Now, can we fix flashlights in games such that we don’t get a well defined circle of lit area surrounded by completely a black environment?
Sure, we can do that, but we won’t because of the narrative and functional in-game purpose of the flashlight. It’s not meant to be realistic, it’s meant to make the game feel a specific way.
It’s also why a flashlight may be able to run for dozens of hours straight on a single battery but in video games it’ll die in minutes if not seconds. Realism is unfair. Also the same reason why nuclear reactors in video games are always dangerous. Because representing them realistically would be boring to the average adrenaline junkie “gamer”.
We are now in the age of the continuous flashlight (though Subnautica has operational long-running, replaceable batteries). L4D in 2007 had permanent flashlights that worked pretty well and felt right.
Feels unnecessarily hyperbolic to call the average gamer an “adrenaline junkie”. Games need gameplay and fixing things that aren’t working, be it a dying flashlight or an erupting reactor, is easy and extensible gameplay.
Sure, we can do that, but we won’t because of the narrative and functional in-game purpose of the flashlight. It’s not meant to be realistic, it’s meant to make the game feel a specific way.
It’s also why a flashlight may be able to run for dozens of hours straight on a single battery but in video games it’ll die in minutes if not seconds. Realism is unfair. Also the same reason why nuclear reactors in video games are always dangerous. Because representing them realistically would be boring to the average adrenaline junkie “gamer”.
We are now in the age of the continuous flashlight (though Subnautica has operational long-running, replaceable batteries). L4D in 2007 had permanent flashlights that worked pretty well and felt right.
Feels unnecessarily hyperbolic to call the average gamer an “adrenaline junkie”. Games need gameplay and fixing things that aren’t working, be it a dying flashlight or an erupting reactor, is easy and extensible gameplay.