The GWSTY effect

[idarkphoenixi]

GWSTY = Guy walking slowly towards you

This is just something I notice all the time with action games these days and it really bothers me. On the box art, you always seem to seem to see the same thing: Some dude is walking slowly towards you, trying to seem badass, maybe with an explosion behind him and carrying his weapon in one hand.

Spoiler: MW2

Spoiler: Bad Company 2

Spoiler: MW3

Spoiler: Bourne Conspiracy

Spoiler: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Spoiler: Godfather II

Spoiler: Uncharted 3

Spoiler: LA: Noire

Spoiler: Mafia II

Spoiler: Mass Effect 3

Spoiler: Battlefield 3

Spoiler: Splinter Cell: Conviction

Spoiler: Halo Reach

Spoiler: Dragon Age II

Spoiler: Infamous

Spoiler: Deux Ex

Spoiler: The Witcher 2

Just something that I noticed. It seemed to start after MW2 came out. I guess people really do judge something by it's cover (at least that's what marketing thinks).

Spoiler: Sometimes they like to spice things up by having the guy walk slowly with a gun in one hand...but in the opposite direction!

 

[GiantRaven]

Definitely something I'm completely sick of. I'd love to see greater imagination, creativity and diversification in cover art.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Definitely something I'm completely sick of. I'd love to see greater imagination, creativity and diversification in cover art.

But then we wouldn't have box art of the protagonist being a total badass by walking slowly towards you with a gun in one hand!

 

[Strain42]

I am disappointed, for I do not see Batman: Arkham Asylum on this list.

Also, I'm not saying most of these games are the same genre but...they're pretty lumped together.

There's a lot of great cover arts out there, just not from these types of games it seems (and I'm sure this is still a minority)

Of course imo, this is one of the greatest cover arts I have ever seen.

Although I dunno. He's not really walking, but does this still fall under the GWSTY effect?

 

[GiantRaven]

Definitely something I'm completely sick of. I'd love to see greater imagination, creativity and diversification in cover art.

But then we wouldn't have box art of the protagonist being a total badass by walking slowly towards you with a gun in one hand!

I'm sure there's room for about 1 or 2 covers of that design. Any more than that thought and I start getting confused when I look at shelves in game stores.

edit: That cover above is pretty fucking cool.

 

[Bostur]

It's inspired by movie posters I think.

Spoiler

Spoiler

I agree it is getting a little worn. Covers with more stuff happening would be nice. The first CoD games had some nice ones.

Spoiler

 

[idarkphoenixi]

It's inspired by movie posters I think.

Spoiler

Spoiler

I agree it is getting a little worn. Covers with more stuff happening would be nice. The first CoD games had some nice ones.

Spoiler

pffft nah. In Saving Private Ryan, he's holding the gun with BOTH hands. Therefore not a true badass. And he's too far away for us to see how deep and angsty he his.

 

[Bostur]

...snip...
Although I dunno. He's not really walking, but does this still fall under the GWSTY effect?

Your picture is a variation of what I like to call "Pyramid shaped family portraits". ;-)

But with a lot more going on.

Games Workshop used that ad nauseum in their Magazines and source books at some point.

pffft nah. In Saving Private Ryan, he's holding the gun with BOTH hands. Therefore not a true badass. And he's too far away for us to see how deep and angsty he his.

Thats because he is not deep and angsty, just a normal GI. It's not the best example, I had some mental image in mind of a Vietnam cover with choppers in the background, but couldn't quite remember the movie.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

I am disappointed, for I do not see Batman: Arkham Asylum on this list.

Also, I'm not saying most of these games are the same genre but...they're pretty lumped together.

There's a lot of great cover arts out there, just not from these types of games it seems (and I'm sure this is still a minority)

Of course imo, this is one of the greatest cover arts I have ever seen.

Spoiler

Although I dunno. He's not really walking, but does this still fall under the GWSTY effect?

Hells, no. That actually has so much going on that I need to scan my eyeballs over the cover for more than 1.3 seconds.

 

[isometry]

Walking away in slow motion has a long history of being cool:

 

[Aerosteam]

Cool guys don't look at explosions.

You should also mention that they always have a gun pointed to the ground or deadly weapon in their hand...

Edit: FUCK. Ninja'd by the guy above.

 

[Zhukov]

Y'know, I hadn't noticed.

Can't get too bothered. Pretty much all game box art is garbage anyway. It's designed as packaging, not artwork. I'm not gonna fuss over whether my irrelevant garbage comes in vanilla or chocolate flavour.

 

[Bostur]

In a thread about cool guys walking there must be a Wasteland cover, now that it's getting a sequel.

Here the cool guys are walking towards a deadly robot.

Spoiler

 

[skywolfblue]

I'm not too bothered by it.
It's a chance for the game to show off their primary protagonist.
Plus it's a lot more recognizable from far off, as opposed to busy covers which can be difficult to discern.
Besides, it's just the cover, not suppose to be some extremely detailed masterpiece of high art.

 

[Hazy992]

Spoiler: Still better than UMvC3

It's a complete clusterfuck. And why is Hawkeye the centre of attention? Hawkeye?!

 

[DoPo]

Spoiler: Batman: Arkham Asylum

In all fairness, Batman isn't walking there. He has clearly stopped moving and is only looking at the camera/you.

But he's Batman - he doesn't need to walk to be badass.

Other than that, yeah - too much people are coming at us from covers. If the trend keeps on going, we might get trampled.