Why do people hate realism in shooters?

[clippen05]

So I play a variety of shooters, everything from Halo and Battlefield to Red Orchestra and ARMA. Sometimes I prefer some running and gunning, while other times, (Most of the time in my case), I prefer to play a more tactical and challenging game. And whenever I read topics about shooters on other forums, almost every time the word realism is mentioned, someone follows up with, "If you want realism, go join the army!" I don't understand what's so wrong with wanting a bit of realism in shooters. If you don't like realistic shooters, you don't have to play them. They obviously won't be replacing arcade shooters any time soon.

Is there any particular reason people hate realism in shooters?

 

[CloudAtlas]

There's nothing wrong with it. Many people are just oversaturated with cover-based modern military shooter, I guess, and want to see more variety.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

It's because you'll find a lot more "realistic" shooters on the market rather than the "fantasy" kind. How many CoD, Battlefield and iterations of Counter Strike have been made in the last few years, compared to "fantasy" shooters like Borderlands?

And from a personal account, I absolutely hate dying in one hit. Nothing kills the fun of a game faster than a bullet to the head, which is why I avoid those games like the plague, and am left with bugger all to play (shooter-wise), and no-one to play with. And I can play HL2 Deathmatch and TF2 only so many times before getting bored.

 

[clippen05]

It's because you'll find a lot more "realistic" shooters on the market rather than the "fantasy" kind. How many CoD, Battlefield and iterations of Counter Strike have been made in the last few years, compared to "fantasy" shooters like Borderlands?

And from a personal account, I absolutely hate dying in one hit. Nothing kills the fun of a game faster than a bullet to the head, which is why I avoid those games like the plague, and am left with bugger all to play (shooter-wise), and no-one to play with. And I can play HL2 Deathmatch and TF2 only so many times before getting bored.

See, I'm not talking about games like Call of Duty or even Battlefield really. Those games might be based off of reality, but are not realistic gameplay-wise. Sure, they use accurate weapons and vehicles and such, but I'm talking about games like Red Orchestra where there's no regenerative health or custom classes with perks galore and such. Games that portray real-life constraints to the game, like no infinite-sprint.

 

[mad825]

Because Realism is dark, boring, depressing and shallow? The idea is to represent reality but to impose fantasy, taking all the bad stuff out of life and replacing it with something fun and empowering.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

It's because you'll find a lot more "realistic" shooters on the market rather than the "fantasy" kind. How many CoD, Battlefield and iterations of Counter Strike have been made in the last few years, compared to "fantasy" shooters like Borderlands?

And from a personal account, I absolutely hate dying in one hit. Nothing kills the fun of a game faster than a bullet to the head, which is why I avoid those games like the plague, and am left with bugger all to play (shooter-wise), and no-one to play with. And I can play HL2 Deathmatch and TF2 only so many times before getting bored.

See, I'm not talking about games like Call of Duty or even Battlefield really. Those games might be based off of reality, but are not realistic gameplay-wise. Sure, they use accurate weapons and vehicles and such, but I'm talking about games like Red Orchestra where there's no regenerative health or custom classes with perks galore and such. Games that portray real-life constraints to the game, like no infinite-sprint.

Ah, those ones. Well, it's the realism that actually kills the experience for me. I play games to have fun, no trudge through trenches.

 

[Racecarlock]

Because it's not only used as an excuse to slow down player running, but also as an excuse to limit your weapons. That wouldn't be so bad, except how often do you see a shooter where you can carry 36 weapons anymore? I mean, serious sam is still trying like hell, but barely any others try. I guess borderlands does, but I haven't played it yet.

Also, people want a fuel system and traffic laws in GTA because realism.

 

[Pink Gregory]

There's nothing wrong with it. Many people are just oversaturated with cover-based modern military shooter, I guess, and want to see more variety.

Sounds about right.

I don't personally *like* old school design all that much, but I won't deny that it's seriously under-represented in the marketplace.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

There's nothing wrong with it. Many people are just oversaturated with cover-based modern military shooter, I guess, and want to see more variety.

Pretty much this. Variety is always good. Unfortunately we haven't seen a lot of that in AAA shooters lately. The hate is more frustration of seeing the same thing rather than the realism.

 

[Clowndoe]

Might I suggest we seperate high-realism (such as Call of Duty, because it's got a realistic setting for the most part) and high-authenticity (like ArmA and Red Orchestra, for their attempt at simulating combat)?

What a lot of people seem to think is that this thread is about what I call realism, when it's about "authentic" shooters, which I'll hazard to say CoD, BF and Spec Ops don't qualify. When I think "authentic", I imagine ArmA or Red Orchestra series, among others.

I think for a lot of people just have the wrong idea when they think about "authentic" shooters. They think it's about walking a mile and then getting shot by someone you didn't see. Even if you actually try, say, Red Orchestra, odds are getting picked off every time you run a bit too far might make it seem like you're supposed to be hiding all the time, so you give up thinking it's boring.

Obviously there are just people for whom it's not their thing, seeing as fun isn't a quantifiable value. I can enjoy watching hockey and curling but not soccer, so it's only fair to say it works that way in other domains for other people.

