Yes Espresso, you are right. I can see the HUGE difference: Azeroth(2004): 1. Low (to nothing) texture quality 2. Shadows?? What's this? 3. Antialiasing? Do you think that this will make any difference? 4. Bloom effects...Hahaha i am joking. 5. Soft shadows?? No seriously, what the fu..k are the shadows? 6. Water reflections..Do we have any reflections here?? Wow (2009) Wotlk :1. THE SAME OLD CRAP.
If you really want to make a post about graphic comparison then you must first find a game that has decent graphics and not this graphical junkyard. Thk:)
Hates WoW, because its owning the MMO market. Yup crap graphics but HUGE fanbase ^.^
Actually some people hate that some fanbois hype the game and talk like the game is god and it goes both ways when a troll bashes a game on this site the fanbois come in or when a fanboi posts something nice the trolls bash it and every thread turns into this. Personally this site really has gone to trash the last few years maybe we should get an age limit when you signup.
Oh and I hate wow dont like how it looks dont like the community of it and dont like the gameplay, but by no means am i going to bash a game for what i dont like because millions of other people love the game and play it everyday and im sure its a great game to alot of people.
Agree with you that this site is going downhill. But players can always lie about their age, so its impossible for the mods to know.
Its ok to hate a game, but hate it with a valid reason. This is what this board is for, the discussion regarding mmo.
Explain to others why you don't like the game and its down to individual to decide whether the point that you've raise is the concern they also have or its fine for them.
Have a healthy discussion, where players exchange of ideas and points from a game from different perspective.
And once you've voice out why, i think there's no more reason to come back every time and bash everything thread about it...
The engine has been updated for new effects(like dynamic shadows - the only new thing you can actually see from those pics) and some spell animations were also replaced with newer ones. But the landscape of Azeroth wasn't touched, though it will be in next expansion, with the quality similar to what can be seen in Northrend.
Of course. Add the polygons and increased vectors on armor too. (before WotLK and after).
Anyone in this thread who even stated "he hates a game" should she a doctor. Urgently.
Play the DFails, Aions and Wars of this world, but hating WOW will not make those games ... better.
Pretty good coming from someone who trolls every other game released. You get the prize for the WOW fanboi of the week.
The engine has been updated for new effects(like dynamic shadows - the only new thing you can actually see from those pics) and some spell animations were also replaced with newer ones. But the landscape of Azeroth wasn't touched, though it will be in next expansion, with the quality similar to what can be seen in Northrend.
Of course. Add the polygons and increased vectors on armor too. (before WotLK and after).
Anyone in this thread who even stated "he hates a game" should she a doctor. Urgently.
Play the DFails, Aions and Wars of this world, but hating WOW will not make those games ... better.
Pretty good coming from someone who trolls every other game released. You get the prize for the WOW fanboi of the week.
Correction.
I never said I hate a game. I discuss their success rate and analyse them why they fail as WOW killers.
I will never use the word "hate". Just look upon my posts.
Using words like copycat and bad animated PvP or overhyped games and worst mmorpg launched ever is not expressing individual "hate" upon a game.
That's the difference.
Also I will never discuss newer core mechanics whenever I stop playing those games. I look upon them and see how they do (mostly fail) to the general public.
Zorndorf is there to look at general trends and I try to explain why it happens. "Hating" a game is personal and so not worth discussing.
Hating a game is a waste of time and depending on a mood setting with an uncontrolled person who mixes up his frustration (losing a BG or boredom) and projects it on a game.
THAT is a big difference.
Zorndorf, from my pint of view, loving blindlessly a game is the same as hating it out of any reason, and this is what you do, you love blindlessly a game with loads of faults.
Whats in question here is that the game has now 5 years and the old world graphics are the exact same crap at launch, no reason to deny that. And I dont care if the next expansion will change that, the next expansion will be release at best in 2010 and so, a game that moves billions of dollars takes 6 years to improve a terrain graphics? And just a little bit, lets not hope for a complete revamp unless for the water from what ive learned.
And lets not even talk about the characters like humans and others that resemble more like some blurred 2d texture wrapped on a poor modeled 3d body.
This is what we are talking here, the graphic changes that those people were trying to make us believe were in the same zone and so greatilly noticed, they are not, the old zones keep the same, old.
