“Games must achieve photorealism” says 2K Games boss
By Jess Colwill on August 2, 2012 at 3:36 pm
2K Games boss Christoph Hartmann has told GamesIndustry International that he believes video games must achieve photorealistic graphics in order to open up new genres. At the moment, he says, developers return to the action and shooter genre as a safe bet because portraying emotion is difficult.
“Recreating a Mission Impossible experience in gaming is easy; recreating emotions in Brokeback Mountain is going to be tough, or at least very sensitive in this country… it will be very hard to create very deep emotions like sadness or love, things that drive the movies. Until games are photorealistic, it’ll be very hard to open up to new genres. We can really only focus on action and shooter titles; those are suitable for consoles now.”
Source: GamesIndustry International
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2K Boss seems to have forgotten the hordes of pimply teens that fell in love with Lara Croft, back when “Voodoo” 3D cards were the rage, or more recently the players who had a thing for that female lead in Half Life (Gordon Freeman’s woman… as you can tell I didn’t play Half Life much).
Photo realism will indeed make gaming more mainstream then it already is and open up new genres, but I don’t completely agree with gaming’s inability to convey emotions in games (or evoke emotions from the players).
im pretty sure i’ve cried when some of my favourite main characters have died in some games.
I think good voice acting would help. Realistic expressions and movements are probably what is needed more, nothing worse than trying to convey an strong emotion, being sucked into the story, only to notice how the characters mouth seems to be jumping between expressions, or their eyes are looking elsewhere, or just talking to no one instead trying to look at you.
“very hard to create very deep emotions like sadness or love”
Because thinking outside the box is just too hard. Mixed media bitches, use it.
Another good step would be hiring some decent writers. Some games that try pull off strong emotions are cringeworthy.
A strong story and game designers that know what they’re doing do more in this regard than any executive going on about “photo-realism”. Which is pretty much unachievable with this generation of consoles and pc’s, and likely the next generation as well.
MGS.
I found Mass Effect pretty emotional.
Dear 2k head honcho, ever watched a Pixar movie? they aren’t photorealistic, but I definitely developed emotional connections with the characters, even one that was a robot that couldn’t even talk. What you are saying is not true, photorealism is not a story telling element, story telling is. Games simply need to evolve beyond the current hollywood blockbuster to become more than they are, examples like Red Dead Redemption, Heavy Rain and Mass Effect are modern day proof that all you need to tell a good story is, in fact, a good story.
Sounds like Christoph has a bit of a short range of imagination!!!
Pussy.
:D
Can’t say i’ve ever really felt sadness for characters in gaming. Not that comes to mind anyway. I don’t think he’s targeting the right problem though. It’s easy to get an audience to feel anger towards a character, not so easy to get them to feel remorse or sorrow towards a character and i don’t think that has anything to do with graphics fidelity.
cristof is way off the mark, it has nothing to do with photo-realism and everything to do with storytelling as has been stated above
The only time someone should have been emotional when playing a game is when Jenny died in The Darkness. Bravo 2K for that game!
Yep he definately has not played Journey.
What a crock, I think books would like to talk to you about the portrayal of emotion and the need for facial expressions.
elfalot,
I don’t think expressions mean to much, I fell more in love in Fahrenheit, (Indigo Prophecy), And Heavy Rain than I did with that pathetic L.A. Noire which supposedly had some of the best expressions ever.
I grew up on pixel gaming though. So give me a good story, good characters, good atmosphere and sound, and good game play, And I’ll completely forget about how realistic the graphics were.
In fact both of these titles are in my top 5 favourite games of all time.. And I’m pretty sure Fahrenheit didn’t have the best graphics, good expression etc..
“Brokeback Mountain” The Game!
lol.
Yeah I laughed at that, LOL!
I cried at the end of the first Mafia.
There, I said it.
MEE TOO ^^^^^
He obviously hasn’t played anything but action and shooters, a good rpg will pull you in all the time