Really unrealistic_

Digital games range from nonsensical premises to lifelike simulations, much to the entertainment of everyone, and although the people who play them know they’re not real, not really, there is something that is able to hook gamers.

So what is it? A reality check.

I don’t know any games without a hint of reality in them. I’m in no way a gaming expert or even a prolific gamer, I tend to stick to a select few genres, but I’m a woman of science, and I know my way around some laws of physics and mathematics, essential to our real lives, and, by extension, games.

Note that in games realism is not just what we see that looks real, but also the mechanics, how the game world interacts with us and how we interact with the game world. And that is why even the most unrealistic games have realism in them. Maybe not graphical or plot realism, but definitely mechanical realism, as game mechanics is defined by programming and programming is defined by math. Don’t believe it? Let’s start with a well-known example:

Everybody knows about Angry Birds, right? Even if you’ve never played it, you’ve heard about. It’s an easy to learn, entertaining, sometimes frustrating, and addictive game, available in many accessible platforms; it’s even installed in my internet browser!

Its premise: you (the player) shoot with a slingshot several different colored wingless birds with different abilities in order to kill legless green pigs and cause maximum destruction to structures made of wood, glass and stone. Oh, all this because the king pig stole the birds’ eggs.

 Weeeeeeee!

Even though the game is ridden with unreal elements, I applaud its physics. The trajectory made by the angle from which we launch the bird seems right and is the same if we can replicate the exact same angle; I’ve never experienced any wonky movements whatsoever. Even the structures seem to fall correctly regarding their point of impact. 

And this is why I spent half-an-hour repeating the same level of Angry Birds over and over again until I was able to get three stars, and yelled “YEEEEEEES!” in the middle of Frankfurt Airport. I knew that if I could make just the right angle I would be able to reach those damned green pigs and get my hard-won three stars. The feeling that I could make it somehow because, by physics, it was bound to happen was what kept me playing that annoying level time and again.

Even Proun, a racing game known for its abstract setting is bound by physics and mathematics. If I hit an obstacle I’d stop, if I swiveled too much I’d decelerate, if I used the turbo it’d become harder to control. Its levels are formed by geometric shapes, which are also math.

 In Proun you can enjoy Kandinsky-inspired  abstractionism while racing with balls!

These seemingly unrealistic games have elements of reality in them.

Realism is what we can identify from our real world in the game world; even if it’s in the slightest, it’s there, otherwise it wouldn’t be a game, it’d just be weird.

To me, games have to have a grip in reality or they’ll never have a grip on the player.