Well no, I wouldn't, but I'm just hypothesizing someone else's position.

I strongly feel that the quest for better graphics are taking the industry backwards. The problem with 'realistic' graphics is that it requires ridicolous amounts of processing power, a meaningless amount of extra graphics work, and takes away resources from designing a good game concept. The end result are games that look terrible and in most cases are useless itterations of a game idea that's been done hundreds of times before.

A 'realistic' looking game that tries to represent the physical world faithfully will always fail. They fail hard today, and they still will in 50 years if people still try to chase down that rabit hole. If you ever go outside, take a moment to look around and really observe the world. The level of detail is infinite and it will never be possible to replicate. The closer people get the more unnatural the graphics look. Something as basic as a running human for example, no game has come close to showing this realistically. Games that get compared to the physical world will always look horrible.

In contrast, a game like Super Mario Brothers looks fantastic. Since it is set in an imaginary cartoon world, there is no perfect reference point and stylized graphics can be made to accurately represent ideas and environments.

Even worse, the graphics craze is driving up development costs to the point where it limits creativity. Gaming is quickly heading down the path of Hollywood where big budget movies are so expensive no one comes up with an idea anymore. It's all about reuse of popular concepts and add as much visual flair as possible. Avatar is a perfect example, hailed as a great miovie when it really is mediocre at best. In its day The Matrix was the same. All presentation, no substance.

So far this generation Nintendo is the company that has done the most to ebb this flow. Not by creating an 'underpowered' console, though that has had some effect, but through initiatives like Wii Ware and DSi Ware.

I am usually an optimist, but the future of videogaming looks bleak to me.

I generally share your sentiments and beliefs, as I've written in many a thread, but in fairness I do believe better graphics and horsepower can really assist some genres.  The sheer scale of games like Dead Rising and Assassin's Creed appear to require those qualities, and while the bulk of titles will doubtless remain polished retreads I'm confident that someone somewhere will eventually put that power to use in a way which enhances gaming.

heres a good example.

mario galaxy as it is

or

mario galaxy with same gameplay but with ninja breadman grafix?

its clearly obvious which you would rather have.

grafix are important, in fact its the first thing you look at when ever a new gen is out.

obviously gameplay comes first, but grafix are deffo a factor to look at.

thus games on ps3 and 360 are far better than on other consoles

Well I can see there is many different opinions on how people should view peoples opinins.

IRONIC?

So I'll leave the thread with:

Maturity is not in what a person likes in his entertainment. But how one will react to anothers choice of entertainment.

SELNOR OUT.

Except that is untrue. Etertainment mediums have a very real world effect, and some of the best in a given mediums have actually shaped history.Uncle Tom's Cabin is a perfect example of simple entertainment, since that's what prose is, shaping an entire culture.

Yes Mario is a nice cartoon with all of it's Care Bears colors. But in a lot of cases I don't the game look like SpongeBob. There is a lot more games than just Mario and Zelda.

heres a good example

crysis as it is

or

crysis with same graphics but with halo-quality gameplay?

its clearly obvious which you would rather have.

gameplay is important, in fact its the first thing you look at when ever a new gen is out.

obviously graphix come first, but gameplay is deffo a factor to look at.

thus games on wii are far better than on other consoles

Well I can see there is many different opinions on how people should view peoples opinins.

IRONIC?

So I'll leave the thread with:

Maturity is not in what a person likes in his entertainment. But how one will react to anothers choice of entertainment.

SELNOR OUT.

I thought Crysis has normal weapons unlike Halo sci-fi weapons.