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Blizzard defends decision to make Diablo III vibrant, colorful photo

Recently, upwards of 50,000 people signed a petition demanding that Diablo III's color palette be darkened. Luckily for us, the fan outcry wasn't enough to make Blizzard reconsider the game's art direction.

Talking to MTV Multiplayer, lead designer Jay Wilson says that "there's no going back now." He comments that Diablo III originally had a darker color scheme, but the team eventually decided against it.

“When you have 30 creatures on screen — and four or five different types — target prioritization is a factor. You need to be able to tell those things apart fast, and you can’t do that when your world is gray and your creatures are gray.”

I'm still trying to get over the fact that people were/are actually fighting to get more blacks, greys, and browns into Diablo III. Do we seriously not have enough games like that already?


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47 comments | showing # 1 to 47

Stahlbrand's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:16
Stahlbrand
Man, this 'bitch and moan about brown and grey' meme is tired.

Its the biggest bag of whine I've heard in the last two years.
Cinda's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:17
Cinda
Unbelievable. Yes, let's have more shades of gray, light gray, and dark gray in our games.

It's time to get out of the dark (Pun intended) ages people!
glandseck's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:17
glandseck
50,000 retards.
I find it looks great the way it is now. I might actually play this one. (Yes, I skipped over Diablo 1 and 2; shall I destroy my gamer card right away?)
Cinda's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:17
Cinda
Unbelievable. Yes, let's have more shades of gray, light gray, and dark gray in our games.

It's time to get out of the dark (Pun intended) ages people!
Cinda's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:17
Cinda
Unbelievable. Yes, let's have more shades of gray, light gray, and dark gray in our games.

It's time to get out of the dark (Pun intended) ages people!
Cinda's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:17
Cinda
Unbelievable. Yes, let's have more shades of gray, light gray, and dark gray in our games.

It's time to get out of the dark (Pun intended) ages people!
Cinda's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:18
Cinda
Unbelievable. Yes, let's have more shades of gray, light gray, and dark gray in our games.

It's time to get out of the dark (Pun intended) ages people!
ghets's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:21
ghets
Unbelievable. Yes!

50,000 signatures. Thats 50,000 complainey idiots right there.
jackburnt's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:22
jackburnt
I'm tired of brown/gray games. Give me ******* color!
sicPOS's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:22
sicPOS
Good for Blizzard. I thought the game looked great when I first saw it and I was shocked when I heard people call it "kiddy" because it has color.

I'm sick of all the games that are just shades of brown.
Stahlbrand's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:23
Stahlbrand
For the record, I don't care about the petition for Diablo 3 - at this point I'm confident that the Bliz people know what they're doing.

I'm just bored stiff by the vocal complainers who seem to think everything should be as colourful as Viva Pinata and Sly Cooper. There are games which are vibrant and colourful, tonnes of them. But not everything should, or even could be as colourful as some of these people think they ought to be.
Captain Quincy's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:23
Captain Quincy
I'll never understand the people that don't want any sort of colors in this game.
Rockvillian's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:25
Rockvillian
I can't really say anything, I signed the petition to keep the old characters in L4D, but now I understand - they changed them so you can tell them apart from the grey and black darkness of the rest of the game, keeping TK to a minimum.

Down with poop colored games!
JACK of No Trades's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:26
JACK of No Trades
Thats 50,000 killias2's Holy Crap


j/k man I love you
killias2's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:26
killias2
You need to understand Blizzard fans. When Warcraft took command of Blizzard (Warcraft 3, then Warcraft 3 expansion, then WoW, then WoW expansion, then second WoW expansion), the parts of the Blizz fanbase that never played the Warcraft games became very defensive and territorial. Anything that is perceived to have come from "Warcrap" (seriously, it gets called that a lot by HARDCORE BLIZZARD FANS) is instantly considered evil.

For example, on Starcraft sites, the fans regularly moan about how the style is too much like "Warcrap" and that the Zerg is basically a copy of the Undead now. Instead of calling the creep (the oozy stuff Zerg units build on) from SC2 creep they call it the bleep. The reason? It is allegedly more like the blight (which Undead from War3 built on) than the original creep.

