Well I think soe is shooting at the wrong target group. They want the kids playing this game. I just poiint at the concept art that been released on the main page https://www.everquestnext.com/
The armor looks like over sized armor from Rift, and from Warhammer. It looks wow like and cartoon. I think that soe forgot who was their player base really is. I think they just made a huge error in judgement.
I dont mind having a bit cartoonish style. It makes for smoother gameplay in PvP and such.
Something between realistic and cartoonish, like Rift, is fine, as long as there smooth gameplay.
I dont know how much PvP there will be in EQ Next, but i beleive a mmo nowadays needs both solid PvE and PvP. AND beeing able to balance skills seperate from PvE and PvP...
This topic is going to be beaten to death before we get a solid look at things. We are all going to piss and moan several times before we get our hands on the game. No matter what we see or hear, it'll be picked apart and scrutinized, looking for reasoning or some cryptic message. Once we get to see gameplay, understand the mechanics and get a look at the inner systems, the tone will change.
Gameplay always, always rules over graphics. WoW is a testament to that and was slammed even in Vanilla for how it looked. I can understand not wanting a game that is cartoony but 'beauty is only skin deep'. Can we all agree to give the game a chance? I mean we are on a forum discussing something that isn't out yet, has no release date, and that we know nothing about.
Offtopic--The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker and Hotline Miami are awesome games. They should be played by everyone who values aesthetic over gameplay.
Since people are depicting concept art, though we haven't seen a single in-game character yet, let's just put this to the test.
If EQNext is cartoony, as in:
WoW type shoulderpads, bright colors, lightsaber weapons, well, you know what WoW looks like
would you still play it?
Did they do a good job or a bad job in your hypothetical scenario?
You mean my personal opinion? The very few pictures I have seen so far, remind me a lot more of WoW than they do of EQ.
I liked the Luclin characters from EQ.
Whoever did the Shadow of Fear character in Everquest did a good job too. I would pick that artist over what I've seen of EQNext so far.
Well, what I meant was: I'd take a good cartoon over a crap realism. I take WoW over original EQ. Especially the first char models.
I almost uninstalled EQ the first day because the avatars were so crappy. (Glad I didn't).
I take WoW over EQ2 as well. Sure it is 'realistic' - but I think the avatars are just ugly and the game ran like crap for all that 'realism'.
Yeah, if you asked me, who do you think has a better sense of art direction, Blizzard or SOE - I'd have to say Blizzard.
I personally do not think what I've seen from EQN looks like WoW. If the gameplay is as addictive as EQ, it simply won't matter to me what it looks like - just like it didn't matter to me in EQ.
I really have a hard time saying that the above is better art style than WoW.
Yeah, if you asked me, who do you think has a better sense of art direction, Blizzard or SOE - I'd have to say Blizzard.
SoE has always had excellent art designers. But they had both extremely good ones and bad ones.
It's really hard to say for me if the art direction of SoE is good or bad. They have had hundreds of artists, many freelance ones, and EQ has used tens of different artists.
Here is an excellent model and excellent concept art for EQ (LoN).
Jesus christ that looks awful. It's fine to have an animated look, but does the armor have to look that stupid?
We've had 8 years of exaggerated armor, if this game wants to be refreshing, can't we have cartoony but realistic armor, like LotRO?
I think both concept art shown look good. A great way to make characters look unique and stand out is to have some over the top gear. It's way easier to tell characters apart when one has big shoulder pads and one has small shoulder pads and one has only 1 shoulder pad, so on and so on.....
If everyone has extremely realistic, medieval stile armor and clothing, then everyone just ends up looking the same and you get a million clones running around.
The key imo is to have a good mix of both, and an appearance slot system, so that players can truly look unique and standout from the crowd, without having to sacrifice gear stats.
I really have a hard time saying that the above is better art style than WoW.
You're comparing character models that were made in 1997ish to models made somewhere around 2002. That's like saying Xbox's graphics suck compared to Xbox 360. Of course they do the technology that was used is totally different.
I'll give it a try regardless of the graphic style. That being said, I don't expect them to go the cartoony route with their graphics. I picture Planetside 2 except with robed elves and armored dwarves running around.
I really have a hard time saying that the above is better art style than WoW.
You're comparing character models that were made in 1997ish to models made somewhere around 2002. That's like saying Xbox's graphics suck compared to Xbox 360. Of course they do the technology that was used is totally different.
Not really what I'm saying -
WoW could have gone the EQ2 route, they were contemporaries, but they didn't - they used lower end graphics and threw an art style on top of it which, imo has held up amazingly well.
Where, I think EQ could have done a LOT more with as little as they had. A good art direction and EQ could have held up as well as WoW - but their art style didn't do that - it was dated when it released.
I guess it does come down to quality of the animations though,however MOST cartoony looking games also do very poor work with their graphics.
I should use a really good example of hit n miss.Wizard 101.
That game has really nice animated models,they look good and move good,i would accept that.The rest of the world however has cheap written all over it,i would not accept that.
usually cartoony just looks cheap,like a 4/5 color palette no shaders,no lighting basically no nothing,very low physics.
Game modelers and graphic artists,are quite skilled so you know they are not doing it for no reason.The reason is to speed up development and save cost both of creating and running the game.Other factors as well,you don't need to fine tune your map or your mapping skills if everything is low poly.So it allows more room for error.
Me personally i don't care what the excuse,as long as the game looks decent enough.I don't need really high end graphics,i just don't want to support a game that looks like the developer didn't care much.If they don't care about the quality,then i don't care to play.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
There is some hypocrisy at work here. The original EQ was very 'cartoony' and thats one of the things that made it really fun. I loved my goofy looking Ogre, I loved the Froglok models, and countless other things. When EQ2 was released, I played it for a short while before joining some friends on WoW, and one of my main reasons for not continuing to play EQ2 was that I think they failed at realism. It was not enjoyable for me and I did not like the character models.
Originally posted by Draedz There is some hypocrisy at work here. The original EQ was very 'cartoony' and thats one of the things that made it really fun. I loved my goofy looking Ogre, I loved the Froglok models, and countless other things. When EQ2 was released, I played it for a short while before joining some friends on WoW, and one of my main reasons for not continuing to play EQ2 was that I think they failed at realism. It was not enjoyable for me and I did not like the character models.
Yeah, I think some people don't consider it "cartoonish" because of the low polygon count, the artists didn't exactly have much to work worth with in the 90s.
Well, "stylized" graphics was already confirmed awhile back so people best get used to it now or move on. Gameplay is always my priority which is why I'm remaining skeptical. When Smed says shit like largest, super awesomest sandbox in the universe the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. But we shall see.
I've played some cartoony looking games in my day where the gameplay was terrible and the entire experience was bad. Back in the day, cartoony graphics might have been a little turn off for me, but I've gotten passed that a long time ago. As long as we have some solid gameplay all around with combat, crafting and assorted other goodies, the graphics wouldn't bother me at all.
Originally posted by Pigglesworth The EQ1 models looks nothing like the cover art. Why should we assume this cover art will define how the models look?
Should EQN go with 'stylized', I will only smile wryly to myself about the irony of it all.
But no, art style has always been nearly the silliest argument that gamers ever choose to have.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Comments
Jesus christ that looks awful. It's fine to have an animated look, but does the armor have to look that stupid?
We've had 8 years of exaggerated armor, if this game wants to be refreshing, can't we have cartoony but realistic armor, like LotRO?
You mean the bottom one or do you not like either one?
Well I think soe is shooting at the wrong target group. They want the kids playing this game. I just poiint at the concept art that been released on the main page https://www.everquestnext.com/
The armor looks like over sized armor from Rift, and from Warhammer. It looks wow like and cartoon. I think that soe forgot who was their player base really is. I think they just made a huge error in judgement.
I dont mind having a bit cartoonish style. It makes for smoother gameplay in PvP and such.
Something between realistic and cartoonish, like Rift, is fine, as long as there smooth gameplay.
I dont know how much PvP there will be in EQ Next, but i beleive a mmo nowadays needs both solid PvE and PvP. AND beeing able to balance skills seperate from PvE and PvP...
This topic is going to be beaten to death before we get a solid look at things. We are all going to piss and moan several times before we get our hands on the game. No matter what we see or hear, it'll be picked apart and scrutinized, looking for reasoning or some cryptic message. Once we get to see gameplay, understand the mechanics and get a look at the inner systems, the tone will change.
Gameplay always, always rules over graphics. WoW is a testament to that and was slammed even in Vanilla for how it looked. I can understand not wanting a game that is cartoony but 'beauty is only skin deep'. Can we all agree to give the game a chance? I mean we are on a forum discussing something that isn't out yet, has no release date, and that we know nothing about.
