Many describe me as an introvert and I'm inclined to agree. Eye contact during conversation isn't something I usually do. Only on heavy discussions or when someone pissed me off. It's certainly not something I expect to do in video games.
Most of the games I've played have the characters looking away from the camera. When they're looking at you, ir's usually a game that has little to no animation that is worth noticing.
And I have a pretty bad PC so I tend to avoid high graphics games. But when I do play them, it's usually on low or medium so I don't see a lotta details. Just this once I raised it to high midway through Phantom Liberty. Okay, so far so good I can play it smoothly.
One thing I did not expect… is my body habing the same discomfort I get when someone's trying to make eye contact with me…. On a video game… And as you can see from my screenshots, the quality really isn't all that good. I can tell fiction from fantasy just fine. But I can see their subtle twitches, the times the eyes switch between either eyes, not knowing which one to stop with, and the frowns and the gestures, and how far their head turns with head tracking.
I know the trick behind the curtains, I know the card under the sleeves, but I still feel the magic playing right in front of me. Sorry, just wanted to say how much I appreciate how real it feels being in a conversation in a by all means scripted exchange.
5 Comments
Okay
Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3 has a similar interaction with the player character but then starts talking to you, the player. All the while maintaining intense eye contact. Shook me up.
I’m glad that’s not a Nintendo patented feature 🙂 …Because I recently found out that nintendo patents things like making the character turn his head to look at a portrait on the wall while walking.
I do love this game for the realism but I think the eyes are an area that could be improved actually. I don’t play many other newer games so I can’t compare in that sense, but for example, when Johnny talks to me it doesn’t really feel like he’s looking directly at me. His eye contact can be a little off, like he’s looking to the side and not directly at me. This happens with other characters too and even my own V in photo mode but it’s most consistently with Johnny. I catch myself looking at anything but the characters’ eyes all the time which makes me wonder if it’s because my brain doesn’t register it as real eye contact. I’m comfortable with eye contact irl
wanted Velvet but oh well 😛