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Friday 25 October 2024

Ten Years After: The Anniversary of the TAG Community Blog

 Written by The TAG Team

A DeepAI rendition of the TAG offices


The TAG blog is growing up.  In November, it will become a teenager!  But the most amazing thing is that the blog nearly didn’t make it to its third birthday.  The original blogger, Trickster, retired just before the 3-year mark.  This is the story of the ten years that have passed since.


Trickster might have taken on too much early on.  His blog (then called “The Adventure Gamer”) tried to keep pace with the blog that inspired it, CRPG Addict.  But writing about RPGs isn’t nearly as taxing as a well-crafted adventure game, since there’s more plot development to discuss, more unique actions to consider.  Many RPGs involve grinding away at the same skills, exploring lands for treasure, and fighting creatures, sometimes over and over to reach a goal.  


We’re not debating which one is more fun (although we have our opinions).  We’re just saying that one is easier to write about than the other.


Most of the readers of his blog were disappointed when he left.  But some of the commenters also suggested a takeover by the readers.




Perhaps the first to say this out loud was loyal reader Rowan Lipkovits, but others soon joined in the conversation.  Including some names that should be familiar to current readers of the blog.



Another loyal reader and frequent commenter, Ilmari Jauhainen, started to make a plan.  Instead of just one person at the helm, a handful of people would be sharing the duties, so this time, no one would get overwhelmed.  He was soon joined by Joe Pranevich and TBD; and Aperama volunteered to review the next game in the schedule. He made the first post of that review ten years ago today, on October 24th, 2014.


And so began a new era.


The blog was reborn as a community project, with online calendars and email chains helping to coordinate the efforts of people who had never before met each other in person, from all corners of the globe.  Over time, small changes were made to the structure of the blog, like occasional diversions playing “Missed Classics” that were skipped in the chronology of the blog. We've tried to shake up the mold a little. by even having done simultaneous posts with other blogs for games that cross over into both of our interests, such as Loremaster and Lucifer's Realm. We've even had multiple reviewers tackle a game at once -- an unforgettable experiment, one we should really try to do again.


More than 200 games later, we’re still chugging along, and most of the early admins are still involved with the blog, and some of the original reviewers and commenters as well.   


  • Ilmari, even as he’s grown up and has more family and work responsibilities, still enjoys playing games for the blog, like the recently completed Inca II.  

  • Joe is the father of the Missed Classic, playing the first one, Mystery House, soon after the reorganization of the blog. Over the last decade, he has built up a family in that time, and still stays connected with the blog, around his commitments.  He’s taking a short leave of absence, but will be back in the coming year, if only because there’s no way he would ever leave his Zork and Infocom marathons unfinished.  

  • The next addition to the admin team, Will Moczarski, is in the middle of a playthrough for the blog as we speak.

  • We’ve lost touch with TBD, but thank him for all the work he did shaping our style in those early years.  Some of us have fun emulating his humor in our CAP distributions to this day.

  • The arresting skills of our in-house lawyer reviewer, Alex, continues to this day.  His first review was over nine years ago, and his take on Open Season just started a few days ago.  Unfortunately, that means that Jim Walls has also been a companion on the blog for so many years.

  • Other reviewers over the past decade have come and gone, but Reiko and Zenic Reverie have still kept involved, both finishing their most recent games over this past summer.  

  • Commenter (and occasional reviewer) Andy Panthro still provides valuable insights, and we hope he will still be able to finish his next (but long-ago scheduled) game on the schedule.

  • Our commitment to the holidays remains strong. Next week, Morpheus will continue our tradition of honoring Halloween, and Joe has made sure we enjoy an adventure each Christmas. We've observed many April Fool's Days and other holidays as well.


We’ve injected some new blood into the mix (Admins MorpheusKitami and Michael, and Reviewer Vetinari) and, after a little lull during the pandemic, have just had our strongest year since. This year, we’ve written the most posts since 2019, and have had a lot of fun doing it!


In about a month or so, we’ll have over 5 million views on the blog.  Trickster celebrated milestones like 50,000, but who knew how big the project would grow?


On behalf of the entire TAG Team, we’d like to thank you for being here.  Everyone contributes in their own way; some comment, some write reviews, and others who just read the reviews, well, we need you too!  (Although we really wish you’d comment, just to help us guide our writing...)  Ilmari touched upon it in a blog birthday post back in 2017, but it bears repeating: we are constantly trying to reinvent TAG, to keep it fresh for the readers and reviewers both, and keep it going for decades to come.


We’re getting ready to start picking out the games to be played for 1994 on the blog, and look forward to you joining us.  



Yours in Gaming,

- The TAG Team, 2024 Edition

- Ilmari, Joe, Will, Morpheus, and Michael


Please, we’d love to hear your thoughts about the ten years past and the future as well in the comments below.



34 comments:

  1. What a lovely post! I'm really glad to have stumbled upon this community, even if I came along late in the game. It's always fun to play along with the reviewers, try out the games I missed as a child and re-examine the games I've played with new eyes. Adventure games still remain my favourite genre to this day.

