Are numbers and stats a good thing as games become more realistic?

[Legend]

Games in the past had hard numbers because nothing else was possible. Lives were represented with small integers. Damage was mostly boolean.

Nowadays we have health bars that are more nuanced. It's possible to be kinda dead but still ok. It's more realistic but it's not realistic by any measure.

Naughty Dog took this even farther and didn't include health stats in Uncharted. Both enemies and the player have health but it's abstract and closer to real life. It's qualitative instead of quantitative, with limping enemies and a general "pain" feeling on screen when hurt. Lots of other games also worked in a similar way.


With modern AAA games becoming more RPG like though, this trend seems to have been abandoned. Games are going back to health bars and putting lots of numbers on complex systems. It makes lots of these games really fun, but is it good?

Is it something that is going to feel dated as graphics and animations continue to improve?

[kitler53]

Naughty Dog took this even farther and didn't include health stats in Uncharted. Both enemies and the player have health but it's abstract and closer to real life. It's qualitative instead of quantitative, with limping enemies and a general "pain" feeling on screen when hurt. Lots of other games also worked in a similar way.

no, it's a measure of his "luck" running out...

With modern AAA games becoming more RPG like though, this trend seems to have been abandoned. Games are going back to health bars and putting lots of numbers on complex systems. It makes lots of these games really fun, but is it good?

Is it something that is going to feel dated as graphics and animations continue to improve?

no.  numbers can be fun.   i played WoW for years and honestly i spent as much time contemplating my talent tree and gear stats as i did playing the game.   it was fun.  it will always be fun to some people and thus it will never go away.  

some people do not find it fun and they will play the numberless games like uncharted.   

there is room in this world for both.

[Legend]

no, it's a measure of his "luck" running out...
no.  numbers can be fun.   i played WoW for years and honestly i spent as much time contemplating my talent tree and gear stats as i did playing the game.   it was fun.  it will always be fun to some people and thus it will never go away.  

some people do not find it fun and they will play the numberless games like uncharted.  

there is room in this world for both.

Numbers can be great! I'm not saying number focused games shouldn't exist, just that they are artificial. As other elements become more and more realistic, will they stand out?

When a person jumps from too high up instead of losing 50% of a health bar, they could break their legs.