Do you play games for their story, graphics or ethical values?

[youdojo]

Many people say Lara Croft is "the sexiest female video game character" (see below 1) but do the characters "visual features" make people want to buy the game?

Most gamers will argue that a good game is a game that has believable characters, immersive plot line and other things along those lines but clearly not all games are like this (from my opinion, most of the CoDs.

There have been controversies in the past due to ethical reasons such as most recent Watch_Dogs Protagonist "Aiden Pierce" is a very stereotypical male video game protagonist (see below 2). But the question that I am asking is what really matters to you? What games are you looking forward to this year? Why? Do any of them have a ethnic (video game) minority as a leading role? Or do you not really care?

These questions I have always wondered about and want to know the opinion of other gamers such as myself.

1) This one is out of 50

2) Stereotypical male protagonist (note, I understand not all protagonists look like this, however the similarities are very strong between the 18 examples)

For more debates and such visit me here:

Raptr

Steam

[JimboUK]

A characters visual features certainly do help sell a game in exactly the same way they help sell a movie or TV show, they won't make a bad game good though. The rest of it sounds like liberal twaddle to me, there's nothing unethical about a male protagonist and nothing special about an ethnic minority one, as with real people you should judge characters on merit, not their genitalia or skin colour.

[WursWaldo]

Story is #1 on my list, followed by graphics and game play mechanics. The story must be well written and make sense. The game must look nice for the engine it uses. Everything must work; no excuse for it not to. Epic fail on all of those for Bethesda and FO4, but that is nothing new from that company.

 

When I completed TW3 I was sad to see the pop up message telling me the story was done. I was very involved and there were a few moments where I got emotional. When a game can do that you know the story is good and you're involved with the characters. There was one point where Geralt wanted to cry (no spoiler) and he couldn't. I cried for him, that's how moving the game was for me.

 

Aside from the story the game was beautifully rendered. I did have a few game play issues but they weren't anything I didn't expect from an open world rpg the size of TW3. Witcher3 has everything I need in a game and there was not one time when I thought to myself, "A mod needs to fix this."

Edited December 18, 2015 by WursWaldo

[Aurielius]

I remember playing dos games back when the graphics were primitive and required a real suspension of disbelief to be immersive but the plots were very good. The mantra back then was when graphical capabilities improved games would be far better. Well graphics and visuals have improved but the plots took a nose dive, so when on the rare occasion a game has a good well thought out plot it is a definite plus towards purchase, far more than a few visual bells and whistles. The sad part is that good involving plots are few and far between with a few notable exceptions which stand out from the repetitive dross that is the usual fare from developers.

[dpgillam]

I agree with Auirelius. If graphics were really the driver people claim they are, why is FF7, at 20 years old (and showing it) out-selling FF 13 and whatevers come out since.

 

Granted, it depends on the genre of the game. For a racing or fighter game, there is no story, so of course graphics become significantly more important.

 

As far as all that SJW bullsh!t, if you have so little to do with your time, and your life is so meaningless, and your skin is so thin, that you're reduced to trying to make video games "politically correct", then you are an utter failure as a human being, and therefor do not matter.

[JimboUK]

Graphics matter greatly to people, if they didn't people wouldn't spend hundreds on hardware capable of running everything at max settings. Good graphics improve the experience, they won't make a bad game good but they will make a good game better in much the same way Blu-Ray improves on VHS when it comes to movies.

[Aurielius]

Graphics matter greatly to people, if they didn't people wouldn't spend hundreds on hardware capable of running everything at max settings. Good graphics improve the experience, they won't make a bad game good but they will make a good game better in much the same way Blu-Ray improves on VHS when it comes to movies.

I would posit that the continual advance of Direct X has been more of the motivator towards upgrading graphics hardware than a desire to stay current. Games began to require a DX version that older video cards were not capable of utilizing...so it was upgrade or take a pass..that's hardly elective buying ..more like blackmail.

My rule of thumb for a hardware upgrades is simple..if there is something I'm dying to play that requires more than what I have under the hood..then I buy what is necessary to get the experience I desire.

[JimboUK]

 

Graphics matter greatly to people, if they didn't people wouldn't spend hundreds on hardware capable of running everything at max settings. Good graphics improve the experience, they won't make a bad game good but they will make a good game better in much the same way Blu-Ray improves on VHS when it comes to movies.

I would posit that the continual advance of Direct X has been more of the motivator towards upgrading graphics hardware than a desire to stay current. Games began to require a DX version that older video cards were not capable of utilizing...so it was upgrade or take a pass..that's hardly elective buying ..more like blackmail.

My rule of thumb for a hardware upgrades is simple..if there is something I'm dying to play that requires more than what I have under the hood..then I buy what is necessary to get the experience I desire.

 

 

Direct X barely advances, Direct X 9 was being used for over a decade and some titles still use it. Players could just lower their settings, it's amazing how many don't and choose to upgrade instead.

[HeyYou]

 

 

Graphics matter greatly to people, if they didn't people wouldn't spend hundreds on hardware capable of running everything at max settings. Good graphics improve the experience, they won't make a bad game good but they will make a good game better in much the same way Blu-Ray improves on VHS when it comes to movies.

I would posit that the continual advance of Direct X has been more of the motivator towards upgrading graphics hardware than a desire to stay current. Games began to require a DX version that older video cards were not capable of utilizing...so it was upgrade or take a pass..that's hardly elective buying ..more like blackmail.

My rule of thumb for a hardware upgrades is simple..if there is something I'm dying to play that requires more than what I have under the hood..then I buy what is necessary to get the experience I desire.

 

 

Direct X barely advances, Direct X 9 was being used for over a decade and some titles still use it. Players could just lower their settings, it's amazing how many don't and choose to upgrade instead.

 

Depends on how much you have in your budget for hardware... It would be a simple matter to spend thousands every year on hardware upgrades......

[Signette]

It's hard to say really... Many ppl have games where they can enjoy story, other games for pure gameplay fun and some for eye candy. There are hardly any games on the market, that can combine all these features in one and cover all desires and needs of one particular person.

 

For me many things matter, and yes, there are games, which I may not be able to enjoy because of how protagonist looks or behaves, but that has nothing to do with any social stereotypes like too sexist or something, that's silly IMO.