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Ubisoft: Core gamers are STARVING for Next Gen

What do you think immersion is?

Certain games can be more immersive than others. I never denied that. That said, better graphics does contribute to creating an atmosphere of believability.

Try creating a game about New York City on both a PS1 and PS3 and tell me which game is closer to the real thing? The one where you can hop on top of every building or the one where you're only stuck in time square?

so are books less immersive than movies? they don't have graphics at all
 
Told the wife last night that it had been almost 8 years since the whole 360 limited release issues where I was waiting and waiting for my phone call that finally came on New Years eve 2005. She couldn't believe it. In shock that it had been that long.
Yeah I'm starving.
 
...I can only assume there are a lot of people in here that started gaming in 2005. Is it really that difficult to imagine what new possibilities come with new generations of technology?
 
You know what I'm starving for? New gameplay experiences. Somehow I doubt next gen's increased budgets and ever-shrinking pool of developers will deliver that.

But everything'll be double the resolution! And games will still be 30 fps or less, but you'll be too busy ooh'ing and ahh'ing over all the shader effects and normal mapping to notice!
 
Then, Ubisoft, why didn't you just

y'know

make better PC ports

because we are starving for next-gen games, and we could've been playing them by now if you'd not made shitty ports.

Just saying.

so are books less immersive than movies? they don't have graphics at all

You're confusing immersion for engagement. They're definitionally almost identical, but immersion has ties with the idea of being submerged, where engagement has ties with attention. Books and movies are engaging, but games are/should be immersive.
 
What core gamers are really starving for is better graphics.

That is, and have always been, the hallmark of each new generation.

You are going to get exactly the same gameplay as this generation but the graphics will be much better.

Games, games never change. But the graphics get better.


huzzah!
 
not really, immersion doesn't just magically increase with technology, its comes more from the game design. I would argue that realistic graphics often make the game less immersive.
think of a game like pac man. it has extremely simple graphics but you are immersed the second you play. as soon as you start playing, you are pacman, you feel fear when the ghosts are chasing you, you feel powerful when you eat the power pellet and can chase them back. the game completely absorbs you from the start and can cause you to feel all different sorts of feelings, without relying on fancy graphics at all.
Pac-Man is just a product of its time. It was designed around those limitations of being so simple.

That said, if the creators wanted you to believe Pac-man was more than just a flat cartoon character i.e that he can actually walk and move, they're not going to do it with those outdated graphics.

Proof.
 
JordanN, there are other things besides graphics that contribute to the increase of "immersion". Kinaesthetic engagement, ludic/tactical engagement, social engagement, emotional/narrative engagement.

And as we've seen with the way publishers have handled this generation, a high reliance on presentation and graphics often result in larger budgets, thus restricting the experimental potential of a game developer. Therefore, by solely focusing on graphics, publishers not only overlook other important aspects that increase "immersion", they also tend to make incredibly safe, generic and derivative games aimed at the lowest common denominator.
 
No, it really isn't. At least not for those of us who define "generation" in the engineering sense. If Lockheed Martin were to develop a new combat aircraft tomorrow with performance and technology on par with fighters circa 1970, it would not magically be considered a "fifth-generation jet fighter". It seems like only the console fanboys (mis)apply "generation" to videogame hardware this way, and that only really started with the Wii. And it's fucking irritating.

Again, there are many interpretations of what 'generation' means, and you don't even come close to having a monopoly of it in your explanation here.

Generation, in the most basic sense, simply means the next iteration of whatever hardware came before. If the Wii came before the Wii U, then the Wii U is the 'next generation' from that, and if the Wii came after the Gamecube, then the Wii is the 'next generation' of that. And that IS how we also apply it to hardware in many different places. The iPhone 4 is the 4th generation of iPhone; it is obviously NOT the 4th generation of phone ever to come out, nor the 4th generation of phone technology in general.

Developers and publishers are far more likely to use the engineering definition of 'generation', which is precisely what I was saying in my statement, than the general fanbase, which is more likely to use the classical successor sense of the term. And that is where the disparity comes from... there is nothing sinister about it, and this certainly did not start with the Wii nor did it classically stem from fanboyism.
 
Better graphics just mean better graphics. Immersion is something more than merely graphics. It's the entire package not just "oh look it's FPS 25 with HDR lighting now! It's SOOO immersive!" Reading all the reviews, COD4 is not more "immersive" and "heart tugging" than Journey despite one's obvious realistic looking graphics.

