How and why did we become so obsessed with graphics?

[AusWolf]

Firstly, this is not an AMD vs Nvidia thread.
Secondly, this is not an FSR vs DLSS thread.
Thirdly, this is not an "RT is sooo awesome, woaoah!" thread.

Now that the (to me) obvious is out of the way, let me continue with some observations.

• A lot of (especially AAA) games are being marketed by their graphics these days, like there's not a lot behind it (and a lot of times there really isn't).
• A lot of (even not so old) games are being remade with slightly upgraded graphics, and they seem to be popular for some reason.
• There's way too much fighting in the online community over which graphical feature is important, and what one should or shouldn't use. Some people really seem to make it a crusade for some reason.

The question is simple: why?
Why are we so obsessed with graphics that we pay huge amounts of money for pretty, but soulless games and remakes of the same game that we already own?
Why do we jump at each other's throats when someone appears to have different preferences when it comes to graphical features? Why is it so hard to peacefully coexist?
Also: when did it all start and how?

 

[Space Lynx]

My theory is addiction to high refresh gaming, which never used to be a thing pre-2013, sure we had 75hz CRT monitor's, but the real addiction doesn't form until you get used to the smoothness of 144hz.

That being said I love my Steam Deck and its only 60 fps, but I fall into both camps here, so I am unsure, this is my best guess.

 

[Macro Device]

I'll start from the last question. It started by accident about a couple million years ago when apes started "thinking."

But this "thinking" has never been polished to the point when said apes could actually use their "thinking" mechanism with a hundred percent rate of reason. This leads apes-turned-homo-sapiens-sapiens into nonsensical debates, biased "opinions," irrational war declarations, and even into the greatest evil humankind ever witnessed, the answering machine.

All this makes for a benevolent soil for any sorts of obsessions, sofa warfares and so forth.

Be ware that this post has been sponsored by illuminati. Or not. We can't make our minds up regarding whether did we pay for this post or not.

 

[gffermari]

The graphics quality is quite important but the story, narration, voice acting and acting in general are the ones that matter to me.
I wouldn’t play god of war and uncharted 4 etc if it was only for the graphics.

 

[Space Lynx]

I'll start from the last question. It started by accident about a couple million years ago when apes started "thinking."

But this "thinking" has never been polished to the point when said apes could actually use their "thinking" mechanism with a hundred percent rate of reason. This leads apes-turned-homo-sapiens-sapiens into nonsensical debates, biased "opinions," irrational war declarations, and even into the greatest evil humankind ever witnessed, the answering machine.

All this makes for a benevolent soil for any sorts of obsessions, sofa warfares and so forth.

Be ware that this post has been sponsored by illuminati. Or not. We can't make our minds up regarding whether did we pay for this post or not.

Eh, come on mate you can do better than that.

I personally noticed I became more addicted to gaming when I imported South Korean monitors and started overclocking the snot out of them, once I saw that smoothness I became more immersed, and thus in turn wanted more and more gpu power for higher and higher frames, I am pretty sure I am not alone in this matter. I know a lot of you can't relate to this, but some of us can is all I am saying.

The graphics quality is quite important but the story, narration, voice acting and acting in general are the ones that matter to me.
I wouldn’t play god of war and uncharted 4 etc if it was only for the graphics.

that high refresh of the newest God of War has me playing it more than the old 30 fps variants though, that's for sure, and goes to my point.

 

[Frick]

We've always been obsessed by it I reckon. Remember the entire "ATi cards get better image quality" thing? It's been one of the major driving forces of console development.

As to why games are soulless: Without getting into it too deep it's about the dread and weight of existance, and capitalism.

As to why we can't peacefully coexist: Without getting too deep into it it's about the fragmentation of society. The Us vs Them mentality is pervasive and it is everywhere.

 

[Macro Device]

Eh, come on mate you can do better than that.

I apologise for inconvenience but in order to enable Humour: Ultra, you have to install a 3-way SLI of RTX 4090. Until that, you're limited to Humour: Mediocre.

 

[AusWolf]

I'll start from the last question. It started by accident about a couple million years ago when apes started "thinking."

Was it really that long? Heck, I don't remember so much fighting from only 10 years ago.

Maybe we weren't thinking back then? Maybe that's the key towards peace: not thinking? Maybe that's how world domination will work: everybody stops thinking and we have world peace.

Maybe your post really was sponsored by the illuminati?

