Why is everything becoming more cartoony?

  • twisttop138
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    In my opinion anything that needs a way to counter it's effects should not keep being added to the game, especially to fundamental things such as skills. Why keep adding things that are causing so much distress?

    I'll give you the answer. Again. They refreshed the skills and changed the animation cause that's what they wanted to do and they thought people would like it. I would think that to them it's a rousing success. This is literally the first place I've seen people complaining about the 2H effects so I'm sure you're being hyperbolic with "so much distress". I'm sure to Zos that's a win. Can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs. It's a bummer you don't like them. As for hearing from Zos. Even if Kevin did appear in here, the most he'll tell you is he'll bring your feedback to the team. I hope you get what answer you're looking for but I hope you're prepared for the possibility that it's not going to change.
  • Bguk
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    Bguk wrote: »
    This is an MMO not a single player game.

    As such all players need to be considered before making changes that could be as disruptive as these effects have been. Especially when they are drastic changes from the way the game was at the start.
    Bguk wrote: »
    In my opinion anything that needs a way to counter it's effects should not keep being added to the game, especially to fundamental things such as skills. Why keep adding things that are causing so much distress?

    To some, not all. This is an MMO not a single player game. There are many people with differing opinions. Some people like the updates, some people don't like the updates. They are planning on introducing a way to lessen the flashy things you do not like.

    Your initial question was why, which people have answered, yet you want an answer from ZOS. So why not just bump the thread with an ask to ZOS?

    My point in an earlier post stands, there are some that want to complain until they get what they want, like Veruca.

    And the circle continues.

    Please use a whole phrase rather than just one sentence to adjust the quote to your thought. ZOS is already planning on making things better for players who don't like it/hurts them/ etc. If ZOS is trying to accommodate all players before implementing anything, then none are. It's nice they're correcting a missed thought.
  • SilverBride
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    Bguk wrote: »
    Please use a whole phrase rather than just one sentence to adjust the quote to your thought. ZOS is already planning on making things better for players who don't like it/hurts them/ etc. If ZOS is trying to accommodate all players before implementing anything, then none are. It's nice they're correcting a missed thought.

    I quote the part of a post that I am addressing specifically.

    And will their option take the light show away from the 2H skills or will it just be mounts and recalls etc.? Carrying the bright flashiness to skills crossed a line that never should have been crossed in my opinion.
    PCNA
  • SilverBride
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    This is literally the first place I've seen people complaining about the 2H effects so I'm sure you're being hyperbolic with "so much distress".

    It's mentioned in other threads, and it is causing me distress because I can't play my DK now because of it.

    My DK is a strong Nord woman and wants to look like one rather than looking like she is wielding flashy toy weapons.
    Edited by SilverBride on March 18, 2026 4:56PM
    PCNA
  • Bguk
    Bguk
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    Bguk wrote: »
    Please use a whole phrase rather than just one sentence to adjust the quote to your thought. ZOS is already planning on making things better for players who don't like it/hurts them/ etc. If ZOS is trying to accommodate all players before implementing anything, then none are. It's nice they're correcting a missed thought.

    I quote the part of a post that I am addressing specifically.

    And will their option take the light show away from the 2H skills or will it just be mounts and recalls etc.? Carrying the bright flashiness to skills crossed a line that never should have been crossed in my opinion.

    Quoting part of a post is misleading due to context that is lost. Imagine if someone just posted, "I hate flashy things.", when the full phrase is, "I hate flashy things. The reason is they physically hurts my eyes". All context is lost. I have a feeling you get it.

    Who knows what options they will have. We know they are working on it.

    For anyone who read through this whole thread, or followed it, knows your feelings on the subject.

    To address what your original post question, there have been multiple players across multiple posts that provided some insight. Seeing as that is not sufficient for you as the goalposts were moved and would like ZOS to answer that original question, I again wish you good luck with that endeavor. I believe @twisttop138 is correct in that the most likely outcome will be a ZOS representative would answer with they'll pass the suggestion on to the developers.
  • SilverBride
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    Bguk wrote: »
    Bguk wrote: »
    Please use a whole phrase rather than just one sentence to adjust the quote to your thought. ZOS is already planning on making things better for players who don't like it/hurts them/ etc. If ZOS is trying to accommodate all players before implementing anything, then none are. It's nice they're correcting a missed thought.