And finally, you Zorndorf sir, are a true Troll, in every sence of the world, because we are discussing a game here and there you come speaking of Aions, Wars and others when no one before you ever mentioned other games other than this ones flaws. You are the troll that dedicate your saed time to speak bad about every other game in the market.
But the saddest about this is that your love from wow comes probably from the times when you started playing, when you met new people, shared new quests and zones and explored that cool new world and its instances. And you fail to see that theres nothing else new here anymore, just a revamped game with copy pasted content and an elitist community thats not interested in grouping, helping and sharing anymore, just fatloots.
The engine has been updated for new effects(like dynamic shadows - the only new thing you can actually see from those pics) and some spell animations were also replaced with newer ones. But the landscape of Azeroth wasn't touched, though it will be in next expansion, with the quality similar to what can be seen in Northrend.
Of course. Add the polygons and increased vectors on armor too. (before WotLK and after).
Anyone in this thread who even stated "he hates a game" should she a doctor. Urgently.
Play the DFails, Aions and Wars of this world, but hating WOW will not make those games ... better.
So, you dont speak of other games when no onle else does..... thats soooo true.
The only thing you should do frankly is go play "your" game and stop derailing other people threads.
Ive been checking your last post, and I saw your last travel to other thread where the guys asked to recommend him between 2 games, you were fast enough to go there and say those 2 games were wow clones and that there were no reason to play clones.
And at this time there should be like 2 or 3 post in different thread saying you are a blind fanboy, thats not just me.
This is sad man, and its time for you to stop it, if you want to participate in threads do so in track of the subject.
But keeping in track, if all those graphical changes were so nicely implemented shows us a screenshot of lets say, Elwynn forest in 2004 and Elwynn forest in 2009 please, should be rather easy.
The engine has been updated for new effects(like dynamic shadows - the only new thing you can actually see from those pics) and some spell animations were also replaced with newer ones. But the landscape of Azeroth wasn't touched, though it will be in next expansion, with the quality similar to what can be seen in Northrend.
Of course. Add the polygons and increased vectors on armor too. (before WotLK and after).
Anyone in this thread who even stated "he hates a game" should she a doctor. Urgently.
Play the DFails, Aions and Wars of this world, but hating WOW will not make those games ... better.
So, you dont speak of other games when no onle else does..... thats soooo true.
The only thing you should do frankly is go play "your" game and stop derailing other people threads.
Ive been checking your last post, and I saw your last travel to other thread where the guys asked to recommend him between 2 games, you were fast enough to go there and say those 2 games were wow clones and that there were no reason to play clones.
This is sad man, and its time for you to stop it, if you want to participate in threads do so in track of the subject.
But keeping in track, if all those graphical changes were so nicely implemented shows us a screenshot of lets say, Elwynn forest in 2004 and Elwynn forest in 2009 please, should be rather easy.
The other thread was another example of someone who said he HATED Wow 3 times in his post. And then asked intelligent replies because he liked the copies of WOW.
I said that I don't want to discuss anymore with people who "hate" games.
The derail was in his won thread, just like this one.
--------
The OP clearly stated that WOW and several graphics upgrades in the new expansions and that the difference was clearly shown how much difference there was between Elwyn Forest and forests in Northrend.
Well, you may not like to discuss with people who "hate" games, but you do love to discuss with people that "love" games, especially when its not warcraft they "love".... lol seriously, love and hate and very similar feelings you know
So, you dont speak of other games when no onle else does..... thats soooo true. The only thing you should do frankly is go play "your" game and stop derailing other people threads. Ive been checking your last post, and I saw your last travel to other thread where the guys asked to recommend him between 2 games, you were fast enough to go there and say those 2 games were wow clones and that there were no reason to play clones. This is sad man, and its time for you to stop it, if you want to participate in threads do so in track of the subject.
But keeping in track, if all those graphical changes were so nicely implemented shows us a screenshot of lets say, Elwynn forest in 2004 and Elwynn forest in 2009 please, should be rather easy.
The other thread was another example of someone who said he HATED Wow 3 times in his post. And then asked intelligent replies because he liked the copies of WOW.
I said that I don't want to discuss anymore with people who "hate" games.
The derail was in his won thread, just like this one.
--------
The OP clearly stated that WOW and several graphics upgrades in the new expansions and that the difference was clearly shown how much difference there was between Elwyn Forest and forests in Northrend.
