so, i decided to do a few quick how to tutorials.
the goal is it not to talk about shaders or tools or stuff, the goal is it to create feelings for the game.

the art direction is one of the most overlooked and yet most important aspects of a game.
you cant just put a few models from a few different creators with a few textures together and hope it looks good. because it wont.
that just wont work, no matter what you do.
you have to have an art director. that can be yourself or someone you trust, but somebody has to take care that all the assests you have are in the same style.
and of course, that person must decide a style first.

if i look at some projects here, i get the feeling that most people just throw together a few models, slap a basic shader on it and done, next.
no wonder nobody ever finishes a game. those who actually do finish games dont show off here or changed the engine.
but thats not my point.

my point is, games like WoW or zuma or whatever agre GRAPHICALLY SPEAKING possible with the engine. but you cant do it with some random models.

bottom line, what we learned today:
select an apropiate graphical style. finetune it. create and use only assets that fit that style. stick with it. its called art direction.
get an art director....

I so agree with you on this subject. Selecting a particular style is key in the design process. The art style is developed by the concept artists and art director working together and doing rough sketches and lots of thumbnails to get it right. Once a certain look is reached, then artists can flesh out more detailed designs. This is key as after these concepts are finalized they are handed off to the 3D artists, texture artists and animators. In the studio I work for I have seen this process truly work like a well oiled machine. Random or "on the fly" art wont work. Game development takes time and patience. Without art direction and planning we are just wasting time. GS out.

This is a very important topic. I invest a lot of time working on art direction. Its one of the key elements in your game where someone can see how professional it is. Every bit of the game, down to the menu design and layout, even the mouse pointer, should fit with the style.

I feel like this is saying what everyone already thinks when creating a game. This is why I never buy models online, and make everything myself. The stuff I make myself is guaranteed to be looking crappy evenly .

I assume people here use random not-matching models in their prototypes or non-commercial games simply because they do not have the resources and money to create consistent artwork. And for a prototype, it's fine. For non-commercial games, well, it's not fine, but it couldn't be done better anyway without money.

buying models online can keep consistancy, infact its pretty easy to do. you just need to make sure that the models your buying have the same type of detail, color corrections can be done in second in gimp to match your color scheme and lets not forget the value of packs. Buying a pack of models ensures consistancy across all the models in the pack without modification..

Not to forget that a specific style can help if you don't have those resources; Your game doesn't have to look weird just because you don't have high poly models or masses of shaders;
Just look at this project spike made together with slin (sorry, but forgot the name): The models are made with MED,
the textures are rather simple, but it looks good because everything is in this toony style, made perfect by the cell shading.

EDIT: Oh, here's the name: "Die Abenteuer von Ambages"