But when someone says "Just join the army if you want realism," well, dudebros gonna dudebro.

Although in my experience, once you learn the dos and don'ts, having high authenticity is way more intense than, say, Halo. Just the feeling that out of all your squad-mates who were moving in with you and two of your buddies avoided enemy fire and are now clearing a building room-by-room with your bayonet and a handful of grenades. Or furiously spraying your .30 cal while the Japanese team makes its final desperate banzai before the time runs out, only to notice your gun is starting to smoke and wonder if you have time to change your barrel. Nothing makes me harder.

 

[CloudAtlas]

There's nothing wrong with it. Many people are just oversaturated with cover-based modern military shooter, I guess, and want to see more variety.

Sounds about right.

I don't personally *like* old school design all that much, but I won't deny that it's seriously under-represented in the marketplace.

Neither do I. I gravitate towards games that aim for a "realistic" (probably not the best word. Immersive, credible maybe?) feeling in their narrative, and if those games include guns, slower, tactical, cover-based combat is, I think, just the gold standard to achieve this feeling.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I suppose realism limits the creative or 'new' factor that unrealistic FPSs can do. You'll never see a realistic game use bunnyhopping, skiing, double jumps, or cool weapons that can shoot healing bullets or knives or something. A lot of realistic games don't typically use potentially realistic things like jetpacks, multi-shot rocket launchers, invisibility, or lightning weaponry.

It plays the same, a lot of people say. Movement is kind of slow, death comes very suddenly, teamwork is generally hard without anyone having set class roles, weapons are identical to one another in function and power, combat will be slightly disorienting, short, and frustrating, and it's often times not realistic enough to be immersive.

It's like getting mad at an episode of Band of Brothers for not using James Bond style gadgets. You're not expecting it, but it'd be really, really cool if it did happen.

Personally, I like them. Mix and match. My favorite game, TF2, is obviously a cartoon shooter, but my second most played (Battlefield and Killing Floor) are grounded in many roots of realism. Some of the realistic gimmicks that some FPSs have is enough to draw me in -- like tank driving in RO2 or ammo checking in the Source mod No More Room in Hell.

 

[Hero of Lime]

I don't mind the "realistic" shooters much. Like everyone else here, there comes a point when you see a sub genre become the standard for almost the rest of the genre, and you have to say enough is enough. We've seen it done enough times we don;t need any more for a while unless they intend to innovate the genre as a whole.

I'm a fan of things being more fantastic anyway, realism is nice, but I prefer to see things in games that would not fit in the real world, and unfortunately these games based on realism try to bring the real world into our TV screen.

 

[emeraldrafael]

PRobably cause they dont like one shot deaths, a fixed health, or any of that realistic stuff. I mean, the only shooter I play like that was SWBF2, and thats cause it was in a fantasy setting. Personally I like the sillier ones or ones that take place in brightly coloured fantasy worlds. Its boring to see more of the brown, gray, and camo colours as games continue to focus on the real.

I guess thats aslo why I like Jrpgs so much

 

[Billy D Williams]

Well, considering there is no such thing as a realistic FPS I guess you can't complain to much about them.

Seriously, show me the FPS where as a sniper you sit down bored out of your skull for 9 hours waiting for a perfect shot, where your in the middle of the desert riding around looking for IEDs, where one bullet makes you unable to fight and if your lucky you can get back to the hospital, have months of physical therapy and be able to walk again, etc. etc. etc.

Not to say adding some aspects of realism is bad, it can be used to good effect like adding immersion or depth to gameplay.

 

[Xdeser2]

The hatred of it is more of a backlash against the over saturation of "Realistic" shooters in the last few years.

Personally? I really dont mind it.

 

[Mullac]

I don't just dislike realism in shooters, I don't really like realism in games at all. A lot of the time developers restrict themselves by being realistic which affects the gameplay, usually dulling it down (this is more the case with the Battlefield type games). In the case of Red Orchestra I could understand that the realism was, in a way, a key aspect of the game...but it just made it bad. I didn't use tactics, more just hoping for the best as it wasn't realistic enough for me to do so, or wasn't designed well enough for me to do so. Also it became frustrating. I would spend ages walking, taking cover and finally making a move...before facing an enemy who just happened to have quicker reaction times...annoying.

 

[Something Amyss]

"If you want realism, go join the army!"

That always annoys me. I don't want to go around actually shooting people, or training to shoot people, or training for the military, period.

Still, this is the reason:

It's because you'll find a lot more "realistic" shooters on the market rather than the "fantasy" kind. How many CoD, Battlefield and iterations of Counter Strike have been made in the last few years, compared to "fantasy" shooters like Borderlands?

People often tend to associate "realistic" with "slow," "clunky," or even "non-functional."

And yes, I read where TC says he's talking about other types of games, but this is what most people think of after years of the word "realistic" being used as nothing more than a buzzword for the latest shooter porn.

On that note, however, I prefer games to be unrealistic most of the time. I don't begrudge people for disagreeing with me, as taste is individual (I like broccoli). It's just....I want fun.