I dont care so much about the graphix in WoW but I sure love the gameplay, too bad I am bored out of my mind of the game atm... raid raid.. farm pots..farm mats..raid.. raid .. jippe upgrade..farm pots..raid ..raid .
I hope I will be less bored of the game when Lich King comes out so I can play with joy and not with eternal boredom.
Personaly, and this is my own personal opinion, i dont care for the style they went with. That being said, WoW has actually made good use of low end system requirements. Cant fault them for that, at all, in fact i fault alot of other games that dont utelize their system to the same degree. and yes they have created the whole world to fit so well, and so seamlessly that it is very imersive, and doesnt demand the high detail that other games shoot for. compared to new gen the graphics dont hold, but for what it is, etc... WoW does it best.
Okay, here are my two cents: I don't like the style that Blizzard's chosen for their characters, and I think they rely far too much on bad glow effects to differentiate armor and weapon models. For the most part, I think that WoW's done a pretty good job on its environments. I'd tone down the colors just a bit in some zones and update the textures for those of us with better machines, but they've gotten it right for the most part.
The models are generally quite badly done. They look a tad too cartoony for my taste, but that's a minor quibble. My major problem is twofold. First of all, they have an amazing number of clipping and animation issues, second, many of the designs are just plain ugly. Take a look at human males for example... they look like a steroid case with Down Syndrome. What makes this ever more annoying is that if you look at some of the human mobs in the game (the Defias Thieves in the Deadmines, for example) it's pretty obvious that Blizzard can create decent human models, but stuck us with these, for some reason. The same can be said of trolls and various other races. Many player models are just plain aesthetically lacking.
Now on the WoW's other major problem: Armor and Weapon design. When looking at WoW armor and weapons, I get the impression that they must've had several different item design teams early on, and ended up firing the good one. The majority of powerful weapons in the game are huge, glowing, or both. Take the Crystalforged War Axe as an example...who the hell would actually want a weapon that looks like that?! When you compare the look of later loot to some of the lower level items such as the Assassination Blade, Thornstone Sledgehammer, or even the Emberstone Staff, it's the higher level stuff that turns out to be lacking. The same problem can be seen with many of the high level armor sets... to be honest, only the priest sets look both subtle and imposing. And Blizzard reuses armor sets far more than any other MMO I've run across.
So basically, those are my main WoW problems: bad PC models and no sense of style whatsoever when it comes to item design. Compare this to the look of a game like DDO (even accounting for the better graphics engine), and you'll see that WoW is sorely lacking in these areas.
As for technical whiz bang effects, WOW is behind the curve. As for artistic design, WOW blows every other MMO out of the water. All the polygons in the world, glow effects, DOF and motion blur can't cover up lousy art design...hello EQ2, L2 and VG. Sure, Blizzard could've made the graphics FAAAAAR better on the technical side. We all know why they didn't. They found a happy medium. Know this. Its much harder to make a game look good by limiting yourself. It shows how good Blizzard's artists are.
I can appreciate all graphic styles as long as they work and make sense. WOW makes sense. Most MMOs try to hide bad art direction with the latest DirectX effects. Sorry, but most of the time it doesn't work. This coming from an animator of 10+ years in the industry=)
The irony of it all is that the people who say WOW looks cartoony and its designed for kids are actually the most immature of them all. Never met a mature adult who says just because something is colorful and stylized that its for kiddies. BUt I've met and heard plenty of kids who speak like that.
I think WoW has a certain charm to it, it reminds me of a water color painting, very distinct.
That is one of the things I really like about it actually, using a more artistic approach in graphics rather than raw power. That is something I think more developers should do, be more artistic and less power, one it makes it more accessable from a technical standpoint and I actually think it can look better when done right. Many graphical powerhouse games have the triangles and bump mapping, but they lack any sort of personality.
I don't however like the armor and weapon design, at higher levels the armor and weapons become too bulky, glowy and just rediculess. And the character can be misproportioned, this mainly for the male models, which have large hands and arms but have too small of legs like the male human. Just some size tweeking is my only gripe.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
I dont like WoW as a game but I like the style. Its style has just grown on me and I enjoy it much more than any other style now. It has its own feel and you really have nothing to compair it to IRL. You can do almost anything with the style and it just works because they can make it up as they go.
