Today I'm going to ask one simple question: Do Graphics Matter? In short, the answer to that is: Yes, they do. But I'm never really happy with short answers.
I could go ahead and tell you everything you'd want to know about the history of games, but I think you would be better off taking a look at the Wikipedia Page on the history of video games. Instead I will talk a bit about how I've seen graphics change from my first game, until now.
I've already talked a bit about Soko-Ban in my first post. It was in that same era that I came in contact with side scrolling action games. One of those games was Bruce Lee. In Bruce Lee, you play as... Bruce Lee... and have to take on ninjas and other bad guys with your fists and feet. It was pretty fun to play. My dad owned a whole collection of Bruce Lee movies on VHS so it was pretty fun to "play" the movies. As you can see, the graphics were fairly decent and colorful and the animation was also pretty neat.
When we got our 386, graphics started to change as well. A few games I enjoyed playing, were the side-scrolling platformer Skunny and Commander Keen. Games started having more color in general. The animation was not always the best though. But there definitely was an evolution.
A year afterwards, I found Jazz Jackrabbit, Halloween Harry and Blake Stone on a shareware disc. Those contained a bit more action and speed. The animations were pretty decent as well. A while later, I found Jazz Jackrabbit 2 on a CD as well. One major feature upgrade: Split-screen multiplayer madness!. Good times sharing 1 keyboard between 2 players. Better graphics, better animations.
In the mid 90's, me and my dad picked up Warcraft 2 It played better and faster than its predecessor. I loved its colors as well as its animations and art style. The gameplay was just magnificent. I even spent days using the map editor to create the best map. Also, it was the first and game I've ever entered a competition of. I got lucky. I was 11 or 12 at the time and my opponent, an older dude, surrendered because he didn't have any resources and couldn't leave his starting island. The 2nd round, I got my ass handed to me. Fun times though. It was on that same LAN-party that I got to know Quake 2 and Grand Theft Auto. I also learned the meaning of the term Camper.
So Quake 2 was actually the first real 3D-game I've ever played. I would still play it even now. I'm organizing a LAN-party for my birthday this weekend and I think we're definitely going to pull a Quake ;). If that's not the case, Unreal Tournament 2k4 will definitely be a fine alternative.
With each passing year, graphics became better and better, but also more important. I didn't really care for graphics, honestly. To me it doesn't matter what the game looks like, I just don't want any choppy animations. If a player character is looking cool, real, lifelike and very detailed, I wouldn't want to even touch the game if the animations are crappy. Well, I may just give it a try to see if the gameplay is alright. Take Morrowind for example. I loved the game, it looked and played amazing. But I couldn't stand the animations of the player character when zoomed out in 3rd person mode.
Nowadays, I'm into everything. I don't really have a prerequisite on graphics. Okay, the animations need to be fitting. A lot of games pull it off very well, but there are others that just don't appeal to me. I very much like screenshots of those games, but as soon as you start playing them, it doesn't feel right. Lost Castle gives me that feeling a bit. That doesn't mean I will never touch it again. I'm just going to wait and see what it develops into. I still like the art-style.
All in all we can say that graphics do matter. But so does animation, the sound and music they get accompanied by, but also the gameplay. How a game feels. How you can continue playing it, after you've beaten it. If it's beatable. A game does not need to end if you're constantly discovering new things to do or if you just barely manage to survive an onslaught and have to start building up from scratch in certain survival games. That's what most games nowadays should aim for: Playability and Replayability.
One of the games that's coming out and, hopefully, has all of those things, is Final Fantasy XIV. Having played the demo last year, I can definitely say it's an RPG-gamer's wet dream;)
So far, I haven't really gone in too deep on anything, and I could have gone deeper into some things, but this is just the start of my Steemit Story. Tell me, what do you like most about the video games you play and which things make you regret your purchase?
Thank you very much for reading, peeps! Take care!
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