Not if you play one of the king's "Wise Men" in the next King's Quest game. Then you could really spin it your own way and make the puzzles all medieval!
Gee,
I was all set to say that dead ends were a vital part of the King's Quest series and any old school adventure game worth its salt, but now...
I definitely found the dead ends to be a part of the fun, and I have always been a save early, save often (in multiple slots) gamer, but I am starting to feel that they can be left out and the game can still feel like the originals. I think that dead ends were all about punishing players for their lack of adventurous spirit, or attention to detail, or what have you. I felt this was what drove me to try harder to explore every avenue (even when my 1st guess at a puzzle solution appeared to work, I often try some of my other thoughts to see if they get better/funnier results). But a player can be punished in different ways without having to be so frustrated, with lower score, less satisfying ending, shorter game, etc. If the player is told why he got the boring ending, he may want to go back to get the better one. Those who don't like to have to replay, don't have to.
I especially like one of the early suggestions of an easy difficulty level which warned you of possible dead end situations (warning you before you leave a room without a necessary item, for example), and a hard difficulty that lets you make any mistake you choose to.
I guess what I'm saying is that I believe that dead ends were valid, fun ways of making a game challenging, but if they make a new game too difficult for the average, modern gamer, then I am willing to give them up. In other words, if I get to play a brand new King's Quest game that might be simpler and funnier rather than satisfyingly challenging, then I am happy.
The cat chasing the rat in KQ5 is fast, hard to click on/react to, and unknown at first encounter whether it is a repeatable event. This dead end is cruel and should be removed.
If you obtain a pouch of gems in KQ4 left forgotten by some dwarves and immediately think to give it to the poor fisherman without first giving it back to the exact dwarf who left it (as the other dwarves don't want it; and not offering it back to the dwarf first loses the chance to obtain an extremely useful lantern)... this "dead end"--though not entirely game-breaking--is extremely irritating, as the cave to the magic fruit must then be traversed in complete darkness, and as such this should be removed.
If you make the effort to buy a pie in KQ5 from a shop and then eat it with no discernibly positive outcome, or pick up Cupid's bow in KQ4 which only has 2 arrows and waste one of them, then you shot your own self in the foot and should know better.
If you went through the Land of the Dead in KQ6, neglected to pick up River Styx water, and don't have a save game to go back and fix it (as one of the next things to be done is cast a spell with said water)... again your ineptitude is not Sierra's fault.
There are further examples of dead ends caused less by bad design and more by... umm... user error, but my point is that TTG can have some dead ends in their game without ruining the experience.
What I'm advocating is this. If you're going to cut off one avenue of puzzle solution to a player, at least provide another. Rather than dead ends, provide multiple ways to handle a problem. If the player doesn't make the 'correct' choice, make the next solution more difficult to achieve, but don't cut the game off from him. I think flexible, multiple approaches to puzzle solution are far more intriguing than dead ends.
Since when has a puzzle solved not in the way the original designers intended resulted in a dead end?
I agree with your second paragraph, though. That's a more interesting approach and much more realistic in this century of "adventure" gamers. Make the alternative more difficult AND score less points and/or result in a not-so-perfect ending somehow. Either way, I still think there should be punishment, though.
KQ6 sort of had an alternate solution to the genie bottle puzzle at the end. You could either capture the genie with the bottle or destroy him with the mint. Granted, by that point it is too late to obtain either once you're in the castle if you haven't done the proper steps prior to entering, but I would say the mint solution should be more obvious and is then sensible to award fewer points.
Comments
I was all set to say that dead ends were a vital part of the King's Quest series and any old school adventure game worth its salt, but now...
I definitely found the dead ends to be a part of the fun, and I have always been a save early, save often (in multiple slots) gamer, but I am starting to feel that they can be left out and the game can still feel like the originals. I think that dead ends were all about punishing players for their lack of adventurous spirit, or attention to detail, or what have you. I felt this was what drove me to try harder to explore every avenue (even when my 1st guess at a puzzle solution appeared to work, I often try some of my other thoughts to see if they get better/funnier results). But a player can be punished in different ways without having to be so frustrated, with lower score, less satisfying ending, shorter game, etc. If the player is told why he got the boring ending, he may want to go back to get the better one. Those who don't like to have to replay, don't have to.
I especially like one of the early suggestions of an easy difficulty level which warned you of possible dead end situations (warning you before you leave a room without a necessary item, for example), and a hard difficulty that lets you make any mistake you choose to.
I guess what I'm saying is that I believe that dead ends were valid, fun ways of making a game challenging, but if they make a new game too difficult for the average, modern gamer, then I am willing to give them up. In other words, if I get to play a brand new King's Quest game that might be simpler and funnier rather than satisfyingly challenging, then I am happy.
I think it depends on the dead end.
- If you make the effort to buy a pie in KQ5 from a shop and then eat it with no discernibly positive outcome, or pick up Cupid's bow in KQ4 which only has 2 arrows and waste one of them, then you shot your own self in the foot and should know better.
- If you went through the Land of the Dead in KQ6, neglected to pick up River Styx water, and don't have a save game to go back and fix it (as one of the next things to be done is cast a spell with said water)... again your ineptitude is not Sierra's fault.
There are further examples of dead ends caused less by bad design and more by... umm... user error, but my point is that TTG can have some dead ends in their game without ruining the experience.KQ6 sort of had an alternate solution to the genie bottle puzzle at the end. You could either capture the genie with the bottle or destroy him with the mint. Granted, by that point it is too late to obtain either once you're in the castle if you haven't done the proper steps prior to entering, but I would say the mint solution should be more obvious and is then sensible to award fewer points.