Video games usually embody impossible and arbitrary choices. In my (still) favorite games, the HL2 series, for instance:
- I cannot use a different weapon in each hand
- I cannot lie down flat
- I can carry 200 pounds of different weapons with no place to store them
- Yet I am limited with the amount of ammo or grenades I can carry. If I leave 150 lbs of weapons, can’t I carry twice as much ammo?
- I can climb a ladder with both hands while simultaneously reloading my weapon
I agree that it is daft, but unfortunately that has been the trend across nearly all video game development. The biggest push is for photo-realism and other superficial types of “immersion” such as bobbing, fidgeting. As a competitive gamer, this is stuff I have been critical of since the late 90s. If you are trying to use every bit of system resources to make the game as responsive as possible, why waste cycles/polygons/etc on having player models visibly breathe when the gesture is completely superfluous?
The push towards photo-realism seems strongly linked with the trend of making games more like cinematic narratives. And drawing influence from Hollywood, which has its own very deep problems with representation and creative bankruptcy only compounds the problems of the newer media.
My perspective on player models in games is quite utilitarian. They are not human, not a man nor woman. They are a collection of shapes. They don’t need clothes or hair. The “realism” comes from the responsiveness of interacting with the game environment through this avatar, and the robustness of the game engine itself, strength of its AI, and network abilities.
I also don’t buy the whole fanservice/sexual-titillation angle either, since regardless of what a player model looks like, one cannot possibly have sex with it. I would think that gamers would have figured this out a long time ago.
So, I think that the games industry is more than 99% going in the wrong direction. They should scrap movie-like narratives and “realism”. Player models don’t need to resemble people any more than cars or computers do.