Well, you may not like to discuss with people who "hate" games, but you do love to discuss with people that "love" games, especially when its not warcraft they "love".... lol seriously, love and hate and very similar feelings you know
Well you are the hating kind, I like to play WOW and explain why hating a game is stupid.
Big difference. And I don't "turn" or "twist" things like the trolls did to the OP in this thread.
But that's the goal of the WOW haters I think: embarass people because they love their game.
But you are hating games.
At any given opportunity you bash other games. You did it even in this thread that it was about WoW and no one refered to other games.
Well thats strange. If the fact that 60% of the MMO community plays WoW pleases you why you feel the urge to bash other games you havent played?
You can play the game you like with the rest of the 60% and believe its the best game ever made but when you, and any other fanboy, of ANY game starts exaggerating he should expect the appropriate replies.
Well, in general the game got now a longer viewing range and improved shadows. And anything newly made has a higher polygon count and more detailed textures.
The changes aint spectactular and expected. I mean: higher polygon count on stuff and more detailed textures? It has to be that way. If they create new models, why should they keep the poylgon count and textures to the old standards? That wouldn't make any sense.
So yes, the graphics improved, but not in any impressive way. The skill of the designers and the comic style of WoW is what keeps the game looking alright, since it is technically still stone-age.
Many people missed the point of the thread. It wasn't a graphical comparison of the exact same area being improved. This comparison was showing off that graphics such as in the pic of Elwynn was the norm and the height of their graphics in 2004, where as in Northrend, they've improved graphics tremendously.
He never claimed to be comparing one area with massive changes, and that doesn't have to be what it's about.
People disagree and complain just to do it. If your life is so boring that you have to do that, you may wanna rethink what you've been doing with it.
they went from krappy to less krappy? I think the 2009 pictures at first did seem nicer then the old ones.. but like the above poster said, whats the big difference except the obvious parts?
Lighting
Texture resolution
Real time shadows (i left those on in the 2004 pic)
Draw distance massivly increased
clear poly count increase
Terrain shaders
New water coming in the next xpac
What else is there? while keeping the same style.
maybe this is a better conparison
wow 2004
wow 2009
In my opinion it just looks like today they now how to design better scenery. It doesnt look like the engine got improved, but the scenery looks better.
Well, at this point WoW graphics are passable mainly due to animation and not polygon count. The only noticeable difference between 2004 and 2009 (to me) was the use of dynamic shadows.
They did change the way the designed the world, ie Lich King area design grew considerably in height, while Azeroth was relatively flat in comparison (but that's area design, not graphics revamp).
The avatar polygon count, if it increased, was hardly noticeable.
Jeez Zorndorf is still here O.O? If he loves WoW so much why does he spend so much time on a website defending it instead of playing it! EDIT: Megalol at my old posts from MARCH with Zorndorf still defending it. Yeah Lich King is so awesome for you to spend four months here reading and replying to anyone who dislikes it or outright hates it. LOL
Best thing about WoW is a player can play as little or as much as he wants and still feel a certain level of accomplishment. How would you know how long Zorndorf plays? he may only run a few BGs and run guildie raids off and on so he has time to minimize and chill on the forums.
I do something similar. It's obvious Zorn is the WoW forum warrior on this site and it's his right to do so.
I don't understand why he hasn't been banned yet. He was a supertroll then and he still is. I guess he gets others banned first before they could contest, like me.. Old army saying, in a septic tank the biggest turds float to the top.
Chill with personal insults and stick to the topic and you can't be banned.
As a game designer and computer animator i can tell you what the OP calls "graphics" are the same in 04 than in 09.. The only things that changed are the textures.. with better detail, contrast and resolution, but in the end the same engine
If you watch The Karate Kid backwards it's about this karate champ that just kinda slowly becomes a pussy and ends up moving back to Jersey
Well the game does look better in the expansions than the classic wow areas. There is not much more you can really do graphically in this game engine. WoW's graphics were outdated when it came out, it certainly shows now. However, that is the mo of Blizzard. I do think they make up for the older graphics with their art direction and that's what makes it still last today.
As a game designer and computer animator i can tell you what the OP calls "graphics" are the same in 04 than in 09.. The only things that changed are the textures.. with better detail, contrast and resolution, but in the end the same engine
depends how you look at it ... game engine is essentialy the same, yet between the release and expansion 1 and 2, they certanly managed to optimise how some things work and learn from their own work/mistakes, so that they in fact increased the poly count and how detailed the textures are, plus they added some additional effects that surfaced in that time, which means the graphics are better.
