Suspension of disbelief as strong as weakest link, says Entis

When it comes down to the importance of gameplay versus game visuals, the suspension of disbelief is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain says EA's Glenn Entis.

"So, the character might look great, and move great, but the interface might be poorly designed, awkward and unsatisfying, or the controls might suck," he said.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, the co-founder of Pacific Data Images referred to experiments in which movie audiences were presented with degraded images but great sound quality, and vice-versa.

The audience tolerated poor image quality, but bad sound caused them to leave the theatre.

Entis thinks that control is the videogame equivalent of poor sound in those experiments - just as important, or possibly more important, than anything else for emotional believability.

"I can't imagine a situation where a character looked good, behaved well, then the interface wasn't well implemented, which didn't lead to a horribly dissatisfying experience," he said.

Despite the fact that Entis "grew up in graphics" and had his original training as a digital artist, he believes that a great game with mediocre graphics is going to be a more satisfying experience than a mediocre game with great graphics.

He pointed to the success of Nintendo's Wii - a console which focuses on innovative gameplay over graphical capabilities.

"Gameplay über alles," Entis remarked.

The complete interview with EA's Glenn Entis can be read here.