 

[Hyderz]

For me i didn’t have a pc with decent gpu when I was young couldn’t play games like half life unreal and then when I got a pc with a gpu, warcraft 3 chugged with all settings lowest. It all changed when I got a GeForce ti4600, it ran unreal tournament 2003 so well and looking amazing along with half life 2 etc. from this point on I want to play games with settings maxed that was my starting point of my graphics obsession

 

[Ferrum Master]

Not sure it applies to all. And it is dictated by many things. I am playing Switch Persona 5 games currently soo is it an exception, it is a cell shaded old game? Graphics are not Art... they sometimes go hand in hand tho and limit each other. So where's the line for artistic expression? Why limit yourself? When one is art other becomes just great graphics?

 

[wNotyarD]

I personally noticed I became more addicted to gaming when I imported South Korean monitors and started overclocking the snot out of them, once I saw that smoothness I became more immersed, and thus in turn wanted more and more gpu power for higher and higher frames, I am pretty sure I am not alone in this matter. I know a lot of you can't relate to this, but some of us can is all I am saying.

that high refresh of the newest God of War has me playing it more than the old 30 fps variants though, that's for sure, and goes to my point.

But isn't the easiest way to attain high refresh rates tuning graphics down? Lots of frames and graphics quality are always manageable.
Personally, I aim for mid to fast refresh (think 90+, so FreeSync works its magic and make everything smooth) when on my PC. To do that, there's already some things that I tune down (especially RT, never enable it) on my 3070.
When on my Switch, I can only hope things don't get absolutely pixelated due to dynamic resolution to the point where it becomes a visual mess.

Why are we so obsessed with graphics that we pay huge amounts of money for pretty, but soulless games and remakes of the same game that we already own?
Why do we jump at each other's throats when someone appears to have different preferences when it comes to graphical features? Why is it so hard to peacefully coexist?

Bragging rights: LOOK HOW PRETTY THIS IS, AND HOW YOU CAN'T RUN IT AS BEAUTIFULLY AS I DO BECAUSE YOUR PC DOESN'T HAVE THE TECH TO DO IT! What did you say, enjoy playing it? NO, YOU MUST LOOK AT HOW FANCY IT IS!

 

[Outback Bronze]

Me personally, was the first DX9 game Far Cry @ 1280 x 1024 on the 9800 pro fully maxed with Vsync and triple buffering enabled. Been obsessed since

I suppose it's only natural to feel immersed in the latest graphics and GPU's as they improve with time to the point where you can get obsessed about it. In saying that I have slowed down a lot with graphics hardware/settings as I've been getting older so I'm not that much of a "nutter" in that sense anymore. I can still be very happy with 60fps on my 144hz screen.

 

[AusWolf]

Bragging rights: LOOK HOW PRETTY THIS IS, AND HOW YOU CAN'T RUN IT AS BEAUTIFULLY AS I DO BECAUSE YOUR PC DOESN'T HAVE THE TECH TO DO IT! What did you say, enjoy playing it? NO, YOU MUST LOOK AT HOW FANCY IT IS!

This! If someone could explain the mentality behind this behaviour, I'd be very happy.

Is it that such people don't have a life, and the only way they feel their existence means something is when they show "who's boss" with the power of their PCs?

 

[wNotyarD]

Is it that such people don't have a life, and the only way they feel their existence means something is when they show "who's boss" with the power of their PCs?

If only did this apply solely to PCs. Cars, mobile phones, real estate, clothing... Only to name a few.

 

[las]

Graphics are important for immersion thats why. However performance is too, which is why I don't accept less than 100 fps.

Soulless games? You think old games have more soul? It is called being nostalgic. Most old games you fire up, will disappoint you. This is also whey they are doing remasters or even remakes. Nostalgia sells and upgraded graphics, controls or even features will only make them better.

Now add a proper monitor, prefereably OLED, + sound and you will be able to immersive yourself like no other. Easily has more soul than playing the old game again. A good remaster will beat the original game with ease. There's tons of good remasters and remakes. We are not talking about money grab remasters here.

 

[AusWolf]

Graphics are important for immersion thats why.

Sure, but why do we fight over it? It's not that important, surely.

Soulless games? You think old games have more soul? It is called being nostalgic. Most old games you fire up, will disappoint you.

I didn't intend that to be a comparison. What I meant was, some games get hyped for their graphics regardless of the game's overall quality these days.

 

[las]

Sure, but why do we fight over it? It's not that important, surely.


I didn't intend that to be a comparison. What I meant was, some games get hyped for their graphics regardless of the game's overall quality these days.