If you compare content created when wow came out with Burning Crusade and Wrath, there is a definitive, undeniable progress.
what they did not change is the style, which I don't really expect them to change as it is one of the features. Wow has a certan look to it regardless of poly count. Some people love it and some don't.
I personally think that wow designers are the best at creating so much with so little, meaning that on ridiculously small poly count and no half of the effects we consider the norm today, they are capable of creating a very marquant enviroments and characters with tons of attention to detail. Not to say that the animation is far above everything else in the MMO department, as just about every game that I played after wow seemed stiff untill I got used to it so I can ignore it.
Comments
WoW was graphically enhanced with the addition of outland, then increased further with the addition of northrend.
Obviously Azeroth looks the same why do you think blizzard is revamping the old world?
Think real hard for a second........... To make the old world as nice looking as the New areas.
Want to look at a graphically enhanced Azeroth look at Quel Danas.
Playing: WoW, EvE
Interested in: TOR, ER, GW2, WoD, Dust514
did you guys just figure out how to turn your graphics up...?
Hates WoW, because its owning the MMO market. Yup crap graphics but HUGE fanbase ^.^
you really should try and find the locations from the 2004 pics and retake the same screenshots then we can see a good comparison.
Sure, once Azeroth is revamped in the next expansion we will do comparisons and you will see the increased graphics of the game.
Playing: WoW, EvE
Interested in: TOR, ER, GW2, WoD, Dust514
Actually some people hate that some fanbois hype the game and talk like the game is god and it goes both ways when a troll bashes a game on this site the fanbois come in or when a fanboi posts something nice the trolls bash it and every thread turns into this. Personally this site really has gone to trash the last few years maybe we should get an age limit when you signup.
Oh and I hate wow dont like how it looks dont like the community of it and dont like the gameplay, but by no means am i going to bash a game for what i dont like because millions of other people love the game and play it everyday and im sure its a great game to alot of people.
Agree with you that this site is going downhill. But players can always lie about their age, so its impossible for the mods to know.
Its ok to hate a game, but hate it with a valid reason. This is what this board is for, the discussion regarding mmo.
Explain to others why you don't like the game and its down to individual to decide whether the point that you've raise is the concern they also have or its fine for them.
Have a healthy discussion, where players exchange of ideas and points from a game from different perspective.
And once you've voice out why, i think there's no more reason to come back every time and bash everything thread about it...
RIP Orc Choppa
Of course. Add the polygons and increased vectors on armor too. (before WotLK and after).
Anyone in this thread who even stated "he hates a game" should she a doctor. Urgently.
Play the DFails, Aions and Wars of this world, but hating WOW will not make those games ... better.
Pretty good coming from someone who trolls every other game released. You get the prize for the WOW fanboi of the week.
Of course. Add the polygons and increased vectors on armor too. (before WotLK and after).
Anyone in this thread who even stated "he hates a game" should she a doctor. Urgently.
Play the DFails, Aions and Wars of this world, but hating WOW will not make those games ... better.
Pretty good coming from someone who trolls every other game released. You get the prize for the WOW fanboi of the week.
Correction.
I never said I hate a game. I discuss their success rate and analyse them why they fail as WOW killers.
I will never use the word "hate". Just look upon my posts.
Using words like copycat and bad animated PvP or overhyped games and worst mmorpg launched ever is not expressing individual "hate" upon a game.
That's the difference.
Also I will never discuss newer core mechanics whenever I stop playing those games. I look upon them and see how they do (mostly fail) to the general public.
Zorndorf is there to look at general trends and I try to explain why it happens. "Hating" a game is personal and so not worth discussing.
Hating a game is a waste of time and depending on a mood setting with an uncontrolled person who mixes up his frustration (losing a BG or boredom) and projects it on a game.
THAT is a big difference.
Zorndorf, from my pint of view, loving blindlessly a game is the same as hating it out of any reason, and this is what you do, you love blindlessly a game with loads of faults.
Whats in question here is that the game has now 5 years and the old world graphics are the exact same crap at launch, no reason to deny that. And I dont care if the next expansion will change that, the next expansion will be release at best in 2010 and so, a game that moves billions of dollars takes 6 years to improve a terrain graphics? And just a little bit, lets not hope for a complete revamp unless for the water from what ive learned.
