Poll: Do you care about realism??

[minarri]

I don't necessarily care if my games are objectively realistic or not. I just like them to be immersive. As long as it makes sense in the in-game world and doesn't catapult me out of the experience then I'm pretty much OK with it.

 

[SuperNashwan]

Depends what elements of realism you mean. For example, in real life if you reloaded after a couple of rounds like I do ( I like to make sure I have a full clip as much of the time as possible) you would actually be throwing away hundreds of unused bullets because the mag would have loads left in it. In video games, everytime you reload it preserves the total amount of bullets, but refreshes the magazine. Even 'realistic' games like ARMA II do this, and to be honest if I really did have to monitor how much is left in the clip all the time, I think that would be annoying.

Realism in how people react to you I think is more important. It seems silly when you do something to an NPC and they get really pissed at you, then you ask them a question and they talk to you like they love you or something. Or if they know things about you they really shouldnt - e.g. games where its pitch black and you could be anyone, yet they know that YOU are the only enemy in the map. Far Cry 2 Im looking at you. Or in Fallout 3 where you know no one saw you steal anything, but the guards still say "you're a low life" just because your karma has dropped.

Is the fluffy bunny gun pump action, or gas operated?

 

[Jandau]

I care about consistency. The game world can make the rules as it wants for all I care, but I damn well expect for those rules to then be followed.

 

[GeorgW]

Games are made to escape real life, so why would I want realism in games? If I'm playing an FPS, I don't want to go through boot camp for a year of two in real time, get shot in the leg the first minute and then go through intensive rehabilitation for 6 months, once again in real time, before rejoining the game at the end of the last mission only to get shot in the head and have my Xbox explode and kill me. But maybe I'm just the only one...

 

[dowdpride]

i would like an rpg were the sword cobat is realsitic

 

[Koeryn]

Honestly, I like both.

Serious Sam, Unreal Tournament, HALO: CE, etc are fun games, and it didn't bother me taking cover to charge my shields in HALO 'cause I already did that in SS and UT (to get a respite from waves of monsters. Honestly, if you threw a shield charge mechanic into Serious Sam, I'd have been ahead of the curve).

But I also like games where one well placed shot from even the weake(r)(est) of weapons can drop you on your ass like a ton of bricks, where you can only carry two guns and a knife, etc.

I'm so used to hugging walls and using cover that whenever I play L4D, I catch myself treating it like I'm fighting in Modern Warfare or STALKER. lol

 

[velcrokidneyz]

with shooters kinda, but i like regening health, although tf2 and lfd2 are my fav shooters. but unless its a racing game i dont care, altho mario kart is fun as hell

 

[-Samurai-]

That would depend entirely on the game being played. It annoys the hell out of me when a game is advertised or presented as "realistic" but puts completely insane things into the game.

Commando Pro, anyone?

OT: I don't care about realism. Just make the damn thing fun and interesting. Keep changing the game so it doesn't get repetitive, and I'm good.

 

[Do4600]

As long as the level of realism is relatively consistent it doesn't matter to me which end of the spectrum it's on.

 

[bluefish]

If the game plays well, has a good story, and the graphics aren't horrible, I'll play it. I am not really sure if I actually like "realistic" games. Sure, it helps a bit with immersion, but a good story can do that far better than painting everything poop brown.

Though most of the time when I pick up a game I do it for an escape, so I prefer something that is a bit "out there." If I'm playing something that is trying to emulate real life, than what is the point in getting a game to begin with.

 

[MindBullets]

Realism is far too restricting. Sometimes gets in the way of the fun too much.

 

[xam883]

i dont give a flying fuc* about realism but its being used to much and when that happens createtivity becomes less and less

 

[Painful illusion]

You have a very good point in your view and I have to agree

Games were first created to escape the realness of reality, but yes realism in games are fun but to much of anything can be a bad thing. So a good balance is great but also depends on the game. You can't really ask for realism in a Ratchet and Clank game.

Huh? Games were first created as a way to simulate a real sport, how were they "created' to escape from anything?
It's just for fun. If you need to escape from reality, you need some help because your outlook on life is pretty depressing. There are better ways to live than just "getting through" life just so you can get to your video games and "escape" reality.

