Do Graphics really matter?

[Mr Puggsly]

Michael-5 said:

When you say "the masses" are you only refering to the casual gamers who bought Wii's, or are you including more traditional gamers who bought PS3/360's?

LOL Thanks.

I think I agree with you, during the 6th gen, I only ever heard X-Box fans (in person) talk about graphics, and a lot of harcore gamers played PS2 back then. I have all the systems (well not a PS3 ATM because mine broke, but I am replacing it this fall when I'm certain PS4 isn't BC), and to be honest I don't care about graphics.

BTW, about split screen, the 7th gen was one of the biggest jumps in graphical performance between gens. If split screen gaming has been removed from games nowdays, it's not because of the weakness of the machinery, it's because of the way the market has shifted. Nowadays people play online, or devs are just too lazy to make a solid split screen setting. After all Mario/Party/Kart has featured 4 player split screen since the N64 days, and the Wii is the weakest system at the moment.

The masses is everybody. Even the graphic whores have games in their collection that aren't visually amazing. For the most part, graphics whores are just some people who want software with cutting edge graphics that shows their platform is the best and most powerful!

In regards to split screen. Limitations of the hardware is a big part of the problem. A lot of games have two player split screen, but 4 players is too demanding without lowering the visual quality. Halo 4 is one of few modern shooters with 4 player split screen, but it scales down the visuals for more screens and you still get a choppy frame rate sometimes.