PoB

Recently, as many know, a petition was started when the game, Diablo 3, was revealed to the world and it was just a little too “vibrant” and looked a little less like Diablo and more like World of Warcraft. The petition was for Blizzard to change the art direction to a drab, dark, colorless world. Something more along the lines of… all other dungeon crawlers that copied Diablo and Diablo 2 in the first place. I found this outcry intriguing. And just so you know, I played both of the games and know exactly what people are complaining about.

I hate to break it to you, folks, but the world is not sepia-toned or tinted gray. I know that many video games would make you assume that it is in fact a very dark and dull place where green grass is actually mildly brown grass and white is actually light brown. I understand that this is a change that not many could have seen ten years ago, but still, we’re playing in a console and computer world that is more powerful than any other before it, which should mean more beautiful worlds. Yet, we demand less. Games like Gears of War take place in a basically brown world. There is no beauty in it and I’m sure that comes with the story line, but in a time when every other game is about a destroyed world ravaged by monsters and evil doers, it gets a little ridiculous. Like stated before, reality is not gray. Look outside (if you dare) and you’ll see green and blue and all manner of houses that aren’t destroyed and dirt covered.

Look at that non-color! AND BLUE!

Luckily for those of us that still enjoy eye candy, there are developers out there that feel the same way. A specific game, along with Diablo 3, that looks to change the way we see games is Mirror’s Edge. A beautiful looking game that appears to not have a trace of sepia in it! What are the odds that one of the most exciting games coming in the near future actually goes off the dirt road? It’s difficult for me to put these thoughts into words because I just can’t see how people don’t feel the same. Look at the screen below and tell me it doesn’t look like a refreshing change.

Mirror’s Edge

Now, let’s do a count of colors in each of the last two screens. Gears of War has brown, blue, black and gray. Mirror’s Edge has orange, blue, red, yellow, white, shades of bluish gray. When you think about it, all that games like Gears Of War does is cheap you out of a good HD experience. Which brings me to a thought that video games are the opposite of movies. Movies started with black and white and eventually wound up in HD, some showing off beautiful high quality worlds (yes, there are many exceptions but let’s not focus on movies). Games like the original Mario tried to use as many colors as possible and now as the video gaming industry becomes stronger, richer and more mainstream it’s turning to black and white, dull and brown.

So to anyone out there that agrees, please, PLEASE, fight for the right to beautiful, vibrant, lush games.

(Note: I used Gears of War not because I dislike the game. I don’t. I love it. But because what it presents is not always pleasing to the eye. If you want, I could give more examples. But I won’t. They’re everywhere.)