Gabe Newell says games don't need to be realistic: "I have never thought to myself that realism is fun"

Gabe Newell in Half-Life 25th Anniversary Documentary
(Image credit: Valve)

Valve founder Gabe Newell has shared his thoughts on realism in games, revealing that he's never thought of it 🐽as "fun."

In the recently-released Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary, the Valve CEO reflects on the development and history of the studio's beloved game. During one portion of the documentary, Newell talks about realism in gam🎉es, and how he's not really a fan for a pretty understandable reason. 

Talking abou🌊t Half-Life's development, Newell said: "You'd have these conversations where you'd be sitting in a design review and somebody [would] say, that's not realistic." The developer continues: "And you're like, 'okay, what does that have?' like, 'explain to me why that's interesting.' Because in the real world, I have to write up lists of stuff I have to go to the gꩲrocery store to buy. And I have never thought to myself that realism is fun. I go play games to have fun." 

I can totally see where Newell is coming from, that being said I am guilty of trying to pay a mortgage to a cartoon tanuki for a house I don't actually own - something many 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans can relate to. 

It seems the Valve founder's words have resonated with a lot of fans. For example, DUSK developer Dillon Rogers shared the quote along with the caption: "I need to pin this at the top of my Steam forums. So many people do not understand the difference between something being realistic vs. something being engaging.ꦯ" Continuing in a , Rogers explained: "Something can be a great and in-depth simulation of something real."

Talking about the bread-making goblins in Arkane Studios' Arx Fatalis, the developer adds: "'Realism' is not always the goal. Realism would be 'it should take hours to bak🦩e.'" Rogers then goes on to summarise the difference between realism and something being realistic in games: "🍌A simulation evokes the feeling and logic of something, and operates on its believability. It can be designed to be a compelling representation of an action. But that is not the same as 'it is realistic.'" 

Gabe Newell isn't the only person revisiting Half-Life on its 25th anniversary. Dario Casali, who started working at Valve back in 1996, has also been taking a trip down memory lane over on their YouTube channel - revealing that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Half-Life could have been called 'Fallout,' as well as other 🌊su♔rprising names like 'Dirt', 'Bolt', or even 'Trash'.

Elsewhere in the documentary, Gabe Newell echoes that famous (and fake) Shigeru Miyamoto quote: "Late is just for a little while. Suck is forever."

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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Kore♊an drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.