I think some of the gorgeous art used in this game mentioned by posters are from LotR Confrontation: the Deluxe Edition.

We see a few instances of this from games sharing the same licenses/properties/universe such as Runebound & Descent, Call of Cthulhu card game & Arkham Horror, etc...How do people feel about owning two different games incorporating the same art?

It makes economic sense for a company both large and small to do this; however, this sharing of artspace has somewhat influenced my decision to stay away from Descent and Arkham Horror.

Another thing I'd like to mention is unifying art direction or lack thereof. I don't know how important it is to others, but art is sort of like the face for the theme inherent in the game for me. It irks me somewhat to see a boardgame with mismatch of art directions. For example, Middle-Earth Quest has both the cute original Confrontation art as well the more hardcore Deluxe Edition art and has what looks to me digitized art for characters to top it all off. Well, to be fair the DE also has the original art and digitized map as well, but that does not help matters in my eyes. Another personal pet peeve spotted I guess...I just hope the mechanics hold the game together.

I personally don't mind sharing of art, especially when the two games are from the same company and set in the same "universe" It's a little dissapointing when the same art is used for two completely different things, but I don't think that happens too often. The art is really good and each game does incorporate a lot of original art as well, most of the shared stuff just reinforces that you're playing in the same world and helps with the continuity. I think if they used different art, especially for say in Runebound and Descent, the same characters, that would be weird.

I agree. I don't mind two games that share the same art, especially if they are in the same "universe" like Descent and Runebound are. What does bug me is the use of computer screenshots for some of the art in the World of Warcraft Boardgame. I don't know if they do the same thing in the adventure game or in Starcraft, but that bothers me more than two games sharing the same art assets.

It doesn't bother me in the slightest if the artwork is shared. If it's good and fits the theme then why not. I play both Arkham Horror and Call of Cthulhu and I really like the art that they use. And why not use the same art? If it works for one then it will work for the other and as long as it is of a high quality then save the money for developing other new great games.

Ruvion said:

I haven't played Descent but Arkham is definitely a must have. The game is great. Iif you are a collector, I can understand that you have no need to get same artwork twice (actually, there are some cases, when they used the same image in AH more than once.. :-( But if you are a player too, I can only recommend getting AH. And, man, the game sure has a wonderful atmosphere. My favourite!

While I feel it's kind of cheap at first, I get used to it, and it doesn't prevent me from playing different games with the same art. If the games share the same world, It makes more sense, but FFG usually names the items in the art differently in different games, which annoys me. I have Runebound and Descent, Arkham Horror, but not Cthulu LCG, and I don't have LotR confrontation. So it's only an issue with Descent and Runebound, which share a world.