213: Method and Madness

[The Random One]

Hey, guys. Did you read the same article as I did? Because I read an article about trying to place real experience into a game. You seem to have read some other article about realism in games.

It's interesting the two things would be confused. Many developers, I think, confuse them as well. Now, I think that the methodical, realistic game has its charm, but the gaming companies have come to rely on them too much. A Call of Duty style game will play on a completely different set of emotions than a Serious Sam game. And I agree with guy over there ^^ who says that sometimes being able to conquer the small bad things about an experience enriches that experience; for a dumb personal example, I always played racing games with automatic gear changing because I thought it was boring, but when I first tried playing it with manual gears being able to change that felt very satisfying.

And no matter how unrealistic a setting is, it will only be successful if it manages to evoke familiar emotions on players/watchers. A zombie apocalypse has never happened (yet!) but if the piece done in this setting is done well it will show feelings of dispair, isolation, constant danger, that are certain to resonate with people. If it's really well done, you're essentially stuck in a place, surrounded by things that look like people but care nothing about you, always surrounded yet always alone, clinging to the ones that aren't like the others with the fear they'll be taken away from you - it's everyone's life.

Unfortunately, I am not, and do not intend to be, a game designer, so this read was wasted on me. Good one, though. Cheerio!

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Hey, guys. Did you read the same article as I did? Because I read an article about trying to place real experience into a game. You seem to have read some other article about realism in games.

It's interesting the two things would be confused. Many developers, I think, confuse them as well. Now, I think that the methodical, realistic game has its charm, but the gaming companies have come to rely on them too much. A Call of Duty style game will play on a completely different set of emotions than a Serious Sam game. And I agree with guy over there ^^ who says that sometimes being able to conquer the small bad things about an experience enriches that experience; for a dumb personal example, I always played racing games with automatic gear changing because I thought it was boring, but when I first tried playing it with manual gears being able to change that felt very satisfying.

And no matter how unrealistic a setting is, it will only be successful if it manages to evoke familiar emotions on players/watchers. A zombie apocalypse has never happened (yet!) but if the piece done in this setting is done well it will show feelings of dispair, isolation, constant danger, that are certain to resonate with people. If it's really well done, you're essentially stuck in a place, surrounded by things that look like people but care nothing about you, always surrounded yet always alone, clinging to the ones that aren't like the others with the fear they'll be taken away from you - it's everyone's life.

Unfortunately, I am not, and do not intend to be, a game designer, so this read was wasted on me. Good one, though. Cheerio!

IMO realism is the understandable,mundane and expected even predictable things in a game like real life fire rates for weapons, head shots or fatal or do more damage,heavy fall damage, armor dose not protect you so well, weak weapons becuse they won;t work well on fictional enemies, can't jump for sht,bland/cramped level layouts that have you running from A to B with little else to do,ect,ect,ect basically where a fun and intuitive game is dragged down by un intuitive balancing and design goals.

 

[Seagoon]

if all games were super realistic then niko bellic wouldn't be able to fit and rpg, a grenade launcher, an assault rifle , an uzi and a pistol in his trouser pocket all at the same time!

 

[Madman123456]

"Realism" has become something i stay away from. Ironically, many attempts to make a game more realistic makes it less realistic, but more importantly, hurls you out of the atmosphere and thusly makes it less immersive.

I recently bought "Arma 2" because Friends told me that "DayZ" was nice and i discovered that it actually was not. Standing next to a doorframe, i heard a Zombie moaning, which is cause for instant panic because they can make you bleed with one punch for which they don't even close their fists. So you better turn around and shoot them. Attempting to that while being next to a wall or a doorway can be hazardous because your character can turn around so fast that you can run your arms into the wall and possibly break them. If you try to turn around more slowly you can't because your extended arms holding your gun are in the way.

This attempt at realism makes it less realistic then ye olde doom style shooter because "realistically" i'd just shift my arms up instead of trying to push them through the wall. I'd do that without even thinking about it; if one would want to be super realistic about it, add a possibility of shooting myself in the foot if i push the fire button in the exact moment i have my gun pointed to the ground while i turn around.
The Possibility that my Character can break his bones when falling from the second Floor seems kinda odd to me because i have never broken any of my Bones. I did come close once when i stumbled while running and smashed my knee onto a concrete slab. Slab was broken, my Knee hurt for a week. So maybe one could add the possibility of your Character just stumbling and falling down because of stupidity.

Some realism is also lost in DayZ when you break something and heal it instantly with morphine and painkillers.


In "Dishonored" one can peak out from behind something to see Enemies patrolling with no risk of them seeing your Head because it is apparently invisible when in "leaning" mode.
In this particular game i also found the morals very odd. Just have one good ending where everyone is happy and farts rainbows all the time and it would actually make more sense then everything turning evil because you did things that the game considers "bad", instead of taking enough time for every mission that the bad guys should be dead from natural causes.
But instead, they've put in probably months of work in an attempt to make things realistic which then only serve to make things less realistic then any "normal" happy ending where the bad guys go away forever and everyone else gets to eat Cake.