Star Citizen simply wouldn’t be Star Citizen and would never take off if it looked like Terraria. A major part of its charm is how much life-like immersion it creates - things feel very real, not toyish, and you actually experience spaceflight and everything in between. And for that to work - and for people to spend hundreds of bucks on what is ultimately just a game - you need game graphics to be as great as you can pull off.
The assumption that you need amazing graphics for immersion is deeply flawed. We have had decades of people immersed in e.g. RPGs with very minimal graphics or even text only interfaces.
What I meant is that Star Citizen wants to be an immersive simulator, the kind of game that makes you feel whatever happens to you to be real and actual.
Terraria doesn’t pretend to be real - it’s magical and funny and silly and that’s its charm. It might absolutely be immersive - but in another way. It’s a game you come to to have some fun and wonderful experiences - not the game that grows to be your second life.
Now I make it sound predatory, and in part it is, but alas, hope I got my point across.
In my experience cranking one aspect (like graphics) up to 11 in terms of realism just makes all the other things that aren’t realistic even more glaringly obvious in an effect sort of similar to the uncanny valley or to the way suspension of disbelief is harder to achieve in a movie that takes itself too seriously.
Sure, but, to be fair, RSI has made decent work at polishing those angles. There’s still plenty wrong about the mechanics, and it’s buggy as hell too, but overall, I’d say I can immerse in SC in a way I cannot with any other game.
What kills SC in my opinion is not the “uncanny valley” feeling but rather the obvious greed and laziness of developers that essentially trapped themselves into profiting more off the unfinished game, thereby incentivizing themselves to stagnate. The game is very good as far as general gameplay is concerned - but the development incentives are screwed, and as a result, what could be a game of the century is now nothing but an empty promise or, at best, a sandbox.
I think those games hit different brackets.
Star Citizen simply wouldn’t be Star Citizen and would never take off if it looked like Terraria. A major part of its charm is how much life-like immersion it creates - things feel very real, not toyish, and you actually experience spaceflight and everything in between. And for that to work - and for people to spend hundreds of bucks on what is ultimately just a game - you need game graphics to be as great as you can pull off.
The assumption that you need amazing graphics for immersion is deeply flawed. We have had decades of people immersed in e.g. RPGs with very minimal graphics or even text only interfaces.
That’s not exactly what I meant.
What I meant is that Star Citizen wants to be an immersive simulator, the kind of game that makes you feel whatever happens to you to be real and actual.
Terraria doesn’t pretend to be real - it’s magical and funny and silly and that’s its charm. It might absolutely be immersive - but in another way. It’s a game you come to to have some fun and wonderful experiences - not the game that grows to be your second life.
Now I make it sound predatory, and in part it is, but alas, hope I got my point across.
In my experience cranking one aspect (like graphics) up to 11 in terms of realism just makes all the other things that aren’t realistic even more glaringly obvious in an effect sort of similar to the uncanny valley or to the way suspension of disbelief is harder to achieve in a movie that takes itself too seriously.
Sure, but, to be fair, RSI has made decent work at polishing those angles. There’s still plenty wrong about the mechanics, and it’s buggy as hell too, but overall, I’d say I can immerse in SC in a way I cannot with any other game.
What kills SC in my opinion is not the “uncanny valley” feeling but rather the obvious greed and laziness of developers that essentially trapped themselves into profiting more off the unfinished game, thereby incentivizing themselves to stagnate. The game is very good as far as general gameplay is concerned - but the development incentives are screwed, and as a result, what could be a game of the century is now nothing but an empty promise or, at best, a sandbox.