Yes, Diablo III is going to be much more vivid and vibrant than its predecessors, a fact that has some fans signing a petition against the shinier, happier art direction - now with over fifteen thousand signatures. Tracey John over at MTV Multiplayer spoke with Diablo III lead producer Keith Lee about the during the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris this past weekend, who defended the move towards a brighter, more colorful Diablo.

“One of the things that we considered when we were working on the visuals for ‘Diablo III’ is the fact that color is your friend. We feel that color actually helps to create a lot of highlights in the game so that there is contrast. A great analogy is like in ‘Lord of the Rings’ — not everything is dark. It allows you to see what a creepy dungeon can be like but if everything is dark it doesn’t allow you to have a lot of contrast.”

Lee also explains that they want players excited to enter and explore new areas, rather that simply provide the same dark environments over and over again.

Lee does admit that fan feedback is a major factor in how Blizzard develops titles. It'll be interesting to see what impact - if any - the petition has on the development of the game.

‘Diablo III’ Producer Justifies Controversial Art Direction: ‘Color Is Your Friend’ [MTV Multiplayer]

Diablo Fans Petition Against Diablo III

After years of hoping, praying, cajoling, and begging for a follow-up, Blizzard has finally announced Diablo III, and fans all over the world cheered before getting down to business - complaining. A petition has gone up at whiner headquarters PetitionOnline, with over 2,000 fans signing on to complain about the game's art direction. Petitioners feel that the graphics we've seen so far depict a world that is far too bright and cartoony for their liking, citing World of Warcraft as one of the influences ruining their dark and macabre series. Where is the light radius? Why are those shoulder pads so huge? Here's an example of something they are complaining about.

Outside scenarios with vivid colors, beautiful forests with colorful vegetation, shinny and beautiful waterfalls where even rainbows take place.

They hate rainbows! They can't draw gothic fan art with rainbows in it!

*sigh* It just goes to show you that no matter how hard you try there's just no pleasing some people.

Renewed artistic direction for Diablo 3 [PetetionOnline.com via WorthPlaying]

As we reported a few days ago, the fate of Capcom's Bionic Commando on the Wii rests squarely on the shoulders of the players. GoNintendo's RawMeatCowboy has decided to take the matter into his own hands and has started an internet petition to get the ball rolling. Generally, internet petitions don't seem to lead anywhere (I'm speaking from experience here) but Capcom sounds like they are ready to hear what you have to say. So let your voice be heard and put your digital John Hancock on this petition!

Bionic Commando on the Wii Petition [GoNintendo]

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