People that criticize games purely on graphics

[Hawk of Battle]

I have a friend who only ever seems to consider graphics when judging a games worth. It makes it very hard to have a serious conversation about games with him because he dismisses any game that doesn't have hyper realistic shiny graphics to be crap. Literally the guy would proclaim Space Invaders to be the greatest thing ever if you gave it 1080p HD and 3d.

I know anohter guy who is more reasonable, but seems to have an irrational disliking of cel shading. It took a LOT of effort to convince him to play Borderlands. He eventually changed his tune though.

 

[luvva]

Show them Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Excellent game, sucky graphics, and controls which are almost TOO easy to learn.

 

[Double A]

This entire thread is awesome. The only time where snobish eliteism is a very, very good thing (instead of just a very good thing).

Is there something wrong with liking good graphics? And to be fair, Minecrafts graphics do look like crap. That is completely right.

Yes it is, graphics is useless all it does is to serve the aesthetics, and in that term, minecraft got excellent aesthetics.

My only encounter with this was when a friend saw me play dwarf fortress and started to ***** about the ASCII graphics, a smack in the head fixed that and he haven't uttered anything about shitty graphics since around me.

You are truly the dwarfiest of us all.

 

[DarthHamster]

There's a difference between aesthetic and graphics, as has been pointed out often enough. However, there was the rather problematic decade where polygon graphics were evolving. As such, Sonic 3 (not using polygons) was an awesome game and still holds up really well. Same story with Age of Empires.

But then Morrowind isn't very easy on the eyes (without mods, anyway) and for me, that is detrimental to immersion and thus the overall experience. And that despite Morrowind being a very good game, gameplay wise. There's something to be said for people who want their games to be state-of-the-art with shiny realistic graphics, because it makes it so much easier to get sucked into the world, to believe what you're seeing.

That of course doesn't mean a very pretty game can be a load of cow's droppings.

 

[Keepeas]

I had a problem with this twice in the past:

One friend wouldn't play Windbreaker because "The graphics look like crap (hurr hurr)" and "It's too cartoon-y" ....yet his favorite games were Golden Sun(great game, bad graphics), OOT and MM...I don't know why he though all of those were fine but windwaker was out of the question.

I wanted to gouge his eyes out

Other friend won't play minecraft because, "It's blocky and ugly" "snooze-ville" and "it's just legos (hurr hurr)"

Want to get him to play so I can rub it in his face.

That same friend won't play anything older than a certain arbitrary year he made up(2000 I think)
because "The graphics are ugly back then".
I tried to tell him that by doing so he was limiting his selection of games and cutting away many great titles of the past....But why listen to me...I'm only a guy who grew up on an NES(when the N64 was out) and knows a lot about classic games and how much fun they can be....so many fond memories of Super Mario Bros. 3

 

[fates_puppet13]

3 words : half life 2
another 3 words : silent hill 2
and also to keep topical : minecraft

half life 2 is a wonderfully plot driven game (unless your 12 in which case you'de be lucky to premember franchise cash grab-o-matic halo 3)every time i play it i feel reinvigorated about life

silent hill 2 was also very plot driven and the early-ish ps2 graphics made everything creepy and unatural which is what you want in a horror game

the only people i know to have played minecraft and not enjoied it also didn't have any imagenation, its one of the few truly sandbox games out there

what do photorealistic games have?
crysis
heavy rain
and final fantasy 13


cysis is a very beautiful game to be sure, but its also very unfriendly and inaccessable i had to play it at a friends house and have a fairly lengthy tutorial in order to get the hang of it

heavy rain, well need i remind anyone right bumper to brush your teeth

and final fantasy 13, well...its the most boring and easiest game i've ever played
no challange, no sense of reward, no point in buying 13-2


in all honestly graphics rarely add much to games
and i hate it when they are used as a crutch
alough they do add none the less

 

[DannyHale09]

If people like a game based on the graphics then they have every right to criticise it based on that..
Just like I'm guessing you would criticise anyone that praises a game based on graphics..

 

[electronicgoat]

The old "don't judge a book by it's cover" sort of applies, except more in the sense that "you shouldn't judge a graphic novel by it's art". Presentation is everything, and after a while when games start settling in to more advanced graphics technology easier, we'll be able to see a more refined aesthetic and/or more realistic graphics for most games, even if that's not their main selling point.
On a side note, I never play Minecraft without a texture pack.

 

[Elfgore]

I can live with bad graphics. But with games like The Elder Scrolls or Halo where the ones a played first were the better looking and better concept. Playing Oblivion then playing Morrowind made me hate the game. The lack of actually words being said just line after line of text I had to read. And the oblivion graphics were really amazing for that time, and when I played Morrowind had to quit because of bad graphics.

 

[That One Six]

You know, if you look up a "Best Game Evar" list (super opinionated annoyances, in my opinion), a lot of the stuff on them is old and made with comparatively bad graphics. I can understand being a little put off by something that is ugly, but if it plays well and is fun, visuals shouldn't turn you away.

 

[Xanadu84]

Besides, countless people love Minecraft's aesthetic choices. They enjoy the creative freedom that comes from a less cluttered aestetic. The fact that so many people enjoy the style, well, that's a pretty undeniable argument against your position. Who are you to say that other people are wrong for liking a style?

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-popularity.html

Not the right way to argue your point boyo. And I never said anyone was wrong for liking Minecraft's graphics. I just said that they were bad. Who are you to say that I'm wrong for not liking them?

Appeal to popularity does not count when "Is enjoyed by a lot of people" is an excellent, complete goal in and of itself. In much the same way that you can't cry foul of Godwins Law when your talking about Germany in the early 40's. Games can do a lot of things, and one of those things, and a perfectly reasonable goal for a game, is that it is enjoyed. If a lot of people enjoy the aesthetic of Minecraft, and their play experience is significantly better because of that aesthetic, then the only argument you could possibly be making is that games should NOT be enjoyed. Should games abandon the goal of being enjoyed in favor of matching your personal tastes? If you're not arguing that, then you really don't have an argument to make. There Aestetic choices have been a resounding success, and one naysayer on the internet can go and find a texture pack.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Appeal to popularity does not count when "Is enjoyed by a lot of people" is an excellent, complete goal in and of itself. In much the same way that you can't cry foul of Godwins Law when your talking about Germany in the early 40's. Games can do a lot of things, and one of those things, and a perfectly reasonable goal for a game, is that it is enjoyed. If a lot of people enjoy the aesthetic of Minecraft, and their play experience is significantly better because of that aesthetic, then the only argument you could possibly be making is that games should NOT be enjoyed. Should games abandon the goal of being enjoyed in favor of matching your personal tastes? If you're not arguing that, then you really don't have an argument to make. There Aestetic choices have been a resounding success, and one naysayer on the internet can go and find a texture pack.

It does count, because by the same logic I could round up a whole host of people like the TC's friend who do not like Minecraft's graphics. What makes their opinion not count?

 

[pearcinator]

There is a limit you know...Minecraft's graphics are so bad they hurt my eyes.

When a games graphics hurt my eyes then those graphics are BAD!

 

[Xanadu84]

Appeal to popularity does not count when "Is enjoyed by a lot of people" is an excellent, complete goal in and of itself. In much the same way that you can't cry foul of Godwins Law when your talking about Germany in the early 40's. Games can do a lot of things, and one of those things, and a perfectly reasonable goal for a game, is that it is enjoyed. If a lot of people enjoy the aesthetic of Minecraft, and their play experience is significantly better because of that aesthetic, then the only argument you could possibly be making is that games should NOT be enjoyed. Should games abandon the goal of being enjoyed in favor of matching your personal tastes? If you're not arguing that, then you really don't have an argument to make. There Aestetic choices have been a resounding success, and one naysayer on the internet can go and find a texture pack.

It does count, because by the same logic I could round up a whole host of people like the TC's friend who do not like Minecraft's graphics. What makes their opinion not count?

So your saying that it is subjective, and by extension, arguing that it is a bad Aestetic doesn't make any sense.

A game does not need to please everyone. It just has to please a bunch. What game ever has appealed every last gamer in the world? The game was made with it's Aesthetic in mind as a conscious decision, and that decision was a resounding success with most of the people who play it. That is a success, a purposeful one, and the enjoyment of those people who like the aesthetic makes it a good aesthetic. For the minority who dislike it, there's texture packs to render dislike of the aesthetic irrelevant. And from the most objective standpoint you can take on something as subjective as game design, the Aestetic re-enforces the mechanics and dynamics of the game itself.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Appeal to popularity does not count when "Is enjoyed by a lot of people" is an excellent, complete goal in and of itself. In much the same way that you can't cry foul of Godwins Law when your talking about Germany in the early 40's. Games can do a lot of things, and one of those things, and a perfectly reasonable goal for a game, is that it is enjoyed. If a lot of people enjoy the aesthetic of Minecraft, and their play experience is significantly better because of that aesthetic, then the only argument you could possibly be making is that games should NOT be enjoyed. Should games abandon the goal of being enjoyed in favor of matching your personal tastes? If you're not arguing that, then you really don't have an argument to make. There Aestetic choices have been a resounding success, and one naysayer on the internet can go and find a texture pack.

It does count, because by the same logic I could round up a whole host of people like the TC's friend who do not like Minecraft's graphics. What makes their opinion not count?

So your saying that it is subjective, and by extension, arguing that it is a bad Aestetic doesn't make any sense.

A game does not need to please everyone. It just has to please a bunch. What game ever has appealed every last gamer in the world? The game was made with it's Aesthetic in mind as a conscious decision, and that decision was a resounding success with most of the people who play it. That is a success, a purposeful one, and the enjoyment of those people who like the aesthetic makes it a good aesthetic. For the minority who dislike it, there's texture packs to render dislike of the aesthetic irrelevant. And from the most objective standpoint you can take on something as subjective as game design, the Aestetic re-enforces the mechanics and dynamics of the game itself.

First of all, we aren't talking about Aesthetics. We are talking about graphics. They are two different things, and as far as I'm concerned Minecraft looks like something you should have to open with a DOS prompt. Aesthetic design decisions do not factor into my opinion in this regard. Second of all, we aren't talking about texture packs. We are talking about the game. If anything, that argument is tantamount to saying Notch is lazy, and his fans are doing better work than he is on his game. Also, where the heck do you get the idea that a "minority" dislike it? Have you polled every person who didn't buy Minecraft? Because I'm sure its a much larger number than those who did.

Second, once again, saying a lot of people like something doesn't make it good. Call of Duty is currently the highest grossing and highest played game in existence, possibly behind WoW. Does that mean they are the two best games ever made?

 

[Gladiateher]

It's fine, just fine. Some people need different things to tickle their fancy. Although it is funny that these guys probably don't realize how much better certain PC games look. In my opinion though graphics don't matter much.

 

[Dogstile]

For example, I stayed over a friend's house where he was having a group party. He started to play Minecraft

I think I see the problem.

It was clearly a terrible party. I mean, I could understand you guys playing a group game where you all played something (guitar hero or smash brothers or something) but a single player game?

What the hell?

And erm, to keep this on topic, ignore them for being idiots?

 

[Zantos]

I wouldn't judge a game entirely on graphics, but if I'm already not enjoying the game it will just be the final nail in the coffin. When I originally chose a 360 over PS3 people kept telling me I should go for PS3 for the graphics. I swaer now I have both, the fact I'm using an old TV makes the PS3 look worse.

Oh yeah, I was supposed to be making a point. Graphics are fairly important but not the be all and end all. They'll enhance a good game but won't do shit for a turd.

 

[Tragedy's Rebellion]

Controversial opinion follows:
I think photo realistic graphics actually HURT games than make them good. The developers spend 90% of their time on graphics (at least it seems like it) and the gameplay, content, aesthetics and actual inspiration get shoved aside and you get pus like Generic FPS No 43784234 with a campaign which lasts 15 minutes.

My favorite game of all time is Neverwinter Nights followed by Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment. Why? Because they actually have fun, interesting and engaging content and are very easy to mod, so the adventure can last forever.

About people criticizing a game based on graphics - I have a friend who didn't like NwN at first glance because of the graphics, but then I *persuaded* him to play multiplayer with me and we had a blast.