Your Thoughts on Photography in Video Games?

Galileo

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Hey everyone! First post, woo!

So I keep pay pretty close attention to the video gaming world and any innovations going on there. I'm 21 and in college, so, in this day and age, gaming is a pretty big deal for me, haha. I've never taken video games very serious though, it's always been about killing thugs, disabling bombs or some drawn out, trying-to-be-a-film storyline. I've taken video games for what they are, temporary entertainment. My watchful eye ran across THIS article this morning when I was catching up on some gaming news.

I must say, from the first impressions of this video game, I'm very intrigued. More-so, though, I think it's probably the most innovative game I've seen in the last 10 years, simply because how it incorporates photography into gaming. If you read the article there it says the video game controller (PlayStation 3) has to be held steady to take clear shots and can be moved around and your in-game camera will move accordingly. Taking great shots of the African wildlife will get you paid and will allow you to buy better cameras with more zoom capabilities and better photos. As far as I know, this has never been done in gaming, and I think it's a pretty interesting concept. But it begs a question...

To what extent should photography be incorporated into gaming. Certainly this "Afrika" game is photo-realistic and will probably be visually stunning, but it's not the real thing. What do you all think? Can video gaming do photography justice, or should it stick to what it's good at, meddling with the purely non-fictional?
 
There's other much older games like that too. Virtual photography in gaming is fairly old tho only in the past 4 years or so have graphics cards and 3D techniques been fast enough or sophisticated enough to make it very realistic.

As far as the incorporation of photography in games I would love to see more. Maybe a story-driven photographic adventure or drama? It's all good. We certainly need to move away from mediocre CG based combat simulations. Kill, kill kill... has past it's point of interest IMO and has become too contriving - detrimentally so.
 
Bifurcator,

I completely agree! It's to the point now where I'm finding myself refraining from letting my young children see the games I USED to play, and I'm talking about golden oldies like Doom. I guess that kinda makes me a golden oldie too, huh? :lol:

But yes, constant killing in video games has overstayed it's welcome, and I hope to see an evolution of gaming reach towards games like "Afrika." I think we'd all benefit from it.
 
I saw the wii safari game, and wouldn't touch it. Maybe I should at least see what it's about, but I was appalled by the thought of it. Just sounds like photography is the new "thing", and maybe that's cause everybody I know is getting a DSLR all the sudden. Now, everyone is an instant "Photographer" just becaue they have a DSLR. This game will likely contribute to this desire.

Walking through Target last night, tons of clothing models were holding a DLSR camera at their soulder. To me, it is appalling that a DSLR is now considered a status symbol.

Sorry for the ramble/hijack. :)
 
Kameo and Spore are the last two I went through. Pretty good. I'd like to see more like Myst or Riven but with more actual photography/videography/QTVR and etc. too. :D

I know what you mean about not letting kids play even the ones that hooked you (us). I used to spend hours and hors in the teachers room playing Q3a but I don't think Q4 is suitable for the grandkids - etc. And especially not stuff like Ghost Recon (which we're living through ACTUALLY right now), 1942, Enemy Territory, etc. :thumbdown:


BTW, Keith, SLR has always been a status symbol. Think of the Dire Straights song from 24 years back (maybe that's not the one I'm thinking of.. Hmm) Well TORB 26 years ago or the S&G song from some years before that then. :D
 
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Its tricky to get new games like this into development - let alone out into the market. The few that do tend to either do very well or be flops - mostly as a small team pushed for release can often cut corners. I think a new type of game like this has to be very very polished upon release to get teh reviews and buyers - a tried and tested game - like a shooter or RTS - can be made and rushed through production to come out with gaps and still pick up sales as it is s tried and tested formual (just look at EA and how much they make!)
 
Overread,

I completely agree, and it is truly a shame that only the tried-and-true formula games do really well these days. That's why I'm rooting for this "Afrika" game, I think it may very well break down some barriers in the gaming industry. And it's not like this is the only release possible, they can make multiple editions of this game on different continents or maybe even zone in on a specific part of Africa or Asia or maybe the Amazon. Would all be cool I think. And if they add an educational aspect, they'll be able to pull in both adults and parents who want their children to get something out of playing video games (I fall into both categories myself).
 
having looked at the screen shot I don't have many hopes for this game :(
Realistically speaking fur and water are the two big hates of programmers - hard and very draining on computer resources to do either well - water has improved a lot, but fur is still way out of most games. Thing is a game can have no or limited fur if they set the world right, but with a game like this they need the animals to look real rather than like soapy stones (which they look a little like now).
Its why with games like spore there is no fur feature, its just too draining for most computers to deal with in the home owner area - a shame because a game like this could be big
 
Deadrising is a game that comes to mind. Also that Japanese horror theme game that you have to kill ghost with cameras.
 
I really hope this games comes out and is a great hit, but I just doubt it. I think that it won't appeal to photographers because they have an ACTUAL camera they can play with, and they might criticise how the game is too dumbed-down. And it might not appeal to gamers either, simply because they are constantly pressing the "R1" button hoping to see that lion ragdoll-ize across the screen while blood spews from every orifice in its body :p.

But then again, I really love the idea of photography in a game, and the only reason I didn't like it that much in previous games was because the photos were a sideline to the game.

Actually, scrap all that. Have any of you played Gran Turismo 4? In my opinion, that had a fantastic photo mode. You could pause a replay at any moment and go into the camera menu. You could set aperture, shutter speed, exposure compensation, white balance, focus point, orientation, the list goes on. And although you couldn't mess up the photo (a SS of 1/4000 and f/22 got the same exposure as 1/60 and f/1.4), it was really superb fun. You could even send the photos to a USB memory stick and see them on your PC!

So, yeah. I think that, if they pull this off, it will be really good to play, but if they don't.....

Here's a pic I took before my GT4 disk broke :mrgreen:
fordfocusrsnurburgringil1.jpg
 
prodigy2k7,

haha, that's funny, because they say Afrika is actually the spiritual successor to Pokemon Snap. Same kind of premise, albeit visually opposites.
 

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