I grew up with a card catalog and had Netscape navigator at college right out of high school. Stellar graphics are great, preferred, but not necessary. Would I care if graphics/engine quality went back to Dragon age origins or II? Mass effect the original? Even FO:NV? No. But I want the story level, complexity, and total game time to be triple digits when being completionist about it. Witcher 3 is lovely but it’s the quality of darkness in it that makes it so compelling.
Even without the hardware limitations, good, immersive stories that keep you as involved as GoT before the writers stopped writing are already in short supply.
I’m presently replaying the Dishonored games. There’s only so much of that a person can do. Games worth the time sink are already in short supply.
Candy crush and similar bullshit can’t replace good games.
All those things you want are divorced from the hardware for the most part, though. A gripping story has virtually no bearing on hardware requirements. Map complexity could be maintained by simply scaling down the graphical polish. Total game time is also almost totally decoupled from hardware strength.
If anything, I would argue that AAA’s constant emphasis on graphics detracts from those. Maps can be more complex if they have less polygons and processing. They could spend more time fixing up the stories if they weren’t hemorrhaging money on art that’s way more detailed than it needs to be, and they would be more free to pivot if they need to because it’s not as expensive to edit whatever needs it. It’s way easier to make more content to extend the game time when it doesn’t cost the moon and stars to add more fresh art to flesh it out.
I grew up with a card catalog and had Netscape navigator at college right out of high school. Stellar graphics are great, preferred, but not necessary. Would I care if graphics/engine quality went back to Dragon age origins or II? Mass effect the original? Even FO:NV? No. But I want the story level, complexity, and total game time to be triple digits when being completionist about it. Witcher 3 is lovely but it’s the quality of darkness in it that makes it so compelling.
Even without the hardware limitations, good, immersive stories that keep you as involved as GoT before the writers stopped writing are already in short supply.
I’m presently replaying the Dishonored games. There’s only so much of that a person can do. Games worth the time sink are already in short supply.
Candy crush and similar bullshit can’t replace good games.
All those things you want are divorced from the hardware for the most part, though. A gripping story has virtually no bearing on hardware requirements. Map complexity could be maintained by simply scaling down the graphical polish. Total game time is also almost totally decoupled from hardware strength.
If anything, I would argue that AAA’s constant emphasis on graphics detracts from those. Maps can be more complex if they have less polygons and processing. They could spend more time fixing up the stories if they weren’t hemorrhaging money on art that’s way more detailed than it needs to be, and they would be more free to pivot if they need to because it’s not as expensive to edit whatever needs it. It’s way easier to make more content to extend the game time when it doesn’t cost the moon and stars to add more fresh art to flesh it out.