The Fiction of Resolution as Innovation

I recently read an article on Kotaku, an interview with EA CEO John Riccitiello. The conversation echoed another discussion I'd had recently, in which I'd argued how more pixels can never equal more fun.

HDTV manufacturers and Monster Cable would like you to believe that to have any fun in gaming you need a hugely expensive high-def 240Hz 3D display coated in the blood of your enemies with gold-plated cables wrapped in baby seal skin. But Riccitiello and I both believe that that increased resolution is not true innovation.

Nintendo has gotten a lot of criticism for not going high-def, cheaping out and not standing up to par with their competitors in the visual department. But as I think about the most innovative games I've played over the past two years, not a single one of them has involved amazing new graphical wizardry as a key innovation.

LittleBigPlanet has pushed the boundaries of what we see as a game community. While modding has been around on the PC for a long time, Media Molecule showed just what an easily accessible toolkit could make on a console. And the charm of the dressable Sackboys rivals that of the Mario gang -- even those cute little baby ones!

Naughty Dog has shown with Uncharted 2 that you don't need to go out to a movie theatre to experience a blockbuster experience. More than anything, Uncharted 2 has made environments that react the way you think they should, with physical interactions that make sense, from desks breaking to buildings falling down, all while you're in the middle of the action. Not to mention the intense and believable characters and their expert voice actors.

And as far as cinematic experiences go, Metal Gear Solid 4 is one of the best. Kojima and crew are borderline megalomaniacs, and yes it looked good, but the greatest resolution was in the range of emotion drawn from the characters in the game, especially the haggard and drawn Solid Snake. Knowing he goes to his death, the old warrior again takes the world upon his shoulders, and you feel his weariness -- quite literally in some gameplay sequences.

Low-res games have had a massive impact as well, and have really pushed the boundaries of how we acquire access to games. World of Goo and Braid are good-looking games, but hardly need high definition. Their digital-only distribution and high levels of polish and innovating control schemes prove that you don't need a big studio or really even much of a publisher relationship to put your game out there.

The success of Flower has had the same impact, and while it is a beautiful 3D game in high definition, it tugs at your heart strings, with incredible musical composition and a message that is your own to interpret.

The recent New Super Mario Brothers Wii is only the last in the line of first-party Nintendo that eschew high-def for good fun. They've brought the quality time and again, in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Super Paper Mario, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart, and more. Each game has had the perfect formula of gameplay -- easy enough for everyone to pick up and play, while deep enough for veterans to master. Nintendo has somehow found that perfect balance of accessibility, innovating in the marketplace, bringing games to more gamers than ever before.

Yes, given the choice, I will choose HD where I can. But it doesn't make a game any more fun. Good graphics simply allow a game to be presented competently. Story and characterization, music and emotion, accessibility and community, and the actual game that you are playing beneath those graphics -- these are the areas where games have innovated in the past 24 months. And we will continue to see games that, while having good graphics, will create more believable and more fun games that do not depend simply upon the next graphical update.