Colors effect our mood more than we may like to admit. I remember having an interesting math professor who would put light blue sheet of paper under our tests in order to help us stay calm and think clearly.

Blizzard has chosen a lot of blues in the menu system of SC2, and although it may be due to a space theme I can't help but to think they also chose it for other reasons.

Maybe it was designed to keep players from being so stressed out in between games? This would increase game play and general morale of the player-base.

What do you think?

TheRPGAddict

United States1403 Posts

January 13 2011 19:26 GMT

I think this was overthought. Things that are sci-fi themed tend to be associated with the color blue and thus starcraft 2 uses it as a primary color scheme.

Edit: I was in no way implying that space is blue.

MisterD

Germany1338 Posts

January 13 2011 19:29 GMT

yes. space is obviously blue. The sky is blue, so what color should space have if not blue.

Torpedo.Vegas

United States1890 Posts

January 13 2011 19:29 GMT

Maybe, but I'd like to think their color choices were based around creative designs or to minimize eye-strain or fatigue for long gaming sessions. Although, I suppose it is possible some of the menu or other User Interfaces had some emotional input. Artists tend to have a purpose for most of what they do, not much choosing a color at random.

emythrel

United Kingdom2599 Posts

January 13 2011 19:32 GMT

On January 14 2011 04:29 MisterD wrote:
yes. space is obviously blue. The sky is blue, so what color should space have if not blue.

the sky is blue.... space is black.

The sky is blue because thats the wavelength of light that scatters prefferentially towards the ground, without an atmosphere the sky would be black. So blue makes no sense at all for space.

Why they chose blue? Only blizzard knows

Cyber_Cheese

Australia3615 Posts

January 13 2011 19:33 GMT

itd be great to think there was some beyond reason for it, but no its ust for a scifi-your actually in it feel

SeanShepard

United States48 Posts

January 13 2011 19:35 GMT

On January 14 2011 04:32 emythrel wrote:

Show nested quote +

...lol he was being sarcastic

Blue is COMMONLY associated with sci-fi things. Lasers? Blue. High tech metals on space ships? Blue. Notice protoss is "high tech" and notably blue? Zerg is organic and notably red?

bashalisk

102 Posts

January 13 2011 19:39 GMT

On January 14 2011 04:32 emythrel wrote:

Show nested quote +

the sky is blue.... space is black.

Whoosh!

@OP: That's a fair assumption. I have no clue, it'd be interesting to hear from Blizzard on this.

Cenja

Sweden498 Posts

January 13 2011 19:47 GMT

Do you think Blizzard will change the menu-colour to something red in Heart of the Swarm?

Existor

Russian Federation4295 Posts

January 13 2011 19:50 GMT

#10

On January 14 2011 04:47 FiReMaN wrote:
Do you think Blizzard will change the menu-colour to something red in Heart of the Swarm?

No, battle.net is blue all time.

Better will be, if blizzard will allow change ingame menu colors. I want orange and more warmer colors. It's another reason, why I like zerg - they have good orange-goldish sidebar/interface

idonthinksobro

3138 Posts

January 13 2011 19:51 GMT

#11

once you completed the campaign you can switch your background to red/apocalypse theme(click on continue campaign and leave it).

Chill

Calgary25997 Posts

January 13 2011 19:53 GMT

#12

I think they chose it originally because it looked good. I think they chose it now because it's consistent and looks good.

emythrel

United Kingdom2599 Posts

January 13 2011 19:57 GMT

#13

...lol he was being sarcastic

?

you'd be suprised by the amount of people who really dont understand that during day light in space its still black ;p

Achilles

Canada385 Posts

January 13 2011 19:59 GMT

#14

On January 14 2011 04:57 emythrel wrote:

Show nested quote +

you'd be suprised by the amount of people who really dont understand that during day light in space its still black ;p

ever looked up during the day? it's blue.

Hook....line....and....????

baeracaed

United States604 Posts

January 13 2011 20:08 GMT

#15

To be honest, I think the game-play is so visceral and stimulating to the senses that subtle influences such as this would very little effect. I'm not arguing against this sort of color theory though and I would think a good Art Director would have studied this sort of emotional response theory at some point in their schooling or career. That, combined with how hugely valuable Blizzard IP's and games are, I would assume somebody at some point along the development of SC2 they considered this sort of thing. Even still, like I said before, playing SC2 is such a sensory overload that I don't think this sort of thing would have much of an effect of players. I should learn to summarize.

AdunToridas

Germany380 Posts

January 13 2011 20:15 GMT

#16

On January 14 2011 04:32 emythrel wrote:
the sky is blue.... space is black.

And now the question is: What have the illuminati to do with this?

Tyree

1508 Posts

January 13 2011 20:22 GMT

#17

I think alot of it has to do with the Terran themed expansion, note how the WoW expansions all have a color fitting in with whatever theme is around. Burning Crusade had black, green and yellow, Wrath had various colors of blue and black.

I assume Heart of the Swarm will have a red, brown or purple color, since that is mostly associated with Zerg and Protoss will most likely have yellow with various light blue colors here and there.

MisterD

Germany1338 Posts

January 13 2011 21:01 GMT

#18

On January 14 2011 04:57 emythrel wrote:

Show nested quote +

you'd be suprised by the amount of people who really dont understand that during day light in space its still black ;p

noooo don't tell him i'm serious TT i rely on the fact that people believe my comments are meant sarcastic! otherwise, everybody would know how stupid i really am :D

on topic:

On January 14 2011 04:35 SeanShepard wrote:

Show nested quote +

protoss is golden. The blue is just accent color. Star trek lasers are orange, most lasers actually are green i think. And high tech metals on space ships? Again, star trek is grey, stargate is grey, terrans are grey. Ferengi brown, Romulan green, these choices of colour actually are simply based on the effect they produce: Green lightning in dark surroundings alienates people cause romulans are asses, klingon ships have "evil red eyes", starwars empirial ships are grey too with red to make them look somewhat majestic. Color choices are ususally based on the effect they have on viewers, and what kind of impression the colored entity should produce. And zerg is purple btw

i believe, sc2 battle.net is simply blue, because its based on the first part of the game, which is the terran story. And the classic space marine simply is blue.

Captain Mayhem

Sweden774 Posts

January 13 2011 21:11 GMT

#19

Blue is the favorite color of almost half of everyone (really close to 50% in the last poll I checked). Might be a tiny reason.

Hell, just go to any of the desktop threads here and try to find the common color theme.