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A book is not a visual medium. A game is. In a book, you imagine the environment in your head, in the game, the graphics are already imagined (and drawn) for yo

A book is not a visual medium. A game is. In a book, you imagine the environment in your head, in the game, the graphics are already imagined (and drawn) for you. If the graphics already exist, a "modern" flat soulless UI overlay just makes for a painful disjointed from the in-game world experience.

mejutoco 3y ago
Just for discussion's sake. It is debatable what happens in our heads. When we play one of the earlier pixel Zeldas, one might argue our mind is filling in all the details with higher resolution images. I can still agree with this argument, though. In terms of the UI, the game controller is also a soulless interface, and I guess one could claim it gets in the way of experiencing the game. My opinion is simply that the UI being disjointed from the game world experience might make it more or less enjoyable, depending on experience. As an example, I prefer a file > save checkpoint on a game, that gets out of the way, as opposed to one of those games where you have to go to a special place to save. In that case, for me, the immersion is ruined because I am constantly reminded that I cannot save the game state. Other players might think a File > save checkpoint menu is a flat soulless ui and they prefer the in-game integration.
- Pannoniae 3y ago
  I am not talking about "if it's pixelated, you can imagine it being immersive". Games like Tropico, SimCity 4 or Sid Meier's Pirates have fairly high-resolution icons (well, obviously not on 4K but it isn't pixel art either) which leave not much room for imagination, and they work very well. The "soulless UI" effect happens when developers try to use flat design in a game where it doesn't work with the aesthetic. A game set in the future? of course. A game set in 1700? hell no. and also if the game uses too many numbers. If there are many "+20% this, +10% that" that also feels unimmersive so the player is dragged out of the game world.

mejutoco 3y ago

Just for discussion's sake. It is debatable what happens in our heads. When we play one of the earlier pixel Zeldas, one might argue our mind is filling in all the details with higher resolution images. I can still agree with this argument, though. In terms of the UI, the game controller is also a soulless interface, and I guess one could claim it gets in the way of experiencing the game. My opinion is simply that the UI being disjointed from the game world experience might make it more or less enjoyable, depending on experience. As an example, I prefer a file > save checkpoint on a game, that gets out of the way, as opposed to one of those games where you have to go to a special place to save. In that case, for me, the immersion is ruined because I am constantly reminded that I cannot save the game state. Other players might think a File > save checkpoint menu is a flat soulless ui and they prefer the in-game integration.

Pannoniae 3y ago
I am not talking about "if it's pixelated, you can imagine it being immersive". Games like Tropico, SimCity 4 or Sid Meier's Pirates have fairly high-resolution icons (well, obviously not on 4K but it isn't pixel art either) which leave not much room for imagination, and they work very well. The "soulless UI" effect happens when developers try to use flat design in a game where it doesn't work with the aesthetic. A game set in the future? of course. A game set in 1700? hell no. and also if the game uses too many numbers. If there are many "+20% this, +10% that" that also feels unimmersive so the player is dragged out of the game world.