Guild Wars 2

I actually like it and I usually prefer realistic art work. It looks to me like the sort of view you would get if you turned your head quickly – impressionist style art. I think it might be the view the people on the ship first saw as they crashed.

I’m just sayin, I’d put that on my wall

It’s subjective. I prefer the more direct portrait art loading screens like what we see in Brisban Wildlands, but that doesn’t mean that this abstract art is bad either.

I’m not even that hateful about the style and image….but the color pallet and combination is simply horrific to me. Again, there is no accounting for other people’s tastes….

i thought someone accidentally smeared ketchup all over my screen

Abstract or not, it’s got to represent whatever it’s intended to within the time that viewers spend loading – which is usually pretty short. I’m figuring that it’s supposed to communicate the theme for the zone, in which case it’s the wrong sort of image to do the job for viewers who don’t “get” abstract art.

I’m not trying to be rude, but this Dry Top screen literally looks like someone just put random brush strokes on a sheet of paper and was like… “yeah, this kind of looks like…something”. I don’t recognize those weird shapes. _ I’m okay with abstract, if it doesn’t take me 10 minutes to figure out what’s on the painting.

A little too abstract for my taste!

This piece might work in a different context, but as a loading screen for a desert area in GW2 it doesn’t fit.

During the first day release, my guild’s chat had a stream of different people reacting negatively to this loading screen.

Since they haven’t “fixed” it still, that might as well be a temporary image for the zone which is going to change a lot in the next episodes.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Since they haven’t “fixed” it still, that might as well be a temporary image for the zone which is going to change a lot in the next episodes.

Or they could just not care that we dislike it.

I find it abstract detracts as loading screens.
With loading screens I feels were supposed to get an feel for the area it should be a proper representation of the area not something that looks like it should be in a gallery in a museum or on a wall.

It conveys a sense of “otherness”, openly mocks such archaic notions as “orthogonality”, “polish”, “composition”, “completion”, or “taste”, and really explores the studio space.

Dry top and all of the other loading screens in the new style look like trash. Kessex hills loading screen was forever ruined by whoever this guy is.

maha.7902:

Dry top and all of the other loading screens in the new style look like trash. Kessex hills loading screen was forever ruined by whoever this guy is.

I still feel sad whenever I load in Kessex hills that this art isn’t there anymore :

http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd518/drosera123/KessexHills.jpg

:(

I like it but since its art its not going to turn everybody on.

Conncept.7638:

No it’s terrible.

They’re trying to continue Kotakis style even though he’s not with the company anymore, and while I think they largely do a good job of that, this and the Kessex hills art are giant ugly mars on the game. Kekai knew where to reign in his composition so that there was still multiple clearly distinct elements in a piece in spite of his heavy stylizations, this loading screen is not clear beyond the most basic shape of the positive and negative space.

If the artist who represents the game style is no longer available, and they CLEARLY don’t have an artist who can approximate that style, they should just give up that style. The loading screen mentioned in the OP doesn’t look anything like Dry Top.

Personally, I’m getting increasingly tired with the abstract loading screens. Why did ArenaNet switch the current loading screen for this one which was way better? No offense to Theo Prins but I’m growing tired of his works for the loading screens. Those abstract pieces are nice for concept art, but as loading screens they hurt my eyes (literally) due to the abstractness and because they’re used as the more permanent loading screens (I think it’s split 50/50 for which ones are his and which ones aren’t for new loading screens since Shadow of the Mad King).

I much prefer Naomi Baker and her artwork. Because hot kitten that’s awesome stuff. She gives Kekai a run for his money in quality of epicness.

It would be interesting to see what kind of answers you got if you guys showed that loading screen to those of your friends and family who don’t play this game and asked them what it was.

darkace.8925:

It would be interesting to see what kind of answers you got if you guys showed that loading screen to those of your friends and family who don’t play this game and asked them what it was.

How does this make sense? Those people wouldn’t even know what Dry Top is let alone what the game is all about.

zenleto.6179:

darkace.8925:

It would be interesting to see what kind of answers you got if you guys showed that loading screen to those of your friends and family who don’t play this game and asked them what it was.

How does this make sense? Those people wouldn’t even know what Dry Top is let alone what the game is all about.

I wouldn’t expect them to say “that’s Dry Top, from Guild Wars 2!” But if the art does what it’s supposed to doing, they’re supposed to say, “that’s an arid canyon,” or something similar. But with…this…I doubt one in a hundred would even identify it as a landscape at all.

darkace.8925:

zenleto.6179:

darkace.8925:

It would be interesting to see what kind of answers you got if you guys showed that loading screen to those of your friends and family who don’t play this game and asked them what it was.

How does this make sense? Those people wouldn’t even know what Dry Top is let alone what the game is all about.

I wouldn’t expect them to say “that’s Dry Top, from Guild Wars 2!” But if the art does what it’s supposed to doing, they’re supposed to say, “that’s an arid canyon,” or something similar. But with…this…I doubt one in a hundred would even identify it as a landscape at all.

Ah, fair enough. I know I wouldn’t have a clue unless there was a caption involved. I still like it as a piece of art though.

zenleto.6179:

darkace.8925:

It would be interesting to see what kind of answers you got if you guys showed that loading screen to those of your friends and family who don’t play this game and asked them what it was.

How does this make sense? Those people wouldn’t even know what Dry Top is let alone what the game is all about.

And players who haven’t been to dry top yet don’t know what it looks like either. And they would never look at that picture and come to the conclusion that it was even a landscape, nevermind that it was a desert with rocky outcroppings, etc.

We’ll probably get to see more of the dry top map, becoming available with coming patches. So I think that the loading screen might get more and more detailed along with more of dry top’s map unlocked.

CharrGirl.7896:

maha.7902:

Dry top and all of the other loading screens in the new style look like trash. Kessex hills loading screen was forever ruined by whoever this guy is.

I still feel sad whenever I load in Kessex hills that this art isn’t there anymore :

http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd518/drosera123/KessexHills.jpg

:(

the true sad part is that the original art never showed what was really in kessex hills, i can’t remember mountains and statues like that anywhere…..i wish it did.

I want to say that I like abstract art and impressionism quite a bit. And as someone who likes that style of art, the loading screen is terrible. The colors are completely imbalanced, the visual flow is nonexistent. Plus, despite being abstract, a piece of art should evoke the subject, and this just completely misses the mark for what is, first and foremost, a ghost town in the middle of barren wasteland.

I’m sorry to whomever spent time working on it, and it’s just one man’s opinion, but I think it’s just a complete fail.

Djinn.9245:

zenleto.6179:

darkace.8925:

It would be interesting to see what kind of answers you got if you guys showed that loading screen to those of your friends and family who don’t play this game and asked them what it was.

How does this make sense? Those people wouldn’t even know what Dry Top is let alone what the game is all about.

And players who haven’t been to dry top yet don’t know what it looks like either. And they would never look at that picture and come to the conclusion that it was even a landscape, nevermind that it was a desert with rocky outcroppings, etc.

Hi, welcome. Good of you to jump in.

https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/wallpapers/3df1a2014-07-15_Ent-1024x768.jpg

New wallpaper up, this one’s pretty cool. Thumbs up.

Shinzan.2908:

New wallpaper up, this one’s pretty cool. Thumbs up.

I dunno…. looks like a bunch of wavy lines.

Just kidding.

It is pretty cool.