The Eyes Told What the Heart Felt: Confessions of a Certified Fanboy
I have oftern read criticisms about how Pantheon's graphics will be 5+ years out of date when it releases. I am perfectly fine with that. If Pantheon has the the graphic quality of Red Dead Redemtion 2(2018), then I would very satisfied. We don't know the actual release date, but it could very well have the graphical quality of New World(Original release date 2020). Both games will still hold up. Of course I'm saying this knowing that Pantheon will have it's own visual style. The mood set by the early visuals combined with knowint that it all will improve is more than sufficient for me to not be concerned.
Moreover, VR's dedication to quality and detail of graphics, as shown in the Faerthale and The Making of a City videos...as well as other videos, gives us a glimpse as to how VR will approach this. This is not a post about why graphics matter or to be dismissed by saying that one values gameplay more. It is about making a resaonable assumption about how visually the game will end up and will that be sufficient for players that are new to Pantheon. Also, how the game will most definitely NOt look like how it presently, which makes the current criticisms very shallow.
VR has talked, in depth, about how much detail they will have in game with the videos previously mentioned and also the control and animation of characters. One of THE best MMOS for character control I've ever played is WoW. The precision of control you have when playing that game is phenomenal. Joppa and Kyle talked about wanting that type of control in Pantheon and even better. The Making of a City video gives some great insight into their plans for graphic fidelity. The more pictures I see of Terminus combined with the previous knowledge of VR's committment to excellent gameplay with great visuals is very satisfying and answers all my questions about what to expect in Alpha and release.
All of the above combined with the beyond stellar appraoch to game design witnessed in every stream, makes me comfortable in saying that Pantheon will be a very immersive and very beautiful game upon release.
EDIT: I want to add that when I used to be into consoles, I saw that games released at the beginning of a console's life were not as graphically pleasing as games released 5+ years later. I don't think the full potential of HDRP has been utilized by games made Unity. Yes, all most talk about is Unreal 5, but HDRP is no slouch and I think VR has the knowledge to push it to the limits.
As always, we will see...
Graphics matter to me as it really helps to immerse me into the world. Even more important is the art direction. I'm very happy with what I've seen on both these criteria.
I don't really buy the argument that the graphics will be 5 years out of date for four reasons:
We have been past the point for many years where graphics are 'good enough' (just read Counterfleche's last point hehe. Great minds...).
As long as you are not going for photorealism, which is arguably doomed to failure and probably will be for many years, and as long as you pick a pleasing art style, graphics made now will last a long time.
I'm still playing Battlefield 1 - 6 years old - and the graphics never cease to amaze me. The following two Battlefield games have worse graphics IMO. The next one because the are overly complex and defeat the point of the game (enemy can literally stand still and disappear in the messy detail). The one after that because they picked too much of a 'clean modern' style.
Not to mention some modern graphics tech is backward compatible or retro-fittable, these days (DLSS).
Also, Pantheon is built on Unity and HDRP is a prime example of what that means: When Unity moves on it takes some effort, but the graphics *can* be moved on in games built upon Unity.
Basically, graphics 'quality' isn't all about fidelity and modern tech and again, much as Counterfleche mentions, the difference in graphics between now and 2030 will likely be way less important than the difference between now and 2014.
Also Pantheon will be out next year anyway, so... ;^)
I am not worried about graphics - I prefer the look of LOTRO to that of many newer games, for example.
I am more concerned with function - my nightmare scenario would be that upon release in 2035 the fact that the software and servers were based on 2021 standards would mean everything functioned far less smoothly and quickly than any MMO released since 2023.
Thus my hope is that their motto becomes "good enough" and they push out a game that is worth playing in 2023 or 2024 even if it is only half as good as what they could get out the door in 2025 or 2035.
Vandraad said:Graphics initially attract people to a game, but it is gameplay that keeps people in the game for years and decades. It still remains to be seen which side of that VR is spending more time/money/effort on.
Quite true. Graphics that are good - however one defines the term - but not great - however one defines the term - are entirely sufficient to keep a good sized player base happy. But graphics do need to be at least good in order to attract more than a small base of hardcore followers in the first place.
Thus if EQ came out today for the first time and was the best MMO ever done, but with primitive graphics and maybe even worse a primitive UI that didn't allow much customization and required memorization of esoteric slash commands - maybe 1,000 hardcore people would play. Or maybe not so many.