Some Questions for the Community
First off, it’s a been a long time since I’ve been active here xD Forgive my absence, I’ve been working on perfecting my skills and some really large projects that may finally release sometime within the next several months! Here’s a quick preview:
As you can tell, the past several months for me have been about improving my games in terms of graphics and visuals/effects. I’ve learned that detailed worlds take hours and hours of hard work detailing even the smallest, unseen items. And I’ve learned tricks to work around modeling every item, such as repetition and implication. However, I’m not here to talk about my new game, I’m here to ponder why the gaming community has changed, specifically within the past year.
Improving the graphics in my own game made me think…
Why are people so obsessed with graphics?
E3 2015 just ended, and all I heard about the smaller games was “What??? This is 2015, games should look better!!” I’ve seen hundreds upon hundreds of comments about Fallout 4 and how it looks “bad” or “I’m not getting this because it’s no better than Skyrim.” Now whether you think Fallout 4 looks bad or not, the point here is why care? When Minecraft was released did people bash it for its graphics? No, because the focus was on gameplay and innovative mechanics. There was also a stylistic decision to the 32-bit look.
When I play a game, for example Shadow of Mordor, I don’t play to watch stunning visuals. Sure, it’s awesome to have something that’s nice to look at, and the particle effects make gameplay more satisfying, but in the end… I play to unlock more upgrades. Or I play to advance the story. Or I play to see all the unique bosses generated. Some developers have claimed that graphics pull in the audience, and mechanics keep them there.
But why has it become a competition? Why are downgrades and optimizations and particle counts making/breaking the game for some people? Why does it matter what resolution your shadows are or how many polygons your characters have? I’ve always gone by the rule that the graphics in your game should fit your game. But I’m seeing people that hate Watch Dogs because the shadow quality was lowered for the final release. And I just don’t understand why.
Why do Resolutions/Framerates/Specs matter?
Yes, I’d much rather play a game at 60fps. Yes, I’d much rather play a game at 1080p. But why is it causing people to cancel pre-orders? Fallout 4 was just announced to be 30fps on consoles. Can you guess the comments? “Unacceptable for a 2015 game!” “Bethesda sucks! These are current gen consoles!”
People don’t seem to want to accept any framerate lower than 60 for anything, even if it means not playing one of the most anticipated games of the year. And I don’t understand why it matters in the slightest. As someone who grew up with games running in a 400×600 window, I can get immersed in any decently made game, no matter the resolution or framerate. I played Mount and Blade with a constant 23fps in 400×600 stretched fullscreen just a year ago, and it’s still my favorite multiplayer game of all time.
What is it about gamers these days that they won’t accept lower specs? It’s not even that they care about the gameplay or mechanics… they just care about the graphics and the “hours of gameplay”. They want something that looks good and lasts a long time with “new content”. Maybe it’s just because I’m a developer, and this is hate towards developers… Or maybe I’m not as spoiled as some of the gamers out there nowadays. But to me everyone seems to be angry.
Why do Gamers hold Grudges against Companies?
Finally, I’d like to address Ubisoft. Literally everyone hates Ubisoft. Why? I have no clue.
They’re mad at the Watch Dogs downgrade. They’re mad at the quality of Assassin’s Creed Unity. They’re mad at the glitches in Assassin’s Creed Unity. They’re mad at the length of the South Park game. They’re mad at… what exactly?
Sure, none of the items above are good. But they were things expected of a company like this. Companies are not evil, they’re not out to get you, they just want money. And they’re going to take action to make the most money no matter what, so why is everyone upset when they do something like this? Konami confirmed microtransactions in Metal Gear Solid 5. Suddenly people are canceling pre-orders and shouting at them to stop being greedy. Really? Optional payment to get stuff faster is bad? Might I stress “Optional”??? You’re going to not buy a game because somewhere in the code is a “pay” button?
What do you think?
These are just my OPINIONS so please don’t judge me for my OPINIONS thank you ^-^. But honestly, is it just because I’m a developer that I’m siding with developers here? Or am I simply not in the AAA industry so I don’t expect AAA quality? What is making gamers nowadays so focused on graphics? Why are they so spoiled?
It seems like I just woke up today and everybody was angry at people in my profession. Or maybe they’re angry at publishers. Either way, there’s nothing good in the comments anymore, just hate. Hate and strong opinions. I’d love to know what you guys think! (P.S. I don’t know everything about these incidents, so I may be wrong about the opinions of some players)
And soon I will start posting more about my upcoming game 
Thanks for reading!
Tags: community, motivation, progress, questions, screenshot, update
