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Everything about WoW gets copied, except the graphics. :(
Xanrae
Member Posts: 19
Every MMO developer gets this wrong.
What looks 'cool' in real life may not necessarily be so in a virtual world. The Empire State Building is quite impressive in real life, but in a game, it is just a bigger box. A moonlit forest night may be spooky in real life, but in a game, it always ends up being just an annoying black screen.
World of Warcraft, so far, is the only MMO game that understands this and instead of creating 'realistic' graphics (read: boring scenery), goes for artistic. And indeed, the draw of each new environment is that one could take a screenshot of it and frame it. [*] You go there for the scenery alone.
If the new environments are not attractive, why go there, other than just to farm and loot? More to the point, why would anyone spend several hours each day in a world that doesn't look attractive?
I can see WAR failing for this same reason. The mechanics are interesting, but it looks dull and depressing again. People do not care for games without graphics, no matter how many millions of polygons the engine may push.
[*] Not counting the dreary later raid dungeons and anything subterranean with lava in it and a dense red fog approximating the colour and brightness of the sun.
Comments
You can't speak for everyone, for every person that likes WoW's graphics, theres another who dislikes them.
Agree. Art direction >> technical quality of the gfx engine.
Unfortunately, many don't seem to understand this. See EQ2 and Vanguard. Using Unreal tech or whatever, undeniably decent engines, but visually dull and uninspired. Also cripples your average PC.
I sincerely believe WoW added millions to its subscriber base by choosing an undemanding gfx engine. Since WoW will even run on your backup PC (or average machine bought from the high stree), anyone can play. This is a huge deal, more important than many people give credit for.
Also I have never criticised WoW for it's "cartoony" graphics. I think the game looks beautiful. I just don't like its gameplay.
lol when the posts about wow gonna end, people forget about wow
When people stop claiming that WoW is popular because it is the mecca of game design.
Hmm, were I to write about this same subject, my over generalization would have said, "People do not care about graphics in a game, much better to focus on game play and not on how many millions of polygons the engine pushes"
See, differing opinions on the same subject. While I did enjoy WOW and the graphics, for some folks they are such a game breaker they won't even play the game. (a bad reason IMO, but hey, we play what we enjoy)
Why do I go to new environments; to farm, collect loot and hopefully kill other players. I enjoy seeing how efficiently I can kill NPC mobs (I just know I can kill all 4 of these npc's, even if they are conning red to me)
You slam the WAR engine, but I remember when i was in DAOC and seeing some of the new lands in SI and thinking, this is truly amazing. What's even more interesting, I went back last year, and I still enjoyed them. So its all a matter of taste. I think I'm going to enjoy WAR's graphics just fine.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
you know some people might disagree with you there. I know its insane but some lunatic people actually like good, realistic graphics.
call me a lier, but some people have actually grown out of loving cartoons where everything is bright and happy. some people actually get sick of the thought of living in the depressing kiddy, tactyness that is world of warcraft (or any asian mmo too).
My blog:
You can't speak for everyone, I'm too old for cartoons. Thats not the "I want to be too old for cartoons to look cool", its the "My eyes dont tolerate cartoons".
I like WoW because it is a nice diversion. It's "fun". It's whimsical. I don't think its art design is very epic or inspiring in my opinion.
Sure, there are some that don't care at all about graphics or art design. I'm not one of them. I have to be engaged in my surroundings. So in that you are correct. But saying that WoW got it right is a bit far fetched.
WoW got it right for "WoW". It's art design makes perfect sense given the games that it represents. But games that have a more fantastical and epic (to my sensibilities) art design like Lineage 2, Guild Wars, the upcoming Aion... well that's what does it for me.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
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Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I can see how u can confuse "artistic" with outdated technology that was used at the time of wow creation.
I find wow´s bright colors 10 times more annoying then something that looks realistic.
Did anyone notice that wow has no shadows at all? Uncool...
the "artistic" graphics you speak of are and have been part of the warcraft setting since the beginning.... the goal wasnt to appeal to cartoony graphic lovers.. the goal was to remain true to the roots of warcraft.. go play some warcraft games and learn your history..
I played WOW to about level 60 and drifted away. Since I'm looking for a new mmog i revisited it after being away for a few years.Played for a few hours and simply could not stand the cartoon like graphics.Other companys have found ways(turbine and LOTR ) to have very detailed graphics with relativly low system requirements.However since Blizzard just wanted to "borrow" the graphics style and contents of others ,they got low system requirements and near zero thinking or development effort.
I was going to avoid this thread because its another .. .. well not even going to go there in insulting someone's preference.
WoW got its graphics & art style right for the type of game it was making and the world it belonged too. I personally didn't care for the low polygon & cheap graphics it had when it launched but the game was fun so I played it. WoW killed it for me in other ways that aren't part of this discussion.
Personally I'm glad companies aren't copying WoW's graphics that they're playing smart and making the graphics that fit the world they're trying to create. WoW was supposed to be exaggerated and cartoony with low polygon counts because thats how Warcraft has always been.
I've never once not played a game because of boring art I just turn away from games that are BORING with pretty & boring graphics.
What I find highly hilarious OP is you crap on WAR's graphics which are actually highly stylized & detailed to go along with colorful something that WOW has sucked at doing since the beginning. Not to mention that Warcraft got its original art direction for the first Warcraft game from its LOVE for Warhammer.
