Just imagine it : Leave all of the fights & battles out. Then it is nothing but an Adventure game.
That's not what I consider an adventure game at all. I shudder when a reviewer or PR blurb calls something an adventure game while it's clearly not. Well, otherwise the definition has changed over the years, perhaps much like it appears to have with RPG games.
An RPG without combat still doesn't have the same kind of puzzles and inventory management. You have your adventure/RPG hybrids, like the Quest For Glory series, for that completely turns the feel around for me. Adventure games are that really laid back kind of game that have you walking around talking to characters, experiencing the story and *thinking*.
But on the other hand, nowadays role-playing games follow far too much the formula of "I fight, therefore i play a role". Which is utter nonsense in my eyes, but that's just how everyone believes the way it is.
This is where I agree, but I realize that some RPG fans will look at it the same way as I look at adventure games. I can play a game like Mass Effect 2 and experience the same role-playing feel that I can with other, more traditional cRPG games. The combat and even the levelling system is actually secondary to me. I guess what appeals to me in RPG and adventure games are some of the same elements, but they are still very different games in terms of gameplay!
With exceptions like Beyond Good & Evil.
Which has nothing to do with adventure games to me!
I can't even remember the last time I played a game the general crowd considered an adventure game..
You can't? You didn't pick up any of the Telltale adventure games like Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit or Tales of Monkey Island?? I still have the finish the last two series, though. But they did already announce that more Sam & Max will arrive!
There really are plenty of quality adventure games being release, many more than I know of. Those guys are adventuregamers.com know all about it.