Graphic quality of End of Nations

I just saw the trailer of End of Nations and found the game interesting. It is like futuristic war based game that is made available to play online. I have always been a fan of strategy games and this game has also interested me. I watched some gameplay trailers and found that graphics of this game are quite awkward; I mean everything is so colorful and bright. In war scene one can’t expect everything to be brightly colored; everything is of dull color and tries to match the color with the surroundings. Also the quality of the graphics used for terrain doesn’t seem so good; all the textures seem so flat. I think that graphics of this game is the only drawback of End of Nations. Does anyone else too feel the same way about this game?

I think that graphics of End of Nations are very good for an online MMORTS game. Since this game is a completely online game, the quality of graphics has to be low. Not everybody has a high speed internet and many people in this world still use low speed internet. If a game with high level of graphics is played on such a low speed internet, it won’t work properly and will take a lot of time for just loading the graphics. A game that has to be completely played online needs to have low quality of graphics to accommodate users with low bandwidth. I still don’t understand why people ask for high level of graphics in the game. If the game is good in concept and gameplay then according to me there should be need of fancy graphics. Talking about colorful and bright colors used in this game, then it is help people distinguish between their army and opponent’s army. You will see that most of the units are either blue colored or red. People who are well acquainted with strategy games will easily recognize their units even if no colors are provided to them. But since this is an MMORTS game, many such people will also play this game that has least experience of gaming. For such people, this color becomes helpful.

I think that graphics of End of Nations is very well made. This game supports a large number of units in the screen. To add to this, they have many animations and effects in the game. In one screen, you will have tanks and vehicles exploding and breaking down, some environmental object in flames, some special attacks that will have a special effect like electric bolts or laser attacks. I think with all this effect, it will become difficult for the developers to manage high poly models in the environment. Also it would have eaten up a large amount of bandwidth of the player. Even the effects on the terrain are well managed. After an explosion you will actually find a crater on the ground. I am satisfied by the amount of graphics, this game has and I think that this is the level at which the developers should maintain graphics at. Even after having such large number of effects and animations in this game, I amazed that it didn’t lag or give any problems.

Asking for high level of graphics are justified in the standalone strategy games. This is because such games are targeted for a specific type of hardware, which includes a graphic card that can handle high quality graphics. Also the market of these standalone games is limited till first few months. To sell as many copies of this game in first few months, they show off their high quality graphics. But the marketing scenario of MMORTS is different as compared to the standalone games. Developers of games like End of Nations have to keep the game and it members interested for long period of time that can be of years. Now these members include low speed internet user and also high speed internet users. If developers have high graphics in the game, they will miss the members with low speed internet and this hit their revenue hard. The developers invest lot of capital in launching a MMORTS game. They have to keep the members involved for a long period of time. To do this, they need to keep adding new quests and items in the game. Now to achieve this, they have to ignore the graphics of the game. Also having high end graphics makes it difficult for the developers to modify the existing items when needed.

Talking about graphics; let me ask you one question? Does Starcraft or World of Warcraft have high end graphics? These games have decent graphics which helps one to identify one object from another. But still these games are largely played by many people. It is not the graphics that makes game successful but a gameplay. In standalone game like Crysis 2, the graphics were totally high end, it had everything detailed minutely. But it lacked gameplay. All we had to do was going on shooting everything that moves without thinking or giving a thought. But as compared to this game, Counter Strike is more successful and widely played. This is because; Counter Strike has low graphics as compared to Crysis 2. It can be easily played on low speed internet and low end computers. Crysis 2 was a hit when it released. But now after many months, no one bothers to play it again.