ScapeVScape: aesthetics. blobs or weird elves?

aesthetics/iːsˈθɛtɪks,ɛsˈθɛtɪks/

noun

a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty.

• the branch of philosophy which deals with questions of beauty and artistic taste.

Oxford Languages

Aesthetics in itself has strong connections to the design of video game graphics. I mean, is it not an art form?

Old School RuneScape (Osrs) is well known for it’s blocky, lifeless graphics; but it really does add to its 2007 charm. RuneScape 3 on the other hand has rounded out some of those edges and provided players with a deeper, clearer fantasy world. So instead of putting the two very different products of their time head to head on only a visual (and very subjective) stand-point – lets get critical.

This analysis takes great inspiration from the MDA Framework (Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics) proposed by Hunicke, Leblanc and Zubek in 2004, and makes underlying reference to the modernised…