Enough with the Realistic Water Already

Graphics are often considered to be the hallmark of a game. The more photo-realistic it is, the better it is considered to be. An obsession with displaying water, fur, and hair has long dogged computer animated films - and Pixar became the master of these and more. Games, that have gone from cute sprites to full blown Gackt-lookalikes, have followed a similar trajectory.

Slick, gritty, realistic. How can you argue? Just look at the following shots from Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Crysis respectively. Lighting, haze, reflection, ripples. Hell, Drake himself is an impressively realistic figure. Quite jaw-dropping.

 

The problem, of course, is that all these games and heroes look the same. One gritty jawed hero is much like the next. Modern Final Fantasy heroes are virutally indistinguishable from each other, with their gackt-like faces and floppy hairstyles. Sprites had proper hair. Hair like Clouds. Compare Cloud with the hero from FFXIII. Sure, the later is beautiful. The hair looks like you could run your fingers through it. But isn’t it a bit, well, unimaginative?

 

At the Artful Gamer I recently read an article arguing against photorealism in games. I’m inclined to agree with the points he makes.

The problem is, amongst all the pixel-perfect shiny lips and rushing rivers, a great deal of style can be lost. One of my favorite animated films is Les Triplettes de Belleville. It is genuinely amazing, and part of the reason is that it has style - a genuine, original style. It’s imaginative, and it uses animation the way it should be used - that is, not to mimic real life (since real life has always done a pretty good job of mimicking itself - why spend 3 years programing a human model with three thousand facial expressions when you can hire an actor and they’ll make faces for you all day?) but to be symbolic, imaginative, mythical, artistic, stylish, and original.

The most imaginative games come when graphics are limited. I love The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for precisely this reason. Cartoonish, yes. But I love cartoons, they are so much more interesting!

The point of this ramble? Namely that games should break away from the obsession with realism, and move back into art where they belong.

Related Posts

• A Chronicle of Crystals
• Graphics: How important are they really?
• Educating Gamers: Video Games as a teaching tool.
• Stepping Away from Escapism
• WiiAware: My Pokemon Ranch

23 Responses to “Enough with the Realistic Water Already

Hazel Says:
January 25th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

I agree with you entirely. I think having amazing graphics hardly ever adds anything to game play.

Even in something like Folklore with a really unique style, the details were a distraction from playing the game.

Adrenis Says:
January 25th, 2008 at 5:09 pm

I think it depends on the mood and feel of the specific game. I played FF7 and loved its cartoonish looks - it added to the slightly-over-the-top feel of the game.

On the other hand, I don’t think that the cartoonish feel would have worked so well with say, Halo. Part of Halo’s success came from the near complete immersion the game achieved - you were the Master Chief, and cartoonish graphics would have detracted from the experience.

But I do agree that photo-realistic graphics should not always be the goal. There’s always something to be said for originality in game design.

(P.S. Typo in the third to last paragraph, 2nd to last line - “but to by symbolic”)

trench Says:
January 25th, 2008 at 9:45 pm

I love graphics. I agree with Adrenis. Its all about originality.

Atomic Andy Says:
January 25th, 2008 at 11:23 pm

Great art direction and art is leaps and bounds more important than impressive technical graphics in my opinion. Great art can create a great mood and atmosphere, which can make an average game very good, or a good game great.

Just look at Fallout. Those are some horribly dated graphics but the atmosphere still shines through because of brilliant art direction.

Daniel Primed Says:
January 27th, 2008 at 8:03 am

I totally agree with what you are saying. I am much more attracted to less realistic games with an interesting artistic style than realistic games.

Although I think when it comes to your point about the cartoony hair of Cloud Strife that there is a good reason why graphic designers have gone for the more realistic approach.

With 2D sprites and blocky 3D graphics this zany character design style looked great. But this type of hair/character design does not suit the 3D world that a lot of games are based in now days.

I think that the Grandia 2 and 3 are great examples. These games are much more realistic than the original Grandia game on the PSone and retain the quirky character design. But in the realistic environments these characters look down right dreadful and outdated.

I think that its the same case with anime as well. Some characters look cool with purple and green hair in the anime. But it doesn’t transcend into real life as cosplayers of these characters look just silly.

The Artful Gamer · Writing Worth Reading: Write the Game Says:
January 27th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

[...] Keira posted a reply to the lively ongoing discussion started by Michael over the Brainy Gamer on [...]

Michael Abbott Says:
January 27th, 2008 at 9:47 pm

Hi Keira,

Just a quick thank you for your observations here, especially the one about how unimaginative realism can be. That gets at my main issue with it, across all art forms. Realism is just so boring…and often suggests a kind of laziness of imagination. The very best photography, which one might assume to be “photorealistic” almost never is.

