Lol what the hell I've got to look into that! Then again, I probably need to actually read Hamlet first and I don't really wanna :P

SatiNav, is the protagonist Thomas Thomas?

Why not? It's great. Or just watch it - the Kenneth Branagh movie is phenomenal. And if you don't have 4 hours to spare, the much shorter Franco Zeffirelli movie is also quite good. Gibson is amazing as Hamlet.

Anyway, I actually own that choose-your-own adventure Hamlet game, but I haven't played it yet. I should get to that and report back.

The Whispered World is . . . an acquired taste. ;) The Devil's Men looks it could be their next Memoria, though.

Watch a performance instead. The biggest mistake to make when trying to get into old plays is to start by reading the text, because they are super dull when first experienced that way.

Yes do that :) And that's a great idea, I'll watch it instead! I've only read one of Shakespeare's works, Macbeth, and it wasn't a very pleasant read :P Then again it might just be because it was during high school and our teacher meticulously went over the interpretation and symbolism behind almost every single blasted sentence :P Perhaps if I just sat down and read it on my own time it would have been more enjoyable.

a pig in a poke offer

I like reading Shakespear, and actually I also read Macbeth back in high school, along with a few other of his plays, but I did it of my own accord, not for school. And while I love his writing, I can easily see how others may not. One has to remember those are plays, they're not really designed for reading, but for watching them performed. The same lines that fall flat for you when you read them can come alive as utterly briliant when delivered by a good actor. The very idea of trying to anylse something like Macbeth without experiencing it properly on stage or as a movie is ridiculous.

I find that kind of annoying as well, since it sounds so extreme, but keep in mind that when people say "... is dead" it can have several different meanings:

a) that it doesn't exist anymore
b) that it isn't produced anymore
c) that it doesn't sell
d) that it's only for a small niche audience
e) that there's nothing rivaling the quality of the good old days
f) that it doesn't evolve anymore

a and b are not true, c and d depend - it's definitely niche compared to AAA productions and mass market, the genre only survives thanks to indie developers and a loyal (but probably smaller) fan community -, e is a matter of taste - personally I'd disagree with it -, but a case could be made for f. There might be some more ease of use in modern adventure games, some minor mechanics might have been refined (or not?), graphics have better resolutions, but essentially the point-and-click games are more or less the same as they were in the 90's. And I think most fans appreciate that, but it also means that the genre is oriented more towards the past than the future. Apart from the Telltale style and Life Is Strange, I can't think of anything groundbreakingly new that's come out of the genre. Even the tropes and puzzles are mostly still the same, so in that regard, the genre is somewhat stagnant, and I think that's what these people often mean by saying that it's dead.

I guess our tastes converge in this case (though I DID like the novel).

Daedalic is frankly out of the adventure game business. This here is far more of a visual novel. There are no puzzles to be found here. And since last year they even went from "we'll tell our own story with the license" to "we'll retell the story with choices shoved in". So it's not even Telltale level. I don't like what Telltale does at the moment, but the Pillars game is even less ambitious.

Daedalic was bought up by Bastei. And Bastei expects absurd millions in revenue from what they acquired. They've put all they have into the Pillars game, and I expect gorgeous looking backgrounds by the hundreds and an orchestral soundtrack that rivals the best of them. But I won't buy this game. It has none of the gameplay I would enjoy.

What should have been Daedalic's next great adventure game, The Devil's Men, has been postponed indefinitely. Its lead designer has been assigned to the Pillars project, just like basically everyone else in Daedalic's Hamburg HQ.

I guess what happens next is that Poki leaves Daedalic to start another business. And/or makes a Kickstarter. Unless of course there's a no compete clause.

God, I hate games business. :(

I had no idea about any of this. I don't really follow the behind-the-scenes stuff much. Damn, this is depressing. Daedalic was my favourite current adventure game developer... which pretty much made them my favourite game dev period. I was so hoping we might eventually see a sequel to Night of the Rabbit or more Dark Eye games. This blows.

Free games are great. But still not a fan of just getting something added to your account without any choice. Even if it is just digital, why would I want a promotional item that is useless to me. Makes no sense.

I remember watching an old (70s-ish?) Macbeth film that was very good, though I can't remember whether or not the dialogue was very faithful to the play. Still, there's no denying that it's a captivating story which is reason enough for me to want to check out his other works. But yes, I should look for it in an 'acted-out' version :) Though I will say that Pygmalion, which is also a play, was pretty fun to read.

The bolded bit is what's putting me off. Do you just walk around and enjoy the story? If so, then it might be better to just buy the book (I haven't read it, so I have no idea if it's good).

Edit: typo.

Part of the problem is that a niche genre like adventure games can't properly develop because promising companies get bought up (to produce 'safe' games) far too quickly in proportion to the long development cycle of games, stiffling innovation. As a result there's no place for talent to go that wants to work on these games and they either have to start up their own companies (which is risky) or go work on something else.

Hold on, is this true? That makes sense considering what sort of games they've been making lately, but it it would be a poor business move. The sales for their 'modern' adventure games are substantially worse than their more classical work; Deponia 4 was their last traditional point&click games and it has outsold the rest by a significant margin.