People in the MMO community, especially this forum, never agree on anything.
You could carry this same scenario over to the ESO forum, where you hear people complaining about the exact opposite thing...the over use of grey and browns and the overall dreary look...which according to this poll 22% would prefer EQ be more like.
I personally do not want instances in a sandbox, not one...I am willing to make exceptions for some amazing event or tutorial areas but other than that I think they are a hindrance on sandbox games not a boon. However, I know for a fact at least two out of five people would disagree with me, especially raiders. However if the game was heavily instanced then two out of five (or more) would bemoan another themepark MMO coming out.
Your argument assumes there is some magic solution that creates a 90% or 100% satisfaction rate and I just do not see that, and have not seen that, in the MMO community. In todays climate just topping 50% in your favor is a boon, I imagine less than 50% were happy with SWOTR's f2p model, or Age of Wushu's timed items, or TSW lack of end game content. Frankly people who put graphics above gameplay can go find some other graphic demo mmo to play (TERA is free to play right now). I for one am in the majority camp that likes the way the game looks and would rather have the wide range of innovative terrain and gameplay effects than another pretty empty game.
62% of the respondents like the majority of the graphics, and a small 20% think it is too cartoony.....whatever those people in the cartoony camp want to claim they can not claim majority. There are a couple of asian MMO's coming out that, perhaps, will satisfy them better...though I imagine those asian mmo's will be full of outlandish looking weapons and goofy animations that do not exactly scream realism either...guess there is always ESO.
I think you see this to pessimistic. People complain a lot, but there is always a reason behind it. As you see pretty much everyone likes the environment graphics. They look as good and in some point even better then every other stat of the art game.
Do you believe the 39% (about 350 people) who said they mostly didn't liked the art style just did it because they hate everything?
Only a fraction of the respondents came from this forum. The biggest part probably came from the Reddit forum and probably from other sources. The discussion there is no different by the way. I read some post that expressed a very drastic opinion about the art style over there.
I think the graphics discussion on the ESO forum is different. It is mostly only about the technical quality of the graphics. It was mostly triggered by a leaked beta video that showed work in process graphics that probably lacked most of the shaders. The main complain is that the graphics don't look as good as Skyrim. They have a bit less polygons for technical reasons.
I think it is pretty certain, that EQN will have only have few instances. I'm not sure if they even confirmed that there will be raid instances. The point is that the instances will probably all be optional. You can just walk past them.
But you can't avoid the art style. You will have to look at these kerra for the entire game unless you block everyone who plays one.
I don't think there would be any complaints if SOE would announce tomorrow that they will switch a different set of character models. (even though I don't think they will do that) I believe that almost everyone who is defending the art style just wants to defend the game as a whole, and simply doesn't care that much what art style it has. And some still misunderstand the whole debate, thinking it was about the poly count. I don't think there are many people who explicitly want a whimsical and cartoony art style. Remember, cartoony is not that same thing as stylized.
Of course gameplay is more important then graphics, but that does not mean that graphics are not also important. The art style has not much to do with the graphics. If anything this art damages the game by making new players expect a style of gameplay that is targeted towards kids.
The problem of the first question is that it makes no difference between the environment graphics and the characters. 61% have at least some complaints about the art style. I would believe that many of the 29% who said they likes some aspects of the graphics but disliked other aspects, wanted to say that the environment looks great but the characters not so much.
The last question is actually better, because it not only asks whether people like the art style or not, but also asks for the reasons. Here 41% say that they want the art style to be grittier or more realistic.
Comments
I think you see this to pessimistic. People complain a lot, but there is always a reason behind it. As you see pretty much everyone likes the environment graphics. They look as good and in some point even better then every other stat of the art game.
Do you believe the 39% (about 350 people) who said they mostly didn't liked the art style just did it because they hate everything?
Only a fraction of the respondents came from this forum. The biggest part probably came from the Reddit forum and probably from other sources. The discussion there is no different by the way. I read some post that expressed a very drastic opinion about the art style over there.
I think the graphics discussion on the ESO forum is different. It is mostly only about the technical quality of the graphics. It was mostly triggered by a leaked beta video that showed work in process graphics that probably lacked most of the shaders. The main complain is that the graphics don't look as good as Skyrim. They have a bit less polygons for technical reasons.
I think it is pretty certain, that EQN will have only have few instances. I'm not sure if they even confirmed that there will be raid instances. The point is that the instances will probably all be optional. You can just walk past them.
But you can't avoid the art style. You will have to look at these kerra for the entire game unless you block everyone who plays one.
I don't think there would be any complaints if SOE would announce tomorrow that they will switch a different set of character models. (even though I don't think they will do that) I believe that almost everyone who is defending the art style just wants to defend the game as a whole, and simply doesn't care that much what art style it has. And some still misunderstand the whole debate, thinking it was about the poly count. I don't think there are many people who explicitly want a whimsical and cartoony art style. Remember, cartoony is not that same thing as stylized.
Of course gameplay is more important then graphics, but that does not mean that graphics are not also important. The art style has not much to do with the graphics. If anything this art damages the game by making new players expect a style of gameplay that is targeted towards kids.
The problem of the first question is that it makes no difference between the environment graphics and the characters. 61% have at least some complaints about the art style. I would believe that many of the 29% who said they likes some aspects of the graphics but disliked other aspects, wanted to say that the environment looks great but the characters not so much.
The last question is actually better, because it not only asks whether people like the art style or not, but also asks for the reasons. Here 41% say that they want the art style to be grittier or more realistic.