Our new rainbow overlords
Here we have yet another tale of video game fanboy entitlement, but one that doesn't involve the ongoing Console Wars for a change. In fact, the game involved is a PC/Mac title: Blizzard's highly-anticipated Diablo III.

It all started with an online petition calling for "Renewed artistic direction for Diablo 3". According to the petitioners, the Diablo universe calls for gothic, dark realism, but the new game's art direction is "cartoon'ish" and reminiscent of the Warcraft titles, with color and variety and *gasp* RAINBOWS! What they want is:

- A darker, gothic, cryptic and creepier environment.

- A more realistic artistic direction, more independent from the Warcraft universe art direction.

- Darker dungeons without a blue/green environment, Diablo dungeons are dark and shadowy.

- The return of the light radius / shadow system from Diablo 1 and 2, a concept modified picture made by me roughly shows and suggests how the shadow system should work on Diablo 3: http://i31.tinypic.com/2zta5o7.jpg

- Slightly less colorful and less vivid outside scenarios, they are too heavily influenced by the World of Warcraft ones.

- Darker and less colorful landscapes, Tristam never was colorful and beautiful: here's how it looked in Diablo 1 (before the evil was released across the lands): http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/5194/tristram2jh.jpg

- And most importantly: An independent and renewed artistic direction, not a recycled art direction taken from the Warcraft world, Diablo never was meant to be as cartoon'ish as Warcraft, they shall have independent and distinct styles, this isnt happening in Diablo 3, at first sight it looks like a remake of World of Warcraft, graphically and artistically speaking.

- Example of the heavy influence from World of Warcraft that we dont think it fits the Diablo universe: http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/6795/diabloiii20080628035157dw4.jpg and http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/screenshots/ss9-hires.jpg

Rounding out the petition are several links to images depicting what Diablo III should look like. In short, everything should look a lot more grey and brown.

MTV Multiplayer later posts an interview with Diablo III's lead designer in which these fan mockups are discussed and criticized at length. For example, here's what the designer had to say about this one, depicting what the petitioners want in terms of lighting:

The key thing to remember here is that this has been Photoshopped. This isn’t created by the engine. Though it looks really cool, it’s almost impossible to do in a 3D engine because you can’t have lighting that smart and run on systems that are reasonable. If we could do that, we probably would in a few of the dungeons.

Now in terms of the actual texturing, this texturing, where they grayed out everything and it’s very flat and the monsters are all kind of a similar tone — that does not play well. It’s very boring to run through more than a couple of times, and it’s very difficult to tell creatures apart and pop them out of the environment. So those things don’t really work for us. A lot of the lighting stuff I think is very cool, but it’s also not very doable for us.

The rainbow (or lack thereof, rather) in one of the altered screenshots is also discussed:

More rain? It’s funny because if watch later on in the [debut gameplay] video, we have more rain. It is much stronger than that. I’m sure they got rid of the rainbow. Yeah, rainbow — gone. I think our artist just put [the rainbow] in there because they knew that’d be controversial. And I’m sure they were like, “Well we’ll see how far we can push it.”

There is anger and annoyance in the comments, representing both sides of the argument:

simon says:
August 4th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
i’m a designer for interactive and movie stuff. and from a professional point of view the vivid toy-colors are quite childish and gay.

hey guy’s at blizzard: learn from hollywood - the industry evolved a few more years than you guys. and they moved on from gay all-colouful scenes we’re all were used to in the 80’s to sophisticated looks that create immersive experiences.

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Bob says:
August 4th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Airdom is wrong and obviously a WoW-freak. Those of us who have enjoyed the legacy of Diablo have been waiting this release for awhile.

We fans are simply stating what should be obvious to anyone with a somewhere other than their FPS trigger-fingers: Blizzard is selling-out to the success of WoW at the expense of they’re loyal audience.

Their responses are cookie-cutter B.S. to anyone with design experience and I hope they’re new coloring-book WoW knock-off flops. Change the freaking title and develop something that does the Diablo legacy justice.

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blackcracka says:
August 4th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Just turn your brightness down and set the color settings on your monitor to ‘complete crap’ and you’ll have the lighting and colors you deserve.

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Mike says:
August 4th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Ok, basically what he’s saying is that:

You’re all gothfags who need to play WoW ’cause it’s an awesome game and everything except fairyland cartoon-graphics is boring.

Also: WoW = Diablo II + cartoony graphics = pretty much Diablo III wannabe.
Therefore Diablo III = WoW2, which explains the cartoony graphics.

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The Myst says:
August 5th, 2008 at 1:41 am
I can say this much, I will be modding the HELL out of this game when it’s released. If the devs want to make it look cartoony, fine by them. They just need to prepare for the backlash by the fans. DIABLO IS NOT WoW. If you played WoW (ITZ T3H BESTZORZ LOL!!!) and read this article, hit the back button right now ’cause you have no right to comment.

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Anon says:
August 5th, 2008 at 5:44 am
If you faggots want a desaturated game, turn down the colour on your monitor.

I for one welcome our new rainbow overlords

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Pulyx says:
August 5th, 2008 at 9:34 am
People have this idea that COLOR IS BAD. And it’s so ~%#?@#* stupid. People who give up playing mario or zelda games cause they are colorful.
Where did this non-saturated colors=MANLY notion came from ?
Football is all colorful and is still manly. Resident Evil 5 is MEGA saturated in color and is still brutal.
Not to mention most of these idiots play Final Fantasy (the gayest @##% around) and think its still awesome.

People need to shut up, cause you know, making games isn’t A DEMOCRACY. Blizzard won’t change the whole thing on a WHIM.

people complain and ?*%?? but they’ll still buy the game when it comes out. So please, make your peace with it, because that’s what coming out. DEAL WITH IT.

And of course, there's the obligatory Penny Arcade comic.

ETA: So it seems Blizzard is now looking for a new art director for Diablo III after their previous one quit. Fanboys, now's your chance!