Are video games’ expectations too high?
By Gage Allen
2/29/2016, 2:30 a.m.
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It’s a common thing we see in today’s day and age. Someone we know or someone we see on the web complains how [Enter Video Game Title Here] doesn’t have good graphics, gameplay, writing, etc. In other words, people complain the game isn’t perfect. It’s shocking how people are actually complaining that something isn’t perfect. I’ve been in the game industry for several years, and I am still amazed at the simplest things games can pull off. Yet I don’t quite see why gamers decide to hold games to such impossible expectations.
Fallout 4 is the most recent example of this trend. The one thing everyone complained about was the graphical element of the game not being up to par with the industry itself. Since when are games with enormous worlds, hundreds of hours of gameplay, heart-wrenching stories, and unbelievably addictive crafting systems, considered non-essential to the fact the game doesn’t have 10K textures while running at 750 frames-per-second?
Now, maybe I’m just a bit biased because I have been involved in the making of games with the writing, cinematic, and level design aspect of the process, but it’s frankly ridiculous how many gamers today chose to shoot down years of work from passionate developers because the game didn’t come with a holographic simulation of the world. Nothing is perfect. You aren’t perfect, I’m not perfect, and you can bet your ass no game is perfect. So why the unfair standard?
In reality, it all comes down to the incredibly large paradigm shift that occurred between the Playstation 2 and Xbox consoles to the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. It was during this time “high definition” was taking strides in the entertainment world. Games had been stuck in standard definition of 4:3. The release of the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 completely changed the detail and quality level of video games forever.
You not only had a change from standard definition to high definition, but you had incredibly powerful hardware released at the same time. It wowed everyone who laid eyes on the new games that were released on these once-powerful consoles. Hype and anticipation over the years made everyone assume the next console generation would have the same jump in graphical and visual fidelity. The problem is, that in-your-face graphical change never happened since we haven’t moved up to 4K gaming as a wide standard. Sure, things looked amazing, but it was more subtle than many people realized.
What this generation of video games is offering is not graphics, but detail. Small details that seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things. These details are actually imperative at painting the realism of a world. For those of us who played through the NES generation of games, details weren’t all that important since we just filled them in with our imagination. Now? Everything has detail, and to an unbelievable degree.
Sure, you may not be able to count the individual atoms of a grass stem, but you can see the beads of sweat on an NPC working on their crops, or you notice the world around you changing based on your decisions, down to the expressions others have as you walk by them. It is the leap that we have been waiting for, and is as substantial as the previous generation of change, it’s just not as noticeable.
Why would you be happy about something that isn’t very noticeable? Because, in the end, all the small details add up to a more believable experience that can submerge you into the story, characters, and world of the video game. That’s why the games that are coming out today are incredible, because they can add so much more detail in many of the areas that had been ignored throughout the years.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you how you should judge a game. Entertainment is subjective. No one is factually right or wrong. It’s all up to your opinion. My point is you shouldn’t hold games to impossible standards just because you want photo realistic graphics. Video games today are not at that point, and they won’t be for some time because developers are too busy trying to add the details that matter in the worlds they build. Why? To immerse you. To make you care about their universe, their characters, and their story. Because in the end, one of the most powerful things we can do as human beings is captivate another person through storytelling.