Discussion Inverse relationship between graphics and game quality

Discussion in 'Gaming Discussion' started by jacobpaige, Mar 16, 2021.

  1. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    Anyone else feel like there is one lately? I look at all these super pretty, hyper-realistic AAA titles, and their extremely boring gameplay/story, and then all the indie titles with their retro aesthetics and fun/engaging gameplay/stories and it just makes me wonder if this is a general trend in the industry, or if I'm just imagining things.

    A good example within the AAA side of the industry might be Dragon Age. The first one was the worst graphically, but the best in terms of my actual enjoyment of it. The third was the best graphically, but was so boring I hardly remember having played it, and can't for the life of me remember if I beat it. The second was middling in both regards, with my hatred of the only healer in the game being the only real standout memory for me.
     
  2. Zeusomega

    Zeusomega M.D of Olympus Pvt Ltd. Seeking [Boltzmann brain]

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    Cause most AAA games have corporate sharks who care more about cost producing, delaying, then letting some script writer have time to write a depth plot..


    And I say mostly, cause there are big companies who depend on quality sales, so they tend not to slack in any aspect.. These are the ones at the edge of gaming R&D..
     
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  3. Elementarteilchen

    Elementarteilchen Well-Known Member

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    Yes and it isn't just lately. The developers focus their ressources on graphics, because it is the best characteristic you could show in an advertisment. You can't show good gameplay or story as easily as graphics.

    #marketing
     
  4. PotatoZero

    PotatoZero Well-known Potato

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    Lately? It's been for a long time
     
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  5. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    I can still remember a time when AAA studios put out quality games far more often than not. Though, yeah, I've not been well enough off to buy games en masse in a long time, so its possible that this slide into dumpster has been going on for a while now and I just didn't notice.
     
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  6. pass1478

    pass1478 I'm in Despair!

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    Design, graphics, and all those surface level things are easily noticable and are more enticing than storyline, depth, and other more "hidden" aspects of a game that can't be seen instantly.

    As for why Indie developers focus more on story as compared to AAA games, I'd say it's because they're not like big time companies where they can sink time and money into graphics and all those more technical stuff, so they make up for it with depth.
     
  7. Fishy_MC_FishMan

    Fishy_MC_FishMan The Fishiest of Fishes

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    I kind of wish AAA game companies would do both. If the good story stuff isn't expensive then why not do it too?
     
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  8. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    I wouldn't say that its not expensive. Time is money. And even disregarding that, there's real costs associated with re-writing or otherwise reworking cutscenes or lines of dialogue. The better the technical quality, the more expensive it becomes to change things. With indie games, the costs of these reworks are much lower, and the timelines they're working with are generally much looser if they're not having financial problems for some reason.

    That said, there's always going to be a ton of changes during the development process. Its just a matter of which changes do you prioritize. For AAA, its most often the look of the game and anything that will make it more generic and "less risky," while for indies, its whatever will make the game better in the dev's mind(s). Or at least, that's what it feels like based on the results.
     
  9. Fishy_MC_FishMan

    Fishy_MC_FishMan The Fishiest of Fishes

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    If re-writing/re-working is too expensive then maybe they should write the whole thing out in detail before they get started with the technical part. If that doesn't work then maybe they can just buy an indie game with a proven good plot (and gameplay), and then remake it exactly with much better graphics.

    Anyways, if whole indie games with good stories can get developed at a fraction of the price of AAA games, then AAA's inability to make good stories anymore makes me think that there might be something really wrong with the industry. Maybe they are trying too hard to be "less risky".
     
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  10. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    Honestly, I think the bigger problem is that the people in charge simply don't care if they make a good game. They just want something that will sell microtransactions and get good Metacritic scores to drive game sales and the aforementioned microtransactions. That is to say, they want whatever will make them the most money in the short term, while driving up the stock prices.
     
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  11. asriu

    asriu fu~ fu~ fu~

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    been long time
    even this cat favourite franchise suffer from it, Ace Combat : Dancing With The Angel... after bombarded by fans AC: 7 is good

    btw it seem newer or at least those younger generation this cat know seem really brag about graphic~

    for AAA game company there scandal or bad rumour here and there no? sure this cat not active on game, still like to see gossip time to time~

    JRPG seem on fan service route, da gameplay and story still there tho

    anyway this cat think it start from online game, then when Steam popularity raise DLC system pop up, mobile games~
     
  12. jacobpaige

    jacobpaige Well-Known Member

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    Sadly, JRPGs are crap compared to what they used to be. The stories are a generic rehashing of the same tired stories that have been reused since the inception of the genre, the characters keep getting shallower and more vapid, and more and more of the features keep getting stripped out to be sold separately as microtransactions and other forms of DLC. There's no creativity, originality, or care for quality left in the majority of the genre.
     
