A game. Not even game play. Look at some of the games out there today. They aren't even good games, some are 2d pixal games and they have hundreds or thousands of people playing. People are desperate for a game, not even a good game.
But if you're going for a graphical mmo, where the character animations are taking the place of text, then you'll need good enough graphics and animations to at least convey what characters or NPC's are doing since it's no longer primarily displayed as text.
I think it's worth noting all the EMU severs that pop-up for these older games like EQ, DAoC, SWG, FFXI.
Not that they have 10's of thousands of players and theres probably a lot to be said about notalgia, but at the end of the day, people spin up these servers and players will gravitate towards them because of the gameplay. Mayhaps not many new player, but people that know what those games are about and know what they want in terms of gameplay. Because lets be honest, no one is playing P99 or a live TLP server for the graphics.
I recently (within two weeks) bougth Octopath Traveler, and for those of you who do not know about the game, it is a 2D JRPG/Final Fantasy-esque made by Square Enix. For what it's worth, i enjoy the story, i enjoy the combat mechanics, i also love JRPG style games. With that said, the game also looks like it could have been made in 1995. But what grips me, are not how ground-breaking the graphics are, because they're not ground-breaking, although fairly pleasing in aesthetics. As i said, i enjoy how the game actually plays, its the same but slightly different than other JRPG's ive played.
With this in mind and for me, aesthetically pleasing graphics are a great for a game's quality of life. Obviously we dont want to be running through something that looks like Dagger fall running on DOS in 1996 (maybe some of us). However, if it comes down to graphics or gameplay, i will go with gameplay every single time. The mechanics of the game are what allow you to interact with the game and make it "fun." But as i recall a quote from Joppa at some point, how do you quanitfy "fun"? It's difficult, although ill pick gameplay everytime, there still needs the be a healthy balance between the graphics and good gameplay.
Both.
Without good gameplay graphics will keep people for a while but they will leave fairly soon. Spreading the word as they go.
Without good graphics people won't stay long enough to learn how good a game it is. A new game cannot benefit from nostalgia. Other than, in this case, nostalgia for EQ and Vanguard.
Gameplay is more important. A good game with decent graphics (but not worse than decent) can prosper. Gameplay will keep people for years if they can stand how it looks. Good or even excellent graphics with a merely decent game will not survive long. Enjoyment of graphics wears off a lot faster than enjoyment of a good game.
Gameplay. Look at the resurgence of 8-bit styled & roguelike games that are not necessarily graphically taxing. If the core gameplay is fun, the willing suspension of disbelief takes over, and the eye candy makes itself, like Leevolen mentioned above! I mean Tetris is still a bomb game with blocks falling from the sky. That being said, I am excited about Pantheon being a "classic" MMO with a "modern" engine. It will be fun to explore a zone w/ visual settings cranked to the max. But if I'm grouped up, doing a dungeon, I will be turning down those setting if having them cranked to 11 will adversely affect gameplay.
Kilsin said:What Matters Most - Gameplay or Graphics and why? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
Gameplay.
It's simple really. Graphics have a very very limited lifespan. What is seen as amazing graphics today will be seen as outdated in a very few years. What looks amazing the first few times you see it becomes nothing more than a background you ignore after that. The high resolution textures on the player models, for example. They look amazing and when you see them on a naked, immobile and T-posed they look great. But when in the game will you ever see a character like that? You'll be moving around, you'll soon have armor covering all of it. So you'll see it a few times, be impressed and then quickly cover it up and never give a fudge about it ever again. Alot of work, time and money spent for a very short lifespan.
Back in the Vanguard days Brad went on and on and on about how beautiful Vanguard looked while rarely, if ever, proclaiming about how the game played. Sigil Games spent a lot of time, money and effort on (for the time) a good looking world and, in the end, it was terrible gameplay, prolific bugs, terrible networking code that quickly brought that game to an end.
Graphics have the lowest return on investment and yet so many companies spent far more on that part than what really matters..gameplay.
Look at Minecraft as an example where gameplay vs graphics is blatantly obvious. Mojang did it right and made $4B from it.
I've always seen it like this. The most important thing for each media is as follows.
Books - Plot
Movies - Visuals/Plot
Games - Gameplay
Granted, all of these need a combination of everything but what makes gameplay so important in a game is that it's interactive. There are plenty of old games that are still fun to play just because of the gameplay, take tetris for example.
Everyone is talking about drawing the crowd and appealing to others. I'll answer for myself.
Graphics - as far as visual beauty - mean almost nothing to me. The only graphics that matter to me are the graphics that affect the quality of the gameplay.
I don't play MMOs for the graphics, but rather for the community, achievement, character development, and challenge. Gameplay is woven through everything that matters in an MMO.
Both, it's 2021, there's no excuse for either to be lacking at all, this isn't really a discussion.
By that I simply mean, MMO market is heavily over populated atm, if a game company can't produce both it has no way of surviving. target audience 1, want 1, the other 2. Produce both or be swept aside.
Gaku said:Both, it's 2021, there's no excuse for either to be lacking at all, this isn't really a discussion.
By that I simply mean, MMO market is heavily over populated atm, if a game company can't produce both it has no way of surviving. target audience 1, want 1, the other 2. Produce both or be swept aside.
This CM question is designed for you to be challenged and only choose one, both would be great and are expected in most games these days but if you could only pick one, what is more important to you, Graphics or Gameplay?
Gameplay will always hold more value than graphics, provided the graphics in question are at least passable.
You can have a visually pleasing world, but if the gameplay isn't there, you're not going to retain players for long. On the opposite note, if you have fun and engaging gameplay but don't have a visually stunning world, you still have a decent chance of retaining players.
I feel like you can always update visuals at a later date. However, if the very essence of your game is lacking, then there is no waiting to improve on that.
Kilsin said:This CM question is designed for you to be challenged and only choose one, both would be great and are expected in most games these days but if you could only pick one, what is more important to you, Graphics or Gameplay?
Risking the ire... tsk tsk. What matters most, food or water and why? The answer is clearly water (gameplay) but you obviously need both. Without enough water you will clearly die, but once you have enough water though what is more important? What does enough look like? How high is that bar?
Or have fun with it, ask people for an example of a game they would compare to polished dung where a company went too far with graphics and let gameplay slip.
Or you can try narrowing the question:
What matters most for advertising? Graphics, looking cool is a clear seller.
What matters most for development? Graphics, you need to set the standard and keep it. Don't try to upgrade or change the core quality in 6 months or a year because it will be far far worse to do then.
What matters most for recognition? (AKA free advertising) Graphics, you want people to recognize the game when they see a clip or a gif.