Failing (of) Technology

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Apologies for not posting yesterday; I did actually write a post, but then my new phone didn't post it... Somewhere between the time when I configured and successfully tested the email capablities of my phone on Sunday afternoon and my "blogging by email" attempt last night it decided to wipe all of the settings that I had entered regarding email etc, and so had simply stored the email in a folder without telling me that it hadn't been sent. I had suspected that it wasn't working, but not having an internet connection at home I wasn't able to check up on it until this morning.

With a little luck (having trawled through menus and manuals a few times today, so far unsuccessfully) I'll have the email up and running again in a few days, in time to check that it's working before I go on holiday.

A news story that stood out to me today was this report (BBC News Online). In it, the chief technical officer of Electronic Arts is reported as saying, essentially, that good graphics are not enough in games these days, realism must be strived for - in the ways that environments behave, people move, etc. He goes on to say something about the importance of user generated content, which is something that I agree with, but I think that his talk of realism and graphics is a very broad statement, and shows quite a narrow focus.

I'm not suggesting that graphics in video games aren't important, but they are secondary to good gameplay or a compelling story. Similarly, The Matrix is a great film because it has an interesting story; while it is breathtaking to watch, it wouldn't be so well respected and liked if it wasn't for the story. It's interesting that a recent poll of the top videogames of all time was dominated by classic games, and that only six games from the current generation were listed. While graphics are part of the equation, they are by no means the dominant factor - all of the reviews in the poll talk about gameplay and how the game involves the player, reels them in. By saying that games need to have greater graphics and realism aren't we excluding a massive number of games that already exist which don't strive for any real sense of realism?

How does one apply realism to Tetris? Recently I've started replaying the classic Zelda game, A Link To The Past, and it's amazing. Fifteen years old and utterly fantastic, better than quite a few games I've played on my PS2 by a long way. One could interpret Glenn Entis' remarks as talking strictly about the future of video games, but even then I think it is a very restricting point of view.

What's the point of developing insanely powerful processors for games consoles if all you're going to do is make things look better? We've played FPSs and RPGs for years and years, with different sheens and hooks - give us something different!