if you had to choose one which would it be?

a great game on ok graphics? Or a ok game on crazy realistic graphics

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Starter of Controversy.

Gameplay all the way. Eventually you will get used to the graphics and the wow factor will be gone. Most of my favorite games are older ones w/ok to bad graphics. Story is also important if it's an rpg. So for me gameplay+story is the most important.

^ Agree with above, especially with the storyline for RPGs.
The FFXIII story flopped, despite it's killer graphics.
So, yeah. Great gameplay with okay graphics.

Game play > graphics.

It's a game, not a movie.

My game collection is mostly games I like to play instead of games that try to look realistic. Come to think of it, most of the "realistic" game I have tend to suck after I play through it once or most of it and I just simply forget about them....

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gameplay

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Gather my children and listen well
For this is now a tale I tell
Of summer moon and wings of dawn
Of darkest night and pagan song
The man of sorrow with no name
The fires of hell from where he came
The dawn shall rise the scrolls unfold
The cries of newborns never told
The winds of hate shall feed the fear
As deaths shadow looms so ever near
With darkness shall the world unfold
With wrath of hell and Raven bird

Depends on how bad the graphics are.
If the game looks very horrible, chances are that I won't enjoy the gameplay.

To me, good graphics are very clean ones. I think many retro games look better than some of the more realistic things made today.

always gameplay if it is a bad game with good graphics there is no point to play for instance ff13 great graphics but even after 20 hours of gameplay did not really understand it it was too random and you do not get a choice in the characters you use after around 5 years of making the game you would think it would have graphics and a good plot but it was only graphics

Gameplay. While nice graphics are nice, they matter the least when it comes to gaming.

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Doing nothing is very hard to do. You never know when you're done.

I care about the gameplay the most well if it's a RPG game but...i gotta say graphics are amazing in a fighting game lol also not that many fighting games have such a great plot ;-) ....so yeah.

gameplay

square-enix have a problem here lol its like they dont get it
we want good games
not pretty games
lucky for them they had enough money to buy enix
they will never go under thanks to dragon quest

Yeah but in Fighting games, gameplay is still more important, WAY more important actually, because in a fighting game the word "gameplay" not only relates to mechanics but to both controls and balancing as well, choosing graphics over these things could easily make a fighting game an unplayable mess.

To me the answer is obvious, especially if we're talking about "realistic" graphics against gameplay, Gameplay will ALWAYS be more important. Graphics need only to reinforce gameplay at a bare minimum to serve their purpose, anything more that should be used to enhance the mood, tone and effectiveness of the game and I don't think realism is the answer to those things all the time, or even most of the time. If graphics become the MAIN focus of the game to the point that the gameplay is starting to suffer than that's a problem, it gets even worse if we're talking about realistic graphics, because they tend to have a very short life span, as soon as a game that even looks slightly more realistic comes out, the former usually begins to show it's age, whereas a game like Okami or Wind Waker will just always look good, because they don't arbitrarily stick to a realistic style. Realism has it's place sure, but it's an extremely over saturated style these days, which compounds the problem I mentioned earlier.

In short: Of course Gameplay is more important than graphics, graphics are more akin to music in level of importance that is to say, quite important but only to the overall mood and tone and in it's best cases memorability, and ideally not to overshadow the more important aspects like gameplay and balancing.

Yeh, graphics are great and all, but when there's really no good gameplay to it... What's the point.

Should of also made this a Poll.

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You're not alone. <BR>We are partners. <BR>If you are a witch, <BR>Then I'll become a warlock.<BR><BR>- Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass)

Gameplay > Graphics

If the graphics are THAT BAD, then it isn't just the graphics anymore.

Gameplay always gameplay.

though i'm the sort of person who plays dwarf fort so i'm biased

For me, Game play on ok graphic....the most important thing is the Game plot