Trivial secrets

   Ever noticed when playing your games the amount (or lack there of) in detail of the area around the avatar? Most people, unless told to analyze it, will miss it completely and just focus on the garbage that nowadays are the "focus" of a game. Little to most of the gamer's knowledge, the subtle and beautiful designs are what make the player so drawn in by the experience.

   One such example is Diablo 2's walls and floor within a dungeon, I've witnessed many overlook how the walls are torn down and/or splattered with blood to help create the feel that the idea is dangerous and that death is around. It's simple to overlook because the players think of it as a dungeon crawler and that all to be had is just kill enemy after enemy to get new skill, rinse and repeat till bored( Which a lot of my comrades seem to think with games). The worst of it is the game developers must continue to create such sublime subtle details, knowing that gamers will completely overlook something like this.  As many would ponder from that statement, "why would game developers care then"? The answer is back in the topic, it creates the feel for the game and no matter the game, it's required to let the player enjoy the whole variety of the game better. 

   Indeed, this quality doesn't get it's own category for rating when a game is reviewed because it helps on all ends of the game. If the physics are great and the detail of pushing a box in a zero gravity instance,and it will react and hit a wall, AND return (Thus proving Newton's laws)! Then the player can thoroughly enjoy as the fine tuned detail makes the player giggle with glee and think it's all just physics. Or when a monster is killed instantly and instant of the body just dropping to the ground, the body sprays blood all over the person and sticks while the pavement has an in-print of when he was standing when the crimson shower occurred. While at monster slaying, when an enemy is felled within most games, they all die the same. Either a bladed weapon or a blunt eating utensil, the beast within most games will die EXACTLY the same. And the most common and probably easiest noted is the ambience sound. When sounds that are distantly heard join in tune with the music (if you don't listen to music in games, try it for once) to enhance the player's ordeal of the game.

    While most don't expect something to have such a dire effect on their gameplay. But with all that is truly affecting the player, the subtle and trivial effects add up to be something just as important to games as gameplay or graphics.