[MUD-Dev2] [Design] Avoiding the uncanny valley: cartoons andanimals

[Mike Rozak]

Cruise wrote:

> To be honest, I've always said the advantage computer rendering offers us 
> isn't the ability to re-create reality, but to create /alternate/ views on 
> the world - cel shading, pencil sketched, etc.

Actually, I have non-photorealistic effects coded in. They work well for 
still images because they hide the all-too-perfect rendering. However, when 
applied to the 360-degree view of the world, painterly affects are very 
unsettling, but I'm not quite sure why. Painterly effects are 
headache-inducing when used as animations (80's "Aha" video, for example, or 
I can easily render one up).


> We should be thinking, not about how close to reality we get, but how much 
> /unreality/ we can generate...

I agree, but most people seem to like reality. Elves are humans with pointy 
ears. Dwarves are short humans with beards. Hobbits a short barefoot humans. 
Orcs are ugly green humans. Something like "The Future is Wild" or "Alien 
plant" would be neat, but might be too weird for most people.

Thought experiment: Would "The Sims" (offline) have sold as many copies if 
the characters were distinctly non-human (like my rat/thylacine animation, 
or dragons, or non-human aliens)?