    I quote the part of a post that I am addressing specifically.

    And will their option take the light show away from the 2H skills or will it just be mounts and recalls etc.? Carrying the bright flashiness to skills crossed a line that never should have been crossed in my opinion.

    Quoting part of a post is misleading due to context that is lost. Imagine if someone just posted, "I hate flashy things.", when the full phrase is, "I hate flashy things. The reason is they physically hurts my eyes". All context is lost. I have a feeling you get it.

    Who knows what options they will have. We know they are working on it.

    For anyone who read through this whole thread, or followed it, knows your feelings on the subject.

    To address what your original post question, there have been multiple players across multiple posts that provided some insight. Seeing as that is not sufficient for you as the goalposts were moved and would like ZOS to answer that original question, I again wish you good luck with that endeavor. I believe @twisttop138 is correct in that the most likely outcome will be a ZOS representative would answer with they'll pass the suggestion on to the developers.

    I never moved the goalposts. I never once indicated that I was asking anyone other than ZOS.
    PCNA
  • Tandor
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    Bguk wrote: »
    This is an MMO not a single player game.

    As such all players need to be considered before making changes that could be as disruptive as these effects have been. Especially when they are drastic changes from the way the game was at the start.

    Agreed, especially when those changes can cause medical reactions such as epilepsy, nausea, headaches etc. There's no problem implementing them so long as they can be turned off by those who don't want them or cannot cope with having them.
  • Bguk
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    I never moved the goalposts. I never once indicated that I was asking anyone other than ZOS.

    Original Post:
    Why is everything becoming more cartoony? What is the reason for this trend? It didn't used to be like this. ESO used to be the most realistic game I had ever played and I loved that about it. It was so much more immersive when we were represented as realistic players in a realistic world.

    Now everything is bright and loud and flashy. Why?

    Cartoons are bright and loud and flashy for a reason. They are created for children who have short attention spans. They need constant motion and loud noises and bright lights to keep them watching. But children aren't the target audience of this game made for adults. So why is it being presented this way?

    Something caused this trend to happen and I'd like some insight into why. Because it is destroying the experience for many of us.

    Can you direct me to where you never once indicated you were asking anyone other than ZOS in a public forum post?

  • twisttop138
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    This is literally the first place I've seen people complaining about the 2H effects so I'm sure you're being hyperbolic with "so much distress".

    It's mentioned in other threads, and it is causing me distress because I can't play my DK now because of it.

    My DK is a strong Nord woman and wants to look like one rather than looking like she is wielding flashy toy weapons.

    Strong nord women? Like from South Park? Kidding obviously, I'm am not unsympathetic that you feel your character is messed up. No one wants that. I think people feel that it's pretty well received though. It's never gonna be a slam dunk. I just don't think it should be changed because a few people are unhappy. I think a great thing for them to do is make many different skill styles for stuff and put them in different spots to earn in game.
  • SilverBride
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    This is literally the first place I've seen people complaining about the 2H effects so I'm sure you're being hyperbolic with "so much distress".

    It's mentioned in other threads, and it is causing me distress because I can't play my DK now because of it.

    My DK is a strong Nord woman and wants to look like one rather than looking like she is wielding flashy toy weapons.

    Strong nord women? Like from South Park? Kidding obviously, I'm am not unsympathetic that you feel your character is messed up. No one wants that. I think people feel that it's pretty well received though. It's never gonna be a slam dunk. I just don't think it should be changed because a few people are unhappy. I think a great thing for them to do is make many different skill styles for stuff and put them in different spots to earn in game.

    The only skill styles I have seen for 2H skills is to make them red. But that's what they did with the 2H changes. It would be great if they made skill styles that remove bright lights from weapons because they are always in our faces.

