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<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 8729571" data-attributes="member: 85555"><p>There were still text based games out in the 80s. I was playing Kings Quest and Hitchhikers guided to he galaxy at the same time. But I do think it is true there was strong graphic improvement over time with video games. One difference though is video games as a medium, were one where there was a built in expectation of improved visuals over time as technology got better. I think that was a very different thing than RPGs, which are still fundamentally the same game, no matter what art you have in the books (and even extras like miniatures, terrain, maps, grids, etc have been around from the beginning because it came out of war gaming). With art inside books I think there have been a few key things going on over time: changes in aesthetics and style (and sometimes I think in these discussions people confuse style with quality), changes in technology available to artists (clearly we have more computer rendered art, more digital tools and programs for making art, etc), increased emphasis on lots of full color interior art. I think this latter part is the key. </p><p></p><p>Black and White, I think, is viewed as lesser these days. But in the 80s and 90s, even though it still could a decision based on budget alone (something was black and white to keep the costs down), black and white was also a viable style on its own. My dad was an amateur black and white photographer and he used to talk about the aesthetics of black and white when I was a kid, and that rubbed off on me. By the time I got into gaming, I vastly preferred lines that had interior black and white images to lines with color images (in particular I really loved the work of Stephen Fabian in RPG books, but there were plenty of other great artists doing black and white interiors at that time). Obviously a lot of smaller publishers, myself included, do do black and white out of necessity (the cost of art and POD can be more manageable if you are using black and white), but I would love to see something on the level of a WOTC book with glossy pages done intentionally in black and white. </p><p></p><p>In terms of should books have art, lots of art, little art, or no art. I think it is a big enough hobby that you can have a range. Illustrations obviously help with certain things. But illustrations are also expensive and this is still a game of imagination, so there is plenty of room for publishers who can't afford art, turning that into a strength. At the same time, I like a beautifully illustrated RPG book as much as the next person. I just don't think it is the only way to make an RPG.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 8729571, member: 85555"] There were still text based games out in the 80s. I was playing Kings Quest and Hitchhikers guided to he galaxy at the same time. But I do think it is true there was strong graphic improvement over time with video games. One difference though is video games as a medium, were one where there was a built in expectation of improved visuals over time as technology got better. I think that was a very different thing than RPGs, which are still fundamentally the same game, no matter what art you have in the books (and even extras like miniatures, terrain, maps, grids, etc have been around from the beginning because it came out of war gaming). With art inside books I think there have been a few key things going on over time: changes in aesthetics and style (and sometimes I think in these discussions people confuse style with quality), changes in technology available to artists (clearly we have more computer rendered art, more digital tools and programs for making art, etc), increased emphasis on lots of full color interior art. I think this latter part is the key. Black and White, I think, is viewed as lesser these days. But in the 80s and 90s, even though it still could a decision based on budget alone (something was black and white to keep the costs down), black and white was also a viable style on its own. My dad was an amateur black and white photographer and he used to talk about the aesthetics of black and white when I was a kid, and that rubbed off on me. By the time I got into gaming, I vastly preferred lines that had interior black and white images to lines with color images (in particular I really loved the work of Stephen Fabian in RPG books, but there were plenty of other great artists doing black and white interiors at that time). Obviously a lot of smaller publishers, myself included, do do black and white out of necessity (the cost of art and POD can be more manageable if you are using black and white), but I would love to see something on the level of a WOTC book with glossy pages done intentionally in black and white. In terms of should books have art, lots of art, little art, or no art. I think it is a big enough hobby that you can have a range. Illustrations obviously help with certain things. But illustrations are also expensive and this is still a game of imagination, so there is plenty of room for publishers who can't afford art, turning that into a strength. At the same time, I like a beautifully illustrated RPG book as much as the next person. I just don't think it is the only way to make an RPG. [/QUOTE]
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