    I love what this blog is doing and check it daily. Thanks all for the effort you put into it.

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  2. So, it’s been already ten years… Congratulations!!! I haven’t commented or reviewed anything in a very long time but I can say I am always glad when a new post comes around ☺️. Now for another ten!!!!

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  3. AlphabeticalAnonymous25 October 2024 at 04:06

    > writing about RPGs isn’t nearly as taxing as a well-crafted adventure game

    Ha! Well, the grass is always greener on the other side, I suppose -- I wonder if the CRPG Addict would agree with your assessment!

    Regardless: this was a touching post even for a relative newcomer like me. Thanks to all the contributors!

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    1. I remember a comment on one of the posts he did with CRPG, Chet tried writing detailed posts like Trickster did, and his commenters complained because they liked the simpler ones instead. So I think that he, back then, would agree that the RPG posts were easier.

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    2. This definitely left me with a bit of a "citation needed" moment.

      You might as easily write: "Many adventure games involve grinding away at dialogue trees, scanning screens for interactive pixels, and using everything in your inventory on everything in the environment, sometimes over and over to reach a goal."

      Nevertheless, happy birthday to the blog!

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  4. Bappy Hirthday ! or anniversary. Hope to see more fun bashing of games I love in the future !

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    1. I'd say we've gotten the truly bad ones behind us, but... wait... Myst sequels... Phantasmagoria... um...

      [runs rucking for cover]

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    2. Those seem to me like pretty odd choices for "truly bad" adventure games. Myst's own sequels are among the better Myst clones, there are far worse examples in that genre. And while Phantasmagoria is (non-)horrifyingly bad in other ways, it's a strong contender for the easiest thing Sierra ever made. If you want truly bad adventure game sequels, then Gabriel Knight has a couple of them.

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    3. Ok, I was just making a quick joke, but I'll agree with you on GK2. Not on GK3, even though it does have what some people consider the worst puzzle in adventure game history, it's not all bad.

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    4. that puzzle is infamous only for that article. But there are tons of other examples in almost any adventure game from that era

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    5. I will disagree with you on both GK2 and GK3.

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    6. @Vetinari, are you disagreeing with Anonymous or myself about GK3?

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    7. Can't forgot about the games so bad they killed the company making them, Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island! ;)

      In seriousness, it's hard to tell about GK3's puzzle since it's effectively a dead horse that's been beaten so much that only glue remains, and GK3 is also alleged to have one of the best puzzles ever made in it. I'm just going off reputation, I've only played the first one.

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    8. I know you meant that as a joke, but there are a few readers here who consider Grim to be, well, grim, and I should really find religion so that I can start praying for their souls. ;)

      I do look forward to, one day in the distant future, the controversy the blog will see around those titles.

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    9. @Vetinari, are you disagreeing with Anonymous or myself about GK3?

      I am disagreeing with you both that GK2 is bad. GK2 is the best FMV game ever and I will fight anyone on this. (GK3 is just fine).

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    10. GK3's reputation is hyperbolic. I think people hate on That Puzzle based purely on the concept, not on the actual playing of it; it's not an especially hard puzzle and the game does the legwork to establish the in-context reasonability of everything you have to do. It's not like "Door the the backroom in the bondage club is locked with a sliding tile puzzle"

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    11. It may be hyperbolic, but the people who bring that puzzle up are usually incredibly unfond of the genre and treat it deathly serious. I would argue that the puzzle is a meme now, it doesn't matter what actually goes on with the puzzle, the meme is that its an impossible and goofy puzzle, ergo it is. (I think there actually is some real world logic to it, which Gabriel would know as a writer) It doesn't matter what's said against it, it is a meme, therefore it is all someone will think of it, especially if they don't play adventure games to begin with.

      That said, it occurs to me that the specific choice of maple syrup + cat hair might be a joke that went completely over the head of most people. I remember reading the other day that Mystery of the Druids's psychotic protagonist is actually intended to be more humorous than it seemed to most people, but since its German humor it didn't land well in English-speaking countries.

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  5. Somehow everyone has managed to mostly keep up with the CRPG Addict (how he manages to play all those RPGs and write about them solo is amazing), and the 1990s adventure games do come in thick and fast.

    That said, I think sometimes writing about adventure games is easier, if only because you might only have to play them for a few hours! An RPG might last you many dozens of hours (even if a lot of that time is not quite as involved to the same level).

    This place has also avoided the pitfall of the "pivot to video" that doomed many creators over the past decade (while bringing new ones to the forefront). It's nice to have a classic blog to read on my commute or in the evenings.

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    1. This blog introduced me to CRPG and I've been following both for a couple of years now, and I think at least one of the reason for CRPG's pace is an obvious one - no children. I'm not saying anything against having kids but we all know they do require a lot of time and attention, especially in the early years, so the parents in the blog shouldn't feel bad for not matching anything near his pace.

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    2. That's certainly one reason why I struggled to keep to a consistent pace with my most recent game or two. My son is ten now and it's a challenge keeping up with him!

