Graphics vs Aesthetics

[Commat]

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.

Good news, i found a way to solve it.

Stop making boring ultra-realistic "fantasy" worlds and make a game that looks like the the grand companies of eorzea page artwork.

Its the best looking visuals associated with this game. SE has always had a fantastic 2d art team. Always underutilized and ignored. Anyone play SF2? best looking game they ever released.

[Vesperia]

Am I the only one that likes FFXIV's artistic sensibilities?

[Tonka]

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

ArcheAge and Blade & Soul are examples of games with nice aesthetics that also require a fairly powerful computer. ArcheAge especially so. GW2 employees test using video cards that aren't even on the market any more. It's designed to run on average computers. Some people may not like their stylized approach to their art direction, but for it being designed to be so accessible, it looks amazing to me.

It's not a debate on which looks better.

[Yellow]

It seems to be the popular trend now

Final Fantasy 13 was an example I guess... IT wasn't that bad.. but definitely was far from being great.


and lol @Vesperia

GW2 Looks like crap :S Have you seen many videos? It looks amazing xDD ~ Interesting gameplay, different setups for fights -- Not a WoW clone. It's something different =D Will be interesting to see how it goes!

and saying Koreans can only make games?

Then please Don't go near any western/japanese games. Keep to your Korean games ^O^

I'm all for any game that I like.. but I'll never say this country is better at making games. It's all a matter of opinion.

[Vesperia]

ArcheAge and Blade & Soul are examples of games with nice aesthetics that also require a fairly powerful computer. ArcheAge especially so. GW2 employees test using video cards that aren't even on the market any more. It's designed to run on average computers. Some people may not like their stylized approach to their art direction, but for it being designed to be so accessible, it looks amazing to me.

It's not a debate on which looks better.

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.

[Vesperia]

It seems to be the popular trend now

Final Fantasy 13 was an example I guess... IT wasn't that bad.. but definitely was far from being great.


and lol @Vesperia

GW2 Looks like crap :S Have you seen many videos? It looks amazing xDD ~ Interesting gameplay, different setups for fights -- Not a WoW clone. It's something different =D Will be interesting to see how it goes!

and saying Koreans can only make games?

Then please Don't go near any western/japanese games. Keep to your Korean games ^O^

I'm all for any game that I like.. but I'll never say this country is better at making games. It's all a matter of opinion.

Yes Ive seen the videos of GW2.

Are you referring to the videos which showcase cities that look like amusement parks (full of gaudy colours and clashing characters in their ensemble garbs)? Or are you referring to the videos that show contextually irrelevant aliens operating robots? Or are you referring to the videos which demonstrate the comical, adolescent voice-overs which remind one of saturday morning cartoons from ones' childhood? I could go on...

I seriously don't know what people see in the areas. Nor in the character models.

The combat looks okay (but not compared to B&S or TERA). The dynamic quest system looks okay (but not compared to the dynamic world of ArcheAge or Dark&Light).

So I just wonder why people are so enamoured by it besides the F2P aspect.

I mean, look at this rationally, ArcheAge will probably come out sooner, look prettier, have more features, have more consistent lore, destructible instances, and will be way more DYNAMIC (which is supposedly GW's selling point), and this is because the goals in ArcheAge aren't scripted. The game doesn't GIVE you a "personal story". In ArcheAge, you make one.

Graphics aside, the thing that turned me off about GW2 the most was the whole "personal story" mumbo jumbo. I thought the world was supposed to change from our actions. I didn't think that when they said "the world" they meant "your own world". And by "your own world" I didn't think they meant "a tiny instance in the middle of town which only you can enter".

LOL, that's not dynamic content.

You are setting yourself up for disappointment with GW2, i assure you of that. But maybe compared to FFXIV it wont seem so bad.

[Gramul]

I shudder to think what demographic GW2 is targeting.

...You shudder? The very idea that GW2 wants to expand its player base to as many people as possible by making sure their visuals run well on old computers causes you to shudder?!

Aesthetics can't be outdated, they are not graphical components. It's just a use of visual style to grip the attention and imagination of their players. Some people will obviously get bored of it eventually, but good aesthetics are not so easily forgotten. That's exactly why games like Parappa the Rapper still hold a visually interesting motif. It's why games like Okami, will still keep people entertained even years from now. It's why Super Metroid can still give people a feel of exploring a bizarre alien world.

And yes. GW2 has an appealing design.

Amusement parks are fun. They amuse.

[Vesperia]

It's not a debate on which looks better.

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).

[Vesperia]

...You shudder? The very idea that GW2 wants to expand its player base to as many people as possible by making sure their visuals run well on old computers causes you to shudder?!

Gosh, it's a figure of speech.

But anyway, look at it this way, in pursuing one demographic you risk excluding the other group who would scorn playing a game with such inferior graphics. So technically it's not the smartest thing to do.

And yes. GW2 has an appealing design.

Amusement parks are fun. They amuse.

They can also make you hurl.

[Gramul]

Gosh, it's a figure of speech.

A very strong figure of speech.

In pursuing one demographic you risk excluding the other group who would scorn playing a game with such inferior graphics.

Few people are going to scorn the game because it has bad graphics. I mean, it works great for WoW.
As long as they can get people in with good (or at least attention grabbing) design, they won't care if it's made out of perfect blocks...and they don't!