First off I'm going to ignore your ignorant comments about needing help on my outlook on life when you didn't clearly the message in my post and like to look down on people from your pseudo-pedestal. The first guy who created a video game wasn't thinking."Hey I like football so let me make it less fun and make a video game out of it were people sit down and just use there hands as a way to play". No the first games didnt have anything to do with any sports maybe besides pong if you consider that a sport. The first games had characters to play with not athletes to catch balls when you could simply go outside and do it.

wow and you call me ignorant?
Yes the first games were all based in reality. No it's not the same as just going out and playing sports. If that was the case, we wouldn't have any fighting games because you can just go boxing instead.
My point was that games are not made to escape from reality, if you feel you need to escape from reality you probably have a problem. You can say I'm "judging" you or "on my pedestal" if you want but it's like a guy saying he drinks and smokes pot to escape from reality. It doesn't lead to good places, it usually leads to delusional thinking as a better way to escape from reality. Don't believe me, fine. I could care less about your life, just pointing out a simple fact for you.

Playing D&D and video games are fun but when you use them to escape from reality, it's a slippery slope.

Ok I see your point and I do apologize for calling you ignorant so let me reiterate. When I said "as a way to escape reality" I didn't actually literally mean try to escape reality. I really meant as looking at video games as another outlet of entertainment. People go and see movies even if they are far from being realistic ie. Wanted, Transformers, Avatar, etc and they seem to like them. They go to see or experience something that isn't normal or seem like everyday monotony. The same goes for video games, people buy Halo, Gears of war and God of war, not because it's realistic but because in a sense it's almost like looking at a movie where the story has more weight than the realism factor and in actaulity there really are not that many realistic games unless you count sport games but with options to make the a.i. behave how you want it, that takes away the realism from the game. As for me I don't use video games to escape the world around me. Although video games and movies are something that I like to do I don't use them as a safe haven from life.

Alright I probably misread your original post, my mistake.

Still I have to say that even "unrealistic" art is still based in reality. A movie like wanted is only as fun as it is because it slightly skews reality. Guns shoot bullets, this is how the real world works, all they did was twist that reality a little to make it more fun.
Maybe I have a different definition of realism, but I honestly don't see what definition people are using. People keep bringing up MW yet that was a pretty unrealistic game, I think people are confusing "realistic" with boring. Real life is not boring, it's exciting with constant drama and violence and meaning.
Our individual lives are only boring if we allow them to be. You can create a better reality around yourself, we already do it to create a "safe" reality.

You have a good point that "unrealistic art" is still based in reality because the human imagination must look at reality as a base to build ideas off of. So yes I can say some are using realistic and boring interchangeably when talking about games, but like you said life is filled with everyday drama, just look at the news for 5 minutes and you'll see. All in all I would have to agree with your point.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

It just has to be appropriate to the game. I don't bring up the difficulties that would arise in cleaning a chainsaw bayonet, it's just fucking awesome. But if I'm playing Rainbow Six I don't want recharging energy shields.

 

[BenzSmoke]

Realism is something that shouldn't exist in a form of entertainment built on having players do things that would be impossible in reality.
Then again some games, like Rainbow Six: Vegas, wouldn't be as fun if they weren't at least semi-realistic.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: Don't sacrifice fun for the sake of realism.

 

[D0WNT0WN]

I like my games silly and my guns shooting shurikans & lightning.

Some realism can be fun but I think it is impossible for a game to have completely realistic elements without it being so hard it is nearly catagorised as broken.

(With somewhat exeptions to Flight Simulators).

I just like my games fun I dont mind if they are silly or 'realistic'.

 

[Kurokami]

That would depend entirely on the game being played. It annoys the hell out of me when a game is advertised or presented as "realistic" but puts completely insane things into the game.

On the other, nothin realistic about mario and it's a fun game.

Pretty much this.

Depends on the game, saying on or the other is just stupid, too much realism makes a game boring, and being too unrealistic would make the game chaotic, senseless and confusing.