This is nothing new, and there's been plenty of examples already, but here's another: I remember game reviews on the Commodore 64 raving about the incredible re

This is nothing new, and there's been plenty of examples already, but here's another: I remember game reviews on the Commodore 64 raving about the incredible realism of some game's graphics. An 8-bit machine with a muddy 16-color palette, and yet that awe was real. Same thing continued through the '90s, the 3D revolution, Doom and Quake and Unreal--the now-infamous "yes, these are in-game graphics" magazine cover. Now it's 2023, game graphics are basically photorealistic, and when's the last time you saw half a review raving about awe-inspiring graphics? If you have at all, it wasn't for their "realism." In fact, there's a good chance it was for their lack of realism, for a novel stylistic filter that makes a game look more like an animated artwork than a film. Given supply and time, amazing becomes expected becomes boring. It's why artistic fashions change and evolve in the first place. No one development will ever hold on to first place, but there will always be something new to impress us.