Debating Graphics and Aesthetics in Modern Games

So I am doing research on how it seems that graphics has become such a huge part of the gaming industry. More and more games seem to boast amazing graphics. Are graphics so important in games today? Are aesthetics important, since graphics falls into aesthetics? How has the industry formed around gamers' new standards?

I would hopefully like to see both sides of the argument, of course being respectful to those posting honest and related opinions or experience.

My personal belief is that we are quickly approaching the uncanny valley as far as graphics go. Developers keep pushing for more and more realistic visuals, and that is awesome for scenery, but when it comes to characters (especially human characters) there is this disconnect where they look almost real, but it is off-putting because it is creepy. A good example of this is the recent Mafia III ad; the details are incredible, but there is just something odd about when they talk or how their faces look.

I'm always going to favor art direction and creative visuals (or just fun visuals, i.e. cel shading) over realism and technical prowess, but that does not mean I don't appreciate the latter.

@ranger_of_steel: Graphics have always been a major part of the industry, especially with the dawn of the polygon. The difference now is that technical mastery is no longer going hand in hand with gaming creativity. Take the examples of games like MGS, Mario 64, Resi 4 and so on, which were both creative and pushing the boundaries of graphics at the time.

Now, the disconnect is between graphics and creativity. What we label as indy developers are starting to push the boundaries of creativity but do not produce AAA titles and their games mostly look like something I would have seen 25 years ago.

AAA titles have the graphics but are fear fewer in number on an annual basis and consist largely of risk free gaming, i.e. fps, sports and the odd RPG.

@mrbojangles25: Interesting, I never thought about the idea of graphics being so realistic that it is creepy. I can imagine now that VR is increasingly popular, a VR game with realistic graphics could be unsettling.

@soul_starter: I do enjoy seeing indie developers create games with the intention of creative gameplay first and foremost. Shovel Knight has fun mechanics, great music, and although is not graphically pleasing, it is aesthetically beautiful. Yooka Laylee seems to be the revival of an entire lost genre of video games.

I wonder if people just starting feeling like they were in this rut. There will always be a new sports game every year, and it may look slightly better and play slightly better, but it still feels too similar to the previous game. Indie games feel fresh and new, even though design wise they are a step backwards. What is also interesting is that back during the time of the NES graphics and aesthetics were closely linked. The sprites were as good as they could be for the machine and there were only so many colors to use, so developers were forced to be creative with their choices. Now a game like Shovel Knight is purely aesthetic design because we know higher graphically technology exists, but we still enjoy the game just as much.

I'm not thinking of the perfect way to explain all this but hopefully you get what I mean.

agreed. i remember seeing the graphical difference between my commodore 64 and the amiga for the first time and immediately begging my parents for one for xmas. then along came the snes with its fabled mode 7. seeing pilotwings in (admittedly rudimentary 3d, but not back then) for the first time was amazing, then came mario kart, star fox and of course street fighter 2 world warrior, which was practically arcade standard. back then devs were striving to get as close to arcade standard as possible, whereas now software and hardware have advanced so much most devs strive to get them as close to real life as possible.

i do think back then, when games were in their relative infancy, that it was a lot easier to be creative with the gameplay. it was a completely different market back then motivated by different factors and dominated by smaller independent studios not massive multinational conglomerates.

anyway, graphical boundaries are always being pushed and improvements are a big draw to gamers so graphics always have and will be massively influential to a game / system's success, providing gameplay is of a sufficient quality

I think we are approaching philosophy here, but...

..the reason it is thought to be creepy is that if your visuals are so realistic the person could be viewed as looking real, but they are missing that something that makes them real, it is creepy. Like looking at someone or somethign that does not have a soul. Like you see it talking to you but the eyes just don't emit anything human or soulful. There's not cartoonish disconnect there from lack of realism to assure you it is not real, so when you interact with them, you find yourself unsettled by presence of realism, but lack of soul.

Like those human robots some people are developing (pic below). They have realistic skin, makeup, facial features, eyes. Even their hair is real (cut from either human or animal hair). But when you really look at them, it is creepy because they lack a soul, and you expect one to be there.

