2K: New Genres Impossible Without Photorealism

[scotth266]

The man has a point. Getting animations down properly is a big part of getting people to connect with characters, especially when it comes to the face: the eyes in particular are difficult to do properly without breaking immersion. Once we have photorealism, then we'll have to focus more on things like crafting characters properly instead: it'll be a real step forward in the narrative process, I think.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

This is a guy who could stand to dip his toes in the indie market, a little. I've played flash games that were good at conveying emotions. If your games can't convey emotions, it isn't a problem with the graphics.

 

[samahain]

The man has a point. Getting animations down properly is a big part of getting people to connect with characters, especially when it comes to the face: the eyes in particular are difficult to do properly without breaking immersion. Once we have photorealism, then we'll have to focus more on things like crafting characters properly instead: it'll be a real step forward in the narrative process, I think.

Sure it won't hurt. Still, people who won't/can't connect to the joys & miseries of the little critter on screen probably won't develop any sense of empathy overnight. Give hair & fur modifiers to Marcus Phoenix all you want...

But if it could end the shooting genre, or at least cause it to mature, it would be worth it.

 

[algalon]

Photorealism?

Got that.

Even with Quantic Dream and others pulling their way out of uncanny valley, it's not exactly necessary to elicit emotional response. Look at the Bioshock series - games that are cartoonish, styleized, and question the basic fundamentals that society is built on. I get the argument - that emotions can't be expressed properly without being subtle in the changes - but gamers do not need that amount of graphic fidelity to have their "Ghost" or their "Titanic".

 

[Smokescreen]

Sounds like bullshit to me. An excuse to disregard innovative gameplay for shiny pretty.

Took the words right out of my mouth... so, could you saty out of there?

Anyways, I think its not the graphical limitation as much as the mental limitation, and by that, I mean the mentality behind things. I think it is possible to make an emotionally engaging game that also happens to be fun to play, what matters is actually delivering that story. And I dont think photo-realistic graphics is the only means of doing this.

Will do my best. It's dark and kinda dry in there anyway...

 

[coolkirb]

I cant help but feel his point is proved invalid by books, comic books, anime, cartoons, and interactive video novel type games like Myst and 999.

 

[Alterego-X]

HAHAHAHA I can disprove the "you need photorealism to invoke emotion" in just two letters:

Up

Nice example. With a bit more letters, (two words), I can give an even better one, that is almost a video game:

Katawa Shoujo.

Though I admit that that he might be right about MAINSTREAM acceptance of dramatic games. It's probably no accident that all these mediums that use non-photorealistic characters, like comic books, cartoons, anime, video games, are all considered either too childish or nerdy to be taken seriously by the average viewer.

There is just something about simplified character faces that people with mature social skills demand, but they are still good enough for a certain audience.

 

[RatRace123]

"It will be very hard to create very deep emotions like sadness or love, things that drive the movies."

Umm, no it won't be.
In fact we can create things like that right now. Writing, acting, music, atmosphere are much more conducive to crafting emotion than shiny graphics.

If graphics were truly essential for creating emotions, than why has this scene made so many people cry?

Spoiler

 

[GAunderrated]

What I find so funny about this article is the majority of games that I have had emotional reactions too are games that look the least realistic but had great story, characterization, or atmosphere. Problem with always going for realism is until you perfect it (which we haven't yet)we will have to sit through tons of uncanney valley moments that invoke no emotion just disconnect.

captcha: riff-raff. Yes the guy from 2k sure is that captcha. Good eye.

 

[IndianaJonny]

Hartmann claims that the problem revolves around empathy, or lack thereof. Speaking in an interview with GamesIndustry, he said that videogames are still inferior to movies in terms of conveying emotions, particularly the ones that drive characters and let the audience connect with the people on the screen.

Has this mug played Journey?

 

[Blind Sight]

The hell? Photorealism is the only way to convey empathy and deep emotions? And he sources movies as an example?

...Did I slip into some bizarre alternative universe where books never existed?

 

[Scorpid]

I disagree in a way. Games lack from the ability to make the high fidelity games like CoD cheaply. Engines are expensive, programmers are expensive, Publishing is expensive, buying models is expensive (Which is what you do when you're a developer on a budget). The graphics are here the price point simply isn't. Every developer that can afford these things needs to sell like a movie blockbuster. There can't be a indie market that can do an emotionally driven game like the type he's talking about because no studio can be even reasonably be assured that the audience will be there. It's why Niche indie games usually go for side scrolling metroidvania, or stats driven games like Paradox and Stardock. You want Broke Back mountain make it cheaper to make games that can even approach triple AAA quality mark graphically speaking. Though I think were getting there.

 

[Scorpid]

The hell? Photorealism is the only way to convey empathy and deep emotions? And he sources movies as an example?

...Did I slip into some bizarre alternative universe where books never existed?

Also I agree graphics are not the most important thing in conveying emotions at that level. Good writing is.

 

[MrGrey]

Now I grew up with the original Playstation and the Gameboy so I may have been too late for the things I'm thinking of, but before games even did things like FFVII weren't there also games that literally used live action footage for cutscenes? If you really want your photorealism so much why don't you try reviving that to save cost. You WILL crash and burn but we'll all have a good laugh at your expense. You think it's hard to sell $60 games now just try and do a AAA game that can be quite aptly described as $20 game merged with a bargain bin DVD, alright bargain bin BluRay.

However for the sake of discussion maybe someone would like to seriously consider the idea of splicing in live action footage for perceived emotional weight?

 

[weirdee]

two words: fry's dog

his heart must be an icy cage if he needs photorealism

 

[Legion]

Let's see.

The intro of Bioshock 2.
The ending of Half Life 2: Episode 2.
The climax of the Geth/Quarian war in Mass Effect 3.

Let's not forget cartoons, anime, books and all other media's that don't rely on visuals to convey emotion.

The reason so many games fail to elicit emotion is because they are trying to engage us in other areas. Games such as Halo and Call of Duty are not really designed to tug at the heartstrings. The same way films such as The Expendables and action movies in general aren't.

 

[Baresark]

That is the dumbest thing I have heard. He is claiming lack of innovation or emotional story telling on poor graphics. Since the last generation, what a game can do has reached it's epitome, the only thing holding back design is the lack of the developers personal vision, there is nothing that cannot be done. That is not to say that things can't be improved from here on out though. Graphics can improve, especially when you compare modern PC's to the PS3 or 360. But improving the graphics won't mean any kind of innovation at this point.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Really? Graphics have to be photo-realistic in order for us humans to be able to draw emotions from what's on screen? Huh, seems Pixar didn't get that memo considering that 10 minutes of one of their ANIMATED MOVIES has more emotional impact on than pretty much any full acted academy award winning drama EVER.

Christoph Hartmann, you are completely full of shit.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I think he's got that ass-backwards. I think it's the pursuit of graphical perfection that is killing all the new ideas.

 

[Jodan]

so because we dont have a holodeck is the reason that we dont have drama games or very many thriller games, and were stuck with action and adventure games.

it all depends on what kind of expiriance the player wants. npc's can be empathised with in 2d or even being text based, as long as they are believable and 3 dimentional in terms of character.

i agree a holodeck would allow for anyform of story telling but using only the tools available has created some interesting and unique stuf on its own. why strive to copy other media.