A game really doesn't have to look or behave realistically in order to be fun, playable, and addictive. I got addicted to playing the online flash game BoomShine recently, it's very simple and just a bunch of 2d circles, but fun nevertheless.
The brain/mind really is quite capable of filling in the blanks and `interpreting` what it sees, otherwise it would not be possible to look at a drawing of an object and recognize what it is. Otherwise we'd never have gotten anywhere with less realistic looking games - we'd be staring at the screen wondering what the heck it means or represents. So from that perspective the player really does not NEED a game to look realistic in order to understand the game or know what the environment represents. A very low polygon object can quite easily be interpreted as what it represents, since people see their past experiences projected onto new experience. Thinking that graphics have to look realistic really is not anything to do with helping the user be able to understand what they're looking at, it's really more to do with just proving that you can make it `realistic` and perhaps a little more `convincing`. Take art for example, if you paint a picture with a paintbrush the picture may not be photorealistic but the mind can interpret what it's looking at and see a scene there, instead of just brush strokes. Games really don't need to be realistic looking - realism is just another branch of art.
The brain/mind really is quite capable of filling in the blanks and `interpreting` what it sees, otherwise it would not be possible to look at a drawing of an object and recognize what it is. Otherwise we'd never have gotten anywhere with less realistic looking games - we'd be staring at the screen wondering what the heck it means or represents. So from that perspective the player really does not NEED a game to look realistic in order to understand the game or know what the environment represents. A very low polygon object can quite easily be interpreted as what it represents, since people see their past experiences projected onto new experience. Thinking that graphics have to look realistic really is not anything to do with helping the user be able to understand what they're looking at, it's really more to do with just proving that you can make it `realistic` and perhaps a little more `convincing`. Take art for example, if you paint a picture with a paintbrush the picture may not be photorealistic but the mind can interpret what it's looking at and see a scene there, instead of just brush strokes. Games really don't need to be realistic looking - realism is just another branch of art.