Bored Druid Thread: The Next GenerationFollow

Not to mention the more detailed something is, the more data that has to be transmitted over interwebs. At least I had been told this was a limiting factor in graphics in MMOs to some degree.

I think it;s mostly just that realistic graphics just don't stand the test of time. Name me a realistic looking game that's 6 or 7 years old that still looks good, cause that's what an MMO will have to go through, at least.

WoW didn't look particularly good but because of the unrealistic graphics it's easier to accept things like shoulder armor going through heads and sorta flaky graphics. It's still not pretty but it's not game ruining. Yet with a "realistic" looking game all that is twice as annoying and there's a million more tiny flaws that will bother you.

Wasn't Crysis at a point where few people could play it because the system requirements were so high? Also, when you get to looking at people they look sort of awkward already.

Yeah, I remember just getting it PLAYABLE meant you had a ridiculously solid gaming rig, lol.

For reference, Burning Crusade was 2007. LOTRO: Shadows of Angmar. Pirates of the Burning Sea is the only MMO I've heard of that isn't an expansion that year, and I have no clue what the graphics are like.

But for context, ES: Oblivion was 2006, and that had really solid graphics for the time.

Oh, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was 2007, and that's a beautiful game, but it was also the first to really use the PS3 (being exclusive to it). But, of course, consoles are a different beast.

Thing is, you can release a game like Crysis, that will only really appeal to people with really solid rigs (or at least, something less extreme than Crysis). But that probably won't work for an MMO, where you need an established population of players.

Honestly, even with its weaknesses, FFXIV probably would have done WAY better the first time around if it wasn't so demanding on the PCs, and was available on the PS3 at the time.

I think the debate about whether or not graphics will jump to the same degree over the next 6-7 years would be an interesting one.

But totally agree with you. Making a game with a long-term subscription model, and then having its major selling point be good graphics is an incredibly stupid idea.

A lot of Crysis's awesome graphics came not from individual things being beautiful, but how well they made the world look as a whole. A lot of texture effects, a lot of little details on things like trees, etc. It was a lot of rigs to handle at the time (I remember a Game Informer joke about NASA finally approaching max graphics settings on Crysis in 2009). It also wasn't optimized very well, so things ran pretty badly even when an "equal level" game would run much smoother.



WoW made a lot of very good decisions in development, such as a less realistic style that lasted them 10+ years before having to redo the Vanilla models. It still surprises me now and again just how well thought out the game was for the long run, even from the very beginning. It was made to last, which is something I don't see in a lot of the newer MMOs.

You guys are right, though, as graphics become closer and closer to real life, or "perfect," I believe that companies are going to return to more stylized depictions in order to stand out of the crowd. Nintendo has already been doing this for a long time now, choosing to focus on economy and style over system power, and it's worked out well for them mostly.

WoW looked so good because they cut a lot of corners to make the game playable on what amounted to a toaster in 2004.

I remember stumbling upon this article which I found extremely interesting. Some of those cut corners are things like your character's legs not showing when you wear a robe because the game saves resources by not rendering anything that isn't directly shown. You don't see the legs when your character is swimming in a robe because it's either always have legs or never do, and it's too taxing to lower end systems to always have legs.

As someone getting his degree in Computer Science, the little tricks and shortcuts they pull to get WoW looking as good as it does on as many systems as it can is mind blowing.

That's pretty cool.

So many of the upgrading problems just became really apparent reading that. Why it's so much work to redo things, make new character models, armor models, etc. I've always guessed/suspected/had it explained to me that there's a lot of baggage with the way the game was setup originally that made it difficult to make some kinds of improvements people want these days. Getting a little window into the game like that, much of what they did makes so much more sense now, including the limitations.

Edited, Jan 30th 2014 2:16pm by someproteinguy

I know, right?

I'm guessing we can't say ****. Which seems lame. It's not filtered or anything.

When was the last time anyone actually got a real thread locked in WoW general anyway?

Was fun while it lasted at least.

Psh, tie rips and duct tape or gtfo

If I thought we were so close to a lock, I would have stepped my game up. What's the fun of a lock if you don't also get yelled at by an admin?

Such a shame...

[EDIT]

The fact that nearly all of my posting happens in either here, or occasionally the Asylum, doesn't help. I no longer have a realistic understanding of what's normal or acceptable.

The only other places I tend to post is the general games forum, where the discussions are naturally tame, or in OOT ding threads, where it's tame-ish and you have more leeway.

Edited, Jan 31st 2014 9:26am by idiggory

This.

I'm not surprised, the thread had gone from the original topic, to something else that was still game-related, to people arguing whether or not men are jerks and someone karma-bombing the thread. Pretty far afield for a gaming forum. The next step was personal attacks, which, while entertaining, probably isn't where they wanted it to go.