Any MMO that last long enough goes through various aesthetic eras. It’s just inevitable. Especially if you can browse back through old appearances, you can pick through them like geological strata. Here’s the expansion where everything was rusted metal and straps, here’s the expansion where it was glowing nonsense a-go-go, here’s the expansion where it was “let’s try to feel like sort of grounded fantasy.” With a good art team these looks do still feel broadly coherent, but you can still tell the difference when you pick back through everything just the same.
Of course, that isn’t to say that any of these aesthetics are inherently better or worse; they all depend on personal taste and execution, after all. But we all still have something that looks coolest to us. Heck, it might not even be the same across all games; there are doubtlessly some MMOs that you’re happiest when they look like Roger Dean art given a smattering of orcs and others where you want the screen to look like something so covered in metal and rust that just watching it might give you tetanus. So which aesthetic era in your MMO of choice was your favorite?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