Same with movies, Transformers is not anymore immersive than the million better movies just because it has better "graphics". So argument fails.

Maybe but better hardware definitely doesn't mean just "better graphics".
 
Haha. Seriously, the Wii U is next-gen, obviously. But for publishers who have to invest engines and R&D for platforms, it only makes sense to group Wii U with PS360 and not PS4/Durango/PC. And so from that perspective, it makes sense why we constantly get this outward statements about Wii U not being next-gen, whereas fans like to argue over these terms.

So what you're saying is that third parties are biased against Nintendo?
 
What core gamers are really starving for is better graphics.

That is and have always been the hallmark of each new generation.

You are going to get exactly the same gameplay as this generation but the graphics will be much better

huzzah!
I want more destructability. In everything. Shinier graphics will be awesome though.
 
One console without the heavy hitters isn't going to help, they all need to be released with their big games.
And I think Ubisoft are very much talking about power and WOW factor. Both of which Wii U lacks unfortunately :(
Haha. Seriously, the Wii U is next-gen, obviously. But for publishers who have to invest engines and R&D for platforms, it only makes sense to group Wii U with PS360 and not PS4/Durango/PC. And so from that perspective, it makes sense why we constantly get this outward statements about Wii U not being next-gen, whereas fans like to argue over these terms.
Exactly. It's Next Gen but not NEXT GEN!!! as far as what the big AAA guys want and what it makes possible wrt gaming. That's fine but I don't see the GamePad and the slight spec jump iver last gen adding to gaming the way bring able to realise better AI, physics, open worlds and computationally heavy algorithms will do.

Different realms and that's OK, but people need to stop with taking 'It's not next gen' and 'Yes it is!' so seriously. We all know what each other means when we look at the context.
 
Pac-Man is just a product of its time. It was designed around those limitations of being so simple.

That said, if the creators wanted you to believe Pac-man was more than just a flat cartoon character i.e that he can actually walk and move, they're not going to do it with those outdated graphics.

Proof.

but many indie games now make do with simpler graphics and still are more "immersive" to me than the latest "AAA Big Budget Military Guy Shaking Your Hand in First Person" extravaganza

often times it seems like good game design is getting thrown out and replaced with shinier graphics.

also your "proof" ignores the fact that Pac Man Championship Edition was extremely well received
 
so are books less immersive than movies? they don't have graphics at all
Now we're running into the problem of "mediums".

Books are things you read. Movies you watch. Games you play.

If your fantasy of New York City is actually interacting with it in some kind of play environment, you're not doing it with a book or a movie.
 
It's been too long since I had that new console feel like I experienced with the 360 back in 2006. The Wii U didn't cut it. I want the excitement and wow factor. It's been too long.
 
I wasn't starving, but after the first teaser and appetite for Watch Dogs had developed. After the last teaser I'm pretty ambivalent towards AC: Watch Dogs.
 
JordanN, there are other things besides graphics that contribute to the increase of "immersion". Kinetic engagement, ludic/tactical engagement, social engagement, emotional/narrative engagement.

And as we've seen with the way publishers have handled this generation, a high reliance on presentation and graphics often result in larger budgets, thus restricting the experimental potential of a game developer. Therefore, by solely focusing on graphics, publishers not only overlook other important aspects that increase "immersion", they also tend to make incredibly safe, generic and derivative games aimed at the lowest common denominator.

This is pretty much what I was getting at with my earlier question. I'd like to think that Chimelarz' sentiments are that of the industry as a whole, but I think it's a lot more realistic to expect a lot of the advances to come in the form of graphical fidelity, while disregarding the game design potential more intensive processing will provide. It's a sentiment that doesn't exactly get me excited about buying another console.
 
JordanN, there are other things besides graphics that contribute to the increase of "immersion". Kinetic engagement, ludic/tactical engagement, social engagement, emotional/narrative engagement.

And as we've seen with the way publishers have handled this generation, a high reliance on presentation and graphics often result in larger budgets, thus restricting the experimental potential of a game developer. Therefore, by solely focusing on graphics, publishers not only overlook other important aspects that increase "immersion", they also tend to make incredibly safe, generic and derivative games aimed at the lowest common denominator.
From the beginning I said it's not just graphics. However, lets not pretend graphics has nothing to do with immersion.

There's worlds of difference of being immersed with this
sgE5Hwd.jpg

and this
ljqX9pc.jpg


Edit: Can't find a PS1 NYC but it still gets the point across.
 