    And these new lights override weapon styles that players spent money for, so it affects them a lot more negatively.
    Edited by SilverBride on March 18, 2026 6:17PM
    PCNA
  • SilverBride
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    Bguk wrote: »
    I never moved the goalposts. I never once indicated that I was asking anyone other than ZOS.

    Original Post:
    Why is everything becoming more cartoony? What is the reason for this trend? It didn't used to be like this. ESO used to be the most realistic game I had ever played and I loved that about it. It was so much more immersive when we were represented as realistic players in a realistic world.

    Now everything is bright and loud and flashy. Why?

    Cartoons are bright and loud and flashy for a reason. They are created for children who have short attention spans. They need constant motion and loud noises and bright lights to keep them watching. But children aren't the target audience of this game made for adults. So why is it being presented this way?

    Something caused this trend to happen and I'd like some insight into why. Because it is destroying the experience for many of us.

    Can you direct me to where you never once indicated you were asking anyone other than ZOS in a public forum post?

    I didn't ask "Why do players think ZOS is moving in this direction?". Players are free to speculate and give their feedback but only ZOS can answer that question.

    Rather than get into a back and forth let's just agree to disagree and leave it at that.
    Edited by SilverBride on March 18, 2026 5:58PM
    PCNA
  • valenwood_vegan
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    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/689492/for-the-love-of-the-divines-please-revert-or-change-molten-weapons#latest

    unvyz0m5uf9t.png

    It does appear that they're attempting to respond to some of these complaints about flashy skills and effects. Perhaps @ZOS_Erin can hop on this thread at some point and provide a more general update, but I'm sure these things take time.
    Edited by valenwood_vegan on March 18, 2026 6:18PM
  • twisttop138
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    This is literally the first place I've seen people complaining about the 2H effects so I'm sure you're being hyperbolic with "so much distress".

    It's mentioned in other threads, and it is causing me distress because I can't play my DK now because of it.

    My DK is a strong Nord woman and wants to look like one rather than looking like she is wielding flashy toy weapons.

    Strong nord women? Like from South Park? Kidding obviously, I'm am not unsympathetic that you feel your character is messed up. No one wants that. I think people feel that it's pretty well received though. It's never gonna be a slam dunk. I just don't think it should be changed because a few people are unhappy. I think a great thing for them to do is make many different skill styles for stuff and put them in different spots to earn in game.

    The only skill styles I have seen for 2H skills is to make them red. But that's what they did with the 2H changes. It would be great if they made skill styles that remove bright lights from weapons because they are always in our faces.

    And these new lights override weapon styles that players spent money for, so it affects them a lot more negatively.

    Options are always welcome.
  • Bguk
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    I didn't ask "Why do players think ZOS is moving in this direction?". Players are free to speculate and give their feedback but only ZOS can answer that question.

    Rather than get into a back and forth let's just agree to disagree and leave it at that.

    And you also didn't direct the question to ZOS directly. How are players or ZOS supposed to know?

    Agree to disagree, sounds good.
  • BardokRedSnow
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    "Used to be one of the most realistic looking games I've ever played."

    Yikes

    Idk what supposedly changed about that as far as the art direction goes for the game itself, if anything its gotten better as far as motifs and the like are concerned and the new areas, for the most part anyway, solstice wasnt very impressive visually imo

    The effects are maybe too high in color and pop, especially the blue flame visuals for DK. Don't like it nearly as much as the normal DK flames.
    Edited by BardokRedSnow on March 18, 2026 10:44PM
  • StackonClown
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    question remains: did WOW developers recently join ZOS?
  • YandereGirlfriend
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    question remains: did WOW developers recently join ZOS?

    Our characters don't look like weird Chibi Shreks, so I will say 'no'.
  • SilverBride
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    "Used to be one of the most realistic looking games I've ever played."

    Yikes

    Idk what supposedly changed about that as far as the art direction goes for the game itself, if anything its gotten better as far as motifs and the like are concerned and the new areas, for the most part anyway, solstice wasnt very impressive visually imo

    The effects are maybe too high in color and pop, especially the blue flame visuals for DK. Don't like it nearly as much as the normal DK flames.

