Gamernode: Features - Surrealism: A Fork In The Road

Surrealism: A Fork In The Road

A big topic nowadays is the "direction" of the games industry. When examining the next-gen console race, this is often approached in terms of technological power vs. game-play and innovation. I believe it has been made abundantly clear in which direction each company is heading, but for those of you who have been on spelunking excursions for the past 2 years, it is Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 on the path of power, Nintendo's Wii meandering in the other direction, alone. Within this grand framework, however, is another fork in the road. It is the question of realism vs surrealism.

It can certainly be argued that in its infancy, the games industry was changed radically, and propelled most prominently into the public eye by the NES and a little game called Super Mario Bros. This is one of the earliest examples of a game that created a legitimate world in which the content of the game was contained. It was not simply a screen, an arbitrary 'space,' a table, or a 'board.' This was an expansive environment (relative to other offerings at the time) with characters, landmarks, and new paths all unfolding as the game progressed. It responded to the gamer's actions, and displayed change, accordingly. However, it never sought to be realistic, and never attempted to emulate the real world. Sure, certain rules of reality and familiar rules of physics were in place, but the composition of the world itself was completely fantasy-based.

Since that time, games have evolved. Now, developers are capable of rendering fully three dimensional worlds with photorealistic appearances. Games are no longer visually limited to 2-D drawings, so they often try to recreate the 3-D world we live in. I question whether this is the right approach, or if it is a practice that removes much of what made gaming so enjoyable.

People play games for many reasons -- one of which is to remove themselves from the outside world, even if only for a short time. In this case, the most appealing of games may be ones that are not directly linked to the world as we know it, but are imaginative creations with new details to uncover, new rules to learn and new concepts to explore. The real world can frequently prove to be boring in routine and drab in appearance. Representing that sort of setting in a pass-time intended to be fun seems somewhat counterproductive.

The presentation of any game can be quite important. In conceptualizing a game, I think it is necessary to consider what type of mood will be created for the gamer by the subject matter of the game, in conjunction with the visual representation on-screen. If each of these two aspects can be split into either realistic or fantasy then there are several combinations available. The most harmless, of course, is a fantasy theme with fantasy images, a rarely objectionable pairing. At the opposite end of the spectrum is realistic subject matter in a realistic graphical style. This type of game creates the most intense atmosphere, as it provides no attenuation of the content in question. It is this type that has time and time again been used as an avenue in presenting grim yet glorified history lessons, by recounting real-world events like World War II, hostage standoffs, and glorified gangland violence.

A simple method of diluting such an effect is to mesh realistic and fantasy elements. A game with heavy themes can instantly be softened by displaying it in an unrealistic art style. A couple of games that make use of this technique are XIII and Killer 7. Had it been presented in a photorealistic manner, the latter would have likely had trouble ever being published - due to 'extremely controversial' subject matter. The surreal, cartoon-like presentation of these games belies their content, and almost excusing them of it.

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