Meditations on Realism

As I see it, there are two distinct camps in relation to realism: those who (above all else) wish for realism and those who prefer a more fantastical (where realism is not as great a concern) experience. We run into people in the other camp nearly every day. In fact, our office has been notoriously split when it comes to taste (and this is what it comes down to mind you). Zach Felling has always been a fan of sports titles, particularly the Madden series. He gains pleasure from pitting complex defensive strategies against well-planned offensive plays… by taking on the persona of a multimillion-dollar free safety or replaying World Series games while throwing a perfect game. I on the other hand, have always been more inclined towards garnering my entertainment from otherworldly scenarios. Our web designer is in my camp, preferring the ability to rip off the head of a medusa than throw a football, but that is neither here nor there.

 The humble beginnings of gaming could not be very realistic; the technology was not advanced enough to portray a human as anything more than an eight-bit sprite. Today if a designer wished, they could render every hair on a human’s head to react realistically when in game winds breeze through the locks. Game physics can be adjusted to near perfect realism; the question is, however, how far should realism be pushed. The gaming culture at large would never accept a title where if we die the game must be restarted entirely. How about titles with perfectly realistic damage? With the exception of fringe gamers, not many want to die from an infection that stemmed from a single wound to a leg during level one or move at a snail’s pace or restart the title upon death. So we make compromises…

I asked around my college campus for a list of realistic games. As expected, titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Gears of War riddled the top ten. I’m here to tell you – read closely please – bullets drop at distances and having a chainsaw attached to a gun is impractical, but I understand what they are saying. These titles have a stylish realism to their graphical quality while incorporating realistic physic. I for one (of many) would argue that the over stylized realism has deluded the market. Just looking at any “realistic” shooter, and you will likely find the same dark dull dirty color pallet as the last. There is of course hope with a resurgence of more comical art styles in shooters, Borderlands for instance. What realism comes down to is a balancing act between the fantastical and the mundane. Not every shooter should add bullet drop and destructible terrain like Battlefield Bad Company, but not every shooter should allow for no fall damage and the ability to jump ten feet in the air like Halo 3. It is all just an act of balance and moderation, of compromise and experimentation.   

Realism has its place (this much is not debatable), but the gritty realism of life is not an end all for gaming culture. I would almost rather have the market take a step towards the illogical and cartoon antics of titles like NFL Blitz or Perfect Dark, and with that, I would hope gamers would take an equal step back. While playing Halo: Reach in Matchmaking, a player was griping about how quickly a Banshee could now be destroyed, to which a second player responded without missing a beat, “It’s more realistic that way.” I laughed thinking to myself, “Spartan Lasers are realistic now? Wow, I wish I lived in this bloke’s reality.”

- Ben