[D] Gameplay over Graphics anyday (HOT!)

Why aren't games these days as fun as the games during the last generation? One explanation may be the evolution of graphics. Remember the Game Boy Advance games? when games were made just for fun? Those were the days right? Yeah of course, that's one of the reason why we started playing games.. Because we were playing games what video games was made for.. to have fun.
Now that Game Boy Advance is dead, most casual players seems to go toward for the App games from Apple as an alternative from the dead GBA generation. For me though, I started playing during the PS1 / family computer generation. It's amazing how gaming evolved, but some components of gaming are also dieing. Not necessarily dieing, but overlooked.

The real concern is in the console's part. It seems that some developers and players have a mentality that good graphics = good games. Just think of it this way, if the game's graphics overtakes the priority of gameplay, then gameplay will be sacrificed and loses its purpose. Framerate will drop, disk space will be exploding high, and screen tear will be a possibility. Unless you're a PC gamer with a nice gaming rig, you may find none of those problem, but in the end, was it worth playing the game and buying an expensive gaming rig? Its ambiguous.
You may not know this but Call of Duty does not have nice graphics. You know how you can tell? if you look at the textures. They got the resolution right but the graphics aren't that good, yet the game is fun. Some people may believe falsely with this, but I am confident with this notion. Also, COD maintains a really nice frame rate, so it also gives off an illusion of nice graphics.

Graphics are mainly first interpretation, while gameplay is forever. 


Evolution of graphics in video games are progressing a little too fast. Because of this progression, some companies have to cope with this transition. Instead of concentrating for a funner game, they have to instead, think of a way how to catch up graphically. In sacrifice, Gameplay starts getting stale. 

BUT, if a company can progress both gameplay and graphics at the same pace. They can still produce good games. In the end, it's a balance. But conceptually, always think of the gameplay first. Because graphics in a game is only the appearance, not the core. 
(I was actually a bit sleepy when I wrote this. May make a second part to make the topic stronger)