What happened to "mature" art direction? Everything is Overwatch now

[luj1]

It's tied to the infantilization phenomenon in the West - adult people regressing back to childhood state, increasingly craving cartoonish, cutesy, fluffy entertainment, cat-eared characters with squeaky voices. And talking about it makes them very mad and very defensive. It's indeed a threat.

This is an excellent summary. I agree.

Yes this is the essence

Food loaded with estrogen, low quality education, no culture, Internet and technology, politics...

 

[luj1]

WoW/WC3 used to look great

It did, but there were many more styles back then, now there is only a few

 

[Saldrone]

I refuse to ever touch Civilization 6 for the sole reason of it's cartoonish representation of history

 

[DJOGamer PT]

This

Its an easy style to adopt and it has mass appeal, therefore marketing dictates it be used. Same reason we don't see unusual styles anymore.

And this

I think it's only really games that depend on fast online gameplay that tend to have a cartooney style.

Basically, there are two major "pulls" in art design, the one pulling towards greater and more detailed realism, the other pulling to cartoonish stylization and simplification. I reckon the latter became a thing after WoW implemented a stylized cartoonish style that could be played on the humblest of potatoes, and developers realized that going for detailed realism in online games leaves money on the table. There's also the factor that cartoonish stylization and simplification is usually more easily "readable" in fast gameplay. On the other hand detailed realism is loved by many, is usually more immersive, and garners kudos and publicity and a wow factor, so it's a tricky question that I think has to be decided on right at the beginning of the development process.

/thread

anything else is overthinking

 

[Alienman]

It's tied to the infantilization phenomenon in the West - adult people regressing back to childhood state, increasingly craving cartoonish, cutesy, fluffy entertainment, cat-eared characters with squeaky voices. And talking about it makes them very mad and very defensive. It's indeed a threat.

This is an excellent summary. I agree.

Better to die on a battlefield in Ukraine like a real man.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Make Bikini Chainmail Great Again!

 

[Baron Tahn]

By 'Art direction' what do we mean here? Design is not direction and Art itself is undirected.

In general I do agree that there is very little vision in direction these days, its usually superceded by marketing. So in overwatchs case, the direction was 'make all the art super colourful like a Disney Ad and sell, sell, sell, you fools! Sell like youve never sold before!'

I cant think of many games in recent past that had/spent money hiring a good art 'director'. Its a superflous position to most companies due to cynicism or 'designers' do it which leads to generic stuff like BG3.

Lots of indie games are made largely by a solid art director but I cant think of any AAA that uses them...right now anyway, Im sure they exist.

 

[Cohesion]

So these were the games we played as KIDS, No oversized heads, no big eyes, no white donkey teeth. And these are the games played by ADULTS now,

What happened?

I believe art direction comes in waves for what is and isn't popular. Currently bright colors and cartoonish characters have been determined by marketing departments to be popular and will sell. That will likely change after some time.

Part of it, perhaps, but markets don't dtermine evrything. People in general are getting dumber, too, so also less capable of creativity.

Why people are getting dumber? They have worldwide libraries full of knowledge a click away.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Why people are getting dumber? They have worldwide libraries full of knowledge a click away.

Labor and genetics.

We import all our labor from genetically deficient countries with lower IQs. Their paymasters and the government don't want conflict from inequality, so we dumb down everyone to make Obongo Matombe feel better about his bad grades and future Walmart job. This applies to every form of media now, where we can't even show accurate history in games or TV because it might make someone feel not "included" (read: unwilling to fight in WW3 for a country they hate).

We're sleepwalking into Communism-lite - and for Americans without that comfortable socialism stage, where you still get free healthcare and corruption hasn't broken the system yet.

 

[luj1]

Why people are getting dumber? They have worldwide libraries full of knowledge a click away

Thats why they are getting dumber

 

[Stavrophore]

People who enjoy fortnite graphic, no mature person detected.

 

[Butter]

People who enjoy fortnite graphic, no mature person detected.

This is the target audience for Otter Worlds.

 

[TedNugent]

I'd play a game based on Beksiński's art.

And there's even an RPG in the works!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1968940/Nazralath_The_Fallen_World/

On the other hand it looks like a Soulslike

Trailer looked cool, but this looks like something out of any other AAA studios game....same color palette, same enemies...making there is a reason they are wearing masks and a hood other than to look like generic NPCs and restrict their vision and breathing:

Other enemies are emaciated skeleton zombie people? Really inspired.

I hope they go somewhere interesting with the occult theme.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

So these were the games we played as KIDS, No oversized heads, no big eyes, no white donkey teeth. And these are the games played by ADULTS now,

What happened?

I believe art direction comes in waves for what is and isn't popular. Currently bright colors and cartoonish characters have been determined by marketing departments to be popular and will sell. That will likely change after some time.

The dominant "Fifty Shades of Brown" style was replaced by WoW-style garishness, which was replaced by "Five-Hundred Shades of Brown", which was replaced by super-cartoony garishness.

