Poll: Style or Substance?

[SunoffaBeach]

Of course an excellent game has both style AND substance.

But if you have to choose, do you go for
1) Style over Substance
2) Substance over Style

 

[ThePlasmatizer]

What kind of question is that?

no matter how good looking or unique it looks it doesn't mean it's a good game, the substance and content of the game is the most important factor.

 

[Space Spoons]

Probably substance. If I want mindless, yet nonetheless fun to look at, visuals, I'll go rent a Michael Bay film and save myself 55 bucks.

 

[curlycrouton]

An equilibrium of both.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Insufficient data for meaningful response. *click-whirr*

If the style is so horrendous that it distracts from the substance, or if the substance is so vacuous that there's nothing for the style to show, then I'd have a problem. I'd say that developers favour style over substance more often than I prefer, but either one done poorly enough will wreck it for the other.

-- Steve

 

[Zeromaxx]

Substance over style, and any game company that chooses to produce games with the opposite priority should be razed to the ground with it's employees locked inside and purged with salt and fire.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

What kind of question is that?

no matter how good looking or unique it looks it doesn't mean it's a good game, the substance and content of the game is the most important factor.

-but style wins the crowd!

Remember how crazy people went over the first batch of the new Prince of Persia screenshots? Who cares how good that game is, that shit is sexy.

 

[ThePlasmatizer]

What kind of question is that?

no matter how good looking or unique it looks it doesn't mean it's a good game, the substance and content of the game is the most important factor.

-but style wins the crowd!

Remember how crazy people went over the first batch of the new Prince of Persia screenshots? Who cares how good that game is, that shit is sexy.

Yeah but remember some of the older great games you played with huge polygons and pixellated graphics but still managed to epic.

 

[Zac_Dai]

Dwarf Fortress is an excellent example of substance over style.

 

[Eternal Facepalm]

Who cares how good that game is, that shit is sexy.

Gee tell us how you really feel why don't you?

I'd rather have a great game that doesn't look so well over a pretty, and boring game any day. Of course I'm the type that wants to have my cake and eat it too, so can I have both?

 

[Tartarga]

both are very important to a game but substance more so than style in my opinion

 

[Demir23]

Style can do a lot for a game, going so far as to make an average game into an excellent game in some rare cases. However, style is useless without substance in games, after all the entire point of a game is to have have fun with the game's mechanics. To simplify, the style is the game's setting with the substance is the plot and driving force of the game. The style can add to the game, but is nothing without adequate substance to back it up.

 

[da_nation]

Definitely substance over style. A game has to play "great" to even be considered "great".

 

[notyouraveragejoe]

Definately substance over style. Hell some of my favorite games are down graded graphics wise. Twisted Metal 2 is my ace in the hole example of this. I Love the game despite the extreme blockiness and the 2d cutscenes.

 

[Simple_Snow]

Well it makes a kindof a difference - it depends what you mean as "prefer". Mirror's Edge, Assasin's Creed, both very stylish games, but one, maybe two playthroughs and then interred onto the game shelf for eternity.

Stalker, Oblivion, Cod4 - I carry on playing.