SlowpokeBlog

As I was writing last week's strip -- in particular, the line about George being stoked about the graphics in Madden NFL 06 -- it occurred to me that the effort to make video games hyper-realistic is worthy of a cartoon itself. Readers of this blog already know I am not a huge fan of CGI animation in movies; I think it looks more fake than a lot of low-tech special effects, not to mention soulless. I find these eerily "realistic" video game graphics disturbing as well. There's a good article on Slate from last year entitled "The Undead Zone: Why realistic graphics make humans look creepy":

In 1978, the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori noticed something interesting: The more humanlike his robots became, the more people were attracted to them, but only up to a point. If an android become too realistic and lifelike, suddenly people were repelled and disgusted.

Interestingly, the author turns to comics theory for an explanation:

As comic-book theorist Scott McCloud points out, we identify more deeply with simply drawn cartoon characters, like those in Peanuts, than with more realistic ones. Charlie Brown doesn't trigger our obsession with the missing details the way a not-quite-photorealistic character does, so we project ourselves onto him more easily.

On top of the realistic graphics, sports video games now offer features like player endorsement and movie deals. Gag me with a joystick!

On a different subject, I recently finished reading James Mann's excellent Rise of the Vulcans, which chronicles the careers of the Bush administration's foreign policy architects. I'm curious about the process that creates these freaks of culture. By the book's end, you can clearly trace the ideological roots of today's fiascos; that most of the Vulcans seem to have "reality issues" is also apparent. You know, I'm so tired of the neocons acting like they discovered democracy. If they're so pro-democracy, why don't they seem concerned with the myriad problems with ours? The lies and deception that lead to a grossly misinformed electorate, the systematic Republican attempts at voter suppression? Nor do these proud, anti-tyranny chest-thumpers seem terribly concerned about the genocide in Sudan. Big buncha flatulent posers, I say.

Ultra-Realistic Video Games (Click to enlarge)