First of all, I hate WoW fundamentally. It is basically an item collecting game, and once you have the best stuff you are done. The game is almost flawless though. If you like this time of game, WoW is the king. Now, onto the graphics. I don't understand why everyone thinks they suck so much. Yes, the style is a bit cartoony, but the graphics don't suck at all. Simply walk into Stormwind and look around. There are so many objects and so much detail in the world that it makes others games look shameful. Most other MMOs have land, sky and then randomly dispersed buildings that stick out like a sore thumb. Everything in WoW fits into the world. Most people DON'T notice all of the detail because the environment is so immersive. Hating the style of the game is one thing, but to deduce that the graphics suck from that is completely incorrect.
Simply put there texture packs are horrible and bland.I can use 2 games to show the comparison.First up blizzard has studios that rival movie quality and a large staff to boot ,so all people should expect nothing but the best.
Take FFXI as an example.The game released and designed [handcuffed]for a PS2 system.The textures in that game are also of low poly low resolution quality but they square had an excuse,wich is the ps2 systems total graphical bandwidth.Even so there effort shown on game texture use and the layout of the game is superior to WOW's.The animations or even some of the movie interludes are superior to WOW's.
WOW's cartoony look was for a reason,they could make simpler textures with less deffinition and nobody would know the diff,well not most.Basically envision yourself watching a cartoon on TV and then you realize how cheesey the graphics are.Sure you can say modern day stuff like disney's animations are awesome but WOW has nothing that comes even close.Animations are a whole new ball game,and i think most would agree WOW does nothing in that department.Texture animation be it on objects or in spells/damage is a huge factor in making a game look great.WOw in this department is pretty much average and would have no bragging rights over any decent game out there.
Take another game such as gtinteractive[unrealtournament].They were yet to be giants with there unreal engine.This game was released before WOW was and yet they chose to release it with hi resolution texture pack.If you have ever played that original game with it's hi res texture pack you would notice the difference in a huge way,it's like night an day.So here you have a far smaller staff with an inferior studio to WOW's at that time, releasing a far better looking project than WOW and all of it's high priced staff/equipment.If you have ever seen some of the player made maps in unrealtournament you would know in a split second what i am talking about,they are eye staggering beautiful.
Now ya ya i understand it's hard to compare unreal with WOW because unreal was designed to be played with maybe 16 players not thousands.However realistically speaking in WOW you really won't have that many players/objects[total graphical bandwidth]in view more and above say a 16 player UT match.Raiding is of course diff you might have alot more players,but it lags anyhow so nothing changes there.
I have said it before and many times,WOW isn't that bad but it is IMO only average on every scale and has no bragging rights in ANY facet of there game.To sum it up ,WOW should have and could have done ALOT better job graphically speaking with there game,that is the real reason why.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The graphics to me are just fine, could there be a little more texture? sure but what they have works.
I have to say the biggest advantage I have with playing WoW with the graphics it has is the fact that I can play it for long hours and it doesnt bother my eyes the way other games tend to do.
Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there, 80 are nothing but targets, 9 are the real fighters. Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior, and he will bring the others home. -Heraclitus 500BC
WoW is definitely behind the times on graphics, but again...it helps them, not hurts them. Game studios need to realize that if they want big numbers, the number of people sitting in front of some super-duper uber gaming machine aren't enough to achieve it.
Lead developer of Bioware's new project just said almost the exact same thing not long ago.
Sure, it's cool to be able to claim you have the most cutting edge graphics on the market today...should garner you a good 50,000 subs. Most people playing WoW don't have, don't want, and don't even know about an 8800GT is, nor would they spend as much as their computer cost to get one.
WoW is definitely behind the times on graphics, but again...it helps them, not hurts them. Game studios need to realize that if they want big numbers, the number of people sitting in front of some super-duper uber gaming machine aren't enough to achieve it.
Lead developer of Bioware's new project just said almost the exact same thing not long ago.