    What I meant by that was the character models were realistically proportioned, compared to WoW where the males hands are twice as big as their heads, etc.. Mounts had skin and teeth and hooves rather than exploding in bright lights with swords sticking out of their sides. All these things had a realistic look about them.
    PCNA
  • TankHealz2015
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    PS 5: for me there are three issues with the visual effects:

    Brightness/vividness of the colors
    Size of the effects
    Particle density/transparency

    Hoping for options or sliders to separately adjust each of the above for self, allies, enemies.
  • katanagirl1
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    Bguk wrote: »
    This is an MMO not a single player game.

    As such all players need to be considered before making changes that could be as disruptive as these effects have been. Especially when they are drastic changes from the way the game was at the start.

    I think a good argument would be similar to how someone said that subclassing can affect your game even if you don’t use it. Like how it made a new meta that is an order of magnitude greater than any pure class. If you choose not to subclass it is still hurting your game. Flashy mounts can hurt your game if you are sensitive to them especially. It can hurt your game as well by having elements that don’t fit with traditional ES games, but many give less weight to that.
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  • freespirit
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    Reading all the back and forth I think there is one thing that has been lost here.......

    The redesign of Molten Armaments is undoubtedly a bit flashy BUT the new animation for the skill overrides weapon styles that players have paid for.

    This is NOT acceptable. :(
    When people say to me........
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  • JimT722
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    freespirit wrote: »
    Reading all the back and forth I think there is one thing that has been lost here.......

    The redesign of Molten Armaments is undoubtedly a bit flashy BUT the new animation for the skill overrides weapon styles that players have paid for.

    This is NOT acceptable. :(

    It hasn't been lost. A solution is even being implemented. Yay! My biggest gripe currently.
  • Muizer
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    I'd like 'declutter' options to disable things like costumes, dyes, skill styles, remove pets, set all mounts to a default horse etc.. Can all be done client-side, so why not?
    Please stop making requests for game features. ZOS have enough bad ideas as it is!
  • sleepy_worm
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    So you want to speak to the manager. Got it.
  • SkaiFaith
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    Syldras wrote: »
    Tariq9898 wrote: »
    Not the person asked but for me, anime is by far the most intrusive when it comes to bright lights.

    Anime is a visual art (can't even say "genre" because within it, all genres exist, just like all genres exist for novels, or live action movies, or music). Despite different traditions I wouldn't even say it's something different from Western animated cartoons - the only thing that makes it anime is, by definition, that it's an animated cartoon from Japan. Which can look like the video you linked above. Or it can look like this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hKi1VlE94A

    It's been a few decades since my early childhood, but I can't remember that having flashy effects ;) Or Vicky the Viking, or Maya the Honey Bee, which are also all, by definition, anime = animated cartoons from Japan.

    So I think if we talk about very colorful and flashy effects here, it might be better - if just for the sake of precision - to call it exactly that. Because anime, or cartoons as a whole, include many vastly different visual styles (the only thing they have in common, really, is that they're drawn instead of having real people as actors playing the roles).

    Generally speaking, for what it seems to be the online consensus: Wuthering Waves, or even Naraka to an extent, can be defined "anime art style" and no one would define WoW or Fortnite anime but absolutely "cartoon art style" - being blind to this is a choice, but the difference is evident, I repeat, in general terms.

    Anyway, Elder Scrolls has a unique art style, and when Oblivion Remaster launched some felt the style was getting a bit lost.
    ESO, as someone else said, has always sent the vibes of a "more realistic looking" game, even with its fantasy traits.
    I remember the horse from the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion - it made you feel powerful with minimum effects. We had a similar horse in the ESO store for years, but for what we have now as effects, that one is lost in nothingness.

    The addition of a setting that hides other players' effects will do good for the game, but I get OP's fear for the artistic direction of the game - Why decide to lean into the "cartoon"? Who is the target now? What is the limit, if there is one? Are Devs in love and willing to preserve Elder Scrolls' art uniqueness or are they willing to follow trends like the upcoming AI one?
    Edited by SkaiFaith on March 19, 2026 12:24PM
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  • Bguk
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    So you want to speak to the manager. Got it.

