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"You Will Cry In Front Of Your Game"
by Chris Remo, Aug 19, 2005 1:35pm PDTA Reuters article claims that console makers are aiming to broaden the appeal of gaming to untapped demographics through use of next-generation fancy graphics.
At Europe's biggest computer-games fair, games companies said on Thursday they hoped the new consoles, which are capable of more lifelike representation, would lure players currently turned off by characters they consider cartoon-like. "It will be a quantum leap in terms of graphics, in terms of the emotions you can experience," said Gerhard Florin, European head of Electronic Arts, the world's biggest video games publisher. "You will cry in front of your game."Is next-gen visual realism really the missing link that has been keeping non-gamers away? It seems a shaky proposition at best. With video game costs raising into the tens of millions and retail game prices reported to climb higher in the next-generation, publishers clearly need the biggest audience they can get. Raising graphical potential is certainly the easiest and most obvious way to "improve" games, but will it actually provide an experience so much better that it will entice the rest of the world to join the gaming masses?
Comments
It wasn't for the graphics, and it wasn't for the special effects. It was because I just got done being told a great story. A great story in 16-Bits. I could care less what the characters looked like. Some of the most intense gaming experiences I've ever had were in the full glory of ASCII. Good ole' mudding. Shaking at the keyboard before a large quest battle... Silly? Maybe, but few games have done that to me.
It's comments like these that make me lament for the days of sprites and technical limitation. Seems like they had a better grip on fun and story telling then, and less a grip on cashing in.
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