Sure, it's cool to be able to claim you have the most cutting edge graphics on the market today...should garner you a good 50,000 subs. Most people playing WoW don't have, don't want, and don't even know about an 8800GT is, nor would they spend as much as their computer cost to get one.
I would say your comment hit the nail right on the head.
Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there, 80 are nothing but targets, 9 are the real fighters. Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior, and he will bring the others home. -Heraclitus 500BC
I was sitting here playing WoW tonight when my 13 year old son walked in. He came up to the monitor and said, "what are you playing? The graphics suck."
Maybe we've been spoiled with Xbox360 / PS3 Graphics and games like Crysis and COD4. There's no doubt that the bar has raised and WoW is starting to show it's age. There's nothing wrong with WoW's style, but the graphics themselves are blocky and not really all that great up close. They're not terrible, but they're a long way from meeting today's standards.
I was sitting here playing WoW tonight when my 13 year old son walked in. He came up to the monitor and said, "what are you playing? The graphics suck." Maybe we've been spoiled with Xbox360 / PS3 Graphics and games like Crysis and COD4. There's no doubt that the bar has raised and WoW is starting to show it's age. There's nothing wrong with WoW's style, but the graphics themselves are blocky and not really all that great up close. They're not terrible, but they're a long way from meeting today's standards.
I was sitting here playing WoW tonight when my 13 year old son walked in. He came up to the monitor and said, "what are you playing? The graphics suck." Maybe we've been spoiled with Xbox360 / PS3 Graphics and games like Crysis and COD4. There's no doubt that the bar has raised and WoW is starting to show it's age. There's nothing wrong with WoW's style, but the graphics themselves are blocky and not really all that great up close. They're not terrible, but they're a long way from meeting today's standards.
...and yet...
"I was sitting here playing WoW tonight"
Yep. I have no problems at all with the gameplay. There's lots of content. The graphics don't excite me at all, but honestly I don't have anything else to play right now. The second something comes out that is fun to play and has better graphics, I'm jumping.
I was sitting here playing WoW tonight when my 13 year old son walked in. He came up to the monitor and said, "what are you playing? The graphics suck." Maybe we've been spoiled with Xbox360 / PS3 Graphics and games like Crysis and COD4. There's no doubt that the bar has raised and WoW is starting to show it's age. There's nothing wrong with WoW's style, but the graphics themselves are blocky and not really all that great up close. They're not terrible, but they're a long way from meeting today's standards.
...and yet...
"I was sitting here playing WoW tonight"
Yep. I have no problems at all with the gameplay. There's lots of content. The graphics don't excite me at all, but honestly I don't have anything else to play right now. The second something comes out that is fun to play and has better graphics, I'm jumping.
And to me, that's the point. It's why 10,000,000 people are playing. They found a game that
1. works
2. had OK graphics
3. Does what they want it to.
Now, you can say you're waiting for a new game with better gameplay and graphics, but I'd posit there's been many since WoW's release and that you're still there because...well...it's become convenient. You don't need to buy a game, RAM, a vid card, and a subscription to play something else, you found something that works for you and remains enough fun to keep you spending a minimal amount each month.
WoW is definitely behind the times on graphics, but again...it helps them, not hurts them. Game studios need to realize that if they want big numbers, the number of people sitting in front of some super-duper uber gaming machine aren't enough to achieve it.
Lead developer of Bioware's new project just said almost the exact same thing not long ago.
Sure, it's cool to be able to claim you have the most cutting edge graphics on the market today...should garner you a good 50,000 subs. Most people playing WoW don't have, don't want, and don't even know about an 8800GT is, nor would they spend as much as their computer cost to get one.
I agree with you 100% ,but that is why i used two older games to compare with.Especially look at unreal wich is not only older but it does not take a great machine at all to play it.As a matter of fact i believe most users were on pentium4's maybe even older when it was released with it's hi res texture pack.The most impressive works done on the unreal engine were of course by outside users[kudos to them]but my point was to merely show that great looks were achieved on lesser machines and on an older game.I think the top o line graphic card at the time was a TI460 or something like that by nvidia.I doubt many PC users even have that card anymore.
