Poll: Are graphics taking over story/gameplay?

[sammyfreak]

I don't agree, stories are if anything getting better and gameplay definately is. People remember yeasterday as incredible release followed incredible release, now that hardly was the truth.

Games are becoming more and more realised, they know that they are games and that the best way to tell a story or give a experience is not complexity. Most people don't want to read a novel sized manual, most people don't want to listen to crappy dialogue for ages and so forth.

Games might be getting smaller, but due to improvements within game design and technology the quality of is increasing.

 

[Danny Ocean]

I'm sensing very slight bandwagonery in the OP.

However, I don't agree:

Some games didn't have good stories, or even a story at all, before 'realistic' graphics. Some games are sold without a story, or with a poor one, regardless of graphics. Graphics is just easier to make good now across the board.
Okay, poorly phrased, basically:

Games that had a crap story would've had a crap story anyway. It just so happens that they coincide with a rise in graphical quality, is all.

The excepion being Crysis.

 

[derpa]

Anyway, aside from games that try to sell themselfs only on graphics (Crysis) I think there's a healthy balance of Graphics and Gameplay/story atleast from what I've been playing (Unchartedrake's Fortune, MGS4, Oblivion, Ratchet and Clank Future, CoD4). It's not a fad, but it's not a plauge either.

Oblivion's story is poop and the gameplay is dull. CoD4 has an incoherent story.

Wow, never have I seen such an outstanding observation of someone's opinion about two games that he just happend to not like.

You're thoughts on a game does not make it true, Oblivion didn't have the best story EVAR but it was alright, and CoD4 was also average. Not the best, but compared to the graphics they were both average.

Oblivion doesn't even have a alright story....its just bad.

An even BETTER observation.

Oblivion didn't have the best story ever, but it certainly wasn't the worst. Atleast, the worst i've played.

No one said it was the worst, we just said it is bad.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Sadly, with the huge surge of people, er, sorry, 12 yr olds and fratboys playing games now (due to the 360 in this case), graphics are becoming too important, while us real gamers back from the SNES (in my case) days and even further back don't care as much so long as the game has great gameplay and/or story.

I think games have changed enough since them to merit all your experiance with them defunct.

Ergo, you were new to this whole 3-D thing when everyone else was.

Sure, I'm only from the Playstation (1) era, does that make me less of a gamer than you?

 

[Jumplion]

Anyway, aside from games that try to sell themselfs only on graphics (Crysis) I think there's a healthy balance of Graphics and Gameplay/story atleast from what I've been playing (Unchartedrake's Fortune, MGS4, Oblivion, Ratchet and Clank Future, CoD4). It's not a fad, but it's not a plauge either.

Oblivion's story is poop and the gameplay is dull. CoD4 has an incoherent story.

Wow, never have I seen such an outstanding observation of someone's opinion about two games that he just happend to not like.

You're thoughts on a game does not make it true, Oblivion didn't have the best story EVAR but it was alright, and CoD4 was also average. Not the best, but compared to the graphics they were both average.

Oblivion doesn't even have a alright story....its just bad.

An even BETTER observation.

Oblivion didn't have the best story ever, but it certainly wasn't the worst. Atleast, the worst i've played.

No one said it was the worst, we just said it is bad.

Then why are you trying to counteract my opinion about oblivion's story? I'm just saying that I didn't think it was bad saying that it was my opinion, but I've got two people trying to tell me it's bad/dogshit.

 

[frontier psychiatrist]

You're thoughts on a game does not make it true, Oblivion didn't have the best story EVAR but it was alright, and CoD4 was also average. Not the best, but compared to the graphics they were both average.

Huh. First you say my opinion about something doesn't make it true, then you go on to state that Oblivion's story was alright, as if that were a fact. Well whatever.

The problem with CoD4's story is that it's just incoherent and confusing. R6 Vegas 2 has the same problem. It's pretty odd when you consider the plot requirements of those games. It cannot be very difficult to write a storyline for a military shooter.

 

[Reload92]

I don't know about other people but I have noticed that after about a year since the PS3 has been out there are a lot less games focusing on "graphics" but more on "gameplay".

 

[Danny Ocean]

I don't know about other people but I have noticed that after about a year since the PS3 has been out there are a lot less games focusing on "graphics" but more on "gameplay".

Uh-oh.

*grabs fire blanket*

 

[Irmekroache]

Yeah Graphics are getting more important. Because they are easier to make than a good story and good game design. As technology increases the easier it is to make good graphics. With all the Bloom, and the bump mapping, and the fancy engines, and parallax mapping, and dynamic shadows, and Displacement mapping and really high resolution textures, and... I like the good ol times better when everything was dependent on the art rather than the technology.

 

[Jumplion]

You're thoughts on a game does not make it true, Oblivion didn't have the best story EVAR but it was alright, and CoD4 was also average. Not the best, but compared to the graphics they were both average.

