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.

[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.

[Sykora727]

I think the detail in FFXIV is really amazing in places, particularly with certain creatures (floating eyes, drakes etc), but the the world (cities, clothes,) look bland and lacking in fantasy like other final fantasy games.

The designs are great, but they belong in another game, not the FF franchise imo.

[Vesperia]

I think the detail in FFXIV is really amazing in places, particularly with certain creatures (floating eyes, drakes etc), but the the world (cities, clothes,) look bland and lacking in fantasy like other final fantasy games.

The designs are great, but they belong in another game, not the FF franchise imo.

That's personal opinion. I think the clothes are amazing.

[Teknoman]

I think the detail in FFXIV is really amazing in places, particularly with certain creatures (floating eyes, drakes etc), but the the world (cities, clothes,) look bland and lacking in fantasy like other final fantasy games.

The designs are great, but they belong in another game, not the FF franchise imo.

Akihiko Yoshida usually does things this way. Check out FF tactics series, XII, and 4 heroes of light. Usually slightly muted colors but very intricate designs. Those designs should be making their way here soon enough (go look at the February letter from producer with the Black mage and Dark Knight looking armor).

Either way, every player/npc/enemy model is highly detailed, and they just need to add more structures among other things to the zones to flesh them out.

[Vesperia]

Also, more and more games are coming onto the market with rivalling graphcis.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-I...s640/dnl13.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12xsh4DP4h0

A rerelease of an old MMO with similar concepts to ArcheAge.

[Kirith]

Aesthetics isn't something you can make an exact quantification of. It's all a matter of artistic sensibility and cultural focus. The only way to evaluate it is to ask many people how much they feel touched by a certain piece of art or, in this case, by the game's environments and overall design. Evidently, many FFXIV users are criticizing exactly the world's environments and their design, meaning the game has poor aesthetics. There's really not much that can be added. A few good looking armor sets and items won't affect the game's aesthetics, like adding two pretty flowers to a boring green field won't make a painting interesting. It's a much more general matter and i can't see a clear way to solve it.