I love your terrific blog. Your History of Computer Games will be required reading for my students next year. Informative and fun to read. Thanks.

Keira Peney Says:
January 29th, 2008 at 11:43 am

Thanks for all the comments!

@Adrenis - I have to disagree somewhat :3. FF7 was totally immersive for me, and many gamers. Aerith’s death scene was notorious for making gamers cry. Non-realistic graphics doesn’t make you less attached to the characters - just look at Portal.

Thanks for picking up on the typo!

@Daniel Primed - good point. A better example might have been FF9, which had the cutesy, less realistic graphics but still in quite a modern, up-to-date way. I do think that to some extent they did a service to FF7’s character’s with Advent Children though.

@Michael Abbot - thanks for the compliments ^_^ And I’m glad you like the history!

Akrid Says:
January 30th, 2008 at 12:37 am

bleh, you like triplets of bellville? that movie scares the crap out of me, although, it is admittedly stylish.

R3unbreakable Says:
January 30th, 2008 at 12:39 am

You guys are preposterous! there is no one or the other, if you dont have a good story then the singleplayer is going to be boring and unimmersive, if the story rules but the gameplay is boring, its going to be un fun. if the graphics are the only redeeming quality its good for about 10 minutes of exploring. I am SICK of people asking me which is better than the other because GUESS WHAT, you need BOTH. Unless its multiplayer which doesnt need story as a necessity, or if its a mmo which needs all three as well. Seriously guys stop arguing, Call of duty 4 ruled because it had all those things

Keira Peney Says:
January 30th, 2008 at 8:19 am

Akrid - It’s an awesome movie! Totally original

R3unbreakable - I think you’re completely missing the point of what I wrote about. I’m not arguing anything with regards story, I’m talking solely about graphics, and what the focus when a game developer creates graphics should be - photorealism, or something more abstract/original. Both of those qualify as ‘good graphics’. And neither of those argues that a good story is not important.

Ronin Says:
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:37 am

The big problem with this huge focus on photorealism in games, is that most of the game studios resources go to the gfx department. Which in turn damage the rest of the game.
I guess the need for better and better graphics is the reason why the bigger studios go with tried and safe concepts, and almost never innovate anymore..
Just look at the RTS-scene, it’s still dune 2 clones with better graphics and unique features.. But there has been no “real” innovation whatsoever since the genre was created.
Almost all the really good innovative games we see nowadays are indie games that most certainly don’t focus on photorealism. Cause high end gfx cost money, which we indies don’t have.

So I gotta agree.. Photorealism is eye-candy for sure, but it destroys innovation and the artistic part of gamemaking.

Carnival of Video Game Bloggers, March 2008 @ The Collected Writings of James Newton Says:
February 18th, 2008 at 5:10 am

[...] Peney at Write the Game”. What a great surprise! I can’t wait to get into this one… it’s “Enough With the Realistic Water Already”! Water effects are easy to rave about – those in Sonic R were great ten years ago! – but not [...]

Write the Game » Graphics: How important are they really? Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

[...] spoken of photorealism in games before, and many people agree that it can be both a distraction for the designer, and that good graphics [...]

KillerCodingNinjaBunny » Blog Archive » Handheld Gaming - The Way Forward Says:
July 27th, 2008 at 7:41 am

[...] focus on gameplay itself. That doesn’t mean games can’t look great, of course, but as Kiera at Write The Game wrote recently, realistic graphics are getting in the way of games having their own unique [...]

Watch Anime Online Says:
September 8th, 2009 at 3:37 pm

I am a hardcore anime fan, like to watch any kind of anime. Found your site on google, keep up the good work.

reminyl 4mg Says:
September 18th, 2009 at 8:33 am

It’s early yet!
—————————————
signature: order prograf

Яков Says:
October 19th, 2009 at 11:58 am

С большинством Ваших сообщений я не согласен, но этот пост очень впечатлил

Sammie Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:51 pm

Success isn’t permanent, and failure isn’t fatal.

CЛAДEHЬKИЙ Says:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:45 am

Интересно написано! Надобыотметить на БобрДобр.

Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Generic Says:
March 4th, 2010 at 9:16 pm

Some scientific studies suggest that a loving relationship, physical touch and sex can bring health benefits such as lower blood pressure.

Ed tablets Says:
March 28th, 2010 at 6:23 pm

Unfortunately many men will suffer diabetes impotence before they do something about their blood sugar level. The diabetic has a poison in their bloodstream called glucose. This powerful poison can cut of the circulation in the body. Waiting is the worst things that a diabetic or person with a high blood sugar level can do. The poison in the bloodstream can eventually cut your life short.

full movie download Says:
April 17th, 2010 at 7:03 pm

Hola. Interesting commentary. Marked and will return again soon. thx

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website