Minecraft's graphics have never been impressive. Its appeal is systemic: the crafting logic, the world generation, the way different systems interact. These do not degrade over time because they are not dependent on graphical technology. A game whose primary appeal is that it looks remarkable is at constant risk from newer technology. A game whose primary appeal is that it thinks interestingly is not.

The Witcher 3's writing will not be surpassed by graphical updates to newer games. A well-written character is well-written regardless of polygon count. Games like Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate 2 remain recommended by serious gamers not because their graphics hold up — they do not — but because their writing does. Text is the most durable component of any narrative game.

Some games age poorly because their mechanics were innovative rather than elegant — they introduced a control scheme that felt novel in its context and feels dated without that context. Elegant mechanics, by contrast, were always optimal for their task: Tetris is not dated because rotating blocks to fill rows was never a fashionable approach, it was simply the correct one. Elegance is permanent in a way that novelty is not.