For example:

Plenty of legally usable castle clip art here:

http://historymedren.about.com/libra…y/aa020399.htm

The small grey castle looks like it might fit in well with the RPGWatch typface and page design.


A nice shield, sword, and some other stuff here, including some cool borders:

http://historymedren.about.com/libra…y/aa061898.htm

The person who created these actually invites people to use them as assets on their web pages.

I like the logo. There probably is a better one out there somewhere, but neither you nor we have found it.
There will be no dragons, swords, shields, guns, airships, monsters, heroes or heroins in the logo. Just a watchtower.

As with almost everything you can look at it from a positive or a negative side. I just see a watchtower in it, watching out over RPG news. I can't help it if somone sees a tower of a concentration camp, prison or whatever in it. Its your mind making the connection not the logo.

For the record, I thought concentration camp as well…. but hey, they had watchtowers too, so I guess it works. Of course, their watchtowers were to keep on the lookout for anyone escaping, not for events distant on the horizon… so by thinking "concentration camp" it could conjure up an idea totally opposite of the intended purpose!

Okay, no I'm not really serious about it deserving that much thought.
I saw it, thought concentration camp, went "whatever" in my head, and moved on.

Still, I am an artist and would be glad to do a different design, but since it seems most of the moderators like the current one, I'll not bother until a poll is taken and it's established that it really needs to change.

I like the design of the web page very clean, but i don't like the logo. As a reader of Rpgdot since 2001, i personally like the dragon logo. Watchtower is not proper logo for a website which dedicated to RPG games. Do not take it offense but 'a red dragon staring downwards on a mountain with fiery eyes' would be most proper and cool for a site that claims to be the successor of RPGdot i think.

RPGDot still exists and as such we are not the successor to RPGDot. I don't think we either claimed we were at any point. If so, that statement was incorrect.
As mentioned already earlier in the thread if someone comes up with a better logo we'll take that one. As long as it is a clean logo without a lot of fancy stuff and has a link to the word 'Watch'.

I'm not convinced a dragon is a better logo. There aren't that many RPGs with dragons in them anyway. Then again, there might not be that many with a watchtower either…. Anyway, I for one would want to have a logo that moves away from a fantasy themed style.

If nobody comes up with a better logo than we have now, this is the one it will be. If you do come up with a better logo you know you will have your work of art displayed to a large number of visitors each and every day. We get a logo and you get this satisfaction. Sounds like a fair deal to me

Maybe a medieval looking stone watchtower, something a little more apropos to the Gothic (as in genre not PB) feeling most RPGs use. The current Logo strikes up images of a WWII POW camp watchtower.

But that's just me….

I was thinking of a Medieval watchtower actually. It can be just as simple - black sillouette with blue glow or whatever. I guess I'd have to make two (one for each color scheme) What kind of file do you want - .gif, .jpeg, or what?

@ Myrthos: There may be many non-fantasy themed RPG's out there, but the fact remains that fantasy is still the stereotype. We must all like it, because we keep buying them. As long as that happens, people are going to want Medieval watchtowers and not WWII watchtowers. While I respect your opinion and that of others, ultimately in the best interests of the site you would want accurate ideas to be conveyed, stereotypical or not, am I correct?

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
I was thinking of a Medieval watchtower actually. It can be just as simple - black sillouette with blue glow or whatever. I guess I'd have to make two (one for each color scheme) What kind of file do you want - .gif, .jpeg, or what?

@ Myrthos: There may be many non-fantasy themed RPG's out there, but the fact remains that fantasy is still the stereotype. We must all like it, because we keep buying them. As long as that happens, people are going to want Medieval watchtowers and not WWII watchtowers. While I respect your opinion and that of others, ultimately in the best interests of the site you would want accurate ideas to be conveyed, stereotypical or not, am I correct?

Yeah! What he said!

