampire Diaries, so couldn't take a guess about those.

    [nerd] And regarding the TIE fighter question, I hereby let my inner geek out. TIE Fighters lack landing gear (and life support systems for that matter) to save on weight and cost. As such, they aren't designed to land on their own, although in emergencies they can land directly on the solar panel "wings". Your pictures though displays the TIE Advanced x1 version, a limited run model that never made it into full production. Most famous for being the prototype model used by Darth Vader in the Battle of Yavin. [/nerd]

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  10. "but since you don't strike me as the type to watch much UK based shows"

    My initial reaction to this comment was to be offended and to formulate a response that would prove to you how wrong you are, but sadly I couldn't think of any British TV shows that I actually watch. That being said, I have recently acquired the first season of Sherlock and am very much looking forward to checking it out. I certainly haven't avoided British TV intentionally!

    I assume you're suggesting that only a certain type of person enjoys British TV and not that I'm narrow mindedly lead by the masses? After all, I'm Australian! I love cinema, tv series, books, video games, music and (most recently) comics. We don't make quality product for any of those mediums IMHO, so I'm forced to go global. I don't actually care where anything comes from, as long as it's good!

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    1. Oh wow, I never even noticed you'd replied to this. Obviously I didn't use notifications in the early days.

      No insult or disrespect intended, Mr. Tricky Sir. I just get images in my mind when I've read so much both of your writing. Knowing your love for Finnish doom metal (the Norwegian black metal scene now feels neglected and sad), the movies you like and the more grimy shows you've already named leaves traces that fit together. The general taste I'm left with is that you lean towards spiky things, like barbed wire, which doesn't necessarily fit the general style of many of the British shows, the two mentioned included.

      It's all a matter of taste, and has nothing to do with narrow mindedness. Any offence implied in my statement I blame on English being my second language and not by intent. Oh, and the new season of Sherlock is probably the worst one so far, but still entertaining. Tried Doctor Who yet? ;)

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    2. I have a plan for Doctor Who. All shall be revealed...in time!

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    3. *blows whistle* 5 point penalty for obvious and painful reference.

      Wait, that is CFL or NFL, you lot are European football. *Throws a yellow flag at Trickster*

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    4. All day ref! All day!

      I do have a plan though. :)

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    5. Can I give 5 CAPs to Canageek for calling it football and not soccer? It warms my heart. But for using a yellow flag which has no place in football, five penalty runs! *taps shoulder*.

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    6. Huh? I thought those were the penalties given out in international football? Yellow and red flags? What sport am I thinking of?

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    7. You're sooooo close. Cards, not flags.

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    8. You may also be confusing the cards with the yellow and red flags used by the linesmen / assistant referees.

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    9. I also don't watch football, or really any sport. I can mostly follow hockey, except for the icing rules and silly things like that, and curling. After that....I know a bit of European football, and that is about it.

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    10. I don't watch any sports either, but football is quite popular around these parts so I kinda pick up those details by osmosis.

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