My preferred art style in an MMORPG is realism, as it lends itself to immersion and allows the more fantastical elements of this genre to hold a little more believability. What I love about pantheon's art style is the respect that is given to the story of a particular moment or space. Frank Lloyd Wright would design psychological motivations into his houses in order to influence the inhabitants to have a designed experience. This practice made his houses feel alive. You can recognize similar elements in the artistic design of pantheon. A tiny cramped corridor right before a vast chasm; the flat grey tunics of the Dwarves in Amberfaet blending them into the background of ice, stone, and snow- monster placement, dungeon architecture, and artistic design all join hands to create a background to a place that provides the depth required for meaningful motivation.
Comment rescinded after thinking about it a bit more.
See below for my updated take on this issue.
In terms of landscape visuals, I mostly like what I've seen so far. There's room for improvements though, for example in early pictures we saw of Khagan Sands, or the streams from Amberfaet, where certain surfaces looked like plastic. These will hopefully be improved.
For the building / house visuals, I am very impressed and think these will be great. No complaints there.
As for characters, it's difficult to comment really since we haven't seen much of the "final" character models in action yet. I think the direction is good however (judging from the humans and ogre models for example).
For weapon/armor models it is even harder to comment. I like the simple equipment we have seen so far (for the lower level ranges), there isn't much we've seen for higher levels except some plate armor. But high level leather or cloth should also look great, and I'm missing samples there :)
Generally, realistic isn't that important for me, but believeable is. I will always prefer believeable looks over "exaggerated for effect".
Going against the grain. I prefer "unreal" art styles. "Realistic" art styles are too costly to both develop and deploy. At a certain point, the game does need to function, and with the potential for 72 man raids, people are going to have to turn their graphics down to the minimum settings. In order to appreciate a realistic art style, your settings will have to be relatively high.
Naos said:Going against the grain. I prefer "unreal" art styles. "Realistic" art styles are too costly to both develop and deploy. At a certain point, the game does need to function, and with the potential for 72 man raids, people are going to have to turn their graphics down to the minimum settings. In order to appreciate a realistic art style, your settings will have to be relatively high.
This is true to some extent but when I was harvesting or just socialising, mostly on Everquest, I set my graphics on high to enjoy the shadows and grasses blowing etc, but when raiding I changed my settings to high performance. Art preferences are personal and I do like other styles as well as realism, but when I am playing a character I find it more believable if it's realistic. There is no way on this earth to please everyone though, so I would go with what the majority wants and what works best for the game.
My personal preferences lean more towards cel-shaded than realistic. TF2 or Bastion would be examples. Any style other than realistic tends to age better, imo.
I also prefer close to or untextured models. This mod, in 'pixar' mode is getting close to my ideal.
Fantastical Realism. Something that looks like it could exist in our world. I dont mean has to work with physical laws, just that it looks like it could. E.g. skeletons should still have muscle that moved bones or you could see the magic connecting the joints, not just two bones touching with no obvious mechanism for keeping them together. Weapons that look like they dont need to be lifted with a crane, in porportion. Beasts that make sense from a visual perspective (never inderstood why a gelatinous cube would be cube shaped in the first place and not a slime mold shape).
I dont think realistism should prove to be any more difficult to achieve than good looking non-realistic art.
From what I have seen of Faerthale, I quite like the direction VR has taken. I would like to see more finished art work for buildings, npcs and classes, etc., before making a final comment, though.
I love when things look like my Chinese cartoons, can we just get the MMO from Log Horizon?
JK with the high fantasy setting theres a balance thats needed for it to look good. Too realistic and you get edgy dark that doesnt age well, too cartoony and you get WoW with building designs stolen from Fisher Price.
So realistic constructs but with a bit more flair of color and fashion I guess.
I don't know what it is but I can't do Anime styles. I love cartoon, comic, realism, fantasy or any combination of them, but for some reason I just can't do Anime. It has kept me from enjoying quite a few games that I otherwise think I would have enjoyed. Lots of folks talk about Final Fantasy and how great the games are, but I just can't get passed the graphics. A failing of mine for sure, but its just a nonstarter for me.
