Realism In War Games

The Back Buffer recently wrote an article concerning realism in war games, particularly focused on World War II games. I have to agree with what was said for the most part. At the same time, I don’t really want to ever see a realistic war game. There are a lot of unspoken parts that go along with war and probably don’t need to be included in the games. The writer expressed an opinion that he’d like to see realistic gore in the games. That might be a little much in my opinion. I think too much realism would take the fun out of the game and become more of a shock for the people playing it. I saw some combat myself in the Army and it’s not something I’d really like to see in a video game. When publishers claim their product is realistic, I think they are not implying that it’s a copy of life. They are probably expressing the fact that the graphics are very realistic. I’m not sure if people really need to see blood and flying limbs. What do you guys think? Quotes from the article appear after the break.

There are many titles based on popular historic (World War 2) conflicts that claim to be ‘realistic’, though none really come within a hairs breadth of ‘realism’. No sir, I don’t think the typical 101st airborne grunt strafed, jumped into mid air then hit the floor prone and nocked out a German soldier with a headshot using a Karabiner 98K he had swiped three minutes ago.

When a developer says ‘realistic World War 2′ simulation he really means to say is ‘the Germans speak German and the Americans speak American’ (or something to that effect) ‘oh and the Karbiner 98k is pin point accurate and gets one shot one kills everytime and you can’t reload the M1 Garand until you’ve used up a clip’, of course if you’re really lucky they might add ‘if a grenade explodes near you, you’ll experience a disorienting effect, we have also implemented a cover system to provide maximum interaction with your environment’.

Now finally, my biggest qualm with ‘realistic’ shooters. Why no gore? If someone dies from an explosion right next to him why does he fly three hundred feet into the air and lands in a ditch on the other side of the map yet is still in one piece with no bruises or signs of trauma? I want ‘Saving Private Ryan’ type gore, I want to see peoples limbs fly off and see them alive but incapable of doing anything about it, I want to see guts spilling when a person gets stabbed, I want to see tanks squash enemies, not push them away. We have advanced physics engines these days, we can literally simulate water but we can’t simulate blood and flying limbs? What kind of world is this?