Graphics vs Aesthetics

[Physic]

As if there ever could be a debate.

Anyway.

Even as a graphically inferior game, I dispute the fact that GW2 uses what few assets it has to its advantage. I mean, come on. I don't know about you, but a gameworld should at least make sense. The cultural disparity between the races in GW2 is so huge it's almost absurd.

But that's what you get for playing a game made by western developers (no eye for beauty and cliche voice-overs).

there is a fairly huge cultural disparity in the world we live in. We sit here on computers talking with other people across the world, while other people in same world live in tribal cultures that still have witch doctors, other places have electricity as against their religion. People still hunt with handmade weapons in parts of the world, and build housing out of clay. Also if you played guild wars I you would see why different cultures are so varied, there is a lot of strict seperation, and magic itself impacts cultures, in a world with magic, and science, it is not always a linear path to advancement. Up until 200 years before in guild wars, the cultures were seperated by fairly difficult to navigate problems. So now 2 hundred years later the world is even crazie has advanced in a lot of different directions, some places more than others.

[Tonka]

I have a pretty low end computer and FFXIV seems to run fine on medium settings for me. So I shudder to think what demographic GW2 is targetting.

If a game targets really crappy PCs then it will only become out-dated faster.

Yeah. Making the game accessible graphically is a horrible idea. I bet Blizzard wishes they could go back in time and change their views on this. Then maybe they could be the undisputed most successful MMO to date.

[Vesperia]

there is a fairly huge cultural disparity in the world we live in. We sit here on computers talking with other people across the world, while other people in same world live in tribal cultures that still have witch doctors, other places have electricity as against their religion. People still hunt with handmade weapons in parts of the world, and build housing out of clay. Also if you played guild wars I you would see why different cultures are so varied, there is a lot of strict seperation, and magic itself impacts cultures, in a world with magic, and science, it is not always a linear path to advancement. Up until 200 years before in guild wars, the cultures were seperated by fairly difficult to navigate problems. So now 2 hundred years later the world is even crazie has advanced in a lot of different directions, some places more than others.

But even so, it's still so far-fetched.

And when thinking about aesthetics, it makes a horrible juxtaposition.

[Vesperia]

Yeah. Making the game accessible graphically is a horrible idea. I bet Blizzard wishes they could go back in time and change their views on this. Then maybe they could be the undisputed most successful MMO to date.

You think WoW looks good?

I think I see why I cannot win this argument now.

[Tonka]

You think WoW looks good?

I think I see why I cannot win this argument now.

You don't even understand the argument.

[Vesperia]

You don't even understand the argument.

I'd rather not undestand an argument than not understand beauty.

[kukurumei]

If it doesn't look good...it doesn't look good.

[viion]

Okay, let's face facts.

• GW2 looks like crap.
  
• FFXIV looks okay at a cursory glance until you realise the grass is a pixelated mess and only 10% of the plants actually sway in the wind, the water is a flat tile, the world is a fancy background rather than something you can interact with, shadows are all wrong if they exist at all, etc etc.
  
• ArcheAge and Blade&Soul, on the other hand, look awesome in almost every way.

People who use FFXIV and GW2 as bastions of MMO graphics are obviously ignorant. Only Koreans know how to design games. People say "GW2 Isn't made by Koreans!" like it's a good thing. LOL. You serious?

In ArcheAge and B&S, grass actually moves, zones are seamless, character models look reasonable. Nothing is so excessive to the point of tackiness (unlike everything in GW2 for example).

http://www.archeage.com/pds/media/show/432

This is all down to personal taste, I think GW2 looks insanely amazing even if it's not super next gen it has a lot of creativity. But Archeage I just dont like at all, I would say "it looks like crap" because its just not my style of visuals, im not into medievil stuff. It even uses my most favourite engine of all time the CryEngine 3, which Cabal2 uses also and I'd probably prefer Cabal2 visuals over Arch just because of the design/art choice.

At the end of the day graphics dont mean much really, I dont particularally like the look of Rift and dont think its graphics are good, but it has Aesthetics and content, so its shit hot for a lot of people right now. WoW I dont like the graphics or art at all, but 12+million others do and i know it has buckets of content.

And then there is the winner, Minecraft, over 2 million sales, more players than this MMO (and minecraft is multiplayer) and it looks worse than lego lol.

[Quanta]

And then there is the winner, Minecraft, over 2 million sales, more players than this MMO (and minecraft is multiplayer) and it looks worse than lego lol.

I consider Minecraft a perfect example of what the Extra Credits guys were talking about. Here you have a game that is graphically inferior to virtually everything around it, yet it's easily one of the most popular PC games around atm. Why? I'd like to think one of the reasons is that the visuals, sound, music, and gameplay complement each other perfectly, and they together define the Minecraft experience. It's a beautiful game.

[Zantetsuken]

One thing FFXIV has going for it, is that the game has a much more grounded and realistic look to it than the other games mentioned in this thread.

Most other MMO games give away the farm from day one with insanely flashy graphics, extreme locations, and elaborate monsters. Graphically, this means that the game will only be able to grow by upping the ante to the point where things begin to get absurd.

FFXI and now FFXIV have set the initial design bar rather low, so there is plenty of room to grow without the game looking OTT in it's later years.

Granted, this approach is best tailored to hardcore players who will appreciate the slow growth of the game rather than your average casual player who will want to see most of the cool stuff up front.