    This about sums it up.

    And to assist with a possible solution to the original post (which did not explicitly ask for an ESO comment yet we're all supposed to assume the request was directed to ESO only), heya @ZOS_Kevin is there any insight you could give on why the game is getting more "cartoony" per the OP? Thanks!
    Edited by Bguk on March 19, 2026 12:28PM
  • twisttop138
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    SkaiFaith wrote: »
    Syldras wrote: »
    Tariq9898 wrote: »
    Not the person asked but for me, anime is by far the most intrusive when it comes to bright lights.

    Anime is a visual art (can't even say "genre" because within it, all genres exist, just like all genres exist for novels, or live action movies, or music). Despite different traditions I wouldn't even say it's something different from Western animated cartoons - the only thing that makes it anime is, by definition, that it's an animated cartoon from Japan. Which can look like the video you linked above. Or it can look like this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hKi1VlE94A

    It's been a few decades since my early childhood, but I can't remember that having flashy effects ;) Or Vicky the Viking, or Maya the Honey Bee, which are also all, by definition, anime = animated cartoons from Japan.

    So I think if we talk about very colorful and flashy effects here, it might be better - if just for the sake of precision - to call it exactly that. Because anime, or cartoons as a whole, include many vastly different visual styles (the only thing they have in common, really, is that they're drawn instead of having real people as actors playing the roles).

    Generally speaking, for what it seems to be the online consensus: Wuthering Waves, or even Naraka to an extent, can be defined "anime art style" and no one would define WoW or Fortnite anime but absolutely "cartoon art style" - being blind to this is a choice, but the difference is evident, I repeat, in general terms.

    Anyway, Elder Scrolls has a unique art style, and when Oblivion Remaster launched some felt the style was getting a bit lost.
    ESO, as someone else said, has always sent the vibes of a "more realistic looking" game, even with its fantasy traits.
    I remember the horse from the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion - it made you feel powerful with minimum effects. We had a similar horse in the ESO store for years, but for what we have now as effects, that one is lost in nothingness.

    The addition of a setting that hides other players' effects will do good for the game, but I get OP's fear for the artistic direction of the game - Why decide to lean into the "cartoon"? Who is the target now? What is the limit, if there is one? Are Devs in love and willing to preserve Elder Scrolls' art uniqueness or are they willing to follow trends like the upcoming AI one?

    I don't know that we can say the devs don't love the game or elder scrolls. That goes too far. You ask who the target is, I would say large swathes of the community. Again, this is a for profit company who's sole purpose is to make money. There will for sure be a team who tracks this stuff, find out what is popular, what will get the most people into the crown store and get them to make a purchase. With how many radiant apex flashy mounts and stuff there is, I'd say the target is pretty large. It's a known fact that mmo players love to customize. They want unique looks and on top of that people want the newest, coolest thing. It may not be my thing, but many people want others to look at them with their expensive stuff and go oh damn. I wish I had that. I'd argue that ZOS also wants that. I'd also argue that they make tons of understated and plain mounts, pets and costumes. Because, again, players love to customize.

    It's not about following an art style, or staying within the cannon. Really they should do what fallout 76 did. Everything in the cash shop exists outside the canon. They just want to make what people will buy and of course, people are buying it. I'm not saying any of this is right or wrong. It just is.
  • Syldras
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    SkaiFaith wrote: »
    Generally speaking, for what it seems to be the online consensus: Wuthering Waves, or even Naraka to an extent, can be defined "anime art style" and no one would define WoW or Fortnite anime but absolutely "cartoon art style" - being blind to this is a choice, but the difference is evident, I repeat, in general terms.

    Anyway, Elder Scrolls has a unique art style, and when Oblivion Remaster launched some felt the style was getting a bit lost.
    ESO, as someone else said, has always sent the vibes of a "more realistic looking" game, even with its fantasy traits.
    I remember the horse from the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion - it made you feel powerful with minimum effects. We had a similar horse in the ESO store for years, but for what we have now as effects, that one is lost in nothingness.

