Do you care about art?

[torilen]

I just made a post that made me think about a topic that has come up in my mind
often as of late: Art and illustrations in gaming manuals.

How does everyone feel about this? Do you have to have illustrations for you to like it?
Do you care what sort of artistry it has?

Me personally, I really don't care if a manual has illustrations. I will admit I like backgrounds
and borders and such...minor things like that, but half-page or full page illustrations really
don't matter to me. Honestly, I'd rather see gaming books with less art, which would probably
mean they would cost just a little less, most likely.

If there is going to be art, I rather like to see REAL art..some sort of pen/pencil work or real
paintings that have been scanned and added - like old school D&D books used to have. I don't
care so much for all the computer generation these days, unless it is done REALLY well and it
is difficult to tell that it is computer generated.

And, what started this topic here, and I will say again...I HATE anime artistry, and will typically
stay away from books and manuals that have this in it.

[Sjeng]

I don't mind art, in any style really, as long as it's relevant to or at least a part of the game/story.

Zombicide has plenty of images in the rulebook. Some are really helpful, some are just fluff, but give you a good reference for painting the models.

Mice & Mystics is almost an artbook, but it's a storytelling game where you act out the story. Very attractive and appealing, certainly if you want to introduce your kids to tabletop games.

The Gary Chalk art is wonderfull in HQ. More minimalistic, but does the job.

Just text would put me off... I need eye candy. Sometimes I get lured into something by the eye candy (chibi minis *sigh*) but it's better than no art at all. I also love artbooks from games and movies with designs etc.

[Goblin-King]

Art always > no art

Presentation is a huge part of a game. While a rulebook should foremost be effective, it's really off-putting if it's just blank pages with text.
That's not really helping the immersion at all!

Say what you will a about Greed Workshop, but they make damn nice books (not nice rules though!).
They are full color, lots of art, lots of fluff, lots of painted minis. They are really enjoyable. Every single page is literally covered in art
The 40k rulebook even have small quotes on almost every page, like: "Why live for yourself when you can die for the Emperor" - Priceless

On the other hand my Tyranid codex has important rules separated by a huge art section?! Da fug? X(

****

I agree with torilen that there's too much computer graphics out there these days. A lot of it has kinda the same style which is becoming really bland to look at.
It's this soft, colorful style - often kinda sketch-like - the same style World of Warcraft uses a lot. It's not ugly as such, it just looks so generic and uninspired.

I'd much rather see hand drawn/painted art with a more crisp style that reflects the originality of the artist. Any day of the week.

[Malcadon]

Being dyslexic, I find illustration and game tables/charts in a large RPG book to be important, as they serve as visual landmarks in what is otherwise endless walls of texts. Be it those simple swords used to highlight the combat area in the old Basic and Expert D&D, to that full page pic of Emirikol The Chaotic in the AD&D DMG being his awesome self, as he rides towards that that ever important and much-used random Harlot table, because this Sly Pimp index for nothing! I just want to be able to flip through the book and find what I'm looking for, without having to go to the index or table of content -- which would only slow me down during the game.

Illustration is also good for highlighting the look and feel of the setting without having to read a ton of fluff. You can read about how hot and tough Athas (Dark Sun) is, or you can save your brain cells from the tedium of all that Second Edition Era dialog by looking at all those pictures of hot barren wastelands and hot beefy men... OK, you might get the wrong ideas from those pics alone. Together, with the art and fluff, they both convey the setting pretty well.

I consider dungeon crawl games like HeroQuest to be on the same topic as RPGs, even though they are boardgames. Visual presentation is vary important in these games, as they use a lot of cards and gaming props. But with all the visual presentation laid out for the players, it is not that critical for the game booklets. They are still great to have, and they can still serve as a visual landmarks, while braking the sea of texts.

On the other hand, I have played hex-and-counter wargames that could benefit from some artwork. In most game like these, they have a TON of texts for complex rule systems — the WWII ones are the worst — so I tent to get lost in those books! I could never get my head around it all, and I could never finish a game of them. But there is a game called Divine Right that has a rich and detailed background. The rule books give a capsule summary of each local or special character, but the best details came form the Dragon Magazine articles (which was consolidated with a CD ROM for the 25th Anv. set), but you only get a few works of art that conveys nothing (a just an evil-looking castle). They do have art for the Kings and Queens, who serve as the player characters, but their are several characters and nations in that game that could have really benefited form visual presentation.

For boardgames, it depends on the game. With Chess or Backgammon, you do not need illustration beyond visual representation of how to play them game. This is a funny thing, since old games like them were abstract representations of life or struggle. Chess was about war, where each piece represents a large military unit, and Snakes and Ladders is said to be about reincarnation and karma (it was from India). Putting art on such game would be neat, but the rule sheets are too scant to warrant that. On the other hand, card games like Tarot have a history of great illustration.

As for video games, I really like seeing artwork in game manuals. The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy I spoiled me to how great they can be. Back then, games did not have room to add a lot of story or background elements to their games, so they put it down in the booklets. As .txt is now cheap, memory wise, they can now pour a ton of info into the game, usually in drawn-out info-dump cut scenes. Also, since games have become more reliant on in-game tutorials, video game companies have become really lazy with gaming manuals, to the point of them only listing basic info and care/safety instructions. If you want a book with the art and background into, you have to pour out extra money for those big Prima or Nintendo Power Guide Books.

As for want kind of art is to be used — visual style, use of medium, etc. — it all depends on the style, mood and setting that the game represents. A gothic horror like Ravenloft/Masque of the Red Death works best with granny, black and white imagery — bright colors and high fantasy creatures would be a poor fit. Cyberpunk 2020 works best with the look and feel of Bladerunner, with sprinkle of Patrick Nagel (yes, the guy that made the Duran Duran cover). To me, Gamma World looks best in a style that conveys the weirdness and camp of Silver Age comic books, but most people seem to think that the Mad Max style works better, even though they are a poor fit, because everyone thinks that all post-apocalyptic fiction must emulate Mad Max in some way or another. I have seen people use retro sci-fi (Flash Gordon, Captain Video, Forbidden Planet, etc.) or '70s/'80s-stlyed sci-fi (Space1999, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, etc.) in Star Frontiers, and the game can carry both styles equally well. I have seen games and books that use an art style or formant that was a poor fit for the settings they represent, and they come out looking ugly as all hell!

...I HATE anime artistry, and will typically
stay away from books and manuals that have this in it.

I found some video games manuals form Japan that have great art that can stand alongside their westerns counterparts without them looking out of place. With fantasy, the art from Final Fantasy I & II, Golden Axe and Bahamutsenki are fantastic, but they don't look anime. I know what you're getting at. You are likely talking about games with overly stylized art like Pathfinder, 4e, (World of) Warcraft and Anima. Yeah, I really hate them.

When I was younger, I was a HUGE Japanimation fanboy, but now my tastes have matured, and this massive influx of anime affords me the luxury of becoming more discriminant with what I like. I enjoy still enjoy a good chunk of the old, pre-Bebop anime, and a fair number of the new stuff, but at the same time, I can totally reject all crap that came out throughout the years. Plus, I have also find obscure stuff form the west. I have no idea how I would have treated games with anime-inspired art. I remember the fact that Heavy Gear and Mekton used anime-inspired art was a big thing for me, as I was really into it, and they fit well with the genre. As for fantasy stuff like 4e/Pathfinder and Anima... Well, I was raised on Frank Frazetta and D&D styled fantasy art, but chances were, I would have been drawn to their exaggerated style and... ehmm... apeal.