And lets not even talk about the characters like humans and others that resemble more like some blurred 2d texture wrapped on a poor modeled 3d body.
This is what we are talking here, the graphic changes that those people were trying to make us believe were in the same zone and so greatilly noticed, they are not, the old zones keep the same, old.
And finally, you Zorndorf sir, are a true Troll, in every sence of the world, because we are discussing a game here and there you come speaking of Aions, Wars and others when no one before you ever mentioned other games other than this ones flaws. You are the troll that dedicate your saed time to speak bad about every other game in the market.
But the saddest about this is that your love from wow comes probably from the times when you started playing, when you met new people, shared new quests and zones and explored that cool new world and its instances. And you fail to see that theres nothing else new here anymore, just a revamped game with copy pasted content and an elitist community thats not interested in grouping, helping and sharing anymore, just fatloots.
Of course. Add the polygons and increased vectors on armor too. (before WotLK and after).
Anyone in this thread who even stated "he hates a game" should she a doctor. Urgently.
Play the DFails, Aions and Wars of this world, but hating WOW will not make those games ... better.
So, you dont speak of other games when no onle else does..... thats soooo true.
The only thing you should do frankly is go play "your" game and stop derailing other people threads.
Ive been checking your last post, and I saw your last travel to other thread where the guys asked to recommend him between 2 games, you were fast enough to go there and say those 2 games were wow clones and that there were no reason to play clones.
And at this time there should be like 2 or 3 post in different thread saying you are a blind fanboy, thats not just me.
This is sad man, and its time for you to stop it, if you want to participate in threads do so in track of the subject.
But keeping in track, if all those graphical changes were so nicely implemented shows us a screenshot of lets say, Elwynn forest in 2004 and Elwynn forest in 2009 please, should be rather easy.
Of course. Add the polygons and increased vectors on armor too. (before WotLK and after).
Anyone in this thread who even stated "he hates a game" should she a doctor. Urgently.
Play the DFails, Aions and Wars of this world, but hating WOW will not make those games ... better.
So, you dont speak of other games when no onle else does..... thats soooo true.
The only thing you should do frankly is go play "your" game and stop derailing other people threads.
Ive been checking your last post, and I saw your last travel to other thread where the guys asked to recommend him between 2 games, you were fast enough to go there and say those 2 games were wow clones and that there were no reason to play clones.
This is sad man, and its time for you to stop it, if you want to participate in threads do so in track of the subject.
But keeping in track, if all those graphical changes were so nicely implemented shows us a screenshot of lets say, Elwynn forest in 2004 and Elwynn forest in 2009 please, should be rather easy.
The other thread was another example of someone who said he HATED Wow 3 times in his post. And then asked intelligent replies because he liked the copies of WOW.
I said that I don't want to discuss anymore with people who "hate" games.
The derail was in his won thread, just like this one.
--------
The OP clearly stated that WOW and several graphics upgrades in the new expansions and that the difference was clearly shown how much difference there was between Elwyn Forest and forests in Northrend.
Well, you may not like to discuss with people who "hate" games, but you do love to discuss with people that "love" games, especially when its not warcraft they "love".... lol seriously, love and hate and very similar feelings you know
The other thread was another example of someone who said he HATED Wow 3 times in his post. And then asked intelligent replies because he liked the copies of WOW.
I said that I don't want to discuss anymore with people who "hate" games.
The derail was in his won thread, just like this one.
--------
The OP clearly stated that WOW and several graphics upgrades in the new expansions and that the difference was clearly shown how much difference there was between Elwyn Forest and forests in Northrend.
Well, you may not like to discuss with people who "hate" games, but you do love to discuss with people that "love" games, especially when its not warcraft they "love".... lol seriously, love and hate and very similar feelings you know
Well you are the hating kind, I like to play WOW and explain why hating a game is stupid.
Big difference. And I don't "turn" or "twist" things like the trolls did to the OP in this thread.
But that's the goal of the WOW haters I think: embarass people because they love their game.
But you are hating games.
At any given opportunity you bash other games. You did it even in this thread that it was about WoW and no one refered to other games.
Well thats strange. If the fact that 60% of the MMO community plays WoW pleases you why you feel the urge to bash other games you havent played?
