Mark Morris: Photorealism doesn’t equal good gaming

Defcon - An Introversion game - Image 1While nVidia‘s VP has stated that good graphics are one key component to good gaming, Introversion Software‘s Mark Morris thinks otherwise.

In a recent interview, Introversion’s director said that his company was unlikely to produce a photo-realistic title in the near future – a trend which he observed was becoming commonplace among other developers.

What I think happens too often is that [developers] sort of go, ‘WeÂ’re going to show you the best graphics youÂ’ve ever seen and then we might pack a bit of gameplay or a little bit of entertaining fun on at the end,” he said, noting that he thought it was “a very bad thing to do.

Detailing his stance, Morris did say that he thought that good graphics are still an essential part of a game in the way they draw players in. The problem, according to him, was that developers became so focused on developing high calibre graphics that the race was beginning to resemble a similar gaming trend back in the 1980s. “I think theyÂ’re stuck in the ‘80s when graphics in games were so rubbish, that every time a new game came out, the graphics would improve slightly and that would be really so important.”

And taking a cue from Taylor’s previous quip about lack of graphics being like watching “24” in black-and-white on a 7-inch screen, Morris pointed out that “24”‘s forte was its story-telling style on TV –  each episode happened in real time.

[ItÂ’s] nothing that you can get from any other medium other than television. So when [Taylor] says itÂ’s like watching 24 on a small screen, I think itÂ’s nonsenseÂ… If I owned a cinema, I could go and run 24 on my cinema screen and it would get slightly better. But the real joy of 24 is that it maximizes the particular medium of television like nothing has ever done before. So I think when he uses that quote he picked a bit of a bad example.

This interview comes in light of the more highly anticipated visuals-heavy titles some of the fans here may be waiting up for, such as Halo 3, Lair, or Final Fantasy XIII. It will also be noted that Introversion is most famous for titles like DEFCON and Darwinia. Kudos to ssj3fox for this hot tip.

Defcon - An Introversion game - Image 1While nVidia‘s VP has stated that good graphics are one key component to good gaming, Introversion Software‘s Mark Morris thinks otherwise.

In a recent interview, Introversion’s director said that his company was unlikely to produce a photo-realistic title in the near future – a trend which he observed was becoming commonplace among other developers.

What I think happens too often is that [developers] sort of go, ‘WeÂ’re going to show you the best graphics youÂ’ve ever seen and then we might pack a bit of gameplay or a little bit of entertaining fun on at the end,” he said, noting that he thought it was “a very bad thing to do.

Detailing his stance, Morris did say that he thought that good graphics are still an essential part of a game in the way they draw players in. The problem, according to him, was that developers became so focused on developing high calibre graphics that the race was beginning to resemble a similar gaming trend back in the 1980s. “I think theyÂ’re stuck in the ‘80s when graphics in games were so rubbish, that every time a new game came out, the graphics would improve slightly and that would be really so important.”

And taking a cue from Taylor’s previous quip about lack of graphics being like watching “24” in black-and-white on a 7-inch screen, Morris pointed out that “24”‘s forte was its story-telling style on TV –  each episode happened in real time.

[ItÂ’s] nothing that you can get from any other medium other than television. So when [Taylor] says itÂ’s like watching 24 on a small screen, I think itÂ’s nonsenseÂ… If I owned a cinema, I could go and run 24 on my cinema screen and it would get slightly better. But the real joy of 24 is that it maximizes the particular medium of television like nothing has ever done before. So I think when he uses that quote he picked a bit of a bad example.

This interview comes in light of the more highly anticipated visuals-heavy titles some of the fans here may be waiting up for, such as Halo 3, Lair, or Final Fantasy XIII. It will also be noted that Introversion is most famous for titles like DEFCON and Darwinia. Kudos to ssj3fox for this hot tip.

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