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Graphics vs. Gamplay. How important is it to you ?
delete5230
Member EpicPosts: 7,081
This question can be asked in The Pub Discussion, but screw that. The Pub Discussion Forum is more for the population of people that settle for simple mediocre games that shouldn't be classified as mmos.
Graphics vs. Gameplay !
Hypothetical scenario:
If and when you play Pantheon you find the game extremely rich in character development full of customizations where you can make a unique class tailored to yourself. A large breathing world full of life with countless directions to take yourself in a non-liner world, along with countless things to do..........BUT.......You find the graphics sub par, old and outdated in both character and world design......How important are Graphics to you ?
If a developer put EVERYTHING into gameplay and less thought into graphics so the game can run well on lesser quality computers. How mad would you be ?.....How important are graphics to you ?
My opinion:
I'm not a programmer, hell, I even had a friend build my power rig. BUT, I do know this !!
Its late 2015, everything in the computer industry has evolved. HOWEVER to this day high-end-graphics require an extremely large resource. This causes game designers to make choices that involve lowering the quality of the gameplay itself. This is running a muck in the mmo industry. High end graphics are killing off mmos along with many other un desired features.
In my opinion, developers that try to give both, always fail in the long run. Age of Conan is a perfect example of this ( a good extreme example ).
Trying to satisfy the player that insist on high end graphics always causes the game to fail...........WE ARE NOT THERE YET !!!!
Graphics hounds like to push their high end computers to the limit, and like to complain. Developers need to look at the big picture and realize WE ARE NOT THEIR YET, and should not try and please everyone, or their game will fail.
More often than not, the gamer has an average computer and would like to play your game !!!!!!
Comments
Deleted by poster
You need immersion and a athmosphere that depicts the certain enviorement you are presented in, to give you that feel of danger, or almost feeling the burning heat of the sun when you walk in that desolate desert, og a dark evening, with torches flickering in the distance, graphics are a huge importance, you could argue that it was ok a game didnt have great graphics 15years ago, and we were more focused on the game play, but i think in the era today, there are just a standard requirement, and then its up to the developers if they want to awe struck us with dark horrid creepy dungeons and beautiful forrests, so in that we can truly feel we are a part of a high fantasy world, yet realistic in it's own sense, but for Pantheon to succeed, game play should be their top priority, we have all seen beautiful games feel pointless with shitty gameplay,
I am like, as long as characters dont iceskate when moving, and are actually running on the ground, and the lighting are realistic, and not to mention the sound and music, those are very importance factors as well, as sound are vibrations, and what vibrations do they want to send to us. but Yeah 50/50 and that actually means 100/100%
That is not to say that graphics do not add to the experience. Obviously if you have amazing graphics and great game play, the experience is even more satisfying, but keep in mind that at the core of these games is the imagination of the player. The fact is, that even with poor graphics, you can pull in and retain most gamers if they give the game a solid chance, but no amount of great graphics can retain the player if the game play is garbage.
What I have found that turns me off with older games more than anything is the clunky interfaces. As I have mentioned, you can get used to older poor graphics and still lose yourself in the world, but input and interface function being poor will ruin even the most appealing graphic experience as each difficulty of it will keep pulling you out of the game. It is extremely important that regardless of how complex the interface is, that it is intuitive, logical, and physically functional or it can be the real killer of play.
Well posted, and agree 100%
Graphics have a lot to do with Immersion, it's very important.
What you say got me thinking, and reflecting back to the early days. The extreme early days of Vanilla World of Warcraft. Speaking about cartoon graphics right
.........Man, i'll will get ridiculed for this !
Remember:
The Barrens - The African safari feel, along with the lazy Orc drum beat music.
Talduassil - with the Deep mystical forest and the love and harmony music that was so soothing.
Westfall - with the welcoming farmland feel, yet danger was spread out across the land, and you had Stormwind guard protection when at Sentinel Hill.
Tanaris Desert - The feeling of being alone once you stepped out of Gadgetzan, just you and the scorpion's, yet you had the pirates cove full of bandits.
I must say I was pretty immersed back then and would still be if the game released today on October 17 2015...........Sure, the game was very cartoony but playable on a toaster.
And YES, we SHOULD be more evolved than this !!!!!!
A game with great game play and terrible graphics is still an entertaining game. A game with great graphics and terrible or non-existent game play is just a visual exercise. While I understand graphics aid in immersion and appeal, graphics do not define a game. Note that I am in no way discouraging from the point of making good graphics, but graphics without a game is just a picture or movie.
But IMHO we passed the barrier of sufficiently good looking 3D graphics with early Lineage 2.
Vanguard was already far beyond that.
And both games had seamlessness, which allowed features like boats and flying mounts(*), and realistic viewing distances - certainly features I will miss in the zonebased Pantheon.
Pantheon already looked pretty good with the available videos. I dont think the sheer beauty of graphics will be an issue to me at all. I will only miss seamlessness.
Besides:
1. I'm a programmer, but I own no "power rig". I was under the assumption that one needs to know programming to qualify for the term "programmer" ...
2. I want to customize my character LOOKS. I want to have a good looking main character.
With rulesystems however I'm a stong believer in a class system. Thats because with having classes, each class can play different than the other.
For example in Vanguard, on a Disciple and also on a Ranger one had to use certain sequences of attacks to unlock certain effects.
Or: many classes also had point systems - Paladin (Virtue), Monk and Disciple (Jin), Blood Mage (Blood Points), Druid (Phemoneon or something like that). Each time the ways to get point and to spend them was completely different, for Paladin Virtue points would grow slowly over time, same for Druid, with Monk and Disciple it would grow with certain attacks in combat and Disciple could keep it at high by using stances even outside battle, Blood Mage had to "grow" the Blood Points on the current mob; once that mob dies the Blood Points would be gone, same for changing the currently active target of attacks. Technically the Clerics also had a point system but it only grew over time and was only spent on Turn Undead.
(*): AFAIK L2 didnt have boats, and flying mounts was available, but limited to the owner of a castle - so at most half a douzen or so people in the whole server, at any point, on a server with thousands of players.
So, if it has a smooth working GUI, a great atmosphere and music that fits the area but sub par graphics, I would be a happy camper.
Gameplay is a funny term to me because how much actual game play do these games have,quests,killing and crafting,so not really like that stands out from one game to another.What i look for after graphics is systems,i like to see a well designed game with deep systems,if not then i know it was a rush job to make money and it tells me how little effort went into the game.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Give me a game that looks ok / good and animates well instead. I think companies need to start focusing on the little things like they used to instead of pushing graphics graphics graphics.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
That brings me to my other criteria with graphics. If the game looks like almost every other game I have played in that genre, I'll pass.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
That is a screen from one of their dungeons. I think there are some shots that could really be described as imaginative and unique already in the Pantheon screenshot section.
I play games in totality. I can't play the graphics of one with the sound of another with the systems of a third.
--John Ruskin
So far from what i have seen, it all looks promising imo. Hopefully tho, they will alow us large casting range from a "caster's perspective" whille the graphics wont disappear in the background
As a somewhat related aside, from the past 15 years of Alpha screenshots, one thing that's been consistent among good and crappy games is the world screenshots when they are devoid of characters or special effects.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre