What's the Importance of Graphics In Video Games?

An anonymous reader writes "I develop games as a hobby. I've experimented with games on almost every platform available. For me, the gameplay is the most influential factor of a game, with history and graphics dividing second place. But, for some reason, it's not the technical beauty of the graphics that appeal to me. I have played Crysis, and I've played Pokémon games. The graphics of the Pokémon games entertain me as much as the graphics of Crysis. I think both are beautiful. So, why is the current generation of games giving so much importance to the realism in graphic games? I think it is sufficient for a game to have objects that are recognizable. For example, while the water in some games may not look as good as in Crysis, I can still tell it's water. What are your opinions on the current direction of game graphics? Do you prefer easy-to-render 3D scenes that leave space for beautiful effects, like with Radiosity, or more complex 3D scenes that try to be realistic?"

Comments

Re:A good combination of a storyline and graphics.

[Tet]

Storyline? What are you smoking? Who gives a shit about the back story? Did Doom succeed because people cared about what Union Aerospace were doing on Mars, or because the gameplay was out of this world? I know where my money would be. Where's the storyline in Tetris? Yet somehow that was mindblowingly successful. Ultimately, it's all about gameplay. Nothing else matters.