So there are navy seals in WOT? I can't imagine it meaning the actual animals mind you.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
I love fantasy stuff! LotR, The last Unicorn, Legend, that one "Time of Wheel" book I read a long time ago (I forgot the exact name), ICO, the Brother's Grimm, and plenty of other fantasy stuff. I just despise the whole Dungeons and Dragons thing, although that's because of the very boring, drab look of it.
I love the Princess Bride! That was hilarious! My mom loves it too, but the hilarious thing is she went for YEARS thinking it was serious :D.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
Dungeons and Dragons is great. Its such a great and varied fantasy universe... I don't see how you can call it "drab and boring". I honestly don't understand how that makes even the remotest sense...
Visually speaking it is very drab and boring. The whole look of everything in that universe is extremely stale. I'll explain my feelings in letter form, addressed to the D&D people:
Dear Dungeons and Dragons creators and game developers,
There are other colors out there besides brown and grey! Seriously! There's green (and no I don't mean brownish-green), red, yellow, blue (aside from grey-blue), purple, orange and many other brilliant colors in the world. Now I'm not saying that you should turn D&D into Yoshi's Island, but rip off Tolkien some more by making vibrant grassy areas, gorgeous mountains, and beautiful lakes for your games and stuff, all which can be seen in the 'rings movies, games, etc.
You DO know that at heart D&D isn't a universe that is truly drawn, but numerous worlds that are mapped out or invented by the game players that don't exist anywhere except in the imagination and on crude topographic maps, right?
As for the games... Baldur's Gate is set in one small part of the Sword Coast of the planet that the Forgotten Realms is set on... I forget its name at the moment. This small region has many forests. Neverwinter Nights is set near that but in a slightly different area, hence the somewhat different architechture. Icewind Dale's games are in perpetual snow lands... and PlaneScape is mostly in a city and the outer planes.
That provides a quite varied set of landscapes... forests, plains, winter areas, mountains, deserts, cities... what is the problem here?
And what exactly are you basing this "there aren't many colors" thing on? I don't get it...
Go outside and look around. See those nice green trees? Or those gorgeous mountains? Or that nice lake? Eh? Well maybe everything is drab over there in Maine, but over here in Colorado it's very lush and beautiful. So D&D is not realistic. It's just ugly and drab.
From what I remember of BG (haven't played the first one in quite some time...), it has towns, forests, and some hills... but mostly towns and forests. That's the landscape of that part of the Sword Coast... BG2 varies it more, adding underground Drow lands, some undersea cities, deserts, more varied towns and cities, etc... Torment also has nice variation, with the huge city as the centerpoint but the quite different outer plains as a counterpoint to that... and I haven't played either Icewind Dale game.
And how about other games? BG: Dark Alliance looked pretty nice... or Neverwinter Nights. NN had problems, true... it repeated a lot of stuff a lot. But it presents a somewhat different view...
But here's a good question. Given how great the DragonLance book series is, why haven't there been more DragonLance games???
From what I remember of BG (haven't played the first one in quite some time...), it has towns, forests, and some hills... but mostly towns and forests. That's the landscape of that part of the Sword Coast... BG2 varies it more, adding underground Drow lands, some undersea cities, deserts, more varied towns and cities, etc... Torment also has nice variation, with the huge city as the centerpoint but the quite different outer plains as a counterpoint to that... and I haven't played either Icewind Dale game.
And how about other games? BG: Dark Alliance looked pretty nice... or Neverwinter Nights. NN had problems, true... it repeated a lot of stuff a lot. But it presents a somewhat different view...
But here's a good question. Given how great the DragonLance book series is, why haven't there been more DragonLance games???
Dude, we've already established that there are towns and forests in the BG series; that was never an issue. The problem is that all of the locations are very drab, no matter what they are.
Quote:Originally posted by OB1 Well if you look at those D&D guide books (for the pen and paper game), just about every character is painted with very drab colors.
*sigh*
OB1, the reason that they are drawn is such "Drab Colors" is because those colors are visually pleasing and easy to look at for extended peroids of time.
Tell me, would you like look at blue or yellow text of and on for hours while you RP? They tried using different colors in the past, but to many people suffered from headaches.
Its like have bright pictures and words in a dictiionary or encyclopedia while you are trying to write or type a report. You wouldn't beable to read much with bright pictures in your face now could you...didn't think so....
That "drab colors" thing of his makes absolutely no sense, but its no point arguing... though his arguement is quite bizarre.
For one thing, there isn't really a "D&D Art Style"! Far too many people have done art for D&D to say there is one defining style... sure, there is a way they depict the characters, but it changes somewhat all the time depending on who does the drawing... D&D art is just so hugely varied that I would never say it has any one style in some category.
As for "drab", that's both because of what Nick Burns said and because ITS MORE REALISTIC!
OB1, the reason that they are drawn is such "Drab Colors" is because those colors are visually pleasing and easy to look at for extended peroids of time.
Tell me, would you like look at blue or yellow text of and on for hours while you RP? They tried using different colors in the past, but to many people suffered from headaches.
Its like have bright pictures and words in a dictiionary or encyclopedia while you are trying to write or type a report. You wouldn't beable to read much with bright pictures in your face now could you...didn't think so....
So now you're trying to compare the look of D&D with a dictionary? Well then this time I admit defeat! You won this argument! I definitely agree with you that the look of D&D has the same amount of visual beauty as dictionaries and encyclopedias.
See, ABF? I can admit defeat.
Quote:That "drab colors" thing of his makes absolutely no sense, but its no point arguing... though his arguement is quite bizarre.
For one thing, there isn't really a "D&D Art Style"! Far too many people have done art for D&D to say there is one defining style... sure, there is a way they depict the characters, but it changes somewhat all the time depending on who does the drawing... D&D art is just so hugely varied that I would never say it has any one style in some category.
As for "drab", that's both because of what Nick Burns said and because ITS MORE REALISTIC!
Look, you are obviously someone who doesn't like to look at visually pleasing things. You like the shitty art in Oni, and you like the look of D&D. That's fine. You go and enjoy your drab and ugly D&D universe all you want. Have fun!
Quote:So now you're trying to compare the look of D&D with a dictionary? Well then this time I admit defeat! You won this argument! I definitely agree with you that the look of D&D has the same amount of visual beauty as dictionaries and encyclopedias.
See, ABF? I can admit defeat.
You're being sarcastic and purposely misrepresenting his point, that's what you are doing.
Quote:Look, you are obviously someone who doesn't like to look at visually pleasing things. You like the shitty art in Oni, and you like the look of D&D. That's fine. You go and enjoy your drab and ugly D&D universe all you want. Have fun!
There is no sane way you can represent all D&D art as ANYTHING in a few words... is some of it drab? Probably, but its not like its one style! There is just such a huge amount of variety... plenty of it isn't drab. I have no clue what you are basing that opinion on, but its clearly not on much of a sample, I'd have to say... either that or you have very, very bizarre standards...
Quote:You're being sarcastic and purposely misrepresenting his point, that's what you are doing.
I have to admit, Nick makes a lot of sense!
Quote:There is no sane way you can represent all D&D art as ANYTHING in a few words... is some of it drab? Probably, but its not like its one style! There is just such a huge amount of variety... plenty of it isn't drab. I have no clue what you are basing that opinion on, but its clearly not on much of a sample, I'd have to say... either that or you have very, very bizarre standards...
My brother is a big D&D geek so I've seen a lot of D&D stuff, and all of it is drab and ugly.