Reply by: TechGamer_92 (OP)
This has been incredibly helpful. Sounds like interactive realism is less about any single feature and more about creating coherent systems that respect player intelligence and respond logically to their actions. Thanks everyone for the detailed explanations!

Reply by: GameDesignStudent
For my thesis I'm researching how interactive realism affects player immersion. Preliminary results suggest that consistency matters more than depth. Players forgive limited interactivity if the rules are clear and consistent.
Minecraft is a perfect example - simple block-based physics, but totally consistent. Players internalize the rules and then express creativity within those constraints. Meanwhile, games with inconsistent interactivity (some objects movable, others not, with no visual distinction) break immersion even with higher fidelity.

Reply by: EnvironmentalArtist
You're both right. Visual realism and systemic realism are different beasts that often get conflated. As an environment artist, I can tell you photogrammetry and PBR materials create convincing visuals, but they don't make a world interactive.
Ghost of Tsushima looks gorgeous with its grass physics and particle effects, but the interactivity is fairly standard - you can't set fires that spread, can't chop trees, can't divert rivers. Compare that to Breath of the Wild where nearly everything is interactive despite simpler graphics.

Reply by: RetroGamer
Does anyone else think the obsession with realism has hurt creativity? Some of the most interactive games I've played - Dwarf Fortress, Noita, Rain World - achieve amazing emergence without photorealistic graphics or mo-capped animations.
Dwarf Fortress simulates individual thoughts, social relationships, and even generates poetry. That's interactive realism at a systemic level. The ASCII graphics are irrelevant when the simulation underneath is that deep.

Reply by: AIResearcher_PhD
From an AI perspective, interactive realism in NPC behavior remains one of the hardest problems. Games like The Last of Us Part II made strides with enemies calling out names of dead allies and flanking intelligently, but it's still finite state machines with clever scripting.
True interactive realism would mean NPCs with persistent memory, emotional states, and goals independent of the player. Watch Dogs: Legion attempted this with its "play as anyone" system where every NPC has a procedurally generated background, but the execution felt shallow because those backgrounds didn't deeply affect behavior.
The holy grail would be NPCs you can have unscripted conversations with about game events they've witnessed. We're not there yet, though LLM integration might change that in coming years.

Reply by: DevInsider
Fair criticism. There's definitely a spectrum. Kingdom Come: Deliverance tried authentic realism with its combat and save systems - and many players found it tedious rather than immersive. Turns out realistic lockpicking minigames get old fast.
The sweet spot seems to be selective realism. Simulate the parts that enhance gameplay, abstract the parts that would bore players. Flight simulators have understood this for decades with their "realism" vs "arcade" settings.

Reply by: SkepticalGamer
I think we need to be careful about overselling this concept. A lot of "interactive realism" is smoke and mirrors. Yes, RDR2's horse testicles shrink in cold weather - but that doesn't make the core gameplay loop more realistic. You still take 15 bullets to the chest and heal by eating canned beans.
Real interactivity means player agency. Does the world genuinely respond to my choices, or am I just experiencing elaborate window dressing between scripted missions? Most games claiming realism fall into the latter category.

Reply by: VR_Enthusiast
VR has really pushed interactive realism forward in ways flat-screen gaming can't match. Half-Life: Alyx lets you physically rummage through drawers, manually reload weapons, and use objects in unscripted ways. I once stacked boxes to reach a high window - not because the game told me to, but because the physics allowed it.
Boneworks took this further with full-body physics. Your character has weight and momentum. You can't just teleport your hands through objects. This creates emergent problem-solving that feels genuinely realistic.

Reply by: SimulationFan
Absolutely. The Sims is actually one of the best examples of interactive realism in a non-combat context. The needs system, relationship dynamics, career progression - they all feed into each other. A Sim who's tired performs worse at work, gets fired, becomes depressed, neglects friendships. It's a cascade of realistic consequences.
The Sims 4 added emotional states that affect autonomous behavior and available interactions. An angry Sim might pick fights they normally wouldn't. That's interactive realism in social simulation form.

Reply by: TechGamer_92 (OP)
That makes sense. So would you say games like The Sims qualify? They have tons of interconnected systems where your actions matter.

Reply by: IndieDevMike
Speaking as someone working on a small survival game, implementing interactive realism is brutally expensive development-wise. You're essentially building interconnected systems rather than linear content.
For example, we have a temperature system. Sounds simple, right? But it needs to account for:

Time of day and season
Weather conditions
Clothing insulation values
Player activity level (running generates heat)
Proximity to fire sources
Wet vs dry status

Then that temperature affects health regeneration, stamina drain, and food consumption rates. One system cascades into five others. Multiply that across your whole game and you see why AAA studios with huge teams gravitate toward this while smaller teams often can't justify the cost.

Reply by: GameHistorian2000
Interesting you mention this now. Interactive realism as a design philosophy really picked up steam around 2015-2017. Earlier attempts existed (Shenmue in 1999 tried this with its day/night cycles and NPC schedules), but hardware limitations meant compromises.
What changed was CPU capabilities and better middleware. Developers could finally run complex simulations without tanking frame rates. The Witcher 3's ecosystem where monsters only appear in certain conditions, or Metal Gear Solid V's guard shift rotations - these became feasible.

Reply by: PhysicsNerd_
To add to that, the physics simulation matters tremendously. Games like Teardown or BeamNG.drive showcase interactive realism through destructible environments and real-time material deformation. When you crash a car in BeamNG, the crumpling follows actual physics principles - not canned animations.
Same with Blade and Sorcery's combat system. The weapons have weight, momentum, and collision detection that makes every fight feel different because it's actually calculating forces in real-time.

Reply by: DevInsider
Interactive realism goes way beyond visual fidelity. It's about creating systems where player actions have logical, consistent consequences that mirror real-world cause and effect. Think about Red Dead Redemption 2 - when you don't eat, Arthur loses weight and stamina. When you don't clean your guns, they jam. The NPCs remember if you've been a jerk to them. That's interactive realism.
The key difference from traditional scripted events is that these systems run continuously whether you're paying attention or not. The world doesn't pause waiting for you to trigger the next cutscene.

Posted by: TechGamer_92
I keep seeing this term thrown around in reviews and developer interviews, but I'm not entirely clear on what separates interactive realism from just good graphics. Is it about physics? AI behavior? Something else entirely?