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Realistic games are something that seems to be on a very big popularity wave at this time. People like realistic survival and war games. Rust, DayZ, Arma, Squad, just to name a few. But one thing I've been wondering is, how much realism is too much? And I don't mean this as in small things such as weapon balancing and things like this, even though this can sometimes be a hotly debated topic for some games.
What I'm talking about when I say this is when the player is injured or dies in a video game. We have things such as spawn timers now, and some games even have very realistic medical systems. For instance, in DayZ, getting shot once can mean you can get a broken bone, blood loss, infection, and other sorts of nasty stuff. But how much realism do we really like?
Going back to the weapon things, in Arma, it is very easy to be killed by a gun. Generally without body armor, you're gonna go down in one shot depending on the weapon. However, if you have body armor, it can take up to two to three shots to kill someone. This is partially realistic, but what happens when someone is shot is very complex to know whether they will be killed quickly or have time to be saved.
However, the real reason I'm writing this is what happens when a player is killed in the game. There are innumerable ways that different games deal with death. In a lot of kids games, your character simply flashes for a moment and then pops back with no real consequences. Makes sense, they're just kids. In most FPS games, you have a spawn timer and a menu that allows you to change your load out before you are spawned back in. But, some games are doing something different. In some of the modes on the game War Thunder, such as Realistic Aircraft battles, once your aircraft is destroyed, you're done. This is also partially true for the other modes, where the use a number of lives, or spawn points earned by getting kills and staying alive.
But something curious is, what if there was a game, you get one life. No load out menus, no re-spawns. You get one shot at that game. When you die, you're done. You never get to play again. How would people treat the game? Would people be scared to play just because they don't want to die once and lose their one chance. This is the biggest separation between games and reality. In games, you get other chances. Sure I mentioned in War Thunder you get one life in the realistic air battles. But nothings stopping you from just going into another match.
So, you have to ask yourself, at some point or another, how much realism do you want in a video game?
What I'm talking about when I say this is when the player is injured or dies in a video game. We have things such as spawn timers now, and some games even have very realistic medical systems. For instance, in DayZ, getting shot once can mean you can get a broken bone, blood loss, infection, and other sorts of nasty stuff. But how much realism do we really like?
Going back to the weapon things, in Arma, it is very easy to be killed by a gun. Generally without body armor, you're gonna go down in one shot depending on the weapon. However, if you have body armor, it can take up to two to three shots to kill someone. This is partially realistic, but what happens when someone is shot is very complex to know whether they will be killed quickly or have time to be saved.
However, the real reason I'm writing this is what happens when a player is killed in the game. There are innumerable ways that different games deal with death. In a lot of kids games, your character simply flashes for a moment and then pops back with no real consequences. Makes sense, they're just kids. In most FPS games, you have a spawn timer and a menu that allows you to change your load out before you are spawned back in. But, some games are doing something different. In some of the modes on the game War Thunder, such as Realistic Aircraft battles, once your aircraft is destroyed, you're done. This is also partially true for the other modes, where the use a number of lives, or spawn points earned by getting kills and staying alive.
But something curious is, what if there was a game, you get one life. No load out menus, no re-spawns. You get one shot at that game. When you die, you're done. You never get to play again. How would people treat the game? Would people be scared to play just because they don't want to die once and lose their one chance. This is the biggest separation between games and reality. In games, you get other chances. Sure I mentioned in War Thunder you get one life in the realistic air battles. But nothings stopping you from just going into another match.
So, you have to ask yourself, at some point or another, how much realism do you want in a video game?
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