A long read. A tech dev comes out in favour of less is more in relation to graphics, with a personal history to gaming joining for the ride:
‘The tech arms race in AAA - and why I’m abandoning it’:
I really enjoyed that.
Jesus that’s a long read for an argument that has been going around for decades.
Yeah, I mean more power to him, but that kind of graphics tech nonchalance won’t cut it for all games or audiences.
This thread has finally become interesting. Wouldn’t the red, white, and blue of Budweiser been more appealing? Was it that thing about “tapping the Rockies”?
Yep, it’s an old debate, and the article keeps backsliding into the usual false dichotomy. Lurking in the background is the assumption that the industry as a whole must make a choice: either photorealism or stylized simplification. But you can’t have both! There Can Be Only One!
This is silly. I can and do have both all the time. I can play The Witcher 3 on Monday and Darkest Dungeon on Tuesday and enjoy them both for what they are. Nobody is obliged to play nothing but photorealistic AAA games all the time … and increasingly over the last 10 years, nobody does. There’s now a variety of games using stylized graphics that range from the super-casual to the super-hardcore. By the same token, with the game industry as huge as it is today, there’s no reason there can’t also be some crazy-budgeted AAA spectacle titles that push technological limits as well.
Nice use of irony. Was it intentional?
Rico Jones’ favorite scene from Reality Bites:
Irony. Uh…
Irony.
It’s a noun.
It’s when something is…
ironic. It’s, uh…
Well, I can’t really define irony…
but I know it when I see it!
-Tom
In which sense (“in a literal sense or manner: actually” or “in effect: virtually”) do you think he is using it?
In any case, am I literally sucking at insults? Through a straw, maybe? I’ve always considered the phrase “you suck” to be figurative when it means “you are not good.” Since I didn’t think he meant that I was actually applying oral suction to insults, it struck me as funny that he used the word “literally” to add emphasis to what I considered to be a figurative expression. The reason it struck me as funny is that it only made sense to me if “literally” was used in the second sense.
Now, I am to “literally” as Tom is to “gonzo” – I think it should only have one meaning (sense 1 in your reference above). When it is used in the second sense, it has almost the exact opposite meaning of the One True Definition (see the usage discussion in your reference). Therefore, when it is used in the second sense, it strikes me as being ironic because the intended meaning is essentially the opposite of what I consider to the literal meaning of “literally.” Unless I’m mistaken (as I may well be, given that I’ve already committed the heresy of believing that “gonzo” might have more than one meaning), using a word to express the opposite of the literal meaning of the word is pretty much the textbook definition of irony.
Ooh, sick burn! I sincerely feel that I have been roundly put in my place. I mean that, totally without irony or sarcasm.
So, how do imagine this is going to end, Rico?
Can we get back to talking about visually stunning, epic, addictive, visceral experiences now?
I only use visceral in the sense of relating to viscera. That’s my superpower as a game journalist.
-Tom
So, Far Cry 4, then?
Or Coors Light?
-Todd
or mining for conflict minerals, i’m sure that is pretty visceral sometimes?
‘Conflict minerals the real link between games and violence’:
You’re doing the Lord’s work, Tom.
In an effort to be the change I advocate for, allow me to present one of the best reviews I’ve read in years, complete with a drawn-out Akira analogy that brought joy to my life: RPS on Heroes of the Storm.
Yes, I suppose that I do. I concede the field, sir, defeated by your keen intellect and rapier wit.