Lack of realism in games

[Zer]

...My buddy Adny is working on the latest Marvel Alliance 2 and is getting to draw the "castle of doom" (i think that's what it's called, not a Marvel fan here) for Dr. Doom (is that his name!?). ...

There's a new Marvel Ultimate Alliance in the works? w00t!

[lordofduct]

There's a new Marvel Ultimate Alliance in the works? w00t!

I'm pretty sure this has been released on the interwebs as info. It better be or I just fucked up hard.

Yeah, here's Kotaku talking about it: http://kotaku.com/382421/marvel-ultimat ... -into-2009

::wipes sweat from brow::

[Zer]

There's a new Marvel Ultimate Alliance in the works? w00t!

I'm pretty sure this has been released on the interwebs as info. It better be or I just fucked up hard.

Yeah, here's Kotaku talking about it: http://kotaku.com/382421/marvel-ultimat ... -into-2009

::wipes sweat from brow::

Hm, guess I missed it. I haven't been following game news sites like Kotaku much lately.

[Gamerforlife]

I can agree with your opinion for the most part on all those points. And in some of your more "supposedly realistic" games it would be nice for some more realism. One thing I never got is the stupid wooden door I can't open with a bazooka, because I need a damn key or some shit. Yet just last level I blew up a giant armed metal robot or something.

But:

And speaking for myself personally, I'd prefer the fun of shootouts where you HAD to avoid bullet wounds just like in most movies. For one thing, it would force designers to get more creative and less lazy in how they design levels and enemy encounters if they weren't allowed to simply litter every area with health packs for players to use.
.

As a game designer myself, I have to say, this isn't an easy task at all.

Now yes, I do consider some of the companies out there lazy because they rehash the same exact gameplay over and over and over (most prevalent in FPS games and racers). But a skilled group of programmers and designers that can come up with ideas to overcome this kind of thing and implement it in game is very hard.

It's kinda like when I've been asked by my none hard core gamer friends, "So in 10 years, where do you see graphics?" And I respond, "I see them only slightly better then they are now... what I do see is more stuff on screen at once along with more expansive territory to explore. But graphics themselves are coming to a plateau."

"WHY!?"

Well keep in mind, do you know who makes these games? I'll tell you who, kids. Guys and gals our own age and competence. My buddy Adny is working on the latest Marvel Alliance 2 and is getting to draw the "castle of doom" (i think that's what it's called, not a Marvel fan here) for Dr. Doom (is that his name!?). He's all excited... he's 24 and has worked with me and all my other friends on art projects since we were little kids. He's AWESOME, I mean really freakin' good. It blows me away the shit he can pop out of his ass in a matter of seconds. But he has his peak, there is only so much he can do.

My ex room mate did the event scripting for Call of Duty 4, nice guy... but he never even went to school for this job. He's smart, we've chatted on occasion. But he's still just an average joe, 25 years old, likes to sit around and watch cooking shows and pet his dog.

I wouldn't call it being lazy, because these guys work hard. And a single project has a lot of them on. It takes a lot of time and money to make what the made, let alone anything more complex. And assume you generate something even more complex, now you need that group of lower level programmers to script events for levels... these cats aren't software engineers, they're scripting jockeys. There is only so much they know! And with games already costing milliions of dollars to make now a days, what do you expect?


Yes... these are the kinds of guys making your videogames:



Don't worry though, all these people I know who do this for a living. Well we spend every waking hour of the day honing our skills. We want to make that super awesome, realistic, fast paced, in your face, killer app that everyone loves. We practice and practice... and oh my God I think I'm gonna blow my brains out practice. I eat, sleep, drink, and fuck programming. Adny get's off of 10 to 12 hours of work, comes home and sits on his computer into the wee hours drawing new models and stuff because he wants to. He assists me on side projects that aren't related to his real job so we can make indie games (that have more freedom due to a lack of big companies telling you NO). You'll get what your looking...

just keep screaming for it... it'll come.

You gave me some food for thought there. Thanks for that, it's nice to get some perspective from someone who actually does work on making games and it's nice to know there are guys like you who are really passionate about this. It bodes well for the future

You're right about the door/bazooka thing in some games. I guess even the games I mentioned aren't perfect, but I respect that they at least attempted some realism. You know one shooter I really like(and it has its fair share of haters on this board)was the original Halo. I never liked any of the sequels, but I liked the first one. One thing I like about Halo was that my character was wearing a metal suit equipped with a personal shield system. This made me able to suspend my disbelief about every single hit I took not slowing me down or killing me. I also could buy my enemies taking many hits before dying because they were crazy looking alien creatures, and some of them had shields too.

See it doesn't take much to get me to buy into a game's world as being realistic, but like some have said, not every game has to be realistic. And you made an interesting point that for a lot of people it's more about the fun of the gameplay and not the realism of it

I think it would be interesting though to see years from now have designers have found creative ways to make games more realistic, without necessarily making them more frustrating to play. That's the real trick is finding that balance.

[Gamerforlife]

Here's something on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I loved the original and the whole X-Men Legend series. Oddly enough, I had tons of fun with just the single player, even though the games are known more for their co-op and multi-player

http://www.co-optimus.com/