Military consultant, Woodie Mister discussed how he balanced realism versus entertainment while designing EA's private military contractor-based FPS, Army Of Two.
Mister is a former Navy SEAL. He works now as a military contractor in the Middle East and he has also consulted on the Splinter Cell series.
"Take Halo 3, for example. That's a fantastic game, everybody loves Halo 3, but that is a fantasy game. Everybody likes it because of that reason. They love playing the game; the fact that they can pick up a grenade that they can throw and it'll stick to another guy, doesn't exist. And it's how you make a game that interesting, that exciting, that is also as real as it possibly could be. Without making it too boring. That's a very difficult task, but EA's been able to pull it off with Army of Two."
... "Once again, we're back to 'entertaining'. You know, do you want a couple of guys that have just human-looking faces, or do you want a couple of guys that are running around blasting people, one guy's got a skull mask, and the other guy looks like he's got flames on the side? I mean, that's cool. And to sell the game, the game's got to be cool. And this game's definitely got those elements."
"Now realistically? You know, if you're over in the desert, in 120 degree heat, do you want a ballistic mask on your face that's not really going to withstand a shot from an AK-47 round? A 7-6-2 by 39 round, with a steel penetrator that's going to go through a ballistic face shield? Unless it's got a metal plate in it. They're not made of ceramic, so yeah, realistically? It's not normal. "
"But then again, you're not going to wear a big riot face mask that you've seen police do -- that have a big giant, thick shield on the front of it? I mean, you're going to have to have a big-ass neck to carry that thing around. Like a bison."
"So those are unrealistic pieces, so why add 'em? I mean, let's make those guys look daunting, and cool. You've got commando teams all over the world, that wear balaclavas, and wear face masks when they do missions, and they go, and they look scary, and they hit."
"There's a purpose for that. They're supposed to dominate that room; they're supposed to go in there and scare the living crap out of you. And it adds a whole level of domineering to, to it. And that's what they do. They do it very well."
