The Daily Grind: Do cartoony graphics bother you?

Depends on the style. I can play WoW just fine. Wildstar looks awesome.

BUT, I can't stand the look of Maplestory, mabinogi, eden eternal, etc. All of THOSE types of graphics make me want to...well, not play them, lol.

Cartoony graphics can be done extremely well: Team Fortress 2. As long as a game is aesthetically well designed, I don't care what style it uses.

It depends. Graphics like what we see in Glitch, are fine, for games like Glitch. Whimsical, and Cute, and generally taken in smallish bites. To me if I am looking for a casual romp, this style of graphics is fine, if not down right great.

The Graphics in Wildstar also work for me, (maybe the WB style trailer helped with that), although, I don't know how immersed I would ever get in that game. Fast paced action type MMO's work well with the cartoony graphics IMO.

Allods; what can I say, I love the graphics, (Although the upper tier armor is way over the top for my taste), the game world is just amazing, and easy to just fall into, or off of depending...

I prefer a slower game play, where you actually try to lose yourself in the game. For that, I like a more realistic style. If I have taken some time off work, and plan on playing 60+ hours over a 4 day weekend, then I need some kind of realism, and in this type of scenario, yes catroony graphics do bother me.

No. In fact, I prefer cartoony graphics.Not only do they often look like a barrel of fun or just plain stunning, they also tend to hide their age better than they're realistic brethren.

All graphics are cartoony.
Little kid show cartoony graphics like Maplestory make me feel strange for playing them and ultimately I don't play those games long. More realistic cartoony like WoW or Wildstar don't bother me.

I'm hardly young (definitely past the yuppie stage), but I almost got caught up with Free Realms. Graphics were cute and gameplay, while a little childish, still provided some sense of accomplishment when getting things done.

I often wonder at people who says WoW has cartoony graphics. Yes, it's true, but that's also one of the reasons it's great. It's a fantasy that doesn't take itself too seriously and it also looks great. Armour with spikes/blades larger than my weapon? Those are fun to look at and it provides for many chances to make fun of them. I make fun of my own armour in game.

"Realistic" graphics, while great, won't hold up if there is nothing else under the hood. I did not like Age of Conan because it felt clunky even if the graphics were nice. I loved Rift until a few months of level 50 and no time to raid. Rift was also disappointing with having really bad armour models and I did find the mob model re-use a little bit overdone. Also, Rift was not quite accessible in that I had problems playing until I upped my graphics card.

Maybe realism works well with first person shooters, but it just isn't as valuable for games in other genres. They do help with immersion, but games with cartoony graphics (WoW, Infamous, GTA, to name a few) do that very well without needing to be "realistic".

The landscape of SWTOR is fine, it's just the "Clone Wars" distorted bodies, Warcraft shoulderpads and plastic Max Headroom hair that I just can't stand.

I would say i prefer very stylized graphics, which often fall under the description of being cartoony, so what. Glitch is pretty. But as with 'realistic' graphics that can turn out generic and/or bland and/or all flavors of ugly, so can cartoony graphics, so i can't say either of them "rules".

Dear god yes, loathe cartoony. I think the only reason developers try this; A. to mimic the top dog, WoW, and B. cartoony is easier to make, less stressful on computers.

There hasn't been a graphic max game in a while, XIV was suppose to be, but we know how that train wreck turned out. Aion graphics are very impressive, but PVP not for everyone. Tera, GW2, SWTOR should set the standards much higher.

I have no Problem with the old ISO-look of games like Syndicate or Ultima.
Perfect World has also cartoony graphic? It looks good.

Games like Glitch i do not like, WoW withg its oversized anything i dont like.

SWTOR looks fine to me as far i have seen screenshots.

I would love if a fantasy mmo would have the style of The Witcher 2.
I think this is the best graphic you can have b4 it becomes ridiculous overdoing.

Depends on the cartoony style. Some of them I like. And as was pointed out, they have a good chance to hide their age better then the realistic texture heavy styles.

No if it's done right.

I actually love cartoony graphics with style, like Okami.

Nope, but stuff like bad texture quality and extremely low polygon models bothers me a lot. Cartoony graphics isn't a valid excuse for bad graphics.

It also bothers me when games are not consistent about their graphic style: If the game is going for the toony/stylized feel they should use that graphic style for everything and not just characters and monsters or terrain and buildings.

The older I get, the more I prefer a stylized or cartoony game. It's as though I can see through the lack of realism in a "realistic" looking game better, and so I don't take it as seriously. I guess it's sort of like going to a Halloween party and everyone is SUPER SERIOUS about being accurate with their costumes and scaring the pants off of everyone. As good of a job as they might be able to do, no adult would ever think it was real. I'd rather go to a party that is absurd.

Of course, I still love some Vanguard or LotRO. They look great. And when the game is cartoony, I like to have some underlying "adult" themes like tragedy, etc. Maybe like a Howl's Moving Castle type of thang.

Great topic!

Beau