Gamasutra has a feature article entitled “Videogame Aesthetics: The Future!” which is a nice read. Some of the issues raised have been frequent topics on some of the CG sites, so this piece does a decent job of pulling some related things together. And because I’m relatively well-informed on comic book artists, the author’s comments citing that medium as a good example of visual diversity won points with me. The only fault I really find with the article is the focus on videogames to the exclusion of other, similarly immersive experiences. It was nice to see mention of game mods and even tools like the Quake NPR renderer, but some immersive environments have done noteworthy things (to be fair, many others are as guilty as most regular videogames in their uninspired visuals). Perhaps that exclusionary focus was set up by the intro and the discussion centering on aesthetics vs gameplay (virtual worlds having no “gameplay” to speak of); but I would have liked to have seen it opened up a bit. Perhaps next time.