WOW had the resources to make a much better looking game even on inferior machines.The only reasons modern games are lagging is from damanding things like shaders/shadows to name a couple.Shaders have been around a long time i think version shader 2.0 may have been out in WOW's release but not many developers choose to use much or any at all.Even so i am sure most people have noticed games are delivered with user friendly sliders that can control the depth of graphics a user can handle.So a developer has nothing to lose by setting a very high standard and just allowing the user to turn things down as needed,like shadows and shaders and view distance or decals or detailed lighting effects.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Players that guinely dislike the graphics fall in to two camps I would guess:
1. Those that are put off by the low poly counts, low texture resolutions, and lack of lighting effects.
2. Those that dislike they style of the graphics. Many players are put off by the fact that graphics are "cartoony."
However I think both of these groups utterly missed the point. The cartoony style conveys the tone of the world well, WoW is a very lighthearted fantasy world in general (i.e., it doesn't take itself too seriously). It also ensures that you don't need hyper poly counts and insane lighting effects in order to reach a level of detail that does justice to the art style. Which leads to: the game runs well on virtually any modern PC.
Considering those design goals, the graphics are spot on imo.
I don't want to write this, and you don't want to read it. But now it's too late for both of us.
I certainly think they don't deserve a 10 graphics rating like in the Review on this site. But in the end they are still swimming in a "Blizzard" of money (hey look a pun). Unless the graphics are horrible I am not the most critical on graphics.
------------------------------ atsdf.com Among The Shadows Darkfall Clan
The graphics are good. Don't know how anyone would say WoW graphics suck. The models are well done and animated great. Walk through the starting area for the Elves. The graphcs are amazing there.
Comments
People who hate on WoW's graphics are 12 year old kids.
the grafix are ok and they fit the game i guess, but they should have implemented armor dye
I dont care so much about the graphix in WoW but I sure love the gameplay, too bad I am bored out of my mind of the game atm... raid raid.. farm pots..farm mats..raid.. raid .. jippe upgrade..farm pots..raid ..raid .
I hope I will be less bored of the game when Lich King comes out so I can play with joy and not with eternal boredom.
Thanks Impyriel for the sig^^
LoL just saw what you meant, HAHA
Personaly, and this is my own personal opinion, i dont care for the style they went with. That being said, WoW has actually made good use of low end system requirements. Cant fault them for that, at all, in fact i fault alot of other games that dont utelize their system to the same degree. and yes they have created the whole world to fit so well, and so seamlessly that it is very imersive, and doesnt demand the high detail that other games shoot for. compared to new gen the graphics dont hold, but for what it is, etc... WoW does it best.
Okay, here are my two cents: I don't like the style that Blizzard's chosen for their characters, and I think they rely far too much on bad glow effects to differentiate armor and weapon models. For the most part, I think that WoW's done a pretty good job on its environments. I'd tone down the colors just a bit in some zones and update the textures for those of us with better machines, but they've gotten it right for the most part.
The models are generally quite badly done. They look a tad too cartoony for my taste, but that's a minor quibble. My major problem is twofold. First of all, they have an amazing number of clipping and animation issues, second, many of the designs are just plain ugly. Take a look at human males for example... they look like a steroid case with Down Syndrome. What makes this ever more annoying is that if you look at some of the human mobs in the game (the Defias Thieves in the Deadmines, for example) it's pretty obvious that Blizzard can create decent human models, but stuck us with these, for some reason. The same can be said of trolls and various other races. Many player models are just plain aesthetically lacking.
Now on the WoW's other major problem: Armor and Weapon design. When looking at WoW armor and weapons, I get the impression that they must've had several different item design teams early on, and ended up firing the good one. The majority of powerful weapons in the game are huge, glowing, or both. Take the Crystalforged War Axe as an example...who the hell would actually want a weapon that looks like that?! When you compare the look of later loot to some of the lower level items such as the Assassination Blade, Thornstone Sledgehammer, or even the Emberstone Staff, it's the higher level stuff that turns out to be lacking. The same problem can be seen with many of the high level armor sets... to be honest, only the priest sets look both subtle and imposing. And Blizzard reuses armor sets far more than any other MMO I've run across.
