Realism Vs Stylization

rojoArcueid

for those people who see WoW as the definition of Stylized, please look at all the pictures and read the information on this link.

The link is not about video games, its about art. And making video games is art so the content on this link applies 100% to game development. Your game does not have to look like vanilla wow in order to be high quality stylized.

 

http://www.essential-humanities.net/supplementary-art-articles/realism-vs-stylization/#.Ud0ukMUju1E

 

thoughts and opinions are welcome. Keep it troll free, thanks.

Razeekster

I'm a huge fan of cell-shaded MMOs which are very rare. I'm waiting on a game called NT Project because that's cell-shaded and has some pretty neat features (one example is that towns grow or diminish based on their population. If a town has no players for an extensive period of time it will completely vanish!).

Alcuin

To me, high quality art is more important than art that is "realistic" or "stylized." Although, after looking at the link, I now find myself preoccupied with what an extremely stylized, abstract MMORPG would be like!

rojoArcueid

Originally posted by Alcuin
To me, high quality art is more important than art that is "realistic" or "stylized." Although, after looking at the link, I now find myself preoccupied with what an extremely stylized, abstract MMORPG would be like!

absolutely. Its a lot more important when the content is high quality no matter if its realistic or stylized. People have their own preferences, some like realistic and some prefer stylized. But being stylized does not mean its lower quality. Thats one of the reasons why i posted this thread, people pretending (either on purpose, or because lack of knowledge which i doubt it) that ¨stylized¨ means it has to be a low quality carbon copy of WoW. I wantd to make it clear that it is not the case.

KBishop

Vanilla WoW wasn't bad graphically because it was stylized, it was bad because it was low poly and the textures were lousy.

Stylization like realism is subject to the same things in 3d aka smooth models, good rendering, good textures, etc.

rojoArcueid

Originally posted by KBishop

Vanilla WoW wasn't bad graphically because it was stylized, it was bad because it was low poly and the textures were lousy.

Stylization like realism is subject to the same things in 3d aka smooth models, good rendering, good textures, etc.

exactly!

but when people discuss this topic , some people jump right away comparing everything to WoW visualy and blames stylization because WoW had low texture quality.

Realistic graphics can be as bad and even worst if they are low quality because it loses that sense of realism. Thats why stylization helps game age better than realism.

AlBQuirky

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Originally posted by rojo6934

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Originally posted by KBishop
Vanilla WoW wasn't bad graphically because it was stylized, it was bad because it was low poly and the textures were lousy.Stylization like realism is subject to the same things in 3d aka smooth models, good rendering, good textures, etc.

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exactly!but when people discuss this topic , some people jump right away comparing everything to WoW visualy and blames stylization because WoW had low texture quality.Realistic graphics can be as bad and even worst if they are low quality because it loses that sense of realism. Thats why stylization helps game age better than realism.

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Speaking only for me, WoW was very stylized with buildings that defied gravity. Outer walls angled outward, emphasizing the outward stress on said walls. Having an architectural background, this caused me to quit very quickly. Later, I tried WoW again and this time just accepted the style. I ended up playing a few years there. Fess up, now. How many people who played WoW wanted to jump on the back of a Night Elf and grab those handlebar ears of theirs? Anybody? anybody? Bueller? nobody...

"Realism" in video games is very difficult to do. Something always seems to be "off" when I see it tried. Even movies that used rotoscoping seemed a little off. Therefor, I appreciate a more stylized art style, within my personal limits. However, it seems like realism works well in a Sci-Fi setting. At least in my opinion.

Abstract I just do not like. I figure if it has to be explained to me, what's the point? The artist failed to communicate their idea to me. Same with comedy, by the way. A joke loses its "punch" when one has to explain it

Again, these are just my own personal preferences

Axehilt

It would be silly for someone to claim WOW was the definition of stylized.  The word simply describes a stylistic abstraction.

But certainly when you go for a reasonably tame stylistic abstraction, you end up with something vaguely similar to WOW.  It won't really be WOW's style, but it will be similar enough, and WOW has been popular enough, that people will liken it to WOW.

KBishop

Originally posted by rojo6934

Originally posted by KBishop

Vanilla WoW wasn't bad graphically because it was stylized, it was bad because it was low poly and the textures were lousy.

Stylization like realism is subject to the same things in 3d aka smooth models, good rendering, good textures, etc.

exactly!

but when people discuss this topic , some people jump right away comparing everything to WoW visualy and blames stylization because WoW had low texture quality.

Realistic graphics can be as bad and even worst if they are low quality because it loses that sense of realism. Thats why stylization helps game age better than realism.

I completely forgot about that, but yea if something is aiming to be realism and it doesn't accurately portray it then it is bad. You can get away with low poly and low texture with stylization much easier than in realism, because when you are trying to be realistic, people have a reference to determine how close you are.