Art controversy

The Diablo III art controversy started with with WWI 2008, when a number of Diablo fans found the colour of the Diablo environment palette to be "too colourful".

Fans' Rections

Lore & Environmental Art Panel:

Skip to about the 21:00 mark to hear it. To paraphrase, the designers talk about how their memories of D1 and D2 were that they were dark and gritty, but that when they actually looked back through the games they found much more color than they expected. They also say that they looked at horror movies and noticed how the color was used effectively to create mood, and that they're following that design path with Diablo III.

How it "Should" Look

A lot of discussion started up about the colour of the environments in the community forums, where some fans utterly hated the new colours, some didn't care as long as they got D3, and some liked it. Fan-made photoshopped images popped up with no colour, higher contrast, more "grit", or even the odd blood stain. More pictures has been posted in the Controversy Gallery since then. Naturally, effects such as rainbows was done away with as the point of all these images is to make the pictures more grey and "dark". Some variants just enhance a few aspects, while some goes all-out. A very strong fear for just "re-making World of WarCraft" is prevalent.

Sample of arguments:

The art should be nowhere near the art of World of Warcraft.
Art should not look "cartoonish" at all. Less pastel with bold lines and defined contours. More realism.
Darker environment with more realistic gothic creepy dark influences.
Less colour in the environment.
No rainbows!
Add the 'light radius' of Diablo 1 and Diablo 2.
Equipment should be more realistic, with smaller shoulder plates as a main focus point.

The Petitions

Together with the first few photoshopped images, petitions started to appear on the net with the demand that Blizzard should change the art design, similar to what they did with Terrans in StarCraft II. Petition signature count 2008-08-07:

One of the petitions against the new art direction got quite popular, and Blizzard originally did not comment on that petition on itself. There was also petitions starting to support Blizzard's decision. The number of signs on the different petitions are probably not a good guideline for what fans think in general however, as the fans who do like the current direction really has no reason to sign a petition for it. Only fans that reacted to the complaining by other fans would probably do so.

Blizzard's Response

Links

WWI 2008 - Art panels, video and screenshots of the new game.
Art Controversy Category - All articles, pictures, panels and other material related in the wiki.
Fan Debate - The big debate in the community about the colour palette.
Controversy Gallery - Gallery of original screenshots and edited ones by fans trying to convey a more "dark" feeling. Including responses to the critics.
Media Coverage - All Interview, Previews, Videos and Pictures released by mainstream gaming media.