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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3235811" data-attributes="member: 18280">Again, please note that my observations here are limited to two books, which have diametrically opposed messages.  I am not making a broad statement about 3e art.I feel fairly certain that WotC had some good player feedback prior to introducing 3.0.  They considered what their respondents liked about the game, and didn't like about the game.  They went on record (in a pre-release Dragon, I believe) that the artwork was intended to show that this wasn't your daddy's D&D (or words to that effect).  Further up there is a link to a Jolly Blackburn post describing the artist's guidelines that reflects exactly what I am saying.  Not a single counter-example to my argument exists in the PHB.Is it really so unlikely that WotC realized that they would sell more Players Handbooks if anyone flipping through the book saw PCs doing cool things and looking cool, rather than facing more severe dangers of adventuring?  Not doing so would have been idiotic from a marketing point of view.  Is it really so unlikely that WotC, aiming a book at DMs, would use art that showed the harrowing straits that PCs can find themselves in?  Not doing so would have been idiotic from a marketing point of view.  In other words, is it really so unlikely that WotC doesn't understand basic marketing strategy?  I think that there is more than ample evidence, going back long before 3.0, that WotC understands marketing strategy very, very well.However, it can and does affect how some people view the art, and that initial effect can resonate with viewers, coloring their opinions when they view later pieces of art.  The idea of "it's all nostalgia" relies upon the basic concept that humans comprehend things (especially on an emotional level) through inference and perceived relationships.  "Nostalgia" is our term for when this happens related to some object in the remote past, particularly when that object no longer exists to be reevaluated today.  However, the same function that causes nostalgia occurs to varying degrees in all evaluations of all things at all times.  You can evaluate the technical aspects of an illustration.  You can evaluate the message that it seems intended to convey.  You can evaluate how and how well that message is conveyed.  You can evalute how the picture makes you feel, and why it makes you feel that way.That, so far as I know, is the sum total of what can be determined about any illustration or set of illustrations.Of course, as you say, I have probably given it too much thought.  And everyone knows that thinking before you speak is the greatest sin one can commit on the Internet.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />RC</blockquote>

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