The Graphics, Part 2: The Purpose

Now, before I start a horrible rant about how I feel graphics are overrated nowadays, there are very very good reasons for having a game with good graphics.

#1: Timmy wants to roll in Style. Timmy wants to feel awesome.

Timmy doesn't play the game because he's killing a bunch of abstract shapes. Timmy plays the game because he wants to be a ninja. You can't properly evoke the feeling of being an awesome ninja without looking like an awesome ninja with all the cool ninja duds. This doesn't mean you go and look up in the history books how ninjas historically looked. This doesn't mean authentic grass hats and patchwork peasant clothing. You want to evoke style, not historical accuracy. This also means that you don't go for photo-realism exactly.

Timmy doesn't want historical realism. Timmy wants to have the ninja experience he's picturing in his mind. Timmy wants to play what he feels is the ninja. It might be a cliche ninja. It might be a realistic ninja. The only qualification in the art is that it must be an awesome ninja. Totally unrealistic black armor, with sword bigger than he is? Who cares?

Awesomeness, the feeling, needs awesome art.

We play games to experience the feeling of being larger than life. Even the Nitty-Gritty war games portray a war, far more intense than the war, with bullets whizzing by and explosions that leave no mark. None of the boredom, none of watching horizons for hours. You can't do this without that feeling of awe that art can do. I mean, which one of us can ride a classic muscle car, or race a Formula One Racer?

None of us. And do we want them to look photo-realistic? Not neccessarily. We want them to look good. We want to feel good about racing these beauties. No faded paint and semi-reflective surfaces here.

#2: Spike needs to understand what is going on.

Art is an incredible communication device. For example, I could have you memorize a list of cards in a some trading card game, let's say.. Magic: The Gathering. For example:

Player A has 6 forests in play, 5 of them which are tapped.

He also has 3 creatures in play, a Shinen's Roar, a Humble Budoka, and a Wispy Moonrider.

His opponent has 5 untapped mountains in play, with 3 plains and a Kami of Fiery Roar, a Kami of life's Web, 2 Kabuto Moths, and a Red Devil.

And by the time you've finished reading this and trying to figure out who is winning... a minute or two would have passed.

...Or quite possibly, you could've looked at the picture and immediately understood the game state from the simple picture before you've even finished reading the first sentence.

Lots of cards on our side, a few cards on their side. A bunch of his cards are sideways, which means he can't use them. ALL of our cards are ready to smash face. All this in a glance. This is the amazing power of effectively formatted art. Colors, frames, icons and graphics all convey more information in a second, in a glance, than we could ever tell from reading lines and lines of text.

This is heavily important for Spikes. Spikes need to understand the game state very quickly. They need to figure out the game state as fast as possible to come up with their next move. No one wants to lose a game because some bit of information was unclear. Art and Graphics are a tremendous vehicle of information for Spikes.

Take it from a different angle...

Think of it this way, this time from a Massive Multi-player Online game perspective. I am level one. I see a huge brutish ogre that has a massive red aura. I probably won't attack him. If I see a bunny on the ground, I would probably think that's weaker than I am. The graphics convey the threat that a monster poses.

If the bunny somehow happens to be the vorpal bunny from Monty Python, and the huge brutish orc is actually some kind of hemophiliac coward, then even the best graphics won't save you from a Spike's wrath.

Graphics determine player expectations and a lot of that is because people treat artwork as a source of information. Notice how I made the bunny much smaller than the Ogre? Even that little resizing gives you the information that the bunny is a smaller, weaker threat compared to the two muscled brutes. If instead, you were treated to lovely O's for Ogres and b's for Bunnies in some sort of text-action game (I'm looking at you Rogue, Nethack.) You would not nearly get the depth of information that artwork would get you.

#3: Graphics allow people to express themselves.

Look at the advent of digital avatars. How many times have you found a ridiculous good hat in a game, put it on, and then promptly burned it because it was ridiculous looking? No? Oh well.

In this age where people are increasingly represented by avatars, having those avatars be customizable allows people to communicate who they are or what they think is cool. Look at Halo 3 customization which customizes individual armor pieces and compare that to what Massively Multiplayer Online games have already been doing with thousands of armor pieces in different colors, shapes and sizes.

Self-expression in games is as important as self-expression in the real world. Graphics help people achieve that goal. People can put more personal investment in a game if their virtual avatar resembles the ideal person that the character is envisioning in their mind.

I, personally, am a fan of any kind of sunglasses in a game. Although... I will occasionally wear a silly hat if the need fits.