Suggestion: Beautiful Void

Douglas Adams' comment about Myst is the trope namer for Beautiful Void, and I think its sequel Uru has some great examples: it was set in a once teeming city and it was supposed to be a MMO at launch, but that took 4 years. So it managed to get double the empty-ambience it should have had, complete with "recent visitors" boards that only showed you. Not true now, though.

What could have been part of Uru Live, and is now in Myst Online.

edited 24th Jan '13 7:29:29 PM by justanid

Sure.

I think a more open area might be better, though, to most strongly suggest the emptiness. One of the views of the city◊ looking out at Kerath's Arch, perhaps◊?

Good idea, though I think there should be a human in there for scale and that whole "alone" thing. Here's one:

EDIT: linkified◊

edited 24th Jan '13 9:24:55 PM by justanid

ICO? [1]◊, [2]◊.

Edit: First one is the same as this one, a slight bit down.

edited 24th Jan '13 9:57:27 PM by AnotherDuck

1st doesn't work.

Beautiful Is Brown? Not sure if the muted color scheme that series has works when compared to, say, the surrounding page colors. It's like the opposite of Hair Color Dissonance.

Real Is Brown is kind of a problem with the D'ni city too, now that I think about it, this one at least has red and blue going for it◊ while this is from a sub-level.◊

Didn't really think about the colours, since it's basically all stone anyway. There might be better screenshots from the game, but I kinda liked the bridge that stretched pretty far, since it looked kind of desolate to me.

But overall, I don't think night shots work well. You don't expect as much people when it's dark, and lights imply there are people around.

edited 24th Jan '13 10:02:23 PM by AnotherDuck

D'ni isn't at night, it's underground. But I think a game exploring an eerily deserted city at night would qualify anyway.

Gahreesehn or Kadish Tolesa might work really well...

I like the OP's suggestion best, really. It's stronger than some of the others because it (a) is beautiful to me and (b) is a city where you'd surely expect to find people.

Good point, even though it's just an art thing for cave-dwellers.

Gahreesehn is too muted, even away from the prison.◊ As for Kadish,◊ it might be too heavy on purple. Maybe Ahnonay◊ though it's not obvious that the "villages" in the background are just props and that adds to the image of habitation.

edited 24th Jan '13 11:30:40 PM by justanid

Pick the OP.

I think the (non-American) cover for ICO would be best.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ico_cover_-_EU%2BJP.jpg

www.abload.de/img/ico_covergzx38.jpg

Actually, some of the paintings of De Chirico (upon which the ICO cover is based) would be good. I mean, with titles like "The Nostalgia of the Infinite", and with cityscapes which have been described as desolate, you really can't go wrong.

edited 13th Feb '13 6:53:48 PM by Enkidu

Now, would the opening scene of Vanilla Sky where he's in a completely deserted Times Square count as an example of this trope? It seems to me like it would be a good example of it, and easily picturable, but I don't see it on the listing and it makes me wonder if it's really an example.

http://imgur.com/VEJ1efr

edited 13th Feb '13 7:02:04 PM by Larkmarn

I was about to say, "Isn't that just an unrelated artwork being used as the cover...?" Neat that they used that as a basis. :D

Ico's cover is ok, but game-wise he has a princess to look after and protect from shadow mooks.

I like the Vanilla Sky one for the void part, however I don't find those advertisements at all beautiful.

I kinda like the ICO cover.

Clock is set.

Crowner?

Sure.

Blank crowner's hooked.

Crowner is filled.

Bump for votes; the leaders are tied right now.

This one's ready to call. The new pic's up, potholed, and tagged. I used the caption from the OP; feel free to change/remove it as you want. Locking up.