Very good article Zucas. You write very well. Anytime you want my opinion on any subject for your articles I will be pleased to answer. I cant wait to read more of these articles from you. Well Done.

Also it actually hit home to me reading that how clogged up you can get in these forums. Visuals really are not the number 1 thing I look for in games. But my recent foray of threads into visuals would state otherwise. (Your article has made me realise my roots) :).

Theres nothing wrong with being impressed by visual enhancements, but your article should make us all think again with this subject.

Cheers Zucas.

Well thx for you contribution and you will be receiving more surveys like this for future arguments.

But yea recognizing good visuals is a great thing but most discussion should be on the ideas and gameplay first before we start discussing the visuals.  I mean it make sense: how can you discuss how good visuals are if you have yet to understand what those visuals are trying to represent.

These are all good points, but the underlying reason why visuals are discussed so thoroughly should not be dismissed as stemming from a need for controversy. there's actually a very simple reason: Sight is our Primary means of judging ANYTHING. As a race, being able to make rapid judgments is a survival trait, and that means making that judgement on whatever information we have as early as possible.
The easiest thing for games to do to let us know about a game is to SHOW us something. Usually a screenshot. Even if we've never played a game, we can still look at it, and when we do play any game, it's always done through a visual medium. Seriously, go find a decent game that doesn't have any visual at all. So therefor the judgement that can be made the earliest is going to be based on visuals, and visuals will always be the initial aspect we notice about any game.