3 ms·

Why not cheat? I'm not looking for realism in games, I'm looking for escapism and to have fun.

digging 3y ago
I don't think this is a great argument because everybody is looking for some level of realism in games, but you may want less than many others. Without any, you'd have no intuitive behaviors and the controls would make no sense. I'm not saying this just to be pedantic - my point is that some people do want some games to have very high levels of realism.
- someletters 3y ago
  Some of the best games I've played in my life were the text based and pixel art games in MS DOS. Your imagination then had to render or enhance the visuals, and it was pretty cool to come up with the pictures in your head.
  - mewpmewp2 3y ago
    I mean yes, but, ultimately we want to be able to simulate ourselves to the truest to be able to understand our origins, which are likely simulated as well, right.
  - digging 3y ago
    I realize the thread started about graphics, but I didn't only mean realistic graphics when I referred to realism, because the comment I was replying to just said "realism in games". I do expect there's some degree of realism in your favorite text-based or pixel-art games as well. As you say, it's clear that a game doesn't need photorealistic graphics to be good, because most games do not.
Sharlin 3y ago
I didn't mean to imply that cheating is bad. Indeed it's mandatory if you want a remotely real-time performance.
solardev 3y ago
It's kinda cool when it feels real enough to be used a gameplay mechanism, such as diverting rivers and building hydroelectric dams in the beaver engineering simulator Timberborn: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/deep-dive-timberborn-s-water-mechanics https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/deep-dive-timberborn-s-...
kevincox 3y ago
The reason not to cheat is that visual artifacts and bugs can snap you out of immersion. Think of realizing that you don't appear in a mirror or that throwing a torch into a dark corner doesn't light it up. Even without "bugs" people tend to find more beautiful and accurate things more immersive. So if you want escapism, graphics that match the physics that you are used to day-to-day can help you forget that you are in a simulation. The reason to cheat is that we currently don't have the hardware or software techniques to physically simulate a virtual world in real-time.

I don't think this is a great argument because everybody is looking for some level of realism in games, but you may want less than many others. Without any, you'd have no intuitive behaviors and the controls would make no sense. I'm not saying this just to be pedantic - my point is that some people do want some games to have very high levels of realism.

someletters 3y ago
Some of the best games I've played in my life were the text based and pixel art games in MS DOS. Your imagination then had to render or enhance the visuals, and it was pretty cool to come up with the pictures in your head.
- mewpmewp2 3y ago
  I mean yes, but, ultimately we want to be able to simulate ourselves to the truest to be able to understand our origins, which are likely simulated as well, right.
- digging 3y ago
  I realize the thread started about graphics, but I didn't only mean realistic graphics when I referred to realism, because the comment I was replying to just said "realism in games". I do expect there's some degree of realism in your favorite text-based or pixel-art games as well. As you say, it's clear that a game doesn't need photorealistic graphics to be good, because most games do not.

Sharlin 3y ago

I didn't mean to imply that cheating is bad. Indeed it's mandatory if you want a remotely real-time performance.

solardev 3y ago

It's kinda cool when it feels real enough to be used a gameplay mechanism, such as diverting rivers and building hydroelectric dams in the beaver engineering simulator Timberborn: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/deep-dive-timberborn-s-water-mechanics https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/deep-dive-timberborn-s-...

kevincox 3y ago

The reason not to cheat is that visual artifacts and bugs can snap you out of immersion. Think of realizing that you don't appear in a mirror or that throwing a torch into a dark corner doesn't light it up. Even without "bugs" people tend to find more beautiful and accurate things more immersive. So if you want escapism, graphics that match the physics that you are used to day-to-day can help you forget that you are in a simulation. The reason to cheat is that we currently don't have the hardware or software techniques to physically simulate a virtual world in real-time.