Markus ‘Notch’ Persson not a huge fan of Photorealism in games – Video Games Update
Minecraft creator, Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, has stated on his Twitter account that he does not believe that photorealistic graphics would open up new genres in video games.
Notch’s comments against photorealism were a reply to 2K Games boss Christoph Hartmann’s comments in an interview where he stated that developers needed to achieve photorealistic graphics in order to create new genres but until then developers can only focus
on action shooter titles.
“To dramatically change the industry to where we can insert a whole range of emotions, I feel it will only happen when we reach the point that games are photorealistic; then we will have reached an endpoint and that might be the final console,” stated Hartman
in an interview with GamesIndustry International.
Notch slammed his comments and replied on his Twitter account by saying, “No, Christoph, you LIMIT the number of new genres if you focus on photorealism. I had way more emotions playing Proteus than I ever did playing any 2K game. Also, Futurama has made
me feel sad more than most sad movies can. The Sting, Jurrasic Bark, Luck of the Fryish. Photorealistic? No.”
The thing is that both developers are right and wrong. Hartmann’s claims can be justified with the success of Heavy Rain for the PlayStation 3. Heavy Rain is almost an interactive movie with very realistic graphics and offers an experience unlike anything
else.
However photorealism is not the only way to create new genres, Indie developers create new and different genres everyday and those games don’t boast the best looking graphics in the market. Games like Rez HD and Child of Eden, even though are not photorealistic,
introduced the players to a unique game-play experience.
Many gamers across the internet have bashed Notch for his harsh comments since Notch himself is only popular because of a one hit wonder, Minecraft, and has yet to release a second game. Gamers found it ironic that Notch was bashing 2K Games when it comes
to emotions as his own game, Minecraft, is basically a simulation builder completely devoid of any emotion altogether.
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