One thing that rarely, if ever, fails to win the interest of a regular gamer is the presence of what we have come to recognize as “realism”. In the earliest incarnations of video games, it was something that was simply impossible to achieve. Slow reaction times, limited graphics and technology that could not hope to emulate real-life considerations all meant that video games may have been fun, bright and addictive, but they certainly were not true to life. These days, with motion capture, 3D graphics and sandbox gaming styles, games are more realistic than ever.
In some older games of the “shoot-em-up” variety it was possible for the gamer, playing a character who was trying to achieve something that would save the world despite the attentions of misunderstanding policemen, to shoot at the police but not to kill them.
This was because of a law which prevented anyone making a game which showed – and one can read “encouraged” into that word – the killing of policemen. Now software houses are more innovative in their game writing, and law enforcement officers belong to fictitious agencies and so they may be “killed”.
In some of the more modern games of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, it is possible for the character to interact intuitively with other “people” within the game – forming friendships and relationships which affect their ability to advance in the game. We’ve come a long way since the only video games we could play involved killing aliens or ghosts, it seems.