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    3. I find it impossible to keep up with the Addict as a *reader*. I have absolutely no idea how he manages to maintain his output.

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    4. Congratulations! Occasional lurker here. It‘s no small feat to keep a consistent output over such a long period, including coordinating as a group. Please keep up the good work!

      And I second Andy Panthro on the „good to still have you in reading format“.

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  6. What a great idea I had! You're all very welcome! Hats off for implementing it so very effectively across really an enormous timespan, as measured in Internet time!

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  7. Happy birthday everyone! I am looking forward to the games from 1994, since there are at least a couple which I would be very keen on tackling.

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    1. I was about to comment that 1994 would be noticeably shorter but then noticed the eligible games for the year in the master list have ballooned to 51! The Wikipedia list has much fewer games in 1994 than 1993. I took a look at some of the 1994 Disregarded titles, and I'm struggling to understand how "The Underoos that Ate New York!" for example fits the current Potential criteria.

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    2. Morpheus will have more to say on this soon, but the titles listed in the future in the spreadsheet are mostly Trickster's original draft, when he pulled data from Wikipedia over a decade ago. They will be updated and replaced as time goes on. Wiki changed their data, and over the years we have adjusted our criteria since he originally drew up that list.

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    3. I'll reveal the scope of the changes I pushed for 1994 when that gets posted, but suffice to say what's on the potential 1994 list was more of a combination of what was on it before I was here, what was on Wikipedia and a consideration list I put in before we started trimming. 1994 will have less than that, but not by much. Underoos was one of the considerations, others fall under disregarded because of criteria changes.

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  8. I'm a (mostly) lurker who's been following along for the past few years. It's been a blast remembering old games, especially those I could never finish since I rarely had access to walkthroughs/cheats/hints. I wish I had more to say on individual posts, but rest assured I'm reading along (as undoubtedly many others are too).

    And remember, according to various studies, nostalgia can help with anxiety and managing difficult life situations. Therefore, the TAG team is helping many of us get through our days without even realizing it!

    https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1198910291/1a-02-29-2024

    https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_ways_nostalgia_can_improve_your_well_being

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  9. Hello friends!

    I have been writing here for TEN years now, starting with "Operation Stealth", I believe. In that time, I have seen us progress from a poorly-written Trickster clone to something truly amazing. We have our own voice now, our own style. I am extremely proud to have been a part of that quite nearly from the beginning, although I didn't realize them how much of my life would be dedicated to reviewing games. At this point, I've done 71 of them, I believe, not counting my brief foray into game books, Fooblitzky, and my ill-fated attempt to get a database working in Cornerstone.

    I don't want to make too big of a deal about it, but I have had to step away for a while to deal with some "IRL" things. My intention is to return as soon as I can, although others will be picking up some of my mainline games. I love this blog and writing about games, but trying to do it badly and slowly won't be good for any of us. I care too much about this place to want to do any of this poorly. I hope you will have patience with me and I hope to return when my free time and brain-space allows.

    Besides, those Infocom games won't play themselves...

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  10. A great milestone to reach, our thanks to all the reviewers for all their efforts!

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  11. Happy Birthday TAG team & community!!!! I started to read this blog sometime around 2019, when this administration was already at charge, but I was for a long time catching up reading in chronollogical order every single entry and comment from the very first one (boy, Cannageek was grinding heavily for caps on those comments!). I believe it was last year that I finally catched up and now every new entry is a matter of joy. And the 10th anniversary happens, IMHO, when we are in the last year of the golden era of graphic adventure point & clicks. (In my own cannon, that era concludes with Day of the Tentacle, the last game from LucasArts with the UI with verbs instead of icons).
    This anniversary would be great to make a poll from all the readers of this fine blog of the best games until then: voting for the best 5 games and giving points in decreasing order. That would be great, but is just an idea I`d love to see. Anyways, a huge thanks to all the TAG team, and the strong community behind! (I am looking forward to reach 1997 and The Last Express entry! Maybe in another 10 years, but I will still be here)

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  12. Wow, we've been at it a decade? Wild. I can't believe Trickster only had this blog going for three years--he covered a LOT of games in a short amount of time. It's been fun even though I write at a glacial pace. Everyone who contributes to this site, from the admins to the reviewers to the commenters, are wonderful and make this community so entertaining and welcoming. I can't wait to see how much ground we've covered by the time 2034 rolls around.

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  13. Wow, has it really been 10 years long since Trickster left the blog in the capable hands of Ilmari, TBD and Joe? I've only done 3 games (spread over something like 5-6 years), and family and other obligations have made the time I spend here pretty sparse these days, but I'm still happy to have contributed to this piece of history, even if it's just in a small way.
    Hope the blog won't turn into a stereotypical teenager, but keep on delivering entertaining adventure game content for many more years to come.

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    1. Well, the blog *was* asking to stay out late and has started to notice girls more. I guess we'll know if it's truly a teenager if it skips Trick-or-Treating this year... ;)

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