

This is how graphics in games matter - Origummy
http://www.pocketnext.com/stories/why-graphics-are-important/

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overgard
I wonder if it's really about the graphics though, or if it's more about the
mystery of what's possible. Let's imagine something called the "possibility
space", which is just roughly the set of things you can do in the game.
Minecraft has a really large possibility space (build stuff, mine, survive,
etc), Quake has a much smaller one (shoot things, navigate). Gameplay is
largely about discovering what's possible, and then using that knowledge to
achieve mastery over the system.

When you're young and you see a vista like that in ninja gaiden, you're
intrigued by the possibility of what could be out there and what you can do
with it. As you play, you discover the system, and in doing so, you also
discover the limits of the system, and eventually as the space of
possibilities becomes sharply defined, it eventually becomes uninteresting.

When you see a new game with prettier graphics, what the graphics imply is a
new possibility space; a sense that more can happen here and the universe of
possibilities is expanded.

The thing is, the graphics are secondary to what they imply about expanded
gameplay. Graphics are feedback. Feedback is essential to gameplay, but it has
to be evaluated in terms of a larger system.

I think this is largely why modern games seem a bit less magical than the old
ones. They imply a lot of possibilities, but they rarely deliver; in fact, to
support that level of graphics and polish they have to sharply reduce the
space of what's possible. To display beautiful lighting you have to prerender
a lot of it, or to show a greatly scripted cutscene you have to ensure that
the player can't do something that would make that scene no longer make sense.
But all of that reduces what the player can do, and how the world can respond
to it.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
What was the golden age of video games? 12.

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nestoras
It's not only the graphics. I am a few years older than the original poster
and I very vividly remember the game that blew me away when I was (about) the
same age: Thanatos.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVSSxwXkPjE>

This game was simply a masterpiece, in every way. For a 12 year old, it was an
unbelievable experience. The graphics were amazing, the animation free-flowing
and beautiful, the stage where the drama was unfolding an almost infinite,
dark world and the music so much unlike anything else that my trusty Amstrad's
little speaker has ever sounded. The whole game had an eerie atmosphere, like
a dream. Even the gameplay had original elements: your dragon did not seem to
have hit points or an energy bar. Instead, the faster its heart was beating,
the closer it was to death. Yet, you never knew exactly how close. Just like
real life, that was the point. Being Greek, even the name had an impressive,
majestic quality to me: Thanatos (the dragon's name) means Death.

Thanatos managed to create a completely immersive experience (at least to a 12
year old) through graphics, animation, sound, story, atmosphere _and_ gameplay
elements.

------
DanBC
> _If a game is actually trying to create a breathtaking sense of presence, of
> “being really there,” then more believable graphics are certainly going to
> help._

Minecraft, DwarfFortress, any of the Roguelikes are counter examples.

Graphics are important. Really awful graphics could kill a game. But amazing
graphics on a rubbish game ("Rise of the Robots") don't help.

~~~
_delirium
Yeah, I would say a certain internal consistency is more important than
"realism" per se. Cartoons can be quite immersive, but I haven't seen a
cartoony look in games pulled off at the level that animated films have
reached.

~~~
jimm
Okami did; it was immersive and beautiful. Search for "okami screen shots" on
Google images (the URL is longer than this sentence, including this
parenthetical statement).

~~~
gus_massa
[http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=okami+screen+sho...](http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=okami+screen+shots)

You can trim a lot of the URL generated by Goggle. Just remember to look for
the "tbm=isch" and "q=" parts.

