Do Graphics really matter in MMORPGs?

I’ve been playing MMORPGs since Ultima Online first released in 1998. Lately I’ve been more into free to play games, but I’ve been around the block quite a bit on both the free to play and pay to play neighborhoods. I absolutely loved Ultima Online, which is was by Origins Systems but is now by Electronic Arts. After quitting it I moved onto EverQuest from Sony Online Entertainment and Dark Age of Camelot from Mythic. Two other pay to play titles. It wasn’t until after I quit World of Warcraft that I got into free to play games. The first one I really liked was Ragnarok Online from Gravity, and it certainly did not have good graphics. In fact, I think it’s safe to say Ragnarok Online has much worse graphics than most MMORPGs. It’s a 3D game but with 2D sprites. After playing and enjoying Ragnarok Online I played a bunch of other free to play games.

LaTale from OGPlanet and WonderKing from Ndoors are examples of two other good MMORPGs with low end graphics. These two games naturally have bad graphics because they’re 2D side scrolling MMORPGs. Both of these games are critically acclaimed, but they have really old graphics. On the other hand, gorgeous looking fantasy MMORPGs like Neo Online from PlayOMG and Neo Steam from Atlus Online are okay games at best, even though they have solid graphics. I don’t think there is any correlation between how good a game’s graphics are and how good the actual game is. Of course there are good games with great graphics (think Atlantica Online, Mytheon and Forsaken World for example). I’m just tired of people saying that good graphics are the most important aspect of a game, when gameplay is much more important.

I think far too many games today are focusing more on graphics instead of gameplay, when in reality gameplay is much more important. Look at Battle of the Immortals from Perfect World Entertainment for example. It focuses much more on gameplay than anything else and it succeeds. It’s a really popular free MMORPG and actually one of the best MMORPGs out there. Why you ask? Because the developers care more about gameplay than graphics. The graphics in it are second rate at best, but the gameplay feels a bit like Diablo 2, which is incredibly fun. Maybe I’m just a sucker for action MMORPGs, but I really do like Battle of the Immortals. It has an awesome MMORPG Pet system and a large game world.