True in some cases, not in others. Look at Counter-Strike for example (for those who have any idea what that was). Up until several years ago, its graphics were absolutely terrible yet hundreds of thousand of people played it at any given moment. The gameplay was wonderful, and people often had lots of fun.

Yes, obviously a game like Call of Duty 4 (which in my opinion, is the greatest multiplayer FPS ever) balanced graphics and gameplay PERFECTLY, and I mean, perfectly.