Graphics hinder MMO's in the same way as them being online does.
Good one!
It is sorta like when people say they don't care about artificial looks of their significant other and inner beauty is what matters.
Not me. I like pretty people. Even my guy friends must look good. And yes I am still single and that has nothing to do with my personality!
Constantine, The Console Poster
"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves." - Carl Jung
Focus on graphics in general, throughout the industry, has become a bane.
It balloons development costs, creating the need for pubs and devs to squeeze more dollars out of one title.
As such, we could all do better to avoid hyping a product based on it's pretty pictures and, instead, on how enjoyable it is to engage with.
Many of the newer MMOs I've looked into I came away saying, "It looks pretty." I haven't played in one at all.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
I agree that graphics balloon costs and poor graphics hinder my gameplay. I wish i could tolerate shittier graphics, but im too much of a graphic whore to not let it affect me.
Catch me streaming at twitch.tv/cryomatrix You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
Definitely did for EQ2 upon release. I couldn’t play it until years later, despite wanting to as an EQ1 player. People crap on the graphics now but many places still look pretty impressive when you run high or exteme graphics settings with some tweaks. It does still tend to run poorly in certain places or in crowded groups, though.
Unreal Engine, and engines of the ilk hinder MMORPGs because developers are bad at repurposing them for games that have open worlds with a lot of concurrent players.
A great looking 3D engine doesn't hinder anything unless it's being misused.
With all that said, as crappy as Amazon's New World plays... Lumberyard is pretty damn decent visually (from what I saw in that video that time).
"As far as the forum code of conduct, I would think it's a bit outdated and in need of a refre *CLOSED*"
Engines don't ruin anything,it is the people working with them that are the problem. Can graphics hinder a mmorpg,well obviously it can if you have incompetent people running the business. However and i simply look at FFXIV,it has great graphics,i played the game on a machine that really had no business playing it.So it was tweaked to run well,maybe not originally but when i played it was fine.BDO is another,i played that game as well,i had no problems there either.
Now if i were to pick on ANY engine,i would pick on Unity however,being that it is a CHEAP cost effective engine and versatile,we are going to get a ton of riff raff using it for their games.On that note i have seen some use the Unreal engine to simply speed up production with no real care about the quality of the product.
So yeah more about the developers than the graphics or engines.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Engines don't ruin anything,it is the people working with them that are the problem. Can graphics hinder a mmorpg,well obviously it can if you have incompetent people running the business. However and i simply look at FFXIV,it has great graphics,i played the game on a machine that really had no business playing it.So it was tweaked to run well,maybe not originally but when i played it was fine.BDO is another,i played that game as well,i had no problems there either.
Now if i were to pick on ANY engine,i would pick on Unity however,being that it is a CHEAP cost effective engine and versatile,we are going to get a ton of riff raff using it for their games.On that note i have seen some use the Unreal engine to simply speed up production with no real care about the quality of the product.
So yeah more about the developers than the graphics or engines.
Engines can ruin things. EQ's engine ruined that game, because it was developed with the wrong development assumptions.
Some engines also do not scale well to MMORPG's, like Unreal (certainly earlier versions - think Lineage II, HORRIBLE especially in sieges or large raids).
Like I said earlier in the thread, mid range graphics with good Animations and effects is the sweet spot for MMORPGs. Anything "amazing" is going to force half the player base to start dialing down the graphics; at which point the game is likely to look worse than if it were designed with a lower ceiling from the beginning.
This is similar to how midrange machines often look WORSE than a console when trying to play some PC games.
Amazing graphics may please some graphics whores, but how many players will you give up for it (while increasing development costs and lowering the ceiling or pace for making it back in revenue).
Comments
It is sorta like when people say they don't care about artificial looks of their significant other and inner beauty is what matters.
Not me. I like pretty people. Even my guy friends must look good. And yes I am still single and that has nothing to do with my personality!
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
Unreal Engine, and engines of the ilk hinder MMORPGs because developers are bad at repurposing them for games that have open worlds with a lot of concurrent players.
A great looking 3D engine doesn't hinder anything unless it's being misused.
With all that said, as crappy as Amazon's New World plays... Lumberyard is pretty damn decent visually (from what I saw in that video that time).
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Can graphics hinder a mmorpg,well obviously it can if you have incompetent people running the business.
However and i simply look at FFXIV,it has great graphics,i played the game on a machine that really had no business playing it.So it was tweaked to run well,maybe not originally but when i played it was fine.BDO is another,i played that game as well,i had no problems there either.
Now if i were to pick on ANY engine,i would pick on Unity however,being that it is a CHEAP cost effective engine and versatile,we are going to get a ton of riff raff using it for their games.On that note i have seen some use the Unreal engine to simply speed up production with no real care about the quality of the product.
So yeah more about the developers than the graphics or engines.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Some engines also do not scale well to MMORPG's, like Unreal (certainly earlier versions - think Lineage II, HORRIBLE especially in sieges or large raids).
Like I said earlier in the thread, mid range graphics with good Animations and effects is the sweet spot for MMORPGs. Anything "amazing" is going to force half the player base to start dialing down the graphics; at which point the game is likely to look worse than if it were designed with a lower ceiling from the beginning.
This is similar to how midrange machines often look WORSE than a console when trying to play some PC games.
Amazing graphics may please some graphics whores, but how many players will you give up for it (while increasing development costs and lowering the ceiling or pace for making it back in revenue).