An old interview with Valve head Gabe Newell discussing game design has recently resurfaced online. He believes that whether a game is fun depends on whether the virtual world can recognize the player's choices and actions and provide corresponding feedback, rather than simply pursuing realism.
This content comes from a documentary celebrating the 25th anniversary of Half-Life. Newell mentioned that in design discussions, people often oppose certain proposals on the grounds of being "unrealistic," but he is more concerned with why a design is fun. A shopping list in real life is also realistic, but it doesn't automatically become enjoyable just because it's real.
Newell stated that Valve once drafted a brief definition for "fun," which is the degree to which a game recognizes player choices and actions and responds to them. The team also borrowed the concept of "reinforcement" from behavioral science to examine what results an action brings, and how frequently and under what rules these results occur.
He used shooting at a wall as an example: if the wall shows no change, players will feel like the entire world is ignoring them. Following this logic, bullets should leave marks, enemies falling should trigger reactions from other characters, and player progress should be reflected through the game world itself, rather than relying solely on counters.
These feedback mechanisms may not change basic controls, but they directly determine whether actions feel meaningful. Character reactions, sound effects, visual cues, and state changes after gaining experience or picking up ammo all help players clearly feel that their inputs have impacted the world. If actions go unanswered for long periods, even if movement, shooting, and menus function properly, the actual gameplay may still feel stiff.
This interview previously appeared in discussions surrounding the Grand Theft Auto VI leaks, where the topic involved vehicle refueling systems. The related viewpoint suggests that the more realistic a game is, the more it needs to handle the resulting details and exceptions; if these designs do not serve the gameplay, they may instead increase burden and even detract from the actual playing experience.