Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="wbmcdermott" data-source="post: 377716" data-attributes="member: 2419">The reason that WotC did have its own artists on staff is that all of their products are art and/or design driven. Sure the rules of the game are the most important thing, but it is the art and design that draws you into each and every one of their games. What do you first notice when you open a new D&D book or look through a pack of Magic cards or (for the younger crowd) look at a new set of Harry Potter cards? You see the art.  This is what set WotC apart, IMHO, and was a large part of Peter's vision for Magic when Richard Garfield first came to him. He wanted a game that showcased fantasy art. And it worked. Magic was such a success that Peter was able to live his boyhood dream and buy D&D. That same philosophy was put into effect on the design of 3E. The artists and designers spent as much time on the look of the new game as the game designers did on the rules.WotC uses more art than any other company you mentioned. Novels have art on the cover. Period. Most d20 companies just don't have the budget to use more art than a color cover piece, some maps, and a few black-and-white illos. I for one am saddened by this development. It says to me that art is no longer as important to WotC as it once was. But that is what set them apart from everyone else. Sure, WotC can use freelancers to fill the pages with art, but the onsite artists (and the design staff, which was also "gutted") made WotC products look better than anything else on the market. I think the truth we have to face is that WotC is becoming a smaller company; one that will soon be indistinguishable from all of the other small companies who can't afford their own in-house artists and game designers.Todd will land on his feet. He is in the top 5, IMHO, of all fantasy artists out there today, and he will make a lot of money doing freelance or whatever he wants to do.  But I believe that his passing from WotC (along with the loss of their design staff) will hurt the games we love.Sabre</blockquote>

Verification