[Chronic Diarrhea]

I think the graphics and better presentation overall have brought in a lot more people. Take the Madden NFL games for example. I have been playing Madden since '91 or '92, and back then the presentation was limited to John saying "BOOM!" every once in a while. Since the PS2 era of Madden games, the graphics have managed to accurately duplicate the look and feel of football, which makes it far more interesting for fans of the game to see their favorite player recreated in a video game as opposed to the early 90's. That was a time when the player models were nothing more than beefed up stickmen with helmets.

[img]http://www.the-nextlevel.com/features/developers/looking-glass-studios/john-madden-football-93.gif[/img]
That's Buffalo and Washington, for those who aren't too sure.


People will say, "But for the time, that was good graphics." Perhaps, but it's still cartoonish and not accurate to real life. Compare that picture with this one:

[img]http://www.futuregamez.net/ps2games/madden06/madden063.jpg[/img]
It's a lot easier for fans to be intrigued by the atmosphere and graphics that current games can present, and this is still Xbox/PS2 graphics.

I think the reason is that games are much more realistic now because of technology and research, and thus make it a lot easier for the general populace to be interested in playing such a game.