Current Events > CE, iyo, when did realism take precedence over fun in video games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I feel like the SNES generation was when we had maximized focus on the fun aspect in gaming. It was pretty obvious we werent going to have hyper realistic games then, so I imagine not much time was devoted to that sort of thing during the development of most games.

Then came the N64/PS generation. I still dont think we had reached that point yet. Most developers shifted priorities a little gamers expected the games for these consoles to be 3D now. But I still dont feel like realism was the focus for most games here yet. Most gamers were happy as long as the graphics were 3D and the world/levels were well-designed and decorated.

PS2/GCN/XBOX generation.... hmm this is the hardest generation to judge for an answer to this question. Gamers now not only expected 3D graphics, but for them to be well-polished, taking full advantage of the consoles hardware, complete with smooth animations. A common thing for this generation was to make the games as movie-like as possible. Cutscenes and dialogue galore! But I dont feel like we had hit the point where realism took precedence over fun quite yet. Grand Theft Auto still had cartoony graphics, and some argue that Vice City amd SAnd Andreas are still the best games in that series. Not to mention, Metroid Prime did a great job of achieving fun AND an incredibly realistic and immersive experience, and still looks as beautiful as some modern games in my opinion. One thing that always sticks out to me about this generation, though, is QOL issues. If devs had spent as much time working on making menus and actions easier to deal with, as they had with trying to trick the player into thinking he or she was taking part in a movie, things would have been better for this generation, I think.

PS3/Wii/360.... Yup, for me theres no question that at this point, we had reached the point where flashy graphics amd making you feel like youre part of a movie were considered way more important than making your games fun. GTAIV, MGS4, the downfall of COD began with this generation. Its obvious to me that presenting the players with a fun and engaging experience was not the primary goal for a lot of devs in this generation. And since the graphics for a lot of these games aged much quicker than other generations, this was a pretty meh generation for gaming imo.

What about you, CE? What do you think?

9/11

Definitely the PS3/360 generation for me. I don't think it's a coincidence that western games took over on consoles at that point, after Japanese games had dominated for many years. That coupled with the introduction of HD graphics has led to a greater focus on 'realism'. There are no doubt other factors too, like the increasing popularity of games, and gamers themselves clamoring for such games.

This has its roots in the PS1 gen (with higher capacity discs allowing cinematic games like FFVII and MGS) and possibly earlier, but I think the above gen is when it really started to culminate.

That's not to say that what's 'realistic' by video game standards is all that realistic or that 'unrealistic' games don't exist, but it seems there has been a shift (at least with AAA titles).

games are always about fun, IMO. sure, realism can add to the fun but it's never a substitute for it.
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never if you play a nintendo game
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Tappor posted...

never if you play a nintendo game

Twilight Princess?