    The addition of a setting that hides other players' effects will do good for the game, but I get OP's fear for the artistic direction of the game - Why decide to lean into the "cartoon"? Who is the target now? What is the limit, if there is one? Are Devs in love and willing to preserve Elder Scrolls' art uniqueness or are they willing to follow trends like the upcoming AI one?

    I'm honestly not sure why you are noting this beneath a quote of a post of mine that was solely about the suggestion that precise wording is probably the best in this discussion, because everyone will have an idea what "overly colorful, bright and flashy" means - while both cartoon and anime are art forms that can look vastly different from production to production, so people will have different ideas about what "cartoon style" or "anime style" even mean as a term. We've even seen it happening in this thread, with people saying "cartoon doesn't mean flashy", or asking what exactly is or is not "cartoon" or "anime" about ESO, because they have a different understanding of these concepts. So just precisely describing things ("unnatural body proportions in characters", "explosion effects", "garish colors") might be the better than coming up with more open-to-interpretion terms like "cartoon" or "anime". Even if there's some "online consensus" - lots of people don't seem to be aware of that. And if we want to discuss a topic, we need to communicate in a way that's easily understandable.

    I'm also one of the users who have emphasized that ESO, or TES as a whole, always had more natural, subdued, graphics, by the way, and who is very critical of the stylistic changes ESO went through in the past decade, that not only feel like a stylistic discontinuity, but in its flashyness even disturb the gameplay itself - by not being able anymore to see damage indicators during fights, or by not being able to normally follow quest dialogues because loud and flashy teleport animations obscure the whole screen and drown out the spoken dialogue.
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  • SkaiFaith
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    Syldras wrote: »
    SkaiFaith wrote: »
    Generally speaking, for what it seems to be the online consensus: Wuthering Waves, or even Naraka to an extent, can be defined "anime art style" and no one would define WoW or Fortnite anime but absolutely "cartoon art style" - being blind to this is a choice, but the difference is evident, I repeat, in general terms.

    Anyway, Elder Scrolls has a unique art style, and when Oblivion Remaster launched some felt the style was getting a bit lost.
    ESO, as someone else said, has always sent the vibes of a "more realistic looking" game, even with its fantasy traits.
    I remember the horse from the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion - it made you feel powerful with minimum effects. We had a similar horse in the ESO store for years, but for what we have now as effects, that one is lost in nothingness.

    The addition of a setting that hides other players' effects will do good for the game, but I get OP's fear for the artistic direction of the game - Why decide to lean into the "cartoon"? Who is the target now? What is the limit, if there is one? Are Devs in love and willing to preserve Elder Scrolls' art uniqueness or are they willing to follow trends like the upcoming AI one?

    I'm honestly not sure why you are noting this beneath a quote of a post of mine that was solely about the suggestion that precise wording is probably the best in this discussion, because everyone will have an idea what "overly colorful, bright and flashy" means - while both cartoon and anime are art forms that can look vastly different from production to production, so people will have different ideas about what "cartoon style" or "anime style" even mean as a term. We've even seen it happening in this thread, with people saying "cartoon doesn't mean flashy", or asking what exactly is or is not "cartoon" or "anime" about ESO, because they have a different understanding of these concepts. So just precisely describing things ("unnatural body proportions in characters", "explosion effects", "garish colors") might be the better than coming up with more open-to-interpretion terms like "cartoon" or "anime". Even if there's some "online consensus" - lots of people don't seem to be aware of that. And if we want to discuss a topic, we need to communicate in a way that's easily understandable.

    I'm also one of the users who have emphasized that ESO, or TES as a whole, always had more natural, subdued, graphics, by the way, and who is very critical of the stylistic changes ESO went through in the past decade, that not only feel like a stylistic discontinuity, but in its flashyness even disturb the gameplay itself - by not being able anymore to see damage indicators during fights, or by not being able to normally follow quest dialogues because loud and flashy teleport animations obscure the whole screen and drown out the spoken dialogue.

