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EQs Old Graphics better than new?
I hear alot of people who talk about switching games because of graphics. I hear alot of people talking about how thats ridiculous. But what are the real "Good" graphics. Is it how many polygons are in a 3d object? Or is it the flow of colors, creativity, beauty and heart put into the graphics. Ok so people make games more realistic, but do we really want them to be more realistic? I thought games were your only escape from reality. We dont want them as real as the real world, then it will feel like were just... in the real world? So my main point to everyone is, I think that Everquests old graphics were, better than the new ones, (and Everquest 2's, and WoW's and all those other crap MMORPG's.). Why? Well Im sure most of you have heard of the "Everquest had a certain magic to it" talk before. But I think of it much different. Games are all about the combination that stimulates a perfect mixture in gaming. Everquests spells , had such a special look to them, it seemed almost like real magic. But another thing, they matched the rest of the game. The music also matched the rest of the game. Like nearly perfectly. If we were to take Everquests music and put it in WoW, would it match? Heck no. And your thinking "Well that just because EQ is a little more of a Wizardy type of game and WoW is more of a Orc and Knight kind of game." Well then lets put EQ's music in with a magical area of WoW, it still doesnt match the graphics. Is it because I know they belong to EQ, so it doesnt match? No. Its because they had the formula right. Some games put the wrong effects, with the wrong gameplay, with the wrong graphics. Its all about the mixture, not about how "REAL" the game looks. Take Ultima Online for instance, Me and thousands others know that back in the UOR days the music and everything fit perfectly with the gameplay and the effects. And the graphics werent "Realistic and Hi Tech" but they were Beautiful and perfectly done, in my eyes they were better than any PS3 game on the market. So what makes good graphics? Its all about the creativitiy in the game, not the amount of pixels or polygons. Sure having better polygons and the such does "Help" the game, but it doesnt make the games graphics better. But thats just my opinion. So I want to know what you all think, EQ's old graphics better than Everquest 2's and all those other new MMORPGs?
Comments
About wanting to escape reality and thus not wanting to play a game with realistic graphics... I want to say thats bullshit, but at the same time I'll say its a matter of oppinion.
I dont want to escape reality, I want a form of entertainment and I prefer my entertainment to be enjoyable to look at and wich I do not find EQ to be.
Even if I would describe it as wanting to escape reality, playing a game with realistic graphics wouldnt hamper that experience as I can promise you games that AoC etc will have you doing things that you most certainly wont be doing in real life.
Never played EQ, so can't really compare things. Overall though, I don't think graphics have to be the most intense modern state of the art to be good.
On the other hand, I don't really want to play something with origional super mario graphics no matter how cool the game is.
A combination of decent graphics/sound and little things like the animations actually matching up instead of looking like a bad kung fu movie are what matters.
Honestly, the game music helps for the first couple months, but after that pretty much everyone I know turns the music off and turns on the iTunes.
More games should have an ingame interface to play your own music I think.
How cool would it be to be able to loop your favorite adrenaline pumping toons and replace the default combat music? Turn off the ambient music and turn on your in-game mp3's? I think that would be good in the long run for many games, honestly. Make your own soundtrack.
D.
Paragraphs!
I don't think think all game companies strive to make games realistic(well some do) because a good art-style can also provide the feeling or environment of a game. If you look at WoW for instance, it has a good fantasy style to it. (albeit cartoony but it DOES have a style)
Everquest also has a style; A fantasy style. It hasn't strived for realism but it has a fantasy style that I think stemmed from a guy called Parkinson is it? Anyway unfortunately for Everquest I don't think it really has a timeless style like that of WoWs, so relatively it has pretty much aged and I think most people new to the game can see that. Asheron's Call is the same, looks really dated to people coming from a variety of much more modern games.
Well thats all besides the point. I never said a game has to have crap graphics or non realistic graphics to escape reality or anything of the like. At the end of my post I even said better graphics does enhance a game. And you said "escape reality and thus not wanting to play a game with realistic graphics" which obviously proves a bit of misunderstanding of what I said. Now sure your opinion is the same worth as mine, and you most likely one of the newer school mmorpg players. By escape reality I didnt mean like lawnmower man or something intense like that. When you have this "Entertainment" and you play a "MMORPG" you are *somewhat* escaping reality, so call it entertainment or call it escaping reality, its all a matter of what you call it, which its just a freaking video game. Now you dont like Everquests graphics or mood. But what you didnt quite get was if you look back on previous posts, people wanted classic everquest spell looks, music, and player models back, reason why? Well it could be because they miss the old days, or maybe because Everquest had the graphics just right. Tell me, what would you rather play, a game with perfect graphics, 100% like the real world, but the graphics are somewhat dull and lifeless, and not much color or mood to the game, or a game with older graphics but a perfect blend of colors and music to match the game with great gameplay.
Graphics sometimes bring me to games, but never keep me there. It's content that I'm looking for. Two of my favorite games (WWII Online and EQ) have poor graphics but the realism/content (respectively) keep me coming back...
WoW has way better graphics and still runs smoother than EQ. They did an amazing job with that engine.
The redone zones in EQ look fine but there's nobody in them. I think it would have been much better to work on the PC and NPC graphics as well as the spell and particle effects. You can fiddle with some of that stuff by bypassing the patcher but modding never seems to go over well with the devs.
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Ok, Paragraphs.
Hmm, well I guess all the oldschoolers have stopped looking at the forums, haha, because most of them liked the Older graphics because they were more used to them, but I've seen the re-vamped graphics for EQ and the oldschool ones. And I hate the new partical effects. The old partical effects made the magic look more mystical, instead of fireblast being acual fire, it was more of a heatish partical look, making it seem a little more like magic.
The old spell effects had large blasts of colorful fizzle flying out of your hand, basically lighting up the night sky outside of the old freeport, now alls it is are little flash particals on your hand and then a basic weird looking effect on the enemy. The old ones weren't as good graphically, but creatively the old spells looked so much better, IMO of course. But I guess alot of the people who liked that have already quit and dont read the forums. Hah, who knows, old EQ is gone now, wont come back, which sucks, but oh well. I need to stop playing MMO's anyways, they all bore me nowdays since classic EQ has been changed, plus they take too much time up. hah.
I probably can't be considered an "old-schooler," but I've certainly been around long enough (PoP expansion) and I know good and bad graphics. EQ is certainly nowhere near the top like it was when it first hit the stage. It USED TO BE more "mystical," but now the graphics are just dated.
It's still the best MMORPG overall out there though...
I can say I'm an oldschooler and I know what you mean with the spell effects. There was something to them as spells felt more like magic rather than the feeling of abilities in WoW. Personally when referring to graphics I'm referring to the last time I had a login and that was to gfay. I never noticed it was so bad when I was playing but moving on from that game and then coming back I could instantly see it had aged. If you have an active account login there and you'll see what I mean.
I wish there were some way to get the actual original spell graphics put back in the game. They redid alot of the effects with sprites and it doesn't hold a candle to the original. So far the only way to see the old ones is to play the tutorial on the original CD.
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By they way, how do you do that? The tutorial on the original CD? Cause I have the original EQ cd.
I'm pretty sure it's part of the installation process. It might be optional I can't remember.
Careful, between it and the opening cinematic the nostalgia will hit you in the face like a two by four.
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meh, I haven't logged into EQ1 in about 5 years and I still think some of the old screenshots of zones I remember even pre-Luclin looked more atmospheric than most modern MMO's.
Agreed. That was the point of this thread. Hah.