When I first talked about the Diablo "fans" who bitched and whined because Diablo III didn't look dark enough and had too many colors to fit in with their absurd purist desires, I grimaced and wept at the state of humanity. Now it's given me something to smile about as developer Jay Wilson has taken the mock-up shots of what whiny "fans" want from Diablo III (obnoxiously claiming they know how the game "should" look) and criticized them, pointing out the unrealistic expectations and bad design choices that these armchair graphic designers have made.
"It becomes really hard to see all the profiles. Look at the tables and see how hard it is to see the profiles of those," says Wilson of one before-and-after shot that a photoshopper made of a Witch Doctor casting a spell. The so-called fan made the screen very dark and grainy, draining the color from the spell effects. "And one of the things that I actually would argue about something like this is that it’s completely against Diablo II. If you look at the spell effects in Diablo II, they’re very over-the-top. To gray out the actual spell effects, to me it’s pulling out all the vibrancy and interest out of them and really going against a lot of Diablo II philosophy." Someone just got owned.
If you find the backlash against Diablo III's artistic design as ludicrous as I do, then I fully recommend giving this article a look. It's nice to see a Blizzard professional school these armchair developers who think they know best, despite the fact that they're unrealistic spoiled brats who would never be happy, whatever Blizzard decided to do.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
7:16 PM on 08.04.2008
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Oh, wait. It wouldn't because this whole thing is retarded.
I just have no idea why they want everything in the game to be black and grey.
We have got Killzone 2 for that, thank you very much.
At least we can rest on the fact that a lot of the petitioners are in the minority.
If the screen is too bright for you, then lower the gamma in the Graphics options and shut the fuck up!
The average gamer IQ is getting dropped once again by those jackasses who think that graphics are more important than gameplay. Apparently, this mentality has migrated from the 360 and PS3 fanboys to the PC.
Calling them "unrealistic spoiled brats" is being way too kind.
But the truth in the whole matter is simple. If you go too far in either direction, you lose detail. It is obvious with Diablo 3 that they want more detail in the textures. More backgrounds going on. Take for example that first gameplay trailer that was released with the giant beast walking in the background as the character traverses over a bridge.. Darken the game as they so wish it, and you will barely make it out, if you notice it at all.
They found a happy medium. I have likened the Diablo Fanboys to that of mindless drones running around screaming "It's not Diablo if the rivers aren't made of Blood and instead of realistic Rainbows, there's floating corpses".. As they make these claims that they should exist because they are "Diablo" despite that what they have done to its design is not found in any previous release.
I found the lighting to actually be a flaw in previous games. I could be in the outdoors for an entire day and it will never get any brighter than a moonlit night. Then in other areas, such as the deserts outside of Lut Gholein, it is very bright - yet the darkness drops to a maddening low. Perhaps it is just, I have never lived or visited a true desert.
But in other areas that severely irritate me. One could be in the midst of Hell, and the screen will not be bright at all. Burning Flames of Hell all around, rivers of lava accompanying! Corpses burning at every interval, and yet when a fire spell is cast or a character runs around. You can easily make out the big difference in lighting from that fire, or that light radius, over the giant fire that runs alongside it.
It never made any sense to me why that was. And I hope that with the new lighting being used, that this situation will become more believable. Darkness where Darkness should be, and Light where Light should be.
The images that people tinkered with as to what it "should look like" are entirely wrong. That is not the way realistic looks are. Perhaps their thoughts, but not realism. And as John B says, if you don't like it - turn down the fucking gamma and make it so dark that your daddy might walk in and feel you up thinking you're his wife... So maybe John didn't say it in that many words. But I was on a roll.
MORE RAINBOWS, BLIZZARD!
BUT
The light radius is something that definitely belongs in a dungeon crawler. It's not much of a dungeon crawler if you can see the things coming at you through the dungeon.
Mr. Jay Wilson even claims that it's not possible to create due to prospective hardware requirements (which saddens me greatly), but Mythos has a fully functional light radius - and it looks amazing.
Seriously, how can Blizzard make a Diablo game without being surrounded by a shadows?
however, i dont see why its so shocking to say this game 'looks cartoony'. cause it kinda does.
i guess now that ive said that i must have a lower IQ according to some of the posters in here. or that im one of the people that curse brown games one minute and demand them the next (nice research whoever said that).
anyway, i dont care how diablo 3 turns out, im not a fan of the series, but the overall look does have a certain warmth to it that the others lacked and i guess that takes away from the atmosphere a little. i dont think anyone wants a colourless game, but it looks kinda cartoony in the same way that starcraft 2 managers to look cartoonier than SC1. the same can be said for most rts games these days.
ok ive probably said enough to be quoted and flamed in the next 20 comments but thats my 2 cents :P
None the less I think the fact that the art director took the time to critique the specific screen shots and really show their creative process and line of thought kicks total ass. This is why Blizzard is truly the best. They could have just released a simple, 'Haha we know better than you go away' kind of statement but instead they took the time to actually show why they went with what they did. Even if your getting pwned having an employee from Blizzard comment personally on your doctor screenshot like this is pretty cool.
I see he's played Diablo 2 as well. :D
:D
...
:D
I don't know how many of you played the Warcraft series before it became the retarded time sink that is WoW but when Warcraft 3 was first being talked about fans had a negative reaction as well. There was all this talk about very few units compared to older warcraft games and heroes being the main focus. Well Blizzard fans threw a fit (very much like this Diablo one) Blizzard listened to their fans and changed it and everyone was happy. Hopefully Blizzard hasn't traded in their humility for bags of cash and will fix what seems to be a problem for their hardcore fans.
I dig the characters and over the top effects, but the environments need an overhaul if what they're showing now is how things are going to look throughout the game. I dont want WoW or LOTR -- i want dark fantasy and many, many many others do too.
It is OK to get out from behind the Blizzard banner and ask for more impalings and the consistency that made diablo II work with diablo I -- and diablo one to stand by itself.
Frankly, all I want to see is the return of the light radius for dungeons and fog for outdoor areas. Those two things could make even Candy Land look spooky enough.
Hopefully those limitations Jim Wilson mentioned are completely bogus... because if Mythos can make an awesome looking light radius, Diablo 3 damn well can too.
though it wasn't really needed, most of these whiners will prolly have a pre-order already since the announcement :p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFtnZcE9xE8
It’s not like we restarted the project and were like “Diablo III — now with rainbows!”