April 15, 2009

The Graphics Obsession
By Michael Lafferty

We can blame our ancestors for our penchant to take looks over substance

Over the years, video cards have flowed through the various gaming machines within the household. For the most part, it was necessitated by the failure of the existing card, though on rare occasions, years ago, it was just the drive to upgrade and see games as they should be seen.

Recently a pretty good card failed after 2 ½ short years and that meant time for another card. Since the card being replaced was a special order, because of the age (yes, technology does move rapidly), it was time to step up. Taking into account the motherboard specs, RAM and such, the right card was chosen for the system. Ok, one thing was NOT taken into account, and that was the monitor (which needs to be upgraded a bit to show off the shiny new graphics power).

What is this bit of personal info leading to? Well, it has to do with our obsession with graphics within a game. Nothing so immediately grabs the attention of a gamer than the graphics. It is the first impression that can often make or break the experience for some. Why? Because we are a visually oriented society that puts a premium on how things look. We are flooded with commercials on television full of pretty people hawking products that improve looks. Movies tend to compensate for lack of original story lines with dynamic special effects or computer-generated imagery.

Sports titles benefit from not needing a story while offering some tasty graphics.

And we’ve even seen games that sure looked good, but when you get right down to it, there was little substance there.

Who is to blame for this obsession? It would be nice to be able to point a finger at someone and say they did it, but the truth of the matter is that this was fostered centuries ago and reinforced with each passing generation. We’ve bought into it hook, line and glitter.

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars released on NDS, and while graphically a bit dated, the story still sparkled.

And now we continue to pay the price. This is not to say there are not some very good games out there that pay more attention to story than to graphics. There are, and when given the chance, they succeed based on the merit of their stories. Still, as a society, we have a ways to go.

Gamers might actually be the ones to lead the charge, but then again, maybe not. Maybe you need to ask yourself a simple question – what is more important: graphics or the story being told?

Granted, there are some games (like sports titles) that really don’t follow a storyline, but a well-told tale is like a good book – it will draw you back time and again. And what developer does not want a measure of replayability within their game?

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