[P] Hm. I don't understand the slop aesthetic. I don't get why companies are trying really hard to make thinga look authentically like AI slop. The latest entry doing this is Guild Wars 3. Now, fair disclaimer? I'm not a Guild Wars fan. I think it has some of the most bland lore, setting, and narrative writing I've seen in a game. It's no Elder Scrolls. But what onboarded people with GW2? It certainly wasn't the writing.
#psychology #actuallyautistic #videogames #gamedev #art #guildwars3
-1
[P] It's a meme at this point how tremendously average and forgettable ArenaNet's writing is. It's just so utterly milquetoast and fillter, it got so bad that they tried relying on badly-written atrocity for shock value. I'd seen '80s toy advert cartoons with more heart and depth. So, it wasn't the flaccid writing. It was the ART. It had a striming visual personality with that stylised, painterly approach.
#psychology #actuallyautistic #videogames #gamedev #art #guildwars3
-2
[P] I mean, outside of jumping puzzles? The gameplay was dull too. It was that art that really left a strong impression. The combat was floaty, relied too mich on die-rolls, and it wasn't fun. I had the most fun in Path of Fire, exploring with a teleporting dog. But the jumping puzzles, while good(!), didn't carry that experience on their own. So much of it was seeing how places looked, it was like wandering in concept art.
#psychology #actuallyautistic #videogames #gamedev #art #guildwars3
-3
[P] Sometime in late Living World's fourth season (LWS4), it became clear that they lost a lot of talented people. The fun jumping puzzles were gone, and worse, the art wss gone too. I know that the theory of the time wss that all the talented people had left for GW3. I mean, it was a valid notion to explain why what quality was there just fell off a damn cliff after LWS4. But seeing GW3's trailer? That notion was wrong.
#psychology #actuallyautistic #videogames #gamedev #art #guildwars3
-4
[P] If you're going to follow GW2? You have to at least match that art style. I mean, the writing atill isn't there, that hilariously mealy-mouthed line of "I can't pwomise you safety, but I pwomise you adventure! And I won't bore you with the details." was core ArenaNet bland. It was on bland for them. But the thing is? Their art now matches their writing. This bland, soulless slop aesthetic with no personality.
#psychology #actuallyautistic #videogames #gamedev #art #guildwars3
-5
[P] I swear the slop aesthetic, where they try really hard to mimic the look of AI slop, is a big part of the reason why the games industry is failing. It's SO important now for devs, even the tiniest of indie devs, to have PROPER artists on tbeir teams. And they need to make sure that those artists don't use genAI "tools." Having an artistic voice, even if it's just a silly one like Little Gator Game's, is necessary.
#psychology #actuallyautistic #videogames #gamedev #art #guildwars3
-6
Weary Wulf