Not a bad little article. It explains the concept of media-transitioning pretty well. And if these are
Forgotten Realms folks, making them similar to other FR depictions is a good idea -- someone who sees that dwarf who knows all about dwarves in FR should be able to be like, "Oh! That's a Shield Dwarf, and he's from Neverwinter and this means XYZ!" And re-imagining the FR dwarf for a different media, and what the needs of that media are, is all good stuff.
About the only commentary I have is about the stripper poses for the women in those "painterly" art panels. Because this:
http://thehawkeyeinitiative.com/. The elf lady model isn't so bad, though how a corset is going to help her in adventuring, I have no idea. The tiefling girl's picture at the top ain't bad, except for the fact that she's one of the 4e-style tieflings with the silly oversized horns, but whatchagonnado...
I get the impression that the primary purpose of these lady heroes is to give the young boys that we're targeting here something to drool over. Which is unfortunate. Don't these art teams have (m)any women on them?
As a less obvious critique: I don't expect to get a "D&D" experience out of playing a game that feels like Angry Birds ("pull back and release and watch your hero fly at the enemy!"), so I wonder if they consider the mechanics of the game part of the brand experience. I mean, I guess not, but it'd probably be worth looking into -- because I think it might be.
Harping on that aside, the article was pretty educational! Game looks like nothing I'd play, but it's good to get a sense of how this adaptation is occurring.
