frat boy mentality-a plague on the gaming industry?

[Canadamus Prime]

Spoiler: *snip*

Hate to break it to you pal, but high definition graphics are a must and thats the way it should be.

I beg to differ. High Definition graphics are bullshit and don't add anything to the gaming experience.

Yes, they do. They look good. Are graphics the sole, most important thing in a game? No, but they are important none the less. Back in the day Crysis was praised pretty much only for its graphics. If it had been released with mediocre looks no one would remember it.

And you don't see that as a problem. That the game's only distinguishing memorable feature is that it "looked nice." It didn't add anything to either it's genre or gaming as a whole, it just merely "looked nice."

Have you never looked at a game and said: "Fucking hell, its beautiful. Im going to keep on playing it because it looks so good"?

No, I kinda expect more out of my games than fancy visuals.

Well, maybe you didnt, and maybe you spend your leisure time playing games from 1990 exclusively. But surely you wouldnt be so foolish as to think that just because youre that way, the entire industry should cater to your opinion, right?

No, of course not! However this High Definition bullshit takes me to a whole new level of bewildered. I've played my Xbox360 in both standard and high definition and I can't honestly say I noticed any significant difference. Certainly not a difference that warrants the excessive torrents of drooling over HD that gush from dozens of gamers such as yourself. So every time I find people gushing over HD I want to facedesk so hard that it leaves a permanent imprint.

I like how im suddenly this dude who cares about nothing but graphics in his games for some reason, just because I said they matter.

Look dude, graphics dont matter to you. Thats fine. I myself find them to be a nice addition and not a deal maker or breaker. BUT. You cant hold that standpoint and expect everyone to follow. If we went by people like you we would all currently still be using Windows 95 and playing Pacman.

I also like how we are all stupid graphics whores because your ass is too blind to see the difference between standard definition and HD. Im not joking or making fun of you one bit when I say that if you seriously cannot tell the difference, a trip to the optician may be worth your time because there is undoubtedly something wrong with your eyes. It is a difference like day and night.

"YEAH, GRAPHICS DONT MATTER TO ME AND THEY ADD NOTHING TO MY EXPERIENCE SO EVERYONE WHO THINKS DIFFERENTLY IS WRONG!!!!"-thats not the way it works. Like it or not, graphics are a major part of a game. They are part of the experience you have when playing something. And they are important. Of course im not saying NOTHING else matters, hell, I can forgive a game having slightly mediocre graphics or art direction if the gameplay and/or story is solid enough, so I guess I expect more out of my games than good graphics too. Does that mean I think we should still be playing games based on the first Quake engine? Fuck no!

I bet next youre going to call me a COD fanboy. Ridiculous.

I do wish you'd refrain from putting words in my mouth. When did I say you were the dude that only cares about graphics? And likewise when did I say that I didn't? You're taking what I say about one small aspect of graphics and visual technology and twisting it to apply to all aspects of graphics and visual technology when that isn't at all what I meant!
If graphics technology had never advanced beyond the 90's, some of my favorite games wouldn't have ever seen the light of day, games such as Dragon Quest VIII & Star Ocean III, so yeah advancements in graphics tech have lead to good things. My problem, if you'd be paying attention, is that HD is an advancement that doesn't appear to add much to the overall gaming experience, and even if it does and I'm just not seeing it, it's still hardly worth the excessive amounts of gushing that it gets! The way people gush over it, yourself included, you'd think it was the second coming of Christ or something and no graphical tech advancement can be worth that no matter how good it is.

 

[Sovvolf]

is that HD is an advancement that doesn't appear to add much to the overall gaming experience.

HD pretty much just makes the image sharper. Might not see the difference at first and I really didn't. Not until my HDTV broke and I had to return to an SDTV. In SD the pictures all blurry and it doesn't have quite the visual appeal. When I returned to HD I could definitely notice the difference (though it helps as I was playing the same game I was in SD).

If your used to player older games like PS2 games, you might not completely tell the difference. HD doesn't really do much to enhance those as they weren't really built for it. However it does enhance the visual appeal of modern video games.

 

[Sparcrypt]

While I sympathise slightly you DID diss street fighter which makes me inclined to want you to suffer . Though actually I still mostly play Third Strike. But anyway.

I am on two minds about this. On the one hand, I do wish people wouldn't write off non mainstream games, especially game reviewers. On the other, you can't tell people what they like. If frat boys are the bulk of the gaming population at the moment then devs will aim games their way. Same deal for gamestop - they will give shelf space to the games they know will sell well, they really don't care about the one guy who comes in and buys the other stuff because he KNOWS what he wants and will ask for it.

I play a variety of games and genres - some of the mainstream ones some of the less so. I enjoy both so while I wish there were more of the latter I do enjoy the former so no.. I don't consider it a plague.

Though review sites should know better then to worry soley about graphics.

I beg to differ. High Definition graphics are bullshit and don't add anything to the gaming experience.

Also, wrong. YOU don't care. I do. They aren't the only thing I care about and I still play old games without them for the gameplay. However saying they add nothing is stupid. The fantastic environments and models in say, the Assassins Creed series added a huge amount to the experience because they looked really nice. Pretty things are nice to look at.. shock.

I don't expect HD graphics in everything and if the devs can make a good game without them (which is easily done) then awesome! But yes, they matter. Aside from anything else, if they weren't constantly pushing for better ones then technology woulnd't evolve.