Are you in charge of development of a new fantasy MMO, free-to-play or subscription based (or even both)? Is your game’s artwork very much “inspired” by World of Warcraft? Chances are that it is, so take a long look at this screenshot:
We're gonna eat your face.
Can your art-department create characters that look this awesome while still being very much inspired by the boys and girls at Blizzard? If not, sack them and find new ones. Or just skip the whole inspiration-part and do something else. Oh, I don’t know, something a bit more innovative than carbon-copying the art style of the biggest MMO on the block (which you will fervently deny while dodging the whole point).
The above screenshot comes from Allods Online. Allods Online looks a lot like World of Warcraft, but somehow the art-guys at Astrum Nival managed to make their game look really, really good. Some of the concept art is truly fantastic and AO is a pleasure to look at. It’s in closed beta, but a few places might have keys left for it.
Note that I didn’t say anything about gameplay. AO still has to prove its worth in that department.
Update: While I was finishing up this post, Sera’s latest Anti-Aliased column was published at Massively, also touching on a similar subject. Go read!
I think it is a grave mistake to believe that a particular art style will entice people. WoW is good at what it is doing, but I absolutely hate Chris Metzen’s SHOULDER fetish.
Or should I say
SSS HHH OOO UUU LLL DDD EEE RRR PPP AAA DDD SSS must be huge!