    I was not disagreeing on your points, I just wanted to specify exactly the point that seemed to create confusion between the two terms, giving references to understand what people generally mean when they use them.
    And as I expressed, I agree with the rest :)

    SkaiFaith wrote: »
    Syldras wrote: »
    Tariq9898 wrote: »
    Not the person asked but for me, anime is by far the most intrusive when it comes to bright lights.

    Anime is a visual art (can't even say "genre" because within it, all genres exist, just like all genres exist for novels, or live action movies, or music). Despite different traditions I wouldn't even say it's something different from Western animated cartoons - the only thing that makes it anime is, by definition, that it's an animated cartoon from Japan. Which can look like the video you linked above. Or it can look like this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hKi1VlE94A

    It's been a few decades since my early childhood, but I can't remember that having flashy effects ;) Or Vicky the Viking, or Maya the Honey Bee, which are also all, by definition, anime = animated cartoons from Japan.

    So I think if we talk about very colorful and flashy effects here, it might be better - if just for the sake of precision - to call it exactly that. Because anime, or cartoons as a whole, include many vastly different visual styles (the only thing they have in common, really, is that they're drawn instead of having real people as actors playing the roles).

    Generally speaking, for what it seems to be the online consensus: Wuthering Waves, or even Naraka to an extent, can be defined "anime art style" and no one would define WoW or Fortnite anime but absolutely "cartoon art style" - being blind to this is a choice, but the difference is evident, I repeat, in general terms.

    Anyway, Elder Scrolls has a unique art style, and when Oblivion Remaster launched some felt the style was getting a bit lost.
    ESO, as someone else said, has always sent the vibes of a "more realistic looking" game, even with its fantasy traits.
    I remember the horse from the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion - it made you feel powerful with minimum effects. We had a similar horse in the ESO store for years, but for what we have now as effects, that one is lost in nothingness.

    The addition of a setting that hides other players' effects will do good for the game, but I get OP's fear for the artistic direction of the game - Why decide to lean into the "cartoon"? Who is the target now? What is the limit, if there is one? Are Devs in love and willing to preserve Elder Scrolls' art uniqueness or are they willing to follow trends like the upcoming AI one?

    *I don't know that we can say the devs don't love the game or elder scrolls. That goes too far.* You ask who the target is, I would say large swathes of the community. Again, this is a for profit company who's sole purpose is to make money. There will for sure be a team who tracks this stuff, find out what is popular, what will get the most people into the crown store and get them to make a purchase. With how many radiant apex flashy mounts and stuff there is, I'd say the target is pretty large. It's a known fact that mmo players love to customize. They want unique looks and on top of that people want the newest, coolest thing. It may not be my thing, but many people want others to look at them with their expensive stuff and go oh damn. I wish I had that. I'd argue that ZOS also wants that. I'd also argue that they make tons of understated and plain mounts, pets and costumes. Because, again, players love to customize.

    It's not about following an art style, or staying within the cannon. Really they should do what fallout 76 did. Everything in the cash shop exists outside the canon. They just want to make what people will buy and of course, people are buying it. I'm not saying any of this is right or wrong. It just is.

    I never said Devs don't love TES. My question was more "are they willing to defend TES as we know it against the idea of: follow trends = profit?" I'LL VOLUNTARILY EXAGGERATE HERE with something impossibile, but I'd prefer ESO to vanish in the void than seeing it put in the cash shop Barbie or Homer Simpson skins. We know this will never happen. My question remains: where is the limit set in maintaining TES DNA and how much are Devs willing to give up?
    And to be honest, I say Devs but could very well be just marketing team or "Corpo Leaders".
    A: "We, as humans, should respect and take care of each other like in a Co-op, not a PvP 🌸"
    B: "Many words. Words bad. Won't read. ⚔️"
  • BretonMage
    BretonMage
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    Just leaving this here, landed 20 minutes ago:
    m61imri27tjh.jpg
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