I'm not even buying a next-gen console for several years down the line (first price drop, probably), but I'm excited about the impact the new technology will have on PC ports.
 
I'm excited for nex-gen too, but goddamn is PS3 doesn't have a killer software lineup this year. I think that fact alone will make me hold off until holiday 2014 to pick up the PS4.
 
Developers and publishers are far more likely to use the engineering definition of 'generation', which is precisely what I was saying in my statement, than the general fanbase, which is more likely to use the classical successor sense of the term. And that is where the disparity comes from... there is nothing sinister about it, and this certainly did not start with the Wii nor did it classically stem from fanboyism.

I'd say you're wrong there. Before the Wii, there wasn't an issue with the terminology because the consoles in each successive wave were more or less on par with each other in terms of technological sophistication and processing power. So even if you did somehow classify console "generations" solely by release date, console releases still broke down into the same brackets. It was only with the Wii that cracks began to show.

And while I don't think it's "sinister", I do think ruffled fanboy feathers played a role in the passionate outcry of, "Wii's next gen too!" It comes off as a blatant attempt at redefining terminology to suit an agenda to me - "Using 'next gen' this way makes my product-of-choice sound worse than the competition, so I'll start pushing this other definition of the term really hard instead." Which is annoying because that definition of "generation" is pretty much worthless - how it's designed and what it can do are more useful grounds for classifying tech than when it first appeared on the market.
 
Both definitions of "generation" have purpose and usefulness, and they both have their distinctive merits - saying something is the fourth generation of Nintendo console is different from saying something is the fourth generation of computing technology in game consoles. It actually sounds like you may be a bit guilty of what you're painting masses of fanboys with, Tellaerin :P
 
If we don't see better writing and character development this gen, I will be really bummed out. We've seen a lot of Hollywood types mention getting into developing video games, hell, even TV drama writers would be a huge improvement. Better AI and animation would be a nice improvement too. I think that's where the new technology will have a chance to really draw a distinction.

Improved graphics will be great, but I can't really imagine the $60 games business experiencing any growth if that's all that is offered.
 
Both definitions of "generation" have purpose and usefulness, and they both have their distinctive merits - saying something is the fourth generation of Nintendo console is different from saying something is the fourth generation of computing technology in game consoles. It actually sounds like you may be a bit guilty of what you're painting masses of fanboys with, Tellaerin :P

I don't know about that, Ami. I happen to like the Ouya, but you won't hear me insisting it's a "next gen" system. :p
 
They're right, Assassin's Creed III gave me food poisoning.

The only reason I want next gen to get here is so developers won't be constrained by these platforms and my PC games will get better.
Bingo.

I'm ready for new tech as well as interesting and evolutionary ideas that push the medium.
 
To that end (satisfying me as a self identified "core gamer") Ubisoft will accomplish nothing.

To be honest...I realize that developers seem to be tired of the console generation we're closing on (some Square Enix guys definitely think so) but I could stand to go for a couple years longer.
 
...I can only assume there are a lot of people in here that started gaming in 2005. Is it really that difficult to imagine what new possibilities come with new generations of technology?

I can imagine all kinds of shit. That doesn't mean the industry will deliver it. Historically the things I imagine get sidelined by more effects or Oscar worthy stories or other such nonsense. I've imagined all games at a locked 60fps for more than 10 years now. Same with animation and a.I.

I am happy that I'm still getting at least a few games every new generation that exhibit the traits I desire. Could be worse.

Also:lolimmersion
 
not really, immersion doesn't just magically increase with technology, its comes more from the game design. I would argue that realistic graphics often make the game less immersive.
think of a game like pac man. it has extremely simple graphics but you are immersed the second you play. as soon as you start playing, you are pacman, you feel fear when the ghosts are chasing you, you feel powerful when you eat the power pellet and can chase them back. the game completely absorbs you from the start and can cause you to feel all different sorts of feelings, without relying on fancy graphics at all.
Pac Man is one of the most un-immersive games I can think of. What a terrible example.
 
I'm not starving for Ubisoft games.


Edit:

ah, you beat me to it. yep, next-gen consoles already lost me, at least for the next couple years ... but then I'll just upgrade my PC to play Star Citizen.

Exactly. I'm like "eh, I better get a new video card for Witcher 3...sure it will play it on low settings, but I'll have to get around to something nicer..."

No rush.
 
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