And? Crysis looks beautiful, best damn graphics I've ever seen. I never finished the game because it got boring.

What I mean is that graphics are not ever lasting, and they are not a decider (for me) on how long I will play the game.

I've played Minecraft much more than I've played Oblivion.

And? And I'm saying due to what I just wrote...

1) Those who say things like "graphics means nothing", "gameplay over graphics no matter what", "I don't care one tiny bit about graphics"; I think they do care about graphics, but just don't say it. Exaggerating, I don't think they would enjoy playing Skyrim in 2D :happy:

2) I think it's an equal share of importance from story, graphics and gameplay. They all share a common factor to me, a very important one, namely atmosphere. And I think graphics can really help draw that atmosphere in the game... and make the game a whole new experience. To me, graphics therefore do matter. They matter as much as gameplay and story matter.

I edited my post. What I mean is that graphics do not share an equal portion of importance with gameplay for me.

Honestly, that makes no sense. I bet most people that say they don't care about graphics mean that they are fine with the Oblivion graphics(As it's obvious they won't go lower than that)
2D has nothing to do with this. At all.

This. As long as the game looks current generation with great gameplay mechanics and a good story in an immersive world, I'm absolutely thrilled.

Graphics are definitely a piece of the puzzle but I'm so happy that the team finally realized the difference between a great looking still shot and great graphics in a game. People forget graphics aren't just pretty pictures and you need great animations and underlying software tweening them together to create a great game. I've probably made 5-6 lengthy posts on this topic over the past 4 years and it's so great that the devs are on the same page now. From reading the white boards in some of the game informer videos and from the way they're talking they've really amped up their animations and are going crazy with it which is great.

Texture and model diversity is also just as important - one great looking tileset will only get you so much credit, it is necessary to have dungeons that not only look but play different from others. For instance frost traps and puzzles dealing with ice melting in an ice dungeon, fire and earthy type puzzles in a forested dungeon.

I think this hard line we draw between graphics, gameplay, immersion, and story are very artificial and we need to realize they are all part of the same experience you are trying to create when designing a game. Alchemy is great but beth finally realized that adding a billion more combinations of ingredients was the wrong way to go, instead of reinventing the wheel they're adding depth to the experience of using that system, by increasing the visual feedback it provides the player. I love that because they take a system thats been developed over a few games and instead of redesigning that system for a bit of PR they develop an aspect of it that was not given the time of day in Morrowind, or Oblivion for that matter (which was the visual experience of crafting).

I would like to point out that Minecraft is a perfect example of how people prefer game play and quality of presentation and content over graphics. It is a study in itself with that game.