18.1.4 What are your thoughts on graphical superiority vs. system requirements?

Gameplay is definitely more important than graphics... in fact, it's more important than anything else, because we're making games.

I do think, however, that the immersiveness of EverQuest... the 'wow' factor... was one of several important contributors to the game's success. To that end, technology can really be a means by which to achieve that immersive detail. And that's why graphics are important, as it is taking advantage of better and better technology. In fact, to make the 'virtual worlds' I dream about, a lot more tech is going to be needed.

That said, technology is not the only answer... the art quality and direction is extremely important (look at World of Warcraft). We're committed to using next generation hardware as fully as possible, but not using it as a crutch either. Nor do we implement some new shader just because we 'can'. And scalability is important as well... maybe a lower-end machine can't have all the options on, but the person can still play. Likewise, if an MMOG is still going to look good years after launch, even the hottest machine of the time arguably couldn't max out all of the graphics options.

Lastly, keep in mind that the graphics-guru programmers typically aren't the designers tasked with gameplay, or the content, etc... in other words, it's not zero-sum -- just because a game looks good doesn't mean it can't have awesome gameplay as well, and vice versa, or that just because some of the devs are focused on graphical goodness that others aren't obsessed with detailed gameplay.

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