We are the liars, not the concept art

Concept art is not advertising. Well, maybe in the way that everything is advertising these days. But it's not supposed to be a preview and it's not supposed to tell us what the game will be.

It's not to inspire us, except in the generic "be brave heroes and explore places" way. It's for the devs. They don't draw this stuff for us. It's for them.

Concept art is to the finished product as an outline is to a complete paper. They won't be quite the same. Especially not after someone has reviewed the outline and made a lot of changes.

We should not lie to ourselves and think that the concept art is a reflection of the game. We should look at it and think "That looks cool, I hope the devs agree and can ut that into the game." We shouldn't think "That looks cool, that must be what the game will look like."

Are we disappointed that we never got lost in Northrend and ambushed by undead like in the early trailer? Or that we didn't get to stab ice and get a frostwyrm? Advertisers lie quite often. But perhaps more often, we lie to ourselves.

Let's try what Larisa is failing to do: "I try to regard the Concept Art and the movies as a source of inspiration for my own imagination rather than as a table of contents for the game."