Cities:Skylines Artists vs Players

[RamblinRick]

What do I mean by "artists"? These are people for whom creating incredible-looking cities and maps are the main objective. To these people (I dare not say "players", as I shall soon explain), CSL is a canvas upon which to unleash their creativity using extensive detailing. A player is a person who seeks to create an efficient, productive city that continues to expand, more interested in the economics vice artistic visuals. Similar to painting upon a canvas, any person can take a brush, dip onto a palette with paints, and apply it to the canvas. It is the artist, who performs that exact same action, but then creates wondrous works of art and a feast for the eyes.

I am constantly amazed by the cities I see on YouTube, created by the likes of Biffa, BonBonB, and others. These are the artists. Just watched a video of BonBonB reviewing a map where upon the artist spent over 700 hours creating it. Say that out loud: 700 hours. Were this the artist's full-time, 40-hour-per-week job, that would be over 17 weeks. Truly an artist, not a player.

I am a CSL player, not a CSL artist. I have at my disposal all the same tools (DLC, mods, assets, decals, etc.) as the artist, but lack the artist eye to create those same works of art. I have this same reaction when playing Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo. I've seen videos of those Planet games, of parks created by Planet artists, that put my meager efforts to shame.

So, to all you CSL artists (and those who are both artist and player), keep creating. Your results are both inspirational ("look what can be done") and demotivational ("look what I can't do"). I appreciate your efforts.

[MaxFX]

Biffa isn't an artist, he's a player. But mostly a Youtuber creating content. BonBonB is more a reviewer of other peoples work. In my opinion Akruas is a true artist. Check out this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD6XPSHOZlM
That said, I agree with your post. Thumbs up to all creators!!

My personal opinion.

[RamblinRick]

@MaxFX. Thanks for the link. Watching it now.

[YoongZY]

Imperatur is great too. He's more like a vanilla guy who almost never use any workshop assets.

[MessengerOfRage]

Originally posted by YoongZY:

Imperatur is great too. He's more like a vanilla guy who almost never use any workshop assets.

totally agree, it's astonishing what Imperatur can do with the limited vanilla options

Originally posted by MaxFX:

...In my opinion Akruas is a true artist....

I love Akruas! yes he is an artist and one that's happy to share his tricks.
He is good at explaining stuff! I learned so much from his other city Altengrad.
Altengrad is meant to be a central european city ... exactly what I want to build.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbKDhw0fSIY&list=PLvUltnTgrMOOcqOo4qm5P13BG0dqGkGMs

the most extravagant youtube series, the most complete reskin I know of is C:S Mars by Citywallcitywok, another true artist.
a dystopian near future mars colony.
nearly all assets are custom made and they link to the collection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO7waxG-KMU&list=PLkBlOw_hzgdfL6Gqw0l9P1TYKn_WIgrd-


I was a hybrid player most of the time, starting as player and slowly shifting more and more to artist with each build.
after replacing my old computer with one made for this game I was able to really get into visual mods (they are resource intensive).
In my current playthrough I decided to go full artist, all for the looks, no compromise to game mechanics.
the artistic freedom I got from that decission is ... how to put it? ... overwhelmingly fascinating and astonishing.

shameless self advertising:
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198034608519/videos/
I don't really like the distinction player / artist from an emotional viewpoint, in my mind I am playing around with building blocks.
but I see that we need a destinction to be able to talk about playstyles.
and from long experiance I can tell you it's a gradient. most players are hybrid players most of the time. extremes are rare.

[RamblinRick]

@Cookyman, I quite agree. I cite player vis-a-vis artist as the endpoints of a continuous spectrum with infinite shades of gray in between.

[Detective Dan]

I'm a little of both. I like playing the game like making my traffic better, making industry more efficient, expanding public transportation etc. At the same time, if i see and opportunity to beautify something i'll pause time and just go ham.

[snowflitzer]

Trust me, even you after spending 1000s of hours in this game you start do decorate and put extra time in your city to make it look beautiful :)

[OneJasonBradly]

Originally posted by snowflitzer:

Trust me, even you after spending 1000s of hours in this game you start do decorate and put extra time in your city to make it look beautiful :)

:)
+1

[AKscene]

If you want to see an ARTIST on YouTube, check out Sanctum Gamer. Amazing detail.

[RamblinRick]

I'll go look for Sanctum Gamer. Thanks
EDIT: Oh man!, he's great!!! I'm watching his latest video as I type this.

[WhiteKnight77]

OK, I checked out Sanctum Gamer's newest video and yes, I would say that he is an artist. Notice that everything he places, at least resident wise, uses POs to put the city together. Nice job at it.

[Adrian]

Originally posted by YoongZY:

Imperatur is great too. He's more like a vanilla guy who almost never use any workshop assets.

Yeah, I'm always impressed with what he does considering how restrictive pure vanilla can be. Not even sure he uses road anarchy.

[Adrian]

Originally posted by RamblinRick:

@Cookyman, I quite agree. I cite player vis-a-vis artist as the endpoints of a continuous spectrum with infinite shades of gray in between.

Yes, definitely a spectrum. I feel like there are even "sub-genres" of C:S player/creators.

On this forum, I've noticed some ppl like to understand how the game engine works (e.g, why some buildings have more residents than others, or how many farm assets needed to make industry productive, etc).
Others want to build the biggest city they can, regardless of looks, just to see how big it can get.
Others are more into funny things (like flooding their city with sewerage) or want to see societal stuff like protest marches.

On YouTube, Biffa seems mostly into the traffic systems and loves tweaking an intersection. City Planner Plays C:S will stick to real life no matter what (e.g, pipes under roads, minimal terraforming, noise restrictions, etc). Plus those vids above of the true artists, which are amazing.

That's why I like this game. It's home to all kinds of player, and you can always explore a new aspect of it.