P.S. -- if you want something "clean and simple" looking, why not use a silhoette (bad spelling, sorry) of the rook chess piece? That's a tower, and it conveys the idea of a game at the same time. Not really rpg oriented, but its an alternative. I'm still with Jabberwocky, though…

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
… What kind of file do you want - .gif, .jpeg, or what?

It needs to be transparent, so that means either .gif or .png (or .psd)

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
@ Myrthos: There may be many non-fantasy themed RPG's out there, but the fact remains that fantasy is still the stereotype. We must all like it, because we keep buying them. As long as that happens, people are going to want Medieval watchtowers and not WWII watchtowers. While I respect your opinion and that of others, ultimately in the best interests of the site you would want accurate ideas to be conveyed, stereotypical or not, am I correct?

Large-breasted women with as limited amount of clothing as possible is also an RPG stereotype and unfortunately finds it way to many covers of game boxes. Apparently they sell games, but I wouldn't want one of those as a logo. One has to be carefull in using stereotypes.

The main criteria are:

• A clean and simple logo.
• Needs to have a transparent background, that can be put on any other background.
• Has to have a relation with the word 'watch' and if possible a relation with 'watching out for news'.

We have one transparent logo now with some simple lines and can easily convert that to the different colors in dark and bright. Currently its a watchtower because it has the word 'watch' in it and if one looks at it from the positive side conveys the idea of watching out for something, in our case news.

I like the clean look of the logo. At first it felt like something was missing, being used to the Dot logo's for so long. But then I started looking at it more as a news call. Something adult and to the point about it. I would say a medieval tower would work, but keep it simple and clean.

What?! No Griffons or dragons, or large breasted women… or anything?!!!
Just KIDDING

Oh yes, I wasn't thinking about the transparency issue earlier. .gif or .png is no problem.

P.S. @ Myrthos: Speaking of being careful with stereotypes, I hope that you're "large breasted women" comment didn't upset Cm, after all, look at her Avatar! I heard somewhere that she even has a whip!

If she did I'll just wait for her to find that whip then….

@ Myrthos: All right, my wt's are done. Two .psd files, one for light and one for dark. Transparent background. You will have to resize them. They differ very little from the current Watchtower logo except for the genre. hmmnn… is there such a thing as 'genres' for watchtowers??.. Whatever, you know what I mean.

So I need to e-mail them to you. Send me a pm with your address, or if you have another idea as to how I can make them available…

P.S. @ Myrthos: Speaking of being careful with stereotypes, I hope that you're "large breasted women" comment didn't upset Cm, after all, look at her Avatar! I heard somewhere that she even has a whip!

If she did I'll just wait for her to find that whip then….

I have my whip in hand, however I reserve that for very special occasions. Now the pitchfork is another matter……….

Originally Posted by txa1265
Personally I like it - it suggests watching the area and horizon.

I like it as well. The style of the watch goes very well with the site graphics/clear layout. The simple style of the logo points out the fact that the site is always "on watch" for latest news in the RPG area, that was my first impression and I think that was the reason the logo was created and chosen.

Other thing is that the overall design of the site goes too clear and simple for me. I would probably say cold. But I fully understand this is entirely personal and it is by no means problem for me.

When the right-hand column is enabled (where the sword is) that will add a little more colour and life, in my opinion.

Originally Posted by svencha
As a professional visual artist I think it’s one of the best logos I’ve seen on a crpg site.

It does to me have some connotations of a concentration camp tower (ww2 or vietnam), although it was more subconscious then on the surface.

As a professional web surfer … I think something more medieval would be perhaps more appropriate, perhaps the top part of a stone/castle tower?

also, something shorter, i think there's too much dead space up there, unless you were planning on filling that with ads or something.

A Naked Girl on the Tower with some binoculars, ok maybe with Ranger hat so not really naked ?

I like this one:

I have to say, although the logo doesn't really give me a RPG "feeling", that I can completely understand your choice. The logo looks clean, simple, and right-to-the-point. It looks great in my opinion, and I don't need another one.