A game with good graphics and terrible gameplay will be forgotten quick, just look at Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum

Graphics are important, won't make a game great tho

 

[AusWolf]

A game with good graphics and terrible gameplay will be forgotten quick, just look at Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum

Graphics are important, won't make a game great tho

Very true!

But if we assume that we all agree on this, then why do games get marketed by graphics features? I mean, we get trailers and screenshots showing the pretty reflections and high-tech blah-blah thingies by courtesy of <insert any GPU design company here>, and barely any gameplay most of the time. We also get articles stating that "X game will support XYZ GPU feature" like our lives depended on it.

 

[Macro Device]

Speaking of games without souls... I think they don't actually need to have one. In my case at least. It's me, the gamer himself, who "impregnates" the game with the soul, wreaking a couple billion havocs here and there in the process.

Take Cyberbug for example. The game is usually criticised for being devoided of anything remotely resembling a soul, yet this is a very fun game if you take it non-seriously enough. And its plot and the whole universe are way deeper than they seem to be. Not only the cake is a lie, the lie itself is something elaborately different by its very nature... I don't know what an average Joe expects from this game but I expected nothing, I just plugged in and started my usual Fallout 3 all over the place. And I very much enjoyed it. Is Fallout 3 a perfect game? Of course not. It has more flaws than you can find calories in a metric ton of radium. Yet it still delivers legendary experience with its everugly textures, hideous screenplay, disgusting bugs and illogical gameplay. It's just so bad you cannot dislike it. The same may very well apply to ANY other game.

Keyboard jumping all over the internet? This is what happens to a mf when he feels a need to prove something to someone, themself not excluded.
Graphics obsession? Perfectionism might be non-diagnosed, yet it happens sometimes. And some people just can't get enough. They tasted a chocolate bar, they want more and go for a bong. Then even a bong is not enough, and they become heroin addicts. And when even this is not enough they turn, may the good Lord forgive me for uttering that, My Little Pony fans.

Basically all you need to do is to do what you want, preferrably making sure it hurts no one, and enjoy it as much as possible. You only live once. So why wasting your psyche on underwhelmingly intellectual species like me?

why do games get marketed by graphics features?

Average Joe's judgement, I presume, firstly addresses the visuals... That's why they're in focus.

"You can do X, Y, Z, and even OLOLO in our game!"
"Noted," said a John Doe.

"As you can see, the game sports next-gen graphics with advanced AI upscaling..."
"Shut up and take my money," — the interruption kicked in.

 

[AusWolf]

So why wasting your psyche on underwhelmingly intellectual species like me?

Because that's how we learn and grow as human beings. Other than that, I completely agree.

Average Joe's judgement, I presume, firstly addresses the visuals... That's why they're in focus.

"You can do X, Y, Z, and even OLOLO in our game!"
"Noted," said a John Doe.

"As you can see, the game sports next-gen graphics with advanced AI upscaling..."
"Shut up and take my money," — the interruption kicked in.

Are you implying that Average Joe is stupid AF? (which I also cannot disagree with)

 

[Macro Device]

Are you implying that Average Joe is stupid AF?

Stupid? No.
Careless? Yes.

 

[Kapone33]

When GPUs were $300 for the best it was meh. Now that GPUs are easily the cost of the rest of the system you want to justify that purchase. Once I bought Vega cards I wanted to make sure that my Display was up to snuff. Then you look for content and Games like Spiderman, TWWH3 and Guardians of the Galaxy are just beautiful. Of course remasters are all about money and nostalgia

 

[SJZL 2.0]

Graphics influences the immersion of the game. And we all wonder the ingredients of immersion thus why we look into hardware & software techniques.

 

[Kapone33]

A game with good graphics and terrible gameplay will be forgotten quick, just look at Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum

Graphics are important, won't make a game great tho

The Gameplay in Forspoken is fine. I feel the negative narrative comes from the Main character but anyways.

 

[Chry]

There are plenty of 'poor' graphics games that sold really very well.

Random list from top of my head:

Underrail
Disco Elysium
Darkest Dungeon
Stardew Valley
Undertale

On top of that, online games like Counter Strike, DOTA2, Minecraft have the most players.

Moreover, not all (arguably minority) player the shiny graphics games FOR the graphics. For example I play Cyberpunk, but I would play it even if it had 2000s graphics.

So the strata of people obsessed with new graphics games isn't all there is in the gaming world. It's just something that's easily marketable and something people can objectively compare games through (so something to talk/brag about).

I really do wish games and players would focus more on storytelling, but I guess that requires some genius to pull off (Like in the case of Disco Elysium).