Image Essay #14

The piece above is a wallpaper for the online game World of Warcraft, made by my favorite company, Blizzard Entertainment. Their artwork has always astounded me. The logo itself has complimentary colors of a light blue and a dark yellow/orange. The dwarf on the right is painted in mostly earth tones, which make the gun stand out and come forward in the image. This adds a sense of three dimensionality. The background is a dwarven city in the mountainside. The borders on the top and bottom are also earth tones, which match the dwarf and serve to bring the logo and background image forward. It also employs the Gestalt principle of closure.

World of Warcraft is a video game, but even moreso it is a work of art. I have not been captivated by a video game like this at any point in my life, though I think I am a bit predisposed to playing video games. It could be argued that the first time I picked up a controller my life was altered, as I long for a career inside the industry. Working at Blizzard Entertainment would undoubtedly be my dream job. Everything in World of Warcraft was hand drawn. Everything. There was so much time put into that game, it really pales most other games for me. The game retains its cartoony look, but I personally prefer it over the more realistic looking games showcased nowadays with the next-gen consoles out. At any rate, World of Warcraft has set a fine example for games to emulate over the next few years and it will be interesting to see if another game could dethrone Blizzard.