They Told Picasso He Had It Wrong Too
Posted by Stropp on August 7, 2008Yep. That’s right. The fans didn’t like the cubic shapes he gave the women in his pictures. Women should be rounded they said, and look soft.
It’s a little known fact, but Leonardo Da Vinci came under fire from the fans for his painting, the Mona Lisa. If she’s smiling, we ought to see teeth, they said. Oh, and more boob too.
Okay. I’m making that up. As far as I am aware, the fans of both Leonardo and Pablo never demanded that they change their paintings to be how the fans thought they should be. It’s possible of course that the fans, or critics, did do that, but if they did I’m sure both great painters would have, politely, raised their middle fingers in reply.
If you study the old masters, you’ll know that they change their styles from time to time. That doesn’t only happen in the world of painting either. Musicians evolve their styles over time, so do writers, and any other kind of artist. In fact, for the greats, it’s almost mandatory to change.
So here we are. It’s 2008 and we are seeing a maelstrom of criticism over Blizzards changing art style for Diablo 3. Once again we have the fans, and critics, demanding that the artists do things the way they ’should’ be done.
Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Blizzard collectively extend their second digit in response.
Diablo III will stand on its own merits. I expect it will be a graphically stunning game, even if it uses a different color palette. Frankly, I’m looking forward to it.
Popularity: 5%
Hey, I would have called it the middle digit; is the thumb not counted?
I like your blog, by the way. It’s a great layout. Mine is such a generic Wordpress template; it works fine, but visually, it’s kinda bleh
About Diablo 3, I was pretty amused by the backlash. And I really liked the Blizzard response, commenting on the Photoshopped screenshots fans submitted with a look they preferred. Either it wasn’t possible technically, or it was going to affect gameplay or multiplay…there’s so many levels of consideration for a game designer that an enthusiast doesn’t have to consider.
I think I’d trust Blizzard. Say what you want about WoW, it was really well-done. I didn’t like some of their basic design decisions, but what they chose to include was really well done. I’m guessing the same will be true with D3. You might not totally enjoy all their choices, but it’s going to be a fun game.
Hey Rick, thanks for dropping by.
Blizzard are pretty good at managing expectations. They’ve had a lot of practice with WoW. I agree too that I’d trust them. They really haven’t had too many failures, and they’ve shown in the past (with their single player games) that they are willing to take harsh measures to make the game enjoyable. If this new art style doesn’t work, I have no doubt they’d make changes.
And thanks for the complement about the blog. I started with a standard-ish layout too, but I’m too ADD to leave it alone for too long. I think this is the third or fourth design in two years!
Add A Comment