So basically, those are my main WoW problems: bad PC models and no sense of style whatsoever when it comes to item design. Compare this to the look of a game like DDO (even accounting for the better graphics engine), and you'll see that WoW is sorely lacking in these areas.
...moo?
As for technical whiz bang effects, WOW is behind the curve. As for artistic design, WOW blows every other MMO out of the water. All the polygons in the world, glow effects, DOF and motion blur can't cover up lousy art design...hello EQ2, L2 and VG. Sure, Blizzard could've made the graphics FAAAAAR better on the technical side. We all know why they didn't. They found a happy medium. Know this. Its much harder to make a game look good by limiting yourself. It shows how good Blizzard's artists are.
I can appreciate all graphic styles as long as they work and make sense. WOW makes sense. Most MMOs try to hide bad art direction with the latest DirectX effects. Sorry, but most of the time it doesn't work. This coming from an animator of 10+ years in the industry=)
The irony of it all is that the people who say WOW looks cartoony and its designed for kids are actually the most immature of them all. Never met a mature adult who says just because something is colorful and stylized that its for kiddies. BUt I've met and heard plenty of kids who speak like that.
I think WoW has a certain charm to it, it reminds me of a water color painting, very distinct.
That is one of the things I really like about it actually, using a more artistic approach in graphics rather than raw power. That is something I think more developers should do, be more artistic and less power, one it makes it more accessable from a technical standpoint and I actually think it can look better when done right. Many graphical powerhouse games have the triangles and bump mapping, but they lack any sort of personality.
I don't however like the armor and weapon design, at higher levels the armor and weapons become too bulky, glowy and just rediculess. And the character can be misproportioned, this mainly for the male models, which have large hands and arms but have too small of legs like the male human. Just some size tweeking is my only gripe.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
because it looks like a cartoon from 1965
HOGG4LIFE
I dont like WoW as a game but I like the style. Its style has just grown on me and I enjoy it much more than any other style now. It has its own feel and you really have nothing to compair it to IRL. You can do almost anything with the style and it just works because they can make it up as they go.
Sig by WhiskeyJack1
Take FFXI as an example.The game released and designed [handcuffed]for a PS2 system.The textures in that game are also of low poly low resolution quality but they square had an excuse,wich is the ps2 systems total graphical bandwidth.Even so there effort shown on game texture use and the layout of the game is superior to WOW's.The animations or even some of the movie interludes are superior to WOW's.
WOW's cartoony look was for a reason,they could make simpler textures with less deffinition and nobody would know the diff,well not most.Basically envision yourself watching a cartoon on TV and then you realize how cheesey the graphics are.Sure you can say modern day stuff like disney's animations are awesome but WOW has nothing that comes even close.Animations are a whole new ball game,and i think most would agree WOW does nothing in that department.Texture animation be it on objects or in spells/damage is a huge factor in making a game look great.WOw in this department is pretty much average and would have no bragging rights over any decent game out there.
Take another game such as gtinteractive[unrealtournament].They were yet to be giants with there unreal engine.This game was released before WOW was and yet they chose to release it with hi resolution texture pack.If you have ever played that original game with it's hi res texture pack you would notice the difference in a huge way,it's like night an day.So here you have a far smaller staff with an inferior studio to WOW's at that time, releasing a far better looking project than WOW and all of it's high priced staff/equipment.If you have ever seen some of the player made maps in unrealtournament you would know in a split second what i am talking about,they are eye staggering beautiful.
Now ya ya i understand it's hard to compare unreal with WOW because unreal was designed to be played with maybe 16 players not thousands.However realistically speaking in WOW you really won't have that many players/objects[total graphical bandwidth]in view more and above say a 16 player UT match.Raiding is of course diff you might have alot more players,but it lags anyhow so nothing changes there.
I have said it before and many times,WOW isn't that bad but it is IMO only average on every scale and has no bragging rights in ANY facet of there game.To sum it up ,WOW should have and could have done ALOT better job graphically speaking with there game,that is the real reason why.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The graphics to me are just fine, could there be a little more texture? sure but what they have works.
I have to say the biggest advantage I have with playing WoW with the graphics it has is the fact that I can play it for long hours and it doesnt bother my eyes the way other games tend to do.
Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there,
80 are nothing but targets, 9 are the real fighters.
Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior,
and he will bring the others home.
-Heraclitus 500BC
WoW is definitely behind the times on graphics, but again...it helps them, not hurts them. Game studios need to realize that if they want big numbers, the number of people sitting in front of some super-duper uber gaming machine aren't enough to achieve it.
Lead developer of Bioware's new project just said almost the exact same thing not long ago.
Sure, it's cool to be able to claim you have the most cutting edge graphics on the market today...should garner you a good 50,000 subs. Most people playing WoW don't have, don't want, and don't even know about an 8800GT is, nor would they spend as much as their computer cost to get one.
I would say your comment hit the nail right on the head.
Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there,
80 are nothing but targets, 9 are the real fighters.
Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior,
and he will bring the others home.
-Heraclitus 500BC
For me...lack of immersion.......frankly I feel its child like....... and I am far from a child.
The MORE REALISTIC the better is what I want.
I was sitting here playing WoW tonight when my 13 year old son walked in. He came up to the monitor and said, "what are you playing? The graphics suck."
Maybe we've been spoiled with Xbox360 / PS3 Graphics and games like Crysis and COD4. There's no doubt that the bar has raised and WoW is starting to show it's age. There's nothing wrong with WoW's style, but the graphics themselves are blocky and not really all that great up close. They're not terrible, but they're a long way from meeting today's standards.
...and yet...
"I was sitting here playing WoW tonight"
...and yet...
"I was sitting here playing WoW tonight"
Yep. I have no problems at all with the gameplay. There's lots of content. The graphics don't excite me at all, but honestly I don't have anything else to play right now. The second something comes out that is fun to play and has better graphics, I'm jumping.
...and yet...
"I was sitting here playing WoW tonight"
Yep. I have no problems at all with the gameplay. There's lots of content. The graphics don't excite me at all, but honestly I don't have anything else to play right now. The second something comes out that is fun to play and has better graphics, I'm jumping.
And to me, that's the point. It's why 10,000,000 people are playing. They found a game that
1. works
2. had OK graphics
3. Does what they want it to.
Now, you can say you're waiting for a new game with better gameplay and graphics, but I'd posit there's been many since WoW's release and that you're still there because...well...it's become convenient. You don't need to buy a game, RAM, a vid card, and a subscription to play something else, you found something that works for you and remains enough fun to keep you spending a minimal amount each month.
WOW had the resources to make a much better looking game even on inferior machines.The only reasons modern games are lagging is from damanding things like shaders/shadows to name a couple.Shaders have been around a long time i think version shader 2.0 may have been out in WOW's release but not many developers choose to use much or any at all.Even so i am sure most people have noticed games are delivered with user friendly sliders that can control the depth of graphics a user can handle.So a developer has nothing to lose by setting a very high standard and just allowing the user to turn things down as needed,like shadows and shaders and view distance or decals or detailed lighting effects.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
why does everyone hate wow's graphics?
this is a non-question.
Not everyone hates wow's graphics.
Players that guinely dislike the graphics fall in to two camps I would guess:
1. Those that are put off by the low poly counts, low texture resolutions, and lack of lighting effects.
2. Those that dislike they style of the graphics. Many players are put off by the fact that graphics are "cartoony."
However I think both of these groups utterly missed the point. The cartoony style conveys the tone of the world well, WoW is a very lighthearted fantasy world in general (i.e., it doesn't take itself too seriously). It also ensures that you don't need hyper poly counts and insane lighting effects in order to reach a level of detail that does justice to the art style. Which leads to: the game runs well on virtually any modern PC.
Considering those design goals, the graphics are spot on imo.
I don't want to write this, and you don't want to read it. But now it's too late for both of us.
I certainly think they don't deserve a 10 graphics rating like in the Review on this site. But in the end they are still swimming in a "Blizzard" of money (hey look a pun
). Unless the graphics are horrible I am not the most critical on graphics.
------------------------------
atsdf.com
Among The Shadows
Darkfall Clan
The graphics are good. Don't know how anyone would say WoW graphics suck. The models are well done and animated great. Walk through the starting area for the Elves. The graphcs are amazing there.