A lot of games are trying very hard to look real. Skin stretches over simulated muscles. Rain collects on individually modelled surfaces. Characters have pores, eyelashes, fabric fibres, dental records, and enough facial detail to make you wonder whether the art team has accidentally created a second human being. None of that automatically makes the experience believable. A game can reproduce reality with extraordinary accuracy and still feel artificial the moment a character slides across the floor, an enormous creature changes direction without transferring its weight, or an object that appears physically important refuses to react to anything around it. The image looks real, but the behaviour underneath it breaks the illusion...
Tag: player trust
When Everything Affects Everything: The Overconnection Problem
A strong systemic game isn’t one where everything connects to everything else. It’s one where the right systems connect in ways players can understand, predict, and use. When too many consequences propagate at once, depth becomes noise...
Hasbro’s $56 Million Write-Down Shows That IP Isn’t A Production Strategy
Hasbro’s $56 million digital-games write-down reveals a problem bigger than cancelled projects: powerful IP can’t replace experienced teams, coherent production, and the conditions that made Baldur’s Gate 3 exceptional...