As a few others have said I don't mind realistic but I also want some vibrancy. I don't want dull bland brown coloured leather and grey coloured mail. I want to be able to find/craft dyes and make my character look awesome. I plan to play a wizard and I would love bright yellow/orange robes or ideally a colour blend. I want my staff to look a bit more exciting than just a piece of wood once I get to higher levels.
As has been said, realism. I especially like the art from the company FromSoft, who made dark souls along with other titles. The art allows them to make awesome looking, realistic (no gigantic shoulder plates or weak spots) armor, beautiful scenery, and terrifying dark areas.
That being said, art style will only ever be icing on the cake for me, not the cake.
From Pantheon , I think the art is doing ok. I like that we can already see things like mist. I don't want too say too much on it because the art still has a ways to go.
Image 1: Tomb of the Giants; Do you see the eyes?
Naturally, newer titles than DS1 look even better but even this is a pretty high standard for an MMO, I think.
Art style needs to age well, however, as long as the movement is fluid and the color palette is not dull and lifeless I can live with whatever it becomes. (not a JRPG fan...at all)
'WoW with building designs stolen from Fisher Price' *Gintoki88 /snicker
chenzeme said:Fantastical Realism. Something that looks like it could exist in our world. I dont mean has to work with physical laws, just that it looks like it could. E.g. skeletons should still have muscle that moved bones or you could see the magic connecting the joints, not just two bones touching with no obvious mechanism for keeping them together. Weapons that look like they dont need to be lifted with a crane, in porportion. Beasts that make sense from a visual perspective (never inderstood why a gelatinous cube would be cube shaped in the first place and not a slime mold shape).
I dont think realistism should prove to be any more difficult to achieve than good looking non-realistic art.
From what I have seen of Faerthale, I quite like the direction VR has taken. I would like to see more finished art work for buildings, npcs and classes, etc., before making a final comment, though.
I would concur with Chenzeme. some visualization to emphasize the fantasy aspect to excite the mind but no excesses. Not in color either. For example in a location theme where such a bit more is warranted for cultural or atmospheric presentation.
BeaverBiscuit said:As has been said, realism. I especially like the art from the company FromSoft, who made dark souls along with other titles. The art allows them to make awesome looking, realistic (no gigantic shoulder plates or weak spots) armor, beautiful scenery, and terrifying dark areas.
I second DS1/DS2 art style. They do an excellent job creating a hopeless, dying, and dangerous world. It's an atmosphere that really draws you in. It's often just downright beautiful to stop and look out over the landscape while you plan your next move.
The gear isn't over the top either. It has a good mix of realism and otherworldy magic.
Kilsin said:Community Debate - What is your preferred Art style in an MMORPG and what is your favourite part about Pantheons Art? #MMORPG#CommunityMatters
Depends on the game I suppose. I liked WoW's "cartoonish" graphics because they worked well for the world and built off of their previous Warcraft titles. I like early EQ graphics before Luclin, imo, destroyed the character models. I like realism, but like others here have pointed out, it often doesn't age well.
One thing you can say for WoW about their art is that even when loading up Classic WoW, the graphics still look good (if you liked the WoW graphics to begin with) because they aren't overly realistic and thus don't become outdated extremely fast as tech develops.
In Pantheon, I have mixed feelings about the art so far. While I like a lot of what I see in environment art so far, the character models bother me. Ogres look like humans with pointy bottom teeth, and have an unappealing look especially with their body shape and facial expressions. Halflings are too pretty. Not sure about blue dwarves... Really, all of the races have something a bit "off" imo.
Also, the spell effects in their current state I am not a huge fan of. I love the simple but brilliant spell effects in EQ1. WoW also does a good job here, having spell effects that are more sophisticated. Spell effects should make you feel the spell as it is cast, and not just see it. There needs to be a good balance of artwork, animation, and rythm between the two or else spell casting looks choppy and unnatural, and doesn't feel satisfying. Currently, Pantheon's spell effects a leave me wanting.
Either a realistic style or a simplified colorful style for me.
Realistic is best, but it's hard to do it well enough that it doesn't age poorly or tank performance. It also requires extra animation/spell work to go with the 'realistic' graphics and not look... bad.
More cartoony games like LOZ Breath of the Wild (not an MMO I know, but its a big explorable world so I'm using it) are also really nice to look at and age better, but aren't as immersive as realistic games.
..............But hey as long as I can climb things and find pretty vistas I'm a happy little explorer :o)