Diablo 3 Art Controversy Returns

When Diablo 3 was revealed in 2008, a huge controversy sprang up with many fans strongly objecting to the bright, colorful graphics. That debate died down months ago, but now it's made a return, thanks to the bright, colorful visuals and spell effects displayed in the gameplay movie released at Blizzcon. Critical fans have taken numerous screenshots and marked them up with comments, pointing out problems they see with the visuals.

Bashiok, Blizzard's D3 community manager, isn't taking this one lying down, and he's thrown himself into the debate, taking on the controversial shots point by point, and offering counter examples from Diablo 2.

[Xulfxulf]

No petitions this time, at least. Not yet, anyway.

[Leord]

The old one got what, 65k hits?

[Syronicus]

I am one for the artwork of Diablo 3 as it stands and cannot understand why anybody would want to keep it darker and more grey. I have played the piss out of Diablo and Diablo 2 and see nothing wrong with art style in D3. What is it that people hate so much?

[Ryangp]

I have all Diablo's and expansions and i thought the art was great for them, But Diablo 3 looks great as well. I just hope it's not the same as red alert 2 to red alert 3, i think they ruined that game partly cause of the artwork and the style of it, but i think Diablo 3 will be fine.

[Perjoss]

65k is a teeny tiny percentage of the total number of people that will buy Diablo 3 and love it, and probably play it for 10 years+ like the last diablo game.

[RememberThe357]

As long as it feels like a Diablo game I'll be OK. There is much more to the series then the color pallet.

[Maticus]

Honestly, the game looks awesome. I don't know why people are complaining.

[Leord]

Exactly. I just love that old pic Penny Arcade made on the topic:

http://www.diablowiki.net/A...

Absolutely hilarious! :)

You might need to have an inkling of liking Penny arcade humour to understand it, but still... Brilliant!

[Redrudy]

Which I don't. At all. Ever.

[Redempteur]

They are complaining because OF COURSE they can do better that the guys at blizzard .

IMO the screens looks fine and i think they have a lot to do since the game is far from being finished / tuned / whatevered to make it blizzard-like AKA perfect .

There is no reason to attack D3 like that

[thetamer]

I think it's going to be loved no matter what it's like.

[Leord]

The point of the matter is that even though those pictures show very flamboyant spell effects, they look a lot different when animated. they look more part of the game then.

OTOH, for me I even like the stills, so I am doubly annoyed by people making a huge deal out of this...

[Medievaldragon]

Other than teh 90s quality in-game cinematics using assets, what I saw there was awesome. I wasn't even aware there was a second art controversy.

[Holyknight3000]

To be quite honest im more impressed with the game now than i was when they first showed it last year. they have come such a long way. If people must debate that its too colorful go for it, otherwise turn the game to black and white on your monitor and have fun that way i say.

[Dorjan]

I like the look of it too...

[moondragon]

People complain for the sake of it. Easy to sit in front of your keyboard and make demands.

[Eoweniel]

Impressed with the game now more than earlier, someone said? Haha, well that's a given :) A game is supposed to improve during it's development course. I'm sure there's tons that's yet to come, that's gonna blow our minds!

[Feral Gamer]

I haven't played Diablo II since it came out. I got tired of random drops and enemies reappearing, but maybe I should give it another go.

Why do people care so much about the graphics? If they don't like it, they don't have to buy it. Do they want to push back the release even further? Last time I checked, spells glow.

[Xulfxulf]

fans want d3 to look just like d2. but in 3d, and better. but not in a way that's better that's different than the way they want it to be better. it's quite simple, really.

[Baka-akaB]

And i'm sure D1 fans wanted d2 to looks like D1 , only better . And in the end D2 looked like D2 to the great pleasure of everyone .

[OpiZA]

That pic just made my day

[Xulfxulf]

perhaps if this one gets big enough, they'll make a 2nd rainbows and unicorns t-shirt, this one with insulting comments about the color of the clouds, drawn on with MS Paint?

[Lumbo]

They still should sell those t-shirts... i would buy one

[Nihilism]

that art style thing was a joke, i for one hated how dark diablo 2 was, i have perfect eyesight but when your playing for hours and hours on end.... ( which is mandatory in d2), it hurts

[Gun_Senshi]

AkA WoW Offline

[WeeMadBadger]

I don't like the look, but we'll see how it works. The effects are too flashy and gore is to over-the-top-cartoonish. Like the exploding palm thingy. They just explode like baloons filled with blood. Looks rather stupid.

That said, monk looks interesting and I might pick this game up.

[peeps]

i can undertsand if ur a massive fan of the series u may be dissapointed however, if these ppl are such massive fans they're end up buying it anyway. just seems a little silly all of this comparisons and complaining. and i dunno whether it was done on purpose to make a point, but the text used to point out mistakes etc is actually v bright and unreadable lol quite ironic

[Baka-akaB]

If they were massive fans , they would have spotted the difference in each episode of the serie and shut up already .

[Redrudy]

I'm happy with the color palette, what I didn't like in the latest gameplay footage was the amount of effects. It was overkill and at some points you couldn't distinguish one effect from the other. It was a mess. I am beginning to see the console fighting game influences where they weren't so obvious in the previous footage.

[free2game365]

I never understood how people try to spin that a darker visual look somehow makes the game less playable, or less colorful. The point is the achieve a darker look you make the colors more dark and less saturated. That doesn't mess with playability if you're smart about things. Just use smart color variations to make NPCs stand out and small use of effects and lighting.

[Jdoki]

And how many of these whiny idiots are still going to buy the game Day 1!

If people are really annoyed with the art direction Blizz have taken, they should vote with their wallets and not buy it.

Some people just have to complain. Do they think Blizz are going to change their entire art assets just because of a group whiners who call themselves hardcore Diablo players/fans? The art/graphics in Diablo 1 and 2 was OK but it was the GAME PLAY that kept me coming back - I don't see how colourful graphics is going to hurt the GAME PLAY in Diablo 3

[Lets-Game]

People are just afraid that the game will lose it atmosphere, I remember playing first diablo, the village and the character gave you such good feeling, like you really were there even with those crappy graphics. and the music was just perfect. when you descended loser and lower it was such a dark and mysterious feeling.

waah i feel like playing diablo 1 again :)

in diablo 2 the world got even bigger and more fun.

I just hope 3rd one turns out good. But i am positive, cause blizzard never disappointed with their games.