Huh. First you say my opinion about something doesn't make it true, then you go on to state that Oblivion's story was alright, as if that were a fact. Well whatever.

The problem with CoD4's story is that it's just incoherent and confusing. R6 Vegas 2 has the same problem. It's pretty odd when you consider the plot requirements of those games. It cannot be very difficult to write a storyline for a military shooter.

"Anyway, aside from games that try to sell themselfs only on graphics (Crysis) I think there's a healthy balance of Graphics and Gameplay/story atleast from what I've been playing"

My response of "Oblivion/CoD4 story were alright" was directed to your critisisms over their storys "Oblivion's story is poop and the gameplay is dull. CoD4 has an incoherent story".
I never said that "Oblivion was average, that's the end of that". I stated in the first post I posted, if you read that you would know that I personally thought the story in Oblivion was average. I didn't think the CoD4 storyline was confusing and incoherent, but you're trying to convince me otherwise for some reason. Though honestly, I don't see where we're going with this argument, it's pretty pointless.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

Sad realization time:

No game plotline, ever, has been better than a B-class movie. Period.

There might have epic music, there might be an awesome story for a game, the presentation may have been really good, but at the end of the day, we've never had a game present a storyline that was truly new or innovative. Nothing that an author or screenwriter didn't do before and better.

As games become more story focused, it becomes easier to see that the stories aren't very good (after all, you weren't thinking about storyline when you were playing Mario 64). That's what you're seeing.

Hopefully we'll rise up some day.

- J

 

[Danny Ocean]

Sad realization time...

You make me a sad panda. =(

No, no, don't get me wrong. It's just with all the newer gamers who started playing A LOT on the 360, and not on an earlier console, are the "Graphic Whores" so to speak

Oh right. Sorry, I overreacted, but my point still stands.

I've made my mark.
*rides off into sunset*

 

[frontier psychiatrist]

incredibly goofy, sure, but that's a huge part of what makes it so different and exotic from all that generic fantasy/sciencefiction dogshit. But thankgod it's not a simple game 'for everyone' so you canhate it and call it 'MGS4 the movie' (other poster that was)

But people always talk about it as if it was some astoundingly deep experience that completely changed the way they look at the universe. How does that fit in with "incrediby goofy?" And yes, it is a game for everyone. MGS is very mainstream.

Games are becoming more and more realised, they know that they are games and that the best way to tell a story or give a experience is not complexity. Most people don't want to read a novel sized manual, most people don't want to listen to crappy dialogue for ages and so forth.

Games might be getting smaller, but due to improvements within game design and technology the quality of is increasing.

Adventure games are the best way to tell a story, but that genre is pretty much dead because people no longer want to play them. So, people are not actually interested in stories. More likely they're interested in pretty lights and shiny objects that go boom.

I didn't think the CoD4 storyline was confusing and incoherent, but you're trying to convince me otherwise for some reason.

I am?

--
As gaming keeps getting more accessible and games more impressive, they attract Joe Average, who could not give two shits about how good the story is or how deep the gameplay is. Developing these games requires money which can only be made by catering to Joe Average. However, it's still possible, in this day and age, to succesfully release intelligent and mature films and television shows, which are watched by Joe Average, among others, and not by a tiny elite. Perhaps the problem is that gaming is being viewed as casual entertainment that has no room for intelligence and depth. Earlier, gaming was viewed as some arcane art practised by smelly nerds, who were pretty much left alone with their adventure and strategy games and flight simulators. Then the Playstation was released. Now gaming is all about Halo and Madden. The games of yesteryear can't easily be made today because of how expensive production values have become. And is a publisher going to greenlight an expensive game that doesn't have mainstream appeal? Not likely.

It's not like we aren't getting lots of great games today, but what happened to adventure games for example? They're still being made, sure, but only as a niche market. RPGs are still around, but even BioWare, an RPG developer, seems to have thrown in the towel and is now making action games where you can choose your own dialogue. Hopefully Dragon Age will turn things around, but I'm not feeling optimistic just yet.

 

[Mr0llivand3r]

i judge my decision (yes, graphics are taking over story and gameplay) very simply by fighting games.

go back to the original mortal kombat for consoles. it is probably some of the smoothest flowing fighting gameplay there is and it had shit-ass graphics (although it was incredible for its day)

play a fighting game now and it is just more clunky and less smooth.

while graphics help to bring the story across, it seems like a lot of game developers thing that they can make their games perfect just by having good graphics. and in the words of Yahtzee "a perfect game shouldn't need to have to make excuses for itself"

 

[Shivari]

Not to me, but I notice some people in my school that literally won't touch a Wii because it's not as powerful as their precious PS3. It's sad really, they say graphics > gameplay, and I just tell them "Well if you don't want to have fun then that's your choice. I'll be over there playing Mario Galaxy and being happy."