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Ron Gilbert A Legend or Just The Beginning Of Something Greater?

doodo!doodo!
edited July 2009 in Tales of Monkey Island
Ron Gilbert, creator of Monkey Island one and two , is he a supreme being of super natural abilities or is he human after all ? I've always been a fan for Monkey Island but my love for Ron Gilbert has never been too deep. Some fans could fill a valley with song for Ron Gilbert, singing their hearts out until they dropped and fell over the edge plummiting to certain death ... And their last words would probabaly be Hail to the Gilbert, baby ! Now, there seems to be an even devide of Monkey Island two fan boys and Monkey Island three fan boys. One of course has much to do with Ron Gilbert and the other had little to do with him. This is a progressive series because our friend Ron Gilbert abandoned the company making the games... so... we got Monkey Island three and four from other creators more or less by his choice and freedom of will. Some people loved The Curse of Monkey Island , they said it was the best one yet . To cut to the chase I'm adding a poll that I hope sums this up .

Comments

  • SurplusGamerSurplusGamer
    edited June 2009
    Of course Ron Gilbert gave the world Monkey Island, but I don't think enough is made of Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman's contribution to those first two games. Without their input they certainly wouldn't be anything like the games we know and love, so I'm all for spreading the love around!

    I'm not going to vote in your poll because, while in general I remember the first two games a little more fondly than what came after, I don't like the implication that this was necessarily due to Ron Gilbert's involvement. There were a lot of factors.
  • doodo!doodo!
    edited June 2009
    inso wrote: »
    Of course Ron Gilbert gave the world Monkey Island, but I don't think enough is made of Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman's contribution to those first two games. Without their input they certainly wouldn't be anything like the games we know and love, so I'm all for spreading the love around!

    I'm not going to vote in your poll because, while in general I remember the first two games a little more fondly than what came after, I don't like the implication that this was necessarily due to Ron Gilbert's involvement. There were a lot of factors.

    But certain factors were absolute and dominating such as humour and story . You're reply is level headed and fair but I don't think that the influence of Ron Gilbert can be ignored in the first two installements and it's easily missed in the third and fourth game.
  • SurplusGamerSurplusGamer
    edited June 2009
    Thing is, I believe that Schafer and Grossman had a lot to do with the humour of the first two games - Schafer's influence can be felt especially in MI2.

    This may be an exaggeration or rumour, but what I remember hearing in an interview is that MI was originally concieved by Ron Gilbert as a somewhat more serious game, and it was only after the programmer/writers such as Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman started goofing about and putting the funny dialogue in that the decision was made to leave the funnier stuff in and it turned into something much more comical.
  • TookiGuyTookiGuy
    edited June 2009
    Yeah, I think the other members of the team are underrated.

    By the way, here's what I think think of the series -

    MI2>CMI>SMI>EMI
    So I don't really know what I should vote for.
  • doodo!doodo!
    edited June 2009
    FYI saying not superior as well as not inferior could simply mean that you don't feel one or the other is superior or inferior over all. In my opinion that makes your opinion unbiased . (The option not superior isn't the same option as the games being inferior .) This thread reflects Gilbert's influence on the franchise rather than individual titles being compared to one another. Some fans favor Ron Gilbert as much as their family jewels and some do not. A friend tells me I have a hard time admitting when I'm wrong. Well I may be wrong to assume Gilbert's influence is key to Monkey Island one and two fandom . I feel that he may be over rated as certain fans keyed me in that others were equally responsible if not more responsible for the first two games. Still many of us have our feelings as the poll is showing , our feelings aren't always educated but they can be fun. Thanks for the information.
  • onlyamonkeyonlyamonkey
    edited June 2009
    Pretty difficult. I favour MI 2 slightly ahead of MI 3 and MI 1 slightly ahead of MI 4, but it's still only slightly in both cases so I can't call it clearly superior or inferior.
  • Ash735Ash735
    edited June 2009
    I consider MI2 and CMI the best, so is there an equal vote in that sense? I think it's unfair that CMI has to get grouped with EMI, it's like being forced to sit next to an annoying cousin.
  • doodo!doodo!
    edited June 2009
    LOL there is an equal vote people, or an anything else vote _ NOT SUPERIOR . (peace)
  • LukeSWLukeSW
    edited June 2009
    I consider the first two games to be the best ones in the series, but CMI came within a hair's breath of equalling them.

    EMI is way behind them, shuffling it's feet and feeling self-conscious. ;)
  • JexxerJexxer
    edited June 2009
    I can never decide if my favorite is MI2 or CMI - they're both tied for number one for me.

    Kind of like how I can't decide on my favorite Doctor...
  • LeakLeak
    edited June 2009
    Jexxer wrote: »
    Kind of like how I can't decide on my favorite Doctor...
    Yeah, I can never decide between House, the EMH from Star Trek Voyager and Gaius Baltar. :p

    np: Markus Guentner - Jellyfish (1981)
  • manetherenmanetheren
    edited June 2009
    CMI is my best game by far, followed by number 2. Every game made me laugh, (including number 4) and added something to the series. The art direction and backgrounds in 3 were just outstanding, to the point where the game doesn't look old even today.
  • Chase13Chase13
    edited June 2009
    If you haven't already read Ron's 'Why Adventure Games Suck', i suggest you take a gander...

    http://grumpygamer.com/2152210
  • onlyamonkeyonlyamonkey
    edited June 2009
    Chase13 wrote: »
    If you haven't already read Ron's 'Why Adventure Games Suck', i suggest you take a gander...

    http://grumpygamer.com/2152210

    nice read.
  • plrichardplrichard
    edited June 2009
    onlyamonkey wrote: »
    nice read.

    Second.
  • TeaTea
    edited June 2009
    I will love Ron Gilbert if he source releases SCUMM.

    Every game engine should source release after 5 years. And it's been a couple of decades for SCUMM!

    Of course, he doesn't own SCUMM anymore...
  • Austin PAustin P
    edited July 2009
    CMI is by far my favorite game. Not only did the series benefit from the artwork and voice acting, but I think it had the best writing too. It also has more unique response than any other adventure game I've ever played. That may have been more a matter of time available than writing, but I apperciated it greatly.

    That's not all though. I loved LeChuck's Revenge, but it had numerous problems with it that brought it down. I didn't like the huge gap between it and the first game, and the vague ending wasn't satisfying either. It was also poorly paced. After you leave the islands, the chapters are too short and limited, and I end up feeling like I've only played 2/3 of the game. Finally, it broke one of my rules for adventure games, and that is when an item has served it's purpose, it should be lost. Otherwise your inventory gets too cluttered up and it makes it much harder to find the right solutions. Revenge was a huge offender of this. Not only did you rarely lose items, but some of them were completely worthless (most you can get optionally, some not).

    I don't know if Ron Gilbert just had a bump in the road, but it may be for the best that it eventually went out of his hands.
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