In old adventure games from Infocom and Sierra the player gets points for each solved puzzle. These points were not only used as rewards: The games showed the maximum possible points, so that the player could also track his progress. The only LucasFilm adventure game(s) with such a point system were the Indiana Jones games (if I remember correctly).
Do you miss such a point system? Or was it crap? 
I don´t know. Points have largely dissapared from gaming in general. In the early days of Sierrra Adventures and platform gaming they were a relic of arcade style high score measuring (or ways to gain extra lives).
I have a tendency to not really care for such numbers at all, and especially in adventure games they seem more redundant than not (unless they indicate several different ways to solve puzzles like in the Indy games).
Also progress tracking might not be the best idea for narrative gaming, since that would be potentionally spoilery. It´s more suspenseful if you don´t know much game there is left, instead of if you do.
So personally, I would not much care for it, if it was brought back.
This is why I liked the IQ in die Indy games. “Modern” adventure games should reward the player for using an unusual or clever solution.
In that case it would make sense, yes.
But you could also argue that this is what achievements are used for these days.
But is there an adventure that gives you a reward for a more clever solution?
The points have the advantage that you can express how clever the solution was. For example if you recharge the battery at the electric fence use only get 1 point, but if you rub the the balloon at a wool jersey and recharge the battery with the electric balloon, you will get 5 points. (Ok, Ok, bad example. 
)
Well ironically lots of achievements seem to be about worse solutions are finding ways to die that are really hard (for example these days there probably would be an achievement for finding out how to get killed by green tentacle).
One of the things I did in Maniac Mansion was to see if it was possible to fill the garden with three tombstones… and I did it!
And how many points do you got? 
I think the “achievements” now take the place of those points. I rather have the achievements, but this is now being overdone by giving you an achievement for doing simple stuff that would have happened anyway:
Blah, blah, blah… meh.
-dZ.
Haha. I didn’t play a game with achievements like that but I certainly can believe it. I remember those badges on our forum. I’m very curious how did they come to that. Do people feel rewarded when they get a badge for quoting someone?
In the harsh world of early Sierra, points were useful. You could tell if you made a significant progress by doing something and it also told the player how much stuff he missed from the game. The obligatory sound effect also had this Pavlov’s dogs experiment feel to it.
Nowadays I don’t care about achievements but it would be interesting to see points in a modern adventure game. That’s not something I miss though.
Nah, I only do it for the money…ka-ching!
Well, in that particular case it’s just a kind of “positive reinforcement”, educating people to a correct forum behavior. There are SO many people on the Internet who have no idea how to correctly quote and just copy-paste the stuff they want to answer to, resulting in posts that are impossible to understand. That’s why I liked the basic badges here 
To me, it feels like Kindergarten. “Oh, you shared your cookie with Sally, here’s a gold star!”; “You sat down in your seat, you are a very nice boy! Here’s a blue ribbon!”
-dZ.
But isn’t that valid for the point system too?
It is if they are awarded in the same way. Read my comments above: I’m not opposed to achievements nor points, I think they are fine if they are given for actually achieving something. My complaint is when you are given an achievement (or point) for doing absolutely nothing except what you must do anyway to play the game or use a system normally, such as start the game, open a menu, quote a comment, and like a post. That’s like giving gold stars to children for picking up a toy, sitting at their desk, or sharing their cookie.
-dZ.
With the guy who currently occupies the white house, children learning good behaviour like that seems quite the achievement to me 
Well… that’s the whole idea behind “positive reinforcement”. You HAVE to praise a child for doing “normal” stuff when it’s the first time. I mean, I poop in the toilet since 30 years or so, but when my daughter did it last week, we almost threw a party for her. She needs to notice that she did the right thing.
So, it’s the same for forum beginners. Not everyone can quote, and telling them “well done, you quoted correctly” might seem ridiculous for experienced users like you, but it’s still something that’s not that easy. Maybe not here, since we’re all gamers and quite experienced with Internet and its tools, but I suppose that a general purpose forum platform like Discourse has also audiences for which “quote” is a completely unknown concept.
And, you get that “award” only once, the first time.
Whatever. I believe there is a difference between adult and child behaviour, which is why I pointed out that it seems like Kindergarten to treat adults in the same way.
And, by the way, I am not such “an experience user.” Anybody who requires a ribbon for quoting or for logging into a forum has serious issues. Blah.
-dZ.
P.S. You also fell in the trap of many others here and in the Internet at large, who equate “I disagree with you” with “it must be that I do not understand, but once you explain it to me carefully, I will see the error of my ways and will obviously agree with you, because yours is the only correct position.” Sad.
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I regard you as an intelligent person and I’ve never understood why you dislike so much the idea that opinions and our ability of understanding are also a consequence of both our knowledge and the lack of it. Human knowledge is so vast that it’s safe to assume that most of our opinions are based on ignorance and I’m grateful to anyone who provides information to me, because that information might help me see things in a different way, improve my understanding of the world and even make me change my opinion about something that I didn’t know or understand well. People providing information or explaining something are not a threat to our opinions or ego but an opportunity to improve ourselves. This natural phenomenon of mutual enlightenment should be a pleasant one; humans are intrinsically flawed but we can grow together exchanging experiences and knowledge. Of course, this is just my opinion, but even if you disagree with it you have to admit that contributing to this positive scenario of human interactions should be beneficial to everyone.
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Well intended as it may be, just know that it comes off as condescending.
-dZ.