Video Games and the Uncanny Valley

The article observes the possibility of Video Games and their relationship to the Uncanny Valley. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, and make sure we know about the uncanny valley. The name and concept was coined in the 70’s by robotosist Dr. Masahiro Mori to describe what happens when a robot becomes too realistic. He discovered that after creating robots with human characteristics, people liked them. However, as Mori made them more realistic, people expressed aversion to the robots. Scientifically, they were impressive, but these bots gave people the creeps. Bellow is the Graph Mori created of the uncanny Valley.

 It is used to express peoples’ affinity towards robots (and also computer generated characters). At the start of the chart, lie robots with very little human likeness. People usually respond rather indifferently to these. However, when more human-like qualities are added, there is a huge spike in likeability. That’s because we’ve given it a personality; it’s charming. Then, if more is added on to it, there is a massive fall in likeability, the graph dropping considerable. This creates the uncanny valley. As we continue on past this point, adding more and more to make it realistic, the human synthesizer will become so realistic that it’ll become indistinguishable from a person.  The affinity felt towards it by humans reaches a peak as it now practically is human.

The reason for why things that lie in the Uncanny Valley disturb us is simple: give something not human characteristics that give it humanity cause the object to be likeable, even relatable. However, if the object is almost human, but not quite there yet, it’s non-human characteristics become incredibly noticeable, and people respond with aversion. That’s because we as people know when something isn’t human; and that’s unsettling.

      Now, back to the article, it speculates that through recent game development, the uncanny valley is being destroyed. Before I continue analyzing this, I want to say that the uncanny valley isn’t being destroyed per-se, what these games are attempting to do is jump the valley. According to the Uncanny Valley graph, there are two points that will make for optimal human imitation. First, is the point before the uncanny valley, where things have human characteristics, but are clearly not human. This is stylization. Stylization is currently favored among game designers because of the aesthetic diversity they can achieve.  Notably, gaming’s most recognizable faces are all stylized ones.  The second point on Mori’s chart, after the uncanny valley, is Photo-realism. This is the point where the human simulation becomes so realistic that we accept it as normal.

      When it comes to video games, stylization has always been favored. This is because of two things: limited technology and apprehension. Obviously, for many years the possibility to create realistic human emulater( sorta like a fake copy of a person) just wasn’t there because of our limited technology. Also, the uncanny valley has always made animators, robotic engineers, and 3D artists, extremely weary of attempting that second point; trying to jump the valley seemed impossible. However, now we are making big headway in trying to jump the valley and reach photo-realism. More and more games are now being created where it shows how far we’re coming to reaching photo-realistic graphics. Sadly, though the future is bright, we are still clawing our way out of the valley. Still, with our technology we aren’t at photo-realism yet. I feel this is also attributed with how easy it is to screw up photo-realism. Speaking from the vantage point of an artist, I understand the strife game designers face. Let’s say I was to draw you. I would have to be very meticulous in trying to capture your likeness, and every mistake I make would be very clear for you, or someone else, to see. This is because as people we notice immediately when something is off. This is also the reason why I personally favor stylization. Even when I'm drawing a person, like an actor or singer, I go down the route of stylization. I'm not aiming for photo-realism I want a stylized look, but I also want the drawing to be recognizably that person. When drawing people it's very much like what game designers do. They can either go stylized or all the way realistic. Bellow in a drawing I referenced off a photo of Brad Pitt, I wanted the drawing to look like him, but I was not  aiming for photo-realism.

 

 

If a human character in a game has qualities that are not human, they become glaringly obvious.  It’s not  just appearance, like texture or anatomy, but also movement. In games, if a character does not move like how a person should, this annoys the person playing the game. Strangely, if a photo-realist character were to move in a glitchy way people respond with much more annoyance than if it were a stylized character like Mario. This is why most game designers still favor stylization; it gives much more room for error.  It is a very arduous, stressful process to make a photo-realistic character seem believable.

 

     Despite  all the work and worry game designers must face in order to achieve photo-realism, more and more are taking the risk, and it’s beginning to pay off. Recent games depicting near photo-realistic characters (like the Last of Us) are winning awards and overall impressing critics and players with their  realism.

Although we haven’t quite reached Photo-realism yet, it’s nice to see we’re well on our way.  Leave a comment and tell me what you thought. I hope you find the Uncanny Valley as interesting as I do

(All links for copyrighted images can be found throughout the above passages)