Sad Pixels (not Sex Pistols ;)

[Colossi]

Don't know, maybe I played too much Darwinia, but don't you feel sorry for pixels sometimes ? Don't you feel sorry for using them for a long time, from the dawn of gaming...and abandoning them on a certain level of the gaming evolution, replacing them with polygons...leaving their little souls to fly away - the souls that once gave life to every new product.The souls that gave you magnificent new worlds, in this very beginning of gaming, when it was all about ideas.All about fun.It was just not that commercial yet.A child of ideas was born...And now, we' ve reached the point when we could only write our requiem for a dream - to write it in a game code, like Darwinia, to write it in a feature about the history of video games, to write it like an emotion in our memory, turning it into musical piece or drawing...To remember them, the pixels, from the time when we didn't really care about their looks - they were so pretty and so full of sense nonetheless.We didn't really care about graphical evolution, as we enjoyed every single product!And now...when the very souls of video games are fading, we are standing on a crossroad.Darwinia met past with present and future.Pixels and polygons were living together in its surrealistic universe.Their souls related...Their longing, their desire, their feelings and your choice as a gamer.It is not on the way - it's out of the way.The choice so few people are willing to make in the name of their marvellous worlds that once filled their imagination.There are things we cannot take with ourselves, but we could still keep them...And we could revive them.We could start from where it all began, and this is the way to understanding the future of gaming.The concept behind photorealism is so doomed.Sooner or later, it's time for revolution or everything will collapse.And this is still a very young industry...a dawn for this industry being a sunset for others.

[xander]

You know, I find it interesting that you can post about the sins of photorealism, and the power of simple pixels, and simplified graphics, yet have an avatar that is a screenshot from Shadow of the Colossus. There is a place for photorealism. There are games for which it is appropriate, and enhances the experience. I think that the more photorealistic an FPS is, the greater the potential for immersion (though I am sure that there are FPSes that are quite good that do not strive for photorealism), and Shadow of the Colossus and Ico would not be the games that they are without the photorealistic graphics. On the other hand, I am not sure that photorealism would be best for a game like Spore, and it wouldn't even make sense in a game like Rez.

If the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems look like nails. This is the problem with photorealistic graphics. So many studios and developers think that everything has to be photorealistic, so they work to make everything photorealistic. They do not pause to think about it, or to consider alternatives. All problems look like nails. The problem is not photorealism, per se, but the overapplication of overly complicated and realistic graphics when more simple or stylized graphics would be better. Sometimes sprites are the right way to go.

Also, I object to your contrasting of pixels to polygons. Polygons are still made of pixels on the screen. Perhaps the contrast should be between sprites and polygons? The pixels are still there, they are just serving a different purpose.

xander

[daset]

Meh, too deep for me.

All I know is that photorealism is overrated.

[shinygerbil]

Photorealism does have its place.

Just not in any game I play, apart from FIFA 2006, which has awful graphics and is badly in need of realism.

Interactive fiction, baby, don't need no sprites