High budget MMO > Low Budget Title MMO?

Do higher budget automatically mean better outcome in terms of game play and just overall experience? After having experienced a few MMOs recently and having seen some great games I thought had great promise not attract attention or get recalled really early in its infancy I started wondering to myself if developers with a higher budget put themselves at a disadvantage compare to their lower budget counterparts. Lets compare what usually happens with a higher budget title.

Better Graphics? Check.
More original Soundtrack? Check.
More in-depth character customization? Check.
More sophisticated game play mechanics? Check.

One would think that these advantages are what a game needs to become better and succeed as with lower budget tend to either do these things less or simply not at all. Meaning less crisper graphics and sound, unoriginal or bland soundtrack, simplistic game mechanics and so on. But are these really bad things that can draw attention from the game? Well I think its kinda mixed.

Better graphics = better game? Well people tend to complain that say, World Or Warcraft or Maple Story, FlyFF look dated and they're several games just as good or better than these on that simple fact alone. They don't like how it looks, meaning ugly graphics = crappy game. Well, MMOs are designed so that players can play together and sometimes in larger groups so it does help to have so and so graphics so that everyone using all computer types can play comfortably ( no frame issues ) this is not to mention free markets which are lag heaven. So I honestly think games like Vindictus or Perfect World Alienate a large amount of players simply because the minimal graphic setting still chug players that don't have a good computer, and I mean 2gb of ram and below.

Better soundtrack = better game? Well for the most part this is true, they're plenty of MMOs with amazing soundtrack that lets players explore the game world without having to worry about downloading their own music and simply enjoy the game. The problem with this is that eventually everyone begins to listen to their own music or at some point will because they don't like the music presented in the area their in. Example of this is Balderan 2nd area after Ozi Mountain. Ugh ! I hate listening to the music in this area so eventually we all create our own BGMs so why bother putting so much money into soundtrack? I'm not saying it should be half-assed I'm just saying it simply has to be consistent to the area but being spectacular isn't required.

More in-depth character customization = better game? Yes and no for this one. Most competitive players like a very in-depth character stat and aesthetics but for the most part this becomes a nuisance to many players can again can alienate players or be the primary cause of a terrible economy as games with very in-depth stat systems tend to be more on the pay to win side rather than allowing players to create their own builds. As for aesthetics, this can pose another problem as appearance options without benefits tend to be bought by a small group of players and ignored by the majority of players or players that are casual buyers making it somewhat of a money waster ( imo at least ) for developers or just become a primary source of annoyance for players. Update tomorrow, tomorrow comes, cash shop update. Update tomorrow, tomorrow comes, cash shop update, you get the idea. Many games do add benefits to encourage players to buy premium gear which makes the game more cash based than it presumably already is and is another contributor to a bad economy. Simplicity isn't always bad.

More sophisticated game play mechanics = better game? In my opinion, yes lol, the whole hotkey based gameplay is getting very very very old while older games can get away with it simply because they're older games. This ( imo ) leads allot of newer games to die out rather quickly, stop with all the hotkey 3DMMOs so in this regard, I think more developers should put more effort into this.