GeorgW said:
Health bars are more realistic, but neither are realistic, as has been established. But this always irks me, why the **** are people always talking about how realistic video games are?? Video games aren't supposed to be realistic, that's the whole point!! Who would play CoD if you'd have to go through 2 years of rehab after every shot that hits you??
For the same reason that people like Heinlein and Stephenson more than cheesy pulp sci-fi. It's not so much realism as it is plausibility, trying to make the world not seem cartoony, shallow, weightless and inconsequential. People who say "games shouldn't be realistic" know nothing of narrative theory. If you're going to have an FPS that follows moon logic, you might as well turn every 3D model into a colourful cube and call it a puzzle game. But instead, they give us settings, context for our shootouts, objectives to complete, and a game gets extra praise if the shooting feels real/visceral/satisfying. Isn't that realism? Doesn't it enhance what the game is already doing?
