Kilsin said:What Matters Most - Gameplay or Graphics and why? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
Of course gameplay. Great graphics can make a good game even better, but they can't help a poor gameplay experience.
Craft great gameplay for a solid win, and then add great graphics to knock it out of the park. ;)
Most? Gameplay I enjoy.
I played P99 for 10 years. That said, the gameplay of the live servers doesn't suite me, so bad graphics + meh gameplay = nope. Let's be upfront though, if you launch Pantheon and your animations are rough, not smooth, or poorly designed; if the NPC's feel like they are from the 1990's; and you don't have any graphics that can interest people as a 2021 game; then your success may not be as good as you want.
Cool features and gimmicks aside, the game needs to feel right and look the part in conjunction with having solid gameplay as the foundation.
Gameplay = Foundation
Looks, Feel, Comfort = House.
Most important is game play. A game can last a long time just as long as the game has depth and involving story lines coupled with an engaging world to live in. Look at EQ1! Don’t get me wrong, great graphics are expected these days and should be in the mix, but the game play is the real test. As you engaged in the world, the graphics become less and less dominant to your attention and the game play takes over.
Great art pulls people in. Great game play keeps them coming back. Great art will gives you moments of joy, great game play lives with you long after the play session.
There is a symbiotic relationship between form and function. I would say they are equally important and are supposed to compliment each other.
This is why people are drawn to a MMORPG's over something like tabletop game, or even a mathematical pen n' paper game.
The visual representation allows us to more easily become immersed in the world. Function without any form is purely numeric and taxes the imagination. Form without any function appears like a static useless appendage. Ofc meaning is in the eye of the beholder. So I would say being absolutist in either form or factor is not the way. They both need each other equally as much.