*I use the word "soul" loosely, you can interpret it as "X factor" or "that certain something" or what the French call "I-don't-know-what" lol

@mrbojangles25: I feel like philosophy is a must when you talk about stuff like this.

Hell maybe it isn't that creations like the human robots lack soul, maybe it is the fact that their soul is "manufactured." The way other people can almost create a seemingly real person is a bit scary.

I was looking at some more philosophical stuff about visuals and came across this experiment: http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1180000/1178849/a22-el-nasr.pdf?ip=130.127.84.253&id=1178849&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&key=A79D83B43E50B5B8%2EEB6DCC30042720A5%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35&CFID=844237151&CFTOKEN=92955151&__acm__=1475002194_f1612180b8a60ee76e264fecde9b99f2

It basically talks about how visual ques such as color can catch our attention and lead us into the right or wrong path. It also says that less obvious ques, like the bright wall used in their example, can be missed because of human instinct to try logical possibilities, like a door or a window.

There is also some interesting info on how the goal of the game can affect the entire way we view the experience. In fps games, our attention is generally focused on the middle of the screen, while adventure games our eyes wander and view the scenery.

It's really cool because it shows that graphics or aesthetics can be used as a mental guide and replace the use of actual narration when used correctly.

I understand but that's beside the point I was making. What I'm saying is that when gaming was at it's peak, great gameplay, creativity and graphical excellence were all part of the same package. Now there are compromises and lazy AAA titles, not to mention decreased numbers.

In terms of indy games, I do enjoy them but let's be honest, they are a genuine step back in almost every case and if I wanted to play a 2D platformer, I'd go back to the original days of Mario rather than playing a Mario clone, or what developers would label as "Mario inspired". that's not to say these are bad games, I enjoy quite a lot of them but they do not advance the industry in the 3 key aspects: gameplay, creativity and graphics. One occurs at the expense of the other.

It's like if movie makers went back to silent, black and white films in opposition to the over indulgence of modern day blockbusters.

Agreed, especially with the middle paragraph.

Game developers are making products that cost tens of millions of dollars so the margin for risk is too high if they decide to be too left wing. If modern market trends are moving away from platformers, then we won't and sadly don't see AAA platforming games readily available.

My biggest issue with modern gaming isn't just the lack of variety in AAA titles but the mass decrease in numbers. The current gen has been around for 3 years or so I think and I could probably count AAA releases on both hands.

I feel like graphics have been very important during the SNES when sprite started to be really good and on the jump to 3D with PSOne/N64/Saturn it became very important ... but I still feel it became an obsession once Xbox came in and opened the door wide open to PC game on consol... prior to that PC and consol had vastly different games now we share them so it became a battle of graphics since we all play the same turd

@Macutchi: back then ... consol game had vastly different controlers for each consol and each gen it was different ... it helps with creativity ...

Since the Xbox came along ... Playstation is on its 4th gen of the same controler, Xbox on its 3rd gen with the same controler ... and PC never changed ... it is hard to create something really new when the interface is always the same.

@Coco_pierrot: it helps but its not integral. and the way we play pc games has evolved considerably throughout the years. gaming mice, gaming keyboards, joysticks, controllers etc. so you're expecting vr to bring about a new era of creativity with it being a new means of controlling games? plus with the potential for a new kind of graphical immersion?

I've been wondering the same thing. How games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim can get so much love, but yet they lost something original which made the earlier versions so successful. I actually loved Fallout 1 graphics it had a claymation look to it because they rendered actual 3d models into 2d sprites. Fallout 4 is pretty, but fallout 1 is real and gritty. The voice acting was good because it had to be. I think maybe out of necessity games had to stand out and offer something special, now not so much.

@Macutchi: I don't think VR will bring that much new ... I mean so far they are all first person view games ... so they all have that FPS kinda feel ... or they are scary games ! I can see racing games using it but it won't revolutionized the racing games, nor the FPS game, it sure did good to scary/horror ... RPG well maybe it will be more immersive for Bethesda but a Final Fantasy type will feel wierd.

I fear VR will transform everything into a first person view ... many games are cool as 3rd person or the spectator view like it is the case in RTS and many old school JRPG.

As for the controlers on PC ... it always been keybord/mouse combo and now they also use the same controler consol game are used to for at least 3 gen ...