I think it's pretty interesting how alot of people have choosen 'arctic'. Can't think of many games with an arctic scene :). And surprisingly few people choosed martian. I wonder how changes will be in the next days :p
If you already know what kind of game you are going to make, then why is it important to figure out what type of environment appeals to the most people
I can't speak for BlueBeast of course, but might it be because 'kind of game' does not necessarily relate to an environment? As you will say in the last quote here, variation is important, so hes figuring out what environments appeals to most people to apply on his game :).
There is a risk that his gameplay type does not fit anyones thought of '
most loved environment' at all with lots of psychological reasons behind it resulting in a low interest and
years of hard work for nothing (...), but it could also turn out to be
the trigger to let a game sell to the largest audience... Though this question will probably turn into the everlasting discussion between '
brainless mutant firstperson shooters' (no-care about environment, care about controls) and '
relaxing peaceful adventure dreamers' (other way around) :).
No comment on this example, very stereotype, I know.don't they all prove that the environment really is secondary to gameplay, the kind of game and story and all that?
Do they? I mainly love HALO 1 because of it's environment. Not beautiful, but it's giving this great atmosphere that pulls you into it's story. I love it, and it is on top of my priorities list for a game :).
Halo, World of Warcraft and Oblivion have a kinds of different environments... Variation is quite important me thinks.
'
Sins of a solar empire' has a magnificent environment. It's a space rts game, and you're in the middle of nowhere-space. Somehow they managed to let a vast emptyness look stunning by using much environment and background variation, but this is a variation within the space theme. So variation can be made within the same theme and still keep the game very interesting.
Now to make a conclusion, I needed to understand the relation between 'the importance of environments
("environment really is secondary to gameplay")' and 'the variation of environments
("Variation is quite important me thinks")' in your post, but I can't relate them... are you even contradicting yourself?
Split personalities?
