Do you think Guild Wars Skill Art/Seriousness has gone downhill?

I was just curious to know what everyone else thought about this. When Guild Wars headed into Nightfall and EotN the skill icons and seriousness went way down. Did Arena Net get lazy? Why are all the skill icons just a little picture of a person. Also, why are all the skill names some kind of play on words or play on pop culture. I enjoyed Guild Wars a lot more in Prophecies and even Factions. The skill icons don't seem as "high-rez" as they used to. They look grainy and just have a generic person standing in the background. Also, the skill names have gotten really ridiculous. They started doing it in Nightfall and did it even more in EotN. The skill names don't even make since sometimes. In PvP I'll get hit by something and scroll over the damage reporter. It reads "Billy Blank's Squat Thrust" or "Broke Back Mountain". What the heck are these skills? I have to go to wiki just to figure out what they do and even then I usually don't remember. I miss the Prophecy days, where the skill names actually went along with what they were. I am just worried because it seems Arena Net is heading that way. Guild Wars 2 may be poor skill art, poor skill names, and a ton of pop culture references. It is okay for an Easter Egg or a Game Event. But the whole game being a pop culture joke doesn't settle with me too well. Does everyone like the way Arena Net is taking the game or do they wish they reverted back to their more "Serious Days".

I actually find the skill names are art got better
I love the icon art in the EotN skills

Well people relate to pop culture well so it stands to reason some of the names would be pop culture. As for the pics of the skills not all are faces and I think they are quite interesting. I like muchly.

I don't really like the art, lots of Paragon skills look really similar.

Tbh i think most faces came with factions With Ritualist.. But yeah i dont think Eotn skill icons are so cool.

It's not easy to try to come up with skill icons and names. Imagine if you were put in that position.

For example, you come up with a good skill icon for, say, Aegis. What icon can you create that would fit with what Aegis does? For that matter, what can you create that would fit on the tiny space? You also have to consider the visibility and how the icon will be remembered by players. Not only that, you also have to consider that you're working with limited color scheme (if you're creating a Mo icon, you're only limited to blue scheme). Plus, you're working within limited time.

It's very difficult to create names and skill icons for hundreds of skills with such limited flexibility. Try coming up with good icons and names for all the skills from one chapter. You'll see why Anet did what they did.

I have plenty of ideas that can easily come out of my head. I have a very overactive imagination and could sit for hours coming up with ideas.

Aegis: A white shield with blue outline with the Greek letter Alpha on it.

I don't understand. I guess people like that over the top sense of humor. I just don't want the game turning into a joke (aka Dungeon Runners). The skill names just seem so stinking long sometimes. There are so many stinking abbreviations for everything. The art for the PvE skills were pretty bad. Sunspear/Luxon/Kurzick were horrible. I don't know how they got away with some of that. I can't tell what half the spells are/do because its just a picture of a little person in a little box. Like someone said earlier, the Paragon skills look like they were all taken from the same carpet sample.

Regardless of how hard it is there is no excuse to do it half-heartedly. There are plenty of nerds in the sea who could handle the task you just outlined. I just don't want to start seeing skills like "Bridget's Diary", "What I Like About You", "Independence Day", "The Mupphets", "Frogger", or what ever nostalgic/pop culture thing they can think of. Where is the creativity?

WALL OF TEXT FTL

but anyways, i like all of the EoTN art/icons. it gave me something different to look at, rather than skills that looked exactly the same, with the same hues and colors x.x

Great, so go do it for every skill in even just one chapter. Also, you'll have to come up with your own name for Aegis. You'll see then just how hard it is.

It is not regardless of... there are more than enough reasons (not excuses) to do so. People can't just come up with good ideas because they have to. If coming up with good ideas is really that easy, then why isn't everybody rich? Why isn't every game/movie/book ever made awesomely good? And when you're working on a project, you're always on tight schedule. You can't just ask to push back code release because you can't come up with names and icons for skills. You have other priorities to handle and you can't spend all day just for some skill name/icons. There are many things that go into place in creating games... skill names/icons just can't fit in due to time constraints and budget. Ask to extend the development by a few days for better skill names/icons, you're basically saying you don't know how the industry works and don't know your priorities. Few more days can cost thousands of dollars. You do not waste that much money for "better" skill names/icons.

Heck, you aks for an extension to make your game better... they'll try to rim you (higher ups). You ask for an extension for some measly icons... I don't even want to go there.

the word Aegis is often rooted somehow to Zeus or gods, i.e. a big bearded dude with a crown.

and i agree with 91 totally. IT IS hard work!! hundreds and hundreds of skills, with NOTHING to start with... they had their work cut out for them.

Ya know Blizzard has a pretty good mentality by not letting the game out till it is perfect. That is why they have so many great hits. They have a good mentality. Not all companies have to pump out games and hold on to that dead line. Anyway, I just really wanted to see what other players thought. For some reason it just really bothered me the way Guild Wars was headed. And since it gradually got worse and worse from Nightfall to EotN, I was worried about Guild Wars 2. I just wanted to see what everyone's views were on that. Not necessarily why Arena Net does the things it does.

Nah.
Skill icons are pretty small. The problem is, several of them start looking very similar.
The mesmer has like 25 skills which are varations of guys with headaces. Now, they are all distinct, but there is only so much they could do. I guess that could be considered laziness.

The main reason A.net decided NOT to release GW Utopia and instead create GW:EN and start over with GW2 was for the exact reasons you stated. The game got too complex with too many skills and new reinvention of the wheels (*cough paragon ruinied PvP*). A.net is aware and trying to start fresh.

You're right. Blizzard DOES put in lots of effort. However, this isn't about putting in more effort for a better game. It's just skill names/icons. These are just too miniscule. With what goes in a game development, it just isn't realistic to spend much time on something so small and not game breaking.

Also, there's not a single company that makes everything perfect. All games and all companies overlook hundreds of actual bugs and release the games the way they are. Nobody spends the time on fixing all minor bugs.

Blizzard or not, skill names/icons are not even bugs. As long as they work (and GW's icons are just fine), no company will stress over them. It's not an excuse, it's just the way game development works.

In all honestly I don't really care, the pop culture references go over my head. I guess I just like playing this game and not picking apart every single irrelevant flaw.

I love pop culture references, because the dev team is making pokes at pop culture by putting them in a game. lol. The wit is unmissable.

I play games because I like them the way they are.

Not saying they're perfect, but I still like them. I'm not the kind of people that sit around and nit-pick every single little detail.

Amen. I totally agree.
Basically, once you no longer know what to do, you can always make a reference to something popular. Especially if you have nothing of value to offer yourself.

Their excessive references to pop culture started in Nightfall and in EOTN.

Some silly jokes on the level of farting in a crowded room are probably supposed to make up for the lack of a proper story and own ideas.
Just see the BMP, references to 300, references to "eastern" stuff and Kill Bill, Alice in Wonderland and so on. Too much references, does not distract from the shallowness that they copy more and more instead of inventing themselves.

Well i guess its easy to create skill icon art for elementalist skills, you have lots of themes to choose from, the 4 elements, various bolts, explosions, whirpools, and other stuff that represent the elements.

As for mesmer, the theme pool is rather limited, as most of their skills are themed with mind controll. Same for assasin skills, most of the time, you have blades to work with, and theres only so much variation to be made there, so they look similar.

Its not laziness, its just that class limits the posibilities.