Most RPG fans value story and gameplay above graphics (except action RPGs, which lack substance and need to make up for it with cosmetics).
Bah! RPG-snobbery again. You find ARPG's repetitive and boring, ok. But Diablo II looks like a pile of mud on my monitor and yet it STILL gets more replay overall! You just don't get a kick out of building and leveling a character. Tearing through mobs of enemies, finding great loot, assigning skill and stat points, climbing ever higher so that you can vanquish more foes... I don't think "I want to experience that story again" (well maybe if its been a while), instead I think, "I want to build a Druid who specializes in elemental skills and can wear such and such equipment."
ARPG's don't lack substance, they just lack substance you want, like dialogue, intrigue and complex plotting and characters. They activate different pleasure centers in the brain. I don't know if you expected ARPG's to stand shoulder to shoulder with the RPG's you love and were disappointed, or what. There's a growing disconnect between the two types...I don't even think they're on the spectrum sometimes, you see this as RPG fans like you
by default avoid any RPG with the word "action" in its description, while others bash The Witcher for being far too limiting with skills and equipment (completely missing the point of the game). Still, the best games IMO blur the lines between the two...
Graphics is dead bottom as a selling point, agreed. That's why D1 and D2, Divinity, Torment, and others are always installed on my comp, while Oblivion, Rise of the Argonauts, and Fable get the axe. The latter ones look great but suck. But don't just merge the love for ARPG's with brainless love of fancy graphics - the two do not go hand in hand.