Bracing for incoming "Five-Thousand Shades of Brown" aesthetic.

 

[Barrow_Bug]

People who enjoy fortnite graphic, no mature person detected.

Who is this? An Art Director? Your Dad? Who?

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

Why people are getting dumber? They have worldwide libraries full of knowledge a click away

Thats why they are getting dumber

People outsource their thinking to the internet. Instead of thinking for themselves they just pull a conclusion from the net and consider that knowledge. When they encounter conflicting viewpoints they pick sources that tell them things they find emotionally congenial.

The push for censoring "misinformation" is their attempt to resolve cognitive dissonance in the social media that substitutes for their brains.

 

[cvv]

I refuse to ever touch Civilization 6 for the sole reason of it's cartoonish representation of history

Oh man how many times I tried to get into Civ6 over the years. I could get used to the map and units and everything else but every time I see those Disney Channel leaders I throw up and uninstall.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Except if Japan does it, then it's incline and Codexers turn instantly into otakus.

Maybe some people on here, but I agree with this statement when it comes to the general consumer base for games. There's not a Hell of a lot of Asian games that don't have that anime aesthetic and most of it looks alike to me. For example, look at Wizardry games made in Japan. They've loved Wizardry games since the MSX/NES days. With good reason, they're pretty great games. A Japanese company got their hands on the license, now every bit of character art in those games is anime despite Wizardry having eight mainline games worth of Sir-Tech establishing an art style for the series. Here's Wizardry 8:

https://af.gog.com/game/wizardry_8?as=1649904300

And here's what Wizardry looks like today:

https://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2020/01/review-wizardry-labyrinth-of-lost-souls.html

https://ricedigital.co.uk/wizardry-the-five-ordeals-review/

If you're bitching about cartoony, brightly colored graphics in games being a modern trend while ignoring that the vast majority of Japanese games do this and have been doing this since the 16bit era, you're not being honest.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Indeed, it was the world (locations) design and clever use of graphics that elevated WoW above everything else.

Not to mention WarCraft has had that art style since WarCraft: Orcs and Humans. They've never really changed it.

 

[NotSweeper]

Those religious paintings are the past's version of design-by-committee commissioned works. They're aesthetically pleasing, but the artist had little room for creativity. They make use of expensive substances usually reserved just for works of this kind, such as lapis lazuli and gold ground up and mixed with oils and paints. In a way they're like corporate art.

I agree. Obviously, photographs of tomato soup cans and random splotches of paint on a canvas are way more expressive and creative.
Because individualism is important. Really, it's the most important thing in the universe... the self... and the expression of the self. And nothing else matters.
I keep waiting for this civilization to collapse, but it just fucking refuses to do so. It's like a nightmare you can't wake up from.

 

[cvv]

I agree. Obviously, photographs of tomato soup cans and random splotches of paint on a canvas are way more expressive and creative.

Eh, there is something to what Semiurge says. It's like two different ideas of art - zero skill/all self-expression vs. godlike skill/zero self-expression.

When you consider paintings like the Night Watch nobody ever is talking about WHAT it portrays - a bunch of people standing around. Not exactly riveting. It's all about the technique, which is utterly mindblowing.

And it's the polar opposite with people like Warhol or Pollock.

Problem with postmodern art is people think it superseded the "old art" because it's new and better, instead of modern art being just a completely different animal. And so artist today are so inept they can't into technique even if they wanted. And so if you want to restore old art it turns out like this:

Btw this is a real thing, a huge scandal a few years back. It's the figures on the Prague Astronomical Clock, one of the most famous and cherished medieval monuments in the world. And the best modern artists can do is this abomination. Plus afaik it's not the only such scandal with restoring old art, this is happening all over Europe.

 

[Gandalf]

Make Bikini Chainmail Great Again!

Is this Skyrim by any chance?

 

[Hydro]

Problem with postmodern art is people think it superseded the "old art" because it's new and better, instead of modern art being just a completely different animal. And so artist today are so inept they can't into technique even if they wanted. And so if you want to restore old art it turns out like this:

I agree with the first part about modern art being a different animal. I’d argue though that there’s a lot of modern art using quite sophisticated techniques rooted in tools and means available today. The thing you’ve mentioned as an example is probably mere incompetence of people responsible for commissioning the whole project plus budget thing.

 

[Azdul]

Say no to infantile Japanese 'art':

And embrace centuries old Western tradition:

Mature, realistic art style can achieve so much more when it comes to emotional impact and communicating sophisticated ideas.

Unless you have large team of varying levels of talent trying to deliver assets on tight schedule. Then you need to simplify things a bit to keep the art style consistent:

 

[GrainWetski]

Indeed, it was the world (locations) design and clever use of graphics that elevated WoW above everything else.

Not to mention WarCraft has had that art style since WarCraft: Orcs and Humans. They've never really changed it.

Then

vs

now

https://www.wowhead.com/news/pelago...aracter-on-his-identity-in-shadowlands-316944