Graphics arent everything

[Red Lion]

I tend to feel like context matters. I have different expectations for a AAA game than I do some indie dealio that's under 20 bucks on steam. I also take into account what is more important to the game in terms of graphics. Do I spend a lot of time looking at and talking to certain characters? Then I expect detailed faces and good facial animations. Do I spend most of my time wandering around on my own? Better make that environment look interesting and appealing. 

I had issues with Dragon Age 2. The game was really lifeless and bland looking and the way the facial models' eyebrows or mouths would sometimes distort the face to make it look like it was melting were definitely negatives. Things like that wouldn't normally bother me too much in other games. But Dragon Age is a very story and character driven franchise so when animations and textures on characters look weird it's much more noticeable. This game didn't make up for it with the environment either. I was contained to a very small area. The game basically gave me one city to look at for the entirety of my play through, I kind of expect with such a limited range of exploration that what I do have to work with would be more detailed, atmospheric and intricate. I didn't get that. In the end the graphical shortcomings were made that much more noticeable because the aesthetic was very dull and grey. 

Of course, if I really really like the game enough I'll give it a pass on graphics. I also don't think simplified graphics are bad. Something like a Zelda game has a more anime feel to it so I don't expect super realistic 3D animation with super defined textures. I think overall aesthetics > graphics.

[QT Melon]

Yeah that's something left out of this debate. It's like I hear the "well I'd rather play some ascii game as long as it has good story" but I'm very willing to bet you're not going to pay 60 bucks to play said game. You pay 60 bucks to get a reasonable graphical experience. Your mindset is thinking you're paying people to create a visually interesting game.

So yeah, you may say you're going to play one kind of game over the other but let's not kid ourselves that we have a very different expectation once it involves how much money it is going to take out of our wallet.