Gabe Newell says games don't need to be realistic: "I have never thought to myself that realism is fun"

gamesradar.com:

Valve founder Gabe Newell has shared his thoughts on realism in games, revealing that he's never thought of it as "fun."

In the recently-released Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary, the Valve CEO reflects on the development and history of the studio's beloved game. During one portion of the documentary, Newell talks about realism in games, and how he's not really a fan for a pretty understandable reason. 

Talking about Half-Life's development, Newell said: "You'd have these conversations where you'd be sitting in a design review and somebody [would] say, that's not realistic." The developer continues: "And you're like, 'okay, what does that have?' like, 'explain to me why that's interesting.' Because in the real world, I have to write up lists of stuff I have to go to the grocery store to buy. And I have never thought to myself that realism is fun. I go play games to have fun." 

I can totally see where Newell is coming from, that being said I am guilty of trying to pay a mortgage to a cartoon tanuki for a house I don't actually own - something many Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans can relate to. 

It seems the Valve founder's words have resonated with a lot of fans. For example, DUSK developer Dillon Rogers shared the quote along with the caption: "I need to pin this at the top of my Steam forums. So many people do not understand the difference between something being realistic vs. something being engaging." Continuing in a thread, Rogers explained: "Something can be a great and in-depth simulation of something real."

Talking about the bread-making goblins in Arkane Studios' Arx Fatalis, the developer adds: "'Realism' is not always the goal. Realism would be 'it should take hours to bake.'" Rogers then goes on to