Of course, they're morons. They don't seem to remember that the Undead were, themselves, all but a copy of the Zerg to begin with.

Sometimes, I wonder if these fans even want a sequel. Any significant changes made to the original get screamed about like the coming apocalypse, while the game, to even rational SC veteran's eyes, continues to look damn near identical to the original.
kagai's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:30
kagai
I don't have a problem with color in Diablo 3. I just question the decision to make interior stone in a green/blue hue. That's just too cartoony. And the gargoyles at the steps look like they belong in a Noggin cartoon.

Everything else, the character design, the gore, the outdoor areas, the bosses, the bad guys...just a whole lot of awesome.
killias2's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:34
killias2
@ Jack
Haha, what exactly are you trying to say? That I'm the kind of person who would support the petition? I think it's funny that I posted almost at the exact same time and made fun of these idiots.

Regardless, here is the kind of article I was talking about:
http://www.sclegacy.com/content/editorials-8/the-zerg-are-from-zerus-the-swarm-is-from-azeroth-68/
It's basically one big wah-fest about how SC2 looks too much like Warcraft 3. With the exception of maybe one or two images, he's just crazy. Those few images that look similar to War3? Recently unveiled artwork that will probably be completely changed by release.

I also find this bit at the bottom funny: "I feel the developers owe it to the fans to flat-out tell us their intentions. Is it to make a devoted sequel to StarCraft while still adhering to the subtle dark (read: not demonic) nature of the lore, art (all of us miss you, Blizzard North), and style? Or, is to build a multi-million dollar "Rated-E For Everyone" franchise that will produce quantities of Happy Mealâ„¢ toys and a visual appealing to their 9+ million paying World of WarCraft users?"

See what I mean? These guys are crazy morons, and they're everywhere. Luckily, Blizzard has the good sense to take criticisms like this with a large amount of salt.
sicPOS's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:34
sicPOS
@killas2

I'm a big SC junkie and I've yet to complain about the new look, but I do lurk to SC2 boards on gamefaqs and it's full of idiots that complain about every little changed detail.
4knuckleshuffle's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:34
4knuckleshuffle
I have a solution that will make everyone happy: All the whiny retards who think everything is to bright should turn down the brightness and contrast on their monitors, whilst everyone who thinks that it's too dark should do the opposite.
JohnThEReaper617's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:38
JohnThEReaper617
That is stupid, i have been playing video games for 18 years and have never heard of a game being...."to colorful." So apprently having to vibrant of a color palette mean that D3 will not have the same dark evil tone...doubtful
killias2's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:39
killias2
"I'm a big SC junkie and I've yet to complain about the new look, but I do lurk to SC2 boards on gamefaqs and it's full of idiots that complain about every little changed detail."

Haha, yeah. I used to lurk on comments at sclegacy.com, and, finally, I just made an account and started making fun of them. There are some damn classic moments.
zeroword's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:43
zeroword
Or they could just not buy the game and spare us all the bitching.
glandseck's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:47
glandseck
To the people whining about other people whining of brown/gray palettes:

Saturation is an important tool in an artist's arsenal. Keeping the saturation monotone (whether it's super-bright-colored or just plain gray) is going to look ugly, either way. The problem is that while it doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at something and say "this is way too colorful", a lot of less artistically inclined people easily fall in the lame pit of desaturation.

What I'm seeing with Diablo 3 is that Blizzard isn't afraid to sweep the saturation gamut; they're taking advantage of color to make gameplay elements more obvious... For example, sticking with a certain color range for a particular dungeon's floors and walls, and aim for the complete opposite color range for enemies. The brighter the colors, the easier the distinction. They also use saturation to further distance gameplay elements, making it easier to recognize something without having to stare directly at the thing to figure out what it is.

I'm tired of playing stuff like Gears of War where the only way to see your target is to wait for it move, turning essentially a static target into a game of Where's Waldo. There's nothing wrong with brown and gray, but color is a really important tool to easily make distinctions between two arbitrary targets. Desaturate the colors, and it gets ever harder to make that distinction.

It's a game ingredient. Whoever doesn't use it is losing out.
Cowzilla3's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:48
Cowzilla3
Everythings soooo green.
killias2's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:49
killias2
http://www.sclegacy.com/showpost.php?p=5546&postcount=5

There's a funny post that demonstrates how ridiculous Blizz fans can be.