You can play the game you like with the rest of the 60% and believe its the best game ever made but when you, and any other fanboy, of ANY game starts exaggerating he should expect the appropriate replies.
Well, in general the game got now a longer viewing range and improved shadows. And anything newly made has a higher polygon count and more detailed textures.
The changes aint spectactular and expected. I mean: higher polygon count on stuff and more detailed textures? It has to be that way. If they create new models, why should they keep the poylgon count and textures to the old standards? That wouldn't make any sense.
So yes, the graphics improved, but not in any impressive way. The skill of the designers and the comic style of WoW is what keeps the game looking alright, since it is technically still stone-age.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
Many people missed the point of the thread. It wasn't a graphical comparison of the exact same area being improved. This comparison was showing off that graphics such as in the pic of Elwynn was the norm and the height of their graphics in 2004, where as in Northrend, they've improved graphics tremendously.
He never claimed to be comparing one area with massive changes, and that doesn't have to be what it's about.
People disagree and complain just to do it. If your life is so boring that you have to do that, you may wanna rethink what you've been doing with it.
all i see is shadow
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
What else is there? while keeping the same style.
maybe this is a better conparison
wow 2004
wow 2009
In my opinion it just looks like today they now how to design better scenery. It doesnt look like the engine got improved, but the scenery looks better.
y they have better draw distance, shadows, bit better textures and more polys, better effects for spells, but nothing big
i dont eaven know if iam gonna like Rendered water. looks so clean.
Well, at this point WoW graphics are passable mainly due to animation and not polygon count. The only noticeable difference between 2004 and 2009 (to me) was the use of dynamic shadows.
They did change the way the designed the world, ie Lich King area design grew considerably in height, while Azeroth was relatively flat in comparison (but that's area design, not graphics revamp).
The avatar polygon count, if it increased, was hardly noticeable.
Jeez Zorndorf is still here O.O?
If he loves WoW so much why does he spend so much time on a website defending it instead of playing it!
EDIT: Megalol at my old posts from MARCH with Zorndorf still defending it.
Yeah Lich King is so awesome for you to spend four months here reading and replying to anyone who dislikes it or outright hates it.
LOL
Best thing about WoW is a player can play as little or as much as he wants and still feel a certain level of accomplishment. How would you know how long Zorndorf plays? he may only run a few BGs and run guildie raids off and on so he has time to minimize and chill on the forums.
I do something similar. It's obvious Zorn is the WoW forum warrior on this site and it's his right to do so.
Playing: WoW, EvE
Interested in: TOR, ER, GW2, WoD, Dust514
I don't understand why he hasn't been banned yet. He was a supertroll then and he still is.
I guess he gets others banned first before they could contest, like me..
Old army saying, in a septic tank the biggest turds float to the top.
Chill with personal insults and stick to the topic and you can't be banned.
Playing: WoW, EvE
Interested in: TOR, ER, GW2, WoD, Dust514
Edit: lalalalalalala.
As a game designer and computer animator i can tell you what the OP calls "graphics" are the same in 04 than in 09.. The only things that changed are the textures.. with better detail, contrast and resolution, but in the end the same engine
If you watch The Karate Kid backwards it's about this karate champ that just kinda slowly becomes a pussy and ends up moving back to Jersey
Well the game does look better in the expansions than the classic wow areas. There is not much more you can really do graphically in this game engine. WoW's graphics were outdated when it came out, it certainly shows now. However, that is the mo of Blizzard. I do think they make up for the older graphics with their art direction and that's what makes it still last today.
depends how you look at it ... game engine is essentialy the same, yet between the release and expansion 1 and 2, they certanly managed to optimise how some things work and learn from their own work/mistakes, so that they in fact increased the poly count and how detailed the textures are, plus they added some additional effects that surfaced in that time, which means the graphics are better.
If you compare content created when wow came out with Burning Crusade and Wrath, there is a definitive, undeniable progress.
what they did not change is the style, which I don't really expect them to change as it is one of the features. Wow has a certan look to it regardless of poly count. Some people love it and some don't.
I personally think that wow designers are the best at creating so much with so little, meaning that on ridiculously small poly count and no half of the effects we consider the norm today, they are capable of creating a very marquant enviroments and characters with tons of attention to detail. Not to say that the animation is far above everything else in the MMO department, as just about every game that I played after wow seemed stiff untill I got used to it so I can ignore it.