Realism is too much to expect

Kristen tells me I need to be more light-hearted on this thing.
It has been a while since I blogged about anything frivolous. I love the word frivolous. Whenever I imagine a person doing something frivolous, I imagine them wearing an oldschool dress with lots of frills, regardless of gender.
Needless to say, I do not often imagine myself being frivolous.

Anyways, today I shall write about my experiences.
I spent a good 2 hours playing video games with my roommate, which was incredibly satisfying.
One of the games I played was an RPG, called Tales of the Abyss, where you controlled a guy who found out he was a clone of another guy, who went around and killed stuff, to the end purpose of saving the world.
The other game we played was an action game called New Super Mario Bros. Wii. This is a game in which you assume the role of a plumber who goes around and kills stuff, to the end purpose of saving a princess.

The primary distinction between the genres of these games is based on the manner in which one destroys innocent woodland creatures, who are a common enemy both in Mario (sometimes he even stomps on hapless mushrooms just out of spite!) and TotA.

But, I noticed a distinction that stood out in the Mario game beyond just the battle system. Mario changes clothes.
Whenever he picks up an item, if it's a mushroom or a fire flower or an ice flower or a mushroom that grows helicopters on top (botanists, rejoice!), his clothing and his appearance change.
These transformations are one of the primary gameplay elements of Mario, and most people are familiar with it, but it is so unique to the video game world.

Novels, which are similar to video games, and RPGs in particular, because they tell a story, do not inform the reader every time that a character does mundane, everyday things. Things which include changing clothes, going to the bathroom, eating, sleeping, scratching one's buttocks, etc. These are not included because they are not relevant to the events of the story.

On the same token, the vast majority of video games, despite having a very significant visual element to them which is not present in novels, do not show a character doing these things.

What disturbs me is that people complain about the lack of realism in video games.
I hear, on a very regular basis, grumbles about how the character doesn't change swords on screen whenever you equip a new one on the menu. It doesn't look any different. Or they tell me that it's unrealistic for so many story elements to occur at once without eating or sleeping.

The video game industry itself responds to this with titles that include a day/night system to keep track of time, or characters with multiple outfits or whose avatar changes when equipment changes.

Really, who cares. I don't want to have to worry about keeping my character well-fed, as well as staying on top of saving the world. It doesn't help the story at all.

I really view games like that as stories, and in no way does regular passing of time, having toilets, or daily changes of outfits impact my appreciation and enjoyment of the story.

Mario has a great excuse by these standards, because his change of costumes is necessary to him saving the princess.

So, stop whining gamers. There are a multitude of other reasons why this doesn't occur. It's a pain in the butt to change the actions of a character for every outfit. It doesn't make sense to have a hunger system in a game. Get over the cosmetic details.

I'm sorry Petey the Monster Vanquisher isn't wearing your favorite pair of overalls as he pulls the Sword of Eternity from the Rock of Apathy. The rest of us who actually have taste would much rather interpret games as we would a novel: It is excluded for the purpose of the story.