  13. asriu

    asriu fu~ fu~ fu~

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    fan service route lol
    wait it will get worse cuz PlayStation and Xbox kinda on way no exclusive game, leaving Nintendo on it own legacy of exclusive game of Mario and Legend of Zelda franchise
    every big names may affected by dlc stuff cuz dlc on bad sense kinda just give developer excuse to, missing contents? we will patch it on new dlc~

    da industry on general getting faster on release while sacrifice other aspect~
    instant noodle effect~
    too much of instant noodles is bad~
     
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  14. phobos

    phobos Well-Known Member

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    going that way since years

    Farcry/Crytek anyone ? graphics to make you state of the art hardware bleed, gameplay to make you bleed ...
    Watchdogs ? forget the gameplay but they couldnt even do the graphics they promised/shown before
    on the other hand you had games like gothic/might&magic etc that never looked that great but had gameplay or a story to pull you in

    i guess we rather forget some generic 4h gfx firework than a 200h great story/journey
     
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  15. LivingCorpse

    LivingCorpse Half-dead Neighborhood's Undead

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    Haha, I only ever bought Portable console games like Gameboy, NDS, and PS Vita so I don't have to worry about good graphic but shitty gameplay!
    There's only shitty graphic with good gameplay and shitty graphic with shitty gameplay.

    To rest of games I play is either Pirated or bought at steam during sale. I don't buy AAA games on steam since I usually just play a bit, forgot and never bother to play again. It's a waste and most AAA games are pretty expensive.
     
  16. userunfriendly

    userunfriendly A Wild Userunfriendly Appears!

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    So, who still plays Master of Magic and Master of Orion 3? :D/
     
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  17. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    Mmmmmmm, I wouldn't say the quality of the graphics is directly related to bad gameplay, like uhn... FFXIII had fantastic graphics and an amazing storyline and a super fun gameplay as well for one.

    Other big company titles like Dark Souls have pretty good graphics and a pretty engaging gameplay as well.

    Oh, and stuff like Devil May Cry 5 was also really fun, and it's definitely the game with the best graphics of the series.

    So uhn... I wouldn't really say the large focus on graphics is really killing the quality of the games... I think it's more of a testament to the current state of the game industry than anything.

    Like, Dragon Age Origins is definitely and without a doubt the best game of the series... Why? Because it's a strategy RPG that was made to be one and was solidly built for that.
    Dragon Age II OTOH was a rushed game made to be more of a mix of action and strategy... Considering how rushed the game was, I think the game was well-done, but it was seriously lacking.
    Dragon Age Inquisition, however... That was an online-only, multiplayer-only game that had the Dragon Age Title, storyline, single-player gameplay, and a bunch of other things just shoved into a game that wasn't even supposed to support it in the first place. They also tried to focus on an open world aspect and in a mostly action-related gameplay that had very little to do with a strategy RPG.

    ... Did the quality of the Dragon Age franchise fall as the new games were released? Absolutely. Was it because of the graphics? No. It was because of crazy schedules and nonsensical demands from the higher ups to make a game be what it was not supposed to be.


    So uhn... Really, I think you're making an argument that doesn't really stand on its own... AAA games can still be amazing and super engaging... They just need to be properly made and not go through a development hell that ruins the experience the devs tried to create.

    And like, sure, there is a plethora of good indie games out there that we love, even though they have much simpler graphics and a much smaller budget... And then there is also Mighty Number 9. Not to mention the numerous garbage-tier indie games you never heard of because of how terrible they are and how they pretty much never show up in any steam recommended list whatsoever because they're just horrible.

    I think you're just looking at the worst AAA games and the best indie games... That will surely create a false impression. There are good AAA games and there are good indie games as well, you just need to know where to look~
     
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  18. Joospinch

    Joospinch Don't click my avatar!!!

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    What are the good AAA games? Im looking for a new game to play
     
  19. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    I... Mentioned some in the post just above?

    If I had to mention more... Uhn... I dunno, I honestly am kinda poor, so I mostly play old pirated stuff and super cheap indie stuff...

    Some recentish games that come to mind that I found okay were Fallout 4 and Mass Effect Andromeda (surprisingly, the game was pretty passable after all the bug-fix patches, though it was obviously horrible at launch), but neither is particularly incredible either.

    I am also playing a game called Nioh 2, I think it's from the same company that made Ninja Gaiden... I dunno if it counts as AAA or not tbh, but it uses a similar system to Dark Souls and is super fun to me~
    ... I didn't like the 1st one too much though, so I'd recommend skipping directly to the 2nd one. Their stories aren't connected anyways, so you don't lose anything.
     
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  20. unlucky

    unlucky Well-Known Member

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    To capitalize on what AliceShiki said, The companies that make AAA games don't want innovation, they want safety. which is why they go for the generic tried and tested formula they and their customers are familiar with. The graphics are just for the marketing, to make the consumers feel like they need to buy it.

    I also kinda disagree with the point that indies are in any way better than AAA, some of them are close to masterpieces I can't argue with that. But for every good game, you have many asset flips and generic uncreative takes on genres that have already been done to death.

    The reason it might feel that the AAA scene is worse than the indie scene is ironically their marketing. if you follow gaming news in any capacity you are bound to hear about the new CoD or Fifa while a bad indie game will die in the crib because indies live or die by word of mouth.

    If you like turn based RPGs, consider trying Divinity Original Sin 2. it might not be AAA in definition but in its quality it is far better than most AAA games could ever hope to be, disclaimer I am a fan so my opinion is obviously biased. :blobtongue: