Heh, there I go rambling again, I guess the point is that you can have a lasting, enjoyable game that people come back to over and over again, but it takes more than just graphics, it takes great story, great game play, be user friendly and console/computer friendly, the biggest turn off for me with a MMO is if it is a hardware hog. I stated what my system consisted of in the previous post so won’t repeat that, it is just when a game’s graphics start interfering with gameplay (primarily lag) then it is too much.

If MMOs would run a survey and ask the players what graphics setting they have to play on to play the game, I think they will find out that the majority of the players aren’t seeing the uber graphics anyways, because they can’t play on the higher settings.

Now, the easiest way to split up my feelings on the subject would be to give a few examples:

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: I picked up Oblivion shortly after it went live. The graphics were great, but visually, they were lacking for me. Nothing really appealed to me. Which is why Oblivion is sitting re-packaged on top of my bureau.

Asheron’s Call: I picked up Asheron’s Call while I was still playing Meridian 59 and Ultima Online. I had a chance to beta test the game and the graphics quality was a little below par for the time. On the flipside, I really enjoyed the community, gameplay and visual appearance of Dereth. These are the biggest reasons why I still play Asheron’s Call today, even though it’s graphics are horribly outdated. I even prefer the old-style graphics, pre the Turbine graphics update.

Starsiege: Tribes: When people were playing Quake, Counter-Strike and DOOM, I was playing Tribes. Some of the guys over at Dynamix got me hooked on the game when it was released and after eight years, I still enjoy a good sitdown session of the game. Since it’s initial release, it has survived the launch of two more additions to the series: Tribes 2 and Tribes: Vengeance. By gameplay comparison, the sequels got worse, even though each one had superior graphics quality over it’s predecessor.

Even now, I don’t mind going back and playing DOS and NES games. I can enjoy playing Terminal Velocity or Legend of Zelda, just as much as I would enjoy playing FarCry. Which of course brings me to the conclusion that when making a game, everything matters a little bit. Each person varies and while some may enjoy top of the line graphics, others may enjoy older games, with gameplay they consider much better.

The two games I mentioned having outdated graphics, originally enticed me when their graphics were considered to be okay. I think provided with graphics within the range of current standards, which I consider to be around Battlefield: 1942 quality, and decent gameplay, any game could succeed with proper development.

Anyone ever heard of Daggerfall? Old school elder scrolls game?…. I first played that game in like 98… when polygons were the way to go.. and it didnt stop me from enjoying it.. Ultima Online still has a fan base and those graphics are litteraly OFFENSIVE to me… never playd it..but im sure it has to be nice for people to still pay for expansions and play it…

I didn’t play WoW for the longest time, until one of our team left and joined Blizzard. The graphics look terrible in screenshots. Cartoony, low-detail and icky. EQ2, on the other hand, makes breathtaking screenshots.

I played WoW for about 3-4 months until the end of last year. Then I returned to EQ2. But honestly, I felt more connected to the game world in WoW than I do in EQ2 in many zones unless I turn down the graphics options. The extra level of detail makes certain incongruities stand out.

The eye is very good at providing detail that isn’t there, but its not so quick to correct detail that is there. We think it is because you can spend an hour looking at your desk and not see your keys. But that’s because you didn’t look at them. But when you’re looking at a screen things tend to get looked at. So you see the anomalies.

Some time after I’d started adventuring in Ro (which filled me with quivers of delight harkening back to my first explorations of Ro back in ’99) and Maj’Dul, I’d turned down the graphics to “High performance”, and I remember at one point genuinely standing there trying to figure out how to get from here to “that other zone”. Doh, that’s Astranar, in WoW dummy.

As an outsider, I’ve been guessing since beta that the decision to build longevity into all of the graphics in EQ2 has proven to be extremely expensive. EQ2 seems to have an “attention to minutae” like making sure that a table surface looks rough and hewn, where WoW’s approach allows them to have attention to detail – the table will look crude but it’ll have a stein on it, and a place mat, and maybe a fork and knife, a plate with grapes on. The EQ2 table might have a scroll or a candle.

So I guess the second question is: Does your budget allow for both exquisite detail and variety and novelty? EQ2 has a handful of different shield appearances. If you turn the graphics up to Extreme, they have minute details that distinguish them, but if you run in any of the medium-low settings they all look exactly alike.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the game, my guild is like family, I like the quests, storylines and other content, but My system is above the required specs the game suggested, and I say the specs are nowhere NEAR the truth.

When does good graphics become … “Too much”? Yes graphics draws people in, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing… The graphics, I feel, should match the hardware of what the majority of the customers are using, and I know that EQ2 in particular scans my system regularly to see what hardware I use. I have a lot of friends in EQ2 and from what I have witnessed, it is a minority of the players that have a system that can handle the full graphics, I mean I would LOVE to be able to play in “pretty mode” as I call it, (max graphics), lol, but my frame rate goes to a frame like every five seconds if I turn em all the way up.

Sorry to ramble, anyways, Nice graphics are good to a point, then they become bad, when they lag a computer and effect gameplay, they are bad, no matter how good they look.

[...] Over at Nerfbat, Blackguard has posted about the need for good graphics in games and its gotten me thinking… [...]

Guess what? Graphics mattered. It was horribly outdated and a big turnoff. Oh, I supposed I could have lived with them, and they weren’t the sole reason I didn’t make it past the first month (the disjointed combat mechanics were the primary failing point to me) but they sure did contribute to its fast exit from my hard drive.

Graphics do matter. A lot. Just read the message boards and sift through the number of posts of players wanting to know if there will be capes, or custom emblams, or pointy wizard hats, or neat armor, etc. Graphics are huge, no doubt.

[...] Grouchy Gnome posted on a topic that’s currently dear to my heart … the importance of graphics in games. I too, have said, “I don’t care if graphics are crap.? Game play is more important.” Often said … but almost certainly not true. [...]

WoW is a fairly happy upbeat game – the graphics demonstrate it perfectly.

EQ2 doesn’t seem to know how it wants to “feel” which may be why some people (mentioning no Penny Arcades) seem to have issues with it.

You don’t have to make everything more gorgeous than the game before. You DO have to know what you’re making and know how you need it to feel.