6
0
So here we are, 2022 – a new generation of consoles are on the market with new chips and plenty of promise for the future. It’s not only the consoles advancing, but the games themselves with enhanced audio, blazing performance, pristine visual definition, and state-of-the-art graphics. New trailers for upcoming games are topping themselves one after another, each showing off more realistic graphics and gameplay. But how important is all this in games today? I got together with my friend David Pittman, principal engineer for Question and co-owner of Minor Key Games to ask for his thoughts on realism in video games.
“Realism means different things to different people.”
Absolutely correct on that – prior to writing this article I didn’t know how to define realism in video games. A recent popular game highly regarded for its “realism” was The Last of Us Part 2, a zombie game. What makes it realistic? The story involves zombies, which isn’t a thing in the real world. David helped me paint a better picture of realism:
“I’d broadly break it down into two categories: visual realism, and simulation realism. Visuals could include everything from physically based lighting and shading to ray-traced reflections to non-interactive physical simulations like cloth and hair. They make the game look fantastic, but they generally don’t have an effect on the rules of play. Simulation realism would be things that the player can interact with: Vehicle dynamics, non-player character behaviors, things like that.”
Source: Pexels
http://pexels.com
So, The Last of Us would be considered visual realism, while Grand Theft Auto V would be simulation realism. While both games are best sellers, is realism an important feature to have in modern gaming?
“The value of realism is subjective and prone to being overhyped.”
Pittman would then reveal a truth behind it all:
“Realism is not always the best thing for gameplay. Developers fudge the rules of physics all the time to produce a good game feel for player character and vehicle controls. Enemy AI follows simple and predictable routines because they’re not meant to be smart, they’re meant to be cannon fodder. In most cases, the goal isn’t actually *real* realism; it’s ‘movie’ realism. It’s smoke and mirrors to fulfill a power fantasy.”
So, when you’re defeating enemies in The Last of Us, the zombies aren’t there to trick you, but to make you feel good about yourself after defeating them on the path to earning visually realistic cinematic cutscene. It worked on me! I beat that game and thought to myself for a month solid that I could survive a zombie apocalypse even though I’m short, out of shape, and asthmatic.
With everything we know about realism in modern gaming, do video games non-dependent of virtual or simulation realism have a future from here on out? Pittman thinks so.
“Minecraft and Roblox are great examples of games that became very popular while largely rejecting realism. In both of those games, the visual fidelity and simulation fidelity are very aligned with each other, and with the rules of gameplay. I think that’s part of what makes them immediately appealing, especially to children. There’s a kind of ‘if you can see it, you can interact with it’ spirit to those games; and surprisingly, that might be the most realistic thing.”
So, is realism important in video gaming? No. Its just another feature like a controller that vibrates, or a sports game with a first-person mode. In fact, as of the writing the top video game is MultiVersus, a game that pits Warner Brothers cartoon properties together in battle featuring outlandish animations and over the top combat. Realism, whether virtual or simulation, isn’t a bad thing, its just not the thing.
Special thanks to David Pittman for his insight!
Great way to break down how to judge a game and where their efforts are aimed at.