Poll: Realism in gaming, (where) should it stop?

[Deadman Walkin]

It really depends in my opinion. I like a mix of both realistic and not realistic.
When I am feeling like I want the most realistic game I can think of, I hop on Resistance and Liberation, basically Day Of Defeat (WWII CSS with classes) but so much more realistic.

That game is basically a one shot kill so long as you hit him in a fatal area. No cross-hairs, no HUD, you have to stop and check your clips, and can't even tell how much is left in one. The communication is limited because you can only hear/talk to the fellows in close proximity to yourself, and you can't see where your teammates are on the map, unless you are a NCO/Offizer where as you can only see your squad.

Although, the ability to kill 15 people with a silenced pistol dragging along your fallen comrade heroically to save him does the trick sometimes!

 

[iggyus]

Depends on the game. You should expect some realism in a game like Call of Duty but it would ruin a game like God of War

 

[Danzaivar]

It should stop when realism hurts the story, or when the graphics budget starts to affect the budget for gameplay elements. I'll take Wind Waker graphics over GoW2 any day.

It's not always about the graphics, a game that looks very good, say, cod 5, can be less immersive than a game like deus ex, which was released 9 years ago.

Um yeah, that was my point.

 

[Grayjack]

I'd like a game where if you get shot once with a pistol in the stomach, you will either be severely wounded, or die.

 

[IsoNeko]

The only time I felt teammates were a necessity, was during Halo when my Warthog gunner died and I was surrounded by vehicles.

If you didn't know, a Warthog is a jeep with a mounted machine gun on the trunk. You can't fire that, and somebody else has to. So you were fucked if you lost your teammate and were in a bad situation. Which of course you would be if you lost your teammate.

 

[Tyr-Elhaz]

they should make both real-realistic games and arcade-realistic games. they appeal to 2 different groups, ppl who want to actually fight and get hurt would love a street fighter realistic game, but sometimes ppl just want to frag zombies all day, fun to splatter, but smell very bad.

 

[Lady K]

I like the idea of having realism in a game, but not so much that you really lose yourself in the ingame universe. Having characters and situations that you really want to find out about them is nice and definitely makes for a good game, but keep some aloofness. That way you'll be genuinely interested in the game. But it's really fine either way for me.

 

[kobold king]

at sex

 

[kobold king]

but retarded you would die like over 9000 times then

 

[v3n0mat3]

Ok... ever seen the trailer for that Online S&M simulator (Pain [not the PS3 game] I believe the name was) for the Wii coming out soon? That's where it should stop.

 

[Nmil-ek]

Depends on the genre and how t effects the industry at the current moment where it begins realistic gaming just seems so damn boring. I want more games where i climb giant colossi and impossibly kill them with a butterknife damnit!

 

[JMeganSnow]

I prefer realism of plot--if you've got a good solid plot I can suspend a lot of disbelief in other areas. It's just when the plot chokes on itself I wind up nitpicking all of the other minor inconsistencies to death. The only exception to this rule is when writers try to use real science and end up screwing it up (Example: in Mars by Ben Bova, part of the plot involves the science team breathing PURE OXYGEN for something like TWO DAYS. I'm sorry, but NO ONE can breathe PURE OXYGEN for TWO DAYS, as they discovered with the first tests of SCUBA rebreathers when they tried to use pure oxygen to make the design of the C02 scrubber simpler--the tester died from oxygen poisoning. If you're going to put in details like this, make sure they're CORRECT.)

Some people are diametrically opposed to this, however--even if the plot is good the inconsistencies will drive them insane and cause them to nit-pick the plot.

 

[FISHFINGERS]

It depends on the game.

at sex

If you believe that "Videogames are an artform" (and I do) then you have to except that nothing is beyond inclusion in a videogame, as long it's right for the game. After all you see sex and sexual references in all art forms all across the world.

Please could you start a forum thread stating why you think sex shouldn't be included in videogames as I would really like to hear your views and the reasoning behind them.

 

[Vrex360]

I like realism, I suppose.

...That was probably the shortest thing I've ever written that wasn't just "No."

I think it probably was... this has to be a historical event.

 

[Quadtrix]

There is no place it should stop. Every game has its own place where it should stop conforming to realism. It's not a universal issue.

 

[TheDoctor455]

I went for 3/5 because I feel that there should be a balance between realism and fun. Think about it for a minute. If video games were TOO much like real life, then games would be incredibly boring or impossibly difficult because of one simple fact: with very few exceptions... 1 shot... 1 kill applies to EVERYONE.

Another thing that I've noticed with this poll, is that realism and character/plot development are either being bound together or confused with one another. Character and plot development are inherently SEPARATE from how realistic a game is. Realism in my mind is about how nice the graphics are, how good the AI is (friendly and enemy), how good the sounds are, and virtually any gameplay mechanics that you care to name.

Neverwinter Nights 2 is a perfect example of this. All in all, the plot was easy to get immersed into because it quickly taught you how many aspects of Neverwinter's fantasy world worked. And most of the characters themselves were easy to relate to and sympathize with, and the ones that were completely unlikable were SUPPOSED to be completely unlikable. And overall, the game was pretty fun.

So, in short, you don't need to have full realism to have fun or to tell a good story with interesting characters. Oh, and by the way... When I played Half-Life 2, I actually did kill most of the rebels anyway. Sometimes just for fun, but mostly because they would get stuck on something and block my path until I killed them.

 

[Pumpkin_Eater]

I don't want my game characters to poop.