My favorite moment: "I think the more ability-oriented micro of SCII (which it's starting to look like) is also just another way to cover up poor gamedesign. It's the same as with Browders other RTS (C&C3, which is a fun game might I add, I've been playing it rather a lot lately, even though it actually sucks)"

What I gather:
1. Abilities in strategy games are poor game design (what?)
2. SC2 will be just like C&C3 (notice that there isn't any actual evidence to hold this up.. just the fact that one of the game designers also worked on C&C3)
3. C&C3 is a fun game he plays a lot, but it actually sucks.
Cinda's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:51
Cinda
Sorry for all of the extra comments in here. I'm on my mom's laptop. I think it exploded on me. Too much Pogo played on it. Sorry.
sicPOS's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:53
sicPOS
I still can't believe people are bitching about auto mine
Knives's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 12:55
Knives
He should've just said "They can turn the brightness on their monitor down if they want darkness so much" :P
SteamyV's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 13:07
SteamyV
"I'm still trying to get over the fact that people were/are actually fighting to get more blacks, greys, and browns into Diablo III."

sexycommando's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 13:13
sexycommando
As far as I am concerned, Blizzard can do no wrong.
king3vbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 13:15
king3vbo
Moar brown is not a good thing.

These people are fuckwads
Matthew Blake's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 13:17
Matthew Blake
Wait, what? People want boring colors in their games? Terry the Confused Trucker is confused.

Syn's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 13:20
Syn
You think THATs racist? Count the whites!
Necros's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 13:23
Necros
This is one instance when a company should ignore its fans' cries for this or that.
Raidensolid's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 13:26
Raidensolid
I'm looking forward to seeing their new scheme. Eff the darker pallette.
Velt's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 14:06
Velt
I think we are going to keep talking about this until the game is finished, something that will happen in 2010 and probably a year after the game is released this is going to be still a topic of discussion.
RoboSheep's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 14:07
RoboSheep
Because D2 was not colorful?

Seriously, anyone whining about how great the game looks and that it needs to be more like Doom "can't see shit captain" 3 needs to STFU
nademagnet's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 14:12
nademagnet
Diablo III GREY SCALE EDITION!
Dexter345's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 14:18
Dexter345
It really got THAT MANY signatures? That is ridiculous. I was actually thinking about checking out Diablo 3 now that it doesn't look like ass.
F Whipple's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 14:23
F Whipple
Personally I think it should come in sepia tones with all old-timey music
P3T3Y's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 14:30
P3T3Y
Has there ever been an online petition that actually affected whatever it was petitioning?
mix's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 14:44
mix
Needs moar purple, green and Master Chief.
DryvBy's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 14:59
DryvBy
That's 50,000 people that should have their throats slit. I'm for colorful games. I didn't buy a $300 video card with 6 trillion colors (lawl) to look at 9mil shades of gray.
TurboSpaz's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 15:57
TurboSpaz
I'm calling it now, this games gonna be canned.
Sharpless's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 19:18
Sharpless
Good. I'm glad they ignored the whiny cunts. And I hope they're stupid enough to boycott the game, so that the millions of people who do buy it can play it in peace.
Im OK's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/01/2008 19:56
Im OK
I signed that petition. However, I signed it with the name and comment both being "This petition is retarded". Sadly, only afterward did I realize that they've got it set to not actually show the names/comments on the View Current Signatures page, thereby making it seem as if those 50,000 signatures are actually potentially legit. Very sneaky, that. Had I known that, I certainly wouldn't have signed it, but oh well. I'm guessing (or at least hoping) that if the signatures on this petition are ever revealed, that most of them will be similar to mine (i.e. joke signatures meant to mock the petition, instead of support it).
ajaxender's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/02/2008 04:12
ajaxender
I thought i looked a little bit colourful and bright for a diablo game... and then i watched the trailer and i begun to feel differently. And then when the guy got his head bitten off but the others mananged to kill the giant thing at the end... fuck yeah. I may turn down the brightness a little and put up the contrast a bit, but only if i can really be bothered. This game is gonna rock regardless.
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