Sunday Thoughts: Reality Hurts

I’ve just had an operation to my knee; an arthroscopy. After limping around and struggling to straighten or bend my leg for eight months, it should hopefully all be fixed once my wounds heal – in a couple of weeks. That all sounds very serious but, believe me, the rest of this article mostly isn’t.

I don’t need sympathy; I’ll be fine, much like any game character would be after getting hurt and either picking up a health pack or using their magical regenerating health that the developers were so very nice to code for them – although I won’t regenerate back to full health as quickly as that. And I’m sure while I’m recovering by playing lots of games, that the characters I play in those games will be fine. I can count on it, in fact; the only time they’re in real danger is in those pesky cutscenes near the end of the game.

Nathan Drake would never need an arthroscopy, would he? Batman, whilst exploring Arkham Asylum, never has a bad fall, injuring his ankle. Your wasteland wanderer in Fallout might cripple his legs or entire body, but there won’t be any long term effects after applying a Doctor’s Bag to the limb in question. Drake, after being shot thousands of times (and then only getting one major injury, which was fixed in a matter of days – in the mountains, no less) is coming back for a third adventure, rather than retiring – because he knows won’t get hurt.

Knows. It’s ridiculous to even think that; Nathan Drake, after all, is a game character – he isn’t self-aware. I’m sure Uncharted: Drake’s Dissection wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of any of our Christmas lists, so I’m glad we’re not forced to go through months of physiotherapy in games; I’m glad the screen doesn’t go black for the few hours our character is under anaesthetic; I’m glad that most games aren’t trying overly hard to be like the real world – playing a game while recovering from an injury, in which your character plays games while recovering from an injury just wouldn’t be fun.

The fact is that games allow us to do awesome things, and injuries are (usually) not awesome. That’s why they’re not a staple of games, and features such as respawning or regenerating health are instead. Yes, if a section where your character is bed-ridden adds to the plot and engages the player, then it’s definitely worth it, all I’m saying is that I’m very glad we don’t have to sit and watch Link be nursed back to health instead of simply drinking a jar of red potion.

Many game characters have committed mass-murder, but a lot of them won’t go to court for it, will they? Why? Well, firstly, it takes a long time for the forms to go through (yes, even digital forms) and secondly, developers would have to add in a courtroom mechanic just to make the game seem a little bit more real, while boring the player to death in the process.

This is why you’d have to be deluded to believe games are hyper realistic and could contribute towards actions in the real world. I won a race in Forza once (and yes, that was a large victory on my behalf, say your congratulations below); that doesn’t mean I could be a racing champion. I’ve won wars and taken down alien fleets but I’m not a hero. If anything, I’m simply a winner in those games, and that’s as far as it goes.

That’s all I’ll ever be, and it’s all I ever want to be. Games, to me, should avoid crossing the line into that boring area of realism whilst keeping the enjoyment that can be found with realistic boundaries. Well, either that or just not touch the barrier of realism at all, staying firmly in the realm of fun. After all, that’s why we play them: to have fun.

In fact, there is one genre where injuries do matter – sports games. And I hate sports games.

Fallout image source: PC Gamer