The truth about Realism

[Professor James]

Most of you have probably at one point complained about how a seemingly realistic game has something unrealistic. This can be for a multitude of reasons, if it's visuals the uncanny valley or the seemingly realistic game did just did something completely over the top, but most of the time it's something that would have helped you if it were realistic. Take dead rising for instance(I know zombies aren't too realistic but besides that it has nothing really else too jarringly unrealistic except for maybe the drink combinations) Somebody might complain that how they shot this redneck multiple times point blank with a shotgun but they probably won't complain about how when frank west gets shot or stabbed he treats it like a punch. People (for the most part) don't want 100% realism in their games, they want the games to be easier on them when they get in these situations.

 

[razelas]

You make a good point about realistic interaction being a one-sided issue for player's convenience, but to look at realism as "The Truth" is rather one-sided itself. What players who want realistic gameplay, plot, characters, etc. for immersion?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Personally, I don't get what the deal is with realism. Realism =/= fun, so tell me again why we want our games to realistic?

 

[Vampire cat]

We don't want our games "too" realistic. That's like saying you want your food too much cooked, it's going to be ruined. If it's too much of something for you, than it's not something you want XD.

I enjoy realism. But when I talk about realism people seem to misunderstand. I KNOW that some aspects of a game MUST be unrealistic to even work. When I say that I for example would like shooters that claim they are realistic to be more realistic, I usually mention at least a few of the specific things I'd like to see changed. I often also bring up things that I'd like LESS realistic.

It's my belief that this discussion is subject to a lot of misunderstanding, likely because of people not being specific enough. I'm not going to bother getting into the specifics of any of the things I WOULD like changed, as that's a post for a game-specific topic.

 

[Professor James]

You make a good point about realistic interaction being a one-sided issue for player's convenience, but to look at realism as "The Truth" is rather one-sided itself. What players who want realistic gameplay, plot, characters, etc. for immersion?

A couple of times I stated in my post for the most part, I realize that some people want extremely realistic games like ARMA 2 and rainbow six(Vegas excluded).

 

[Whateveralot]

Realism in games is not always interpretated as: real-life clone.

Realism can also refer to the way the player interacts with the non-realistic world around him. By that definition, MMO's are rather realistic. It has a social aspect, allows you to make decisions of your own, choose between what you want and what you don't want, go wherever you want to and/or can go. That's how I like to approach realism in games.

 

[SlyRsz]

We play video games to do stuff we wouldn't do in reality. If GTA got anymore realistic then cops would chase you for speeding, running red lights and all that stuff.

 

[FalloutJack]

You know what? I don't care much about realism. I care about physics failure. If I'm doing something and some physics failure in the game causes a completely illogical and even impossible result that makes things go terrible wrong...THAT is where the game is lacking.

 

[Zaik]

The realism issue seems to come from a world where video game developers who were at the bottom rung when graphics were ASCII are now in charge. Back at that time, realism was a bit more desirable.

They all probably learned to try to make stuff seem real early on, and now they're in charge of these large development companies in a world largely fed up with realism.

Like it or not, that's might have a little bit to do with it. It's far from the first example of what you were "raised" up being taught colors your judgement clearly that others can see.

 

[Tharwen]

The reason we play games is that we can't do the same things in real life.

However, games tend to aspire to reality because it's the easiest example to look up to.

 

[lucky_sharm]

A game shouldn't be totally realistic, but it can have elements of realism. For example, fantasy worlds with magic and mystical deities and creatures. Giving context to how people are born with magic, the different ways magic can be used, how society treats magic, and the politics behind magic. These things can make something like magic feel plausible in a world that is completely fictional.

 

[Zantos]

You know what? I don't care much about realism. I care about physics failure. If I'm doing something and some physics failure in the game causes a completely illogical and even impossible result that makes things go terrible wrong...THAT is where the game is lacking.

Physics failure before starting physics degree: Irratating

Physics failure during degree: "Argh i could do a better job with a dog biting my nuts!"

I imagine after graduation I'll start going to murder people who use bad physics engines.

 

[firstxaidxkit]

You know what? I don't care much about realism. I care about physics failure. If I'm doing something and some physics failure in the game causes a completely illogical and even impossible result that makes things go terrible wrong...THAT is where the game is lacking.

Thank you for taking putting it perfectly.

I don't care much for "realism", but if something happens in the game that just doesn't seem to make sense at all in the environment, I start caring. But usually I just take any "realism" in games with a grain of salt.

 

[Professor James]

depends on themes dead rising is a tribute/satire of George romero's of the dead series so it trying to be like a movie not real life while cod is simulating real life

I'm sorry but I was laughing so hard at that last part. COD is about as realistic as a Michael bay movie. Although the wars are real, the plots of the game are hilariously over the top. I can go on for days about every unrealistic thing a COD game has.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Chris Crawford put it best in The Art of Computer Game Design: Simulations are supposed to be realistic, and games are meant to be accessible. So, when devs try to make games 'realistic', what's actually happening is that they're turning into simulations, and most people want games instead.

 

[Harry Mason]

Realistic things put me to sleep. If I wanted realism, I'd just go hang out in the real world.

Surrealism for the win!

 

[Evil Tim]

It's said that in fiction, people will believe the impossible but not the improbable. For example, we can accept that the bad guy just teleported an antimatter bomb into a wall safe, but we won't accept our hero solving the problem by guessing the combination.

"Realism" that is desirable means "being able to make assumptions about how the world in the game works, and be right." For example, if you're sent to find food, it's realistic for it to be in the kitchen. If you have an fire axe, you expect to be able to destroy a wooden door.

Bear in mind that what a gamer thinks is realistic isn't necessarily so. For example, people have survived being shot repeatedly in the face in real life, and a player will expect nobody to notice a "silenced" rifle firing even though silenced rifles are hardly silent. "Bad" realism is the kind that isn't intuitive and does not follow our expectations. For instance, you wouldn't expect a gas tank full of inert nitrogen to be capable of violently exploding (it can, it's called a boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion or bleve).

 

[Veylon]

There seem to be several types of 'realism' going on here.

Realistic Physics: "I just killed a dragon by collapsing a bridge on top of it!"
Realistic Graphics: "That crate is textured enough to give me splinters!"
Realistic Characters/Plot: "What!? Ten more rats? What are you doing with these things?"
Realistic Injuries: "Argh! My best sworddwarf got his leg chomped off. Now he's crippled for life!"