Offtopic--The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker and Hotline Miami are awesome games. They should be played by everyone who values aesthetic over gameplay.
Well, what I meant was: I'd take a good cartoon over a crap realism. I take WoW over original EQ. Especially the first char models.
I almost uninstalled EQ the first day because the avatars were so crappy. (Glad I didn't).
I take WoW over EQ2 as well. Sure it is 'realistic' - but I think the avatars are just ugly and the game ran like crap for all that 'realism'.
Yeah, if you asked me, who do you think has a better sense of art direction, Blizzard or SOE - I'd have to say Blizzard.
I personally do not think what I've seen from EQN looks like WoW. If the gameplay is as addictive as EQ, it simply won't matter to me what it looks like - just like it didn't matter to me in EQ.
I really have a hard time saying that the above is better art style than WoW.
That was at a time that designers were limited to around 100 polygons per character.
WoW was made with many more polygongs than Luclin character.
SoE has always had excellent art designers. But they had both extremely good ones and bad ones.
It's really hard to say for me if the art direction of SoE is good or bad. They have had hundreds of artists, many freelance ones, and EQ has used tens of different artists.
Here is an excellent model and excellent concept art for EQ (LoN).
I think both concept art shown look good. A great way to make characters look unique and stand out is to have some over the top gear. It's way easier to tell characters apart when one has big shoulder pads and one has small shoulder pads and one has only 1 shoulder pad, so on and so on.....
If everyone has extremely realistic, medieval stile armor and clothing, then everyone just ends up looking the same and you get a million clones running around.
The key imo is to have a good mix of both, and an appearance slot system, so that players can truly look unique and standout from the crowd, without having to sacrifice gear stats.
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I picked WoW over EQ2 despite its artstyle which I never liked, but I lived with it. I would do the same for EQN, I just hope I don't have to.
You're comparing character models that were made in 1997ish to models made somewhere around 2002. That's like saying Xbox's graphics suck compared to Xbox 360. Of course they do the technology that was used is totally different.
Not really what I'm saying -
WoW could have gone the EQ2 route, they were contemporaries, but they didn't - they used lower end graphics and threw an art style on top of it which, imo has held up amazingly well.
Where, I think EQ could have done a LOT more with as little as they had. A good art direction and EQ could have held up as well as WoW - but their art style didn't do that - it was dated when it released.
Nope same reason i won't be playing Wildstar.
I guess it does come down to quality of the animations though,however MOST cartoony looking games also do very poor work with their graphics.
I should use a really good example of hit n miss.Wizard 101.
That game has really nice animated models,they look good and move good,i would accept that.The rest of the world however has cheap written all over it,i would not accept that.
usually cartoony just looks cheap,like a 4/5 color palette no shaders,no lighting basically no nothing,very low physics.
Game modelers and graphic artists,are quite skilled so you know they are not doing it for no reason.The reason is to speed up development and save cost both of creating and running the game.Other factors as well,you don't need to fine tune your map or your mapping skills if everything is low poly.So it allows more room for error.
Me personally i don't care what the excuse,as long as the game looks decent enough.I don't need really high end graphics,i just don't want to support a game that looks like the developer didn't care much.If they don't care about the quality,then i don't care to play.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Yeah, I think some people don't consider it "cartoonish" because of the low polygon count, the artists didn't exactly have much to work worth with in the 90s.
Well, EQ wasn't cartoony.
You mention Ogre, ogre didn't look cartoony.
Most people mean more like WoW or disney like when they mention cartoony, from cartoons. EQ looked nothing like a cartoon.
This is the Luclin Ogre from Everquest, it's not cartoony at all.
Some more races:
Wow... it is just a painting tribute to Parkinson. We will soon find out the in-game art direction.
I've played some cartoony looking games in my day where the gameplay was terrible and the entire experience was bad. Back in the day, cartoony graphics might have been a little turn off for me, but I've gotten passed that a long time ago. As long as we have some solid gameplay all around with combat, crafting and assorted other goodies, the graphics wouldn't bother me at all.
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We shouldn't.
Should EQN go with 'stylized', I will only smile wryly to myself about the irony of it all.
But no, art style has always been nearly the silliest argument that gamers ever choose to have.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.