Honestly Dev's normally get it right for their game world its just the gameplay isn't always as fun as the visuals are pretty. Of course in EQ2 and Vanguard's cases the graphics were pretty if you could run them since they made little to NO effort to make the games seem decent on low settings. That was a failure on the art department & the producers more than the devs.
Please Refer to Doom Cat with all conspiracies & evil corporation complaints. He'll give you the simple explination of..WE"RE ALL DOOMED!
Graphics are not a game breaker for me but I was never impressed with WoW's 'artisitc' graphics. Especially just about all of the end game armors. Absolutely hated those. If it fits other player's tastes, that's cool, I personally never cared for them.
EDIT: elevenangel covers it perfectly.
the "artistic" graphics you speak of are and have been part of the warcraft setting since the beginning.... the goal wasnt to appeal to cartoony graphic lovers.. the goal was to remain true to the roots of warcraft.. go play some warcraft games and learn your history..
I dont think Warcraft 1 and 2 were so cartoony. They were, but not as much as the crappy warcraft 3 and wow. warcraft 3 and wow were a castration of the warcrat story. Spaceships, horde paladins, and whatever, nonono.
Graphics, XXXXX polygons pushed or stunning looks. It has been called many things before, always mixed up with the real key words: world immersion. Too many cant can tell the difference and the importance there of.
We can only hope that future mmorpgs has done its home work.
M M O S S I N C E |1998|
P L A Y I N G F A L L E N E A R T H
T I M E I N V E S T E D |uo|swg|wow|fe|
B E T A T E S T E R |rz|tr|hgl|potbs|potc|gw|hz|wish|fe|wow|df|war|allods|cog|lu|
w w w . c l o w n g u i l d . o r g
Immersion is such a diverse factor though. No matter what any dev does there's always going to be some group that says its not immersive while others think it is. Immersion comes down to rather personal experiences, likes, and dislikes. There's no perfect solution thats can realistically be created & achieved (as in something programmers can actually emmulate in a computer environment that'll actually run on lots of people's computers ) by developers for perfect & complete immersion. If there was there would be very few choices in game types out there.
Please Refer to Doom Cat with all conspiracies & evil corporation complaints. He'll give you the simple explination of..WE"RE ALL DOOMED!
I'm older than 5, the WoW graphics kind of stink.
member of imminst.org
In a way i feel sorry for the OP as he seems to come over as someone who hasn't really played any other mmo than WoW so to him WoW is the pinnacle of style and graphics. Fact of the matter is that even when WoW first came out its graphics were dated. And the cartoony look it has is really just there to help conceal the washed out textures and low Polly count of game models.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
WoW has good art direction and QA, and that is really important just look at Nek forest in EQ2, bleh.
But I can't say really think WoW's art is awesome or anything. In fact I think its kinda vanilla. Its nice, but its nothing great. Unfortunately many games don't understand how important that "nice" is.
What for the love of god is getting copied from WoW that wasn't copied in WoW at the first place? Tell me one thing. At least ONE FEATURE.
REALITY CHECK
WoW's art direction is very clearly a long and lasting approach that they have chosen for many of their games. I got the same feeling from WoW as i did from the other games.
There are many things about wow that I like and many things that I don't like. The artist direction is in the middle. With the release of BC they re-used way to many previous graphics. And the run way lights they attached to my t4 shoulders aren't earning them any points with me.
Some of the weeknesses that I"m sure have been mentioned in WoW's engine are:
1. Very few direct lights. Its almost all ambient lights or light effects on objects.
2. Very few variations on look between characters of the same race. And in game there is almost no ability to further differentiate yourself. While you might claim this was a choice made by the Artistic team I think it was a choice ment to reduce development costs.
3. Over re-use of models. I understand the trade offs in content development vs schedule. But i'm dissapointed that my favorite game gave me the same look on level 60+ uncommon gear as level 7 grey drops. (Only a slightly different color.)
The artist direction of wow is fine. I like it and i like the game.
But its not an epic artistic approach. There are a few really cool choices like the length of NE ears and some other choices like goat legs on Draenai that are at least interesting.
It is because warcraft 1 was supposed to have warhammer world license, but games workshop turned that off half a year before it's release. Blizzard had to create their own universe in that time, but they didn't revamp the graphics. So it ended up as a complete Warhammer ripoff that it still is.
REALITY CHECK
I always though Nek forest was rather cool...course lol it was more from the aspect of walking around and suddenly a herd of trees or undead are chasing you down to beat you to death. *shivers remembering running through there for quests*
btw QA has little to do with art direction..they're just there to make sure things work and try to ensure that totally bug filled packages of crap arent' sent out (bugs still get out its just the nature of the best with large programs and sometimes company's ignore whats being said in the first place)
*Feels sorry for their QA guy rofl he keeps having to fix all the bugs he made before he was demoted*).
Please Refer to Doom Cat with all conspiracies & evil corporation complaints. He'll give you the simple explination of..WE"RE ALL DOOMED!
I love Nektulos Forest, one of my favorite areas
" Everything about WoW gets copied, except the graphics.
"
Interesting title considering that about the only thing in WoW that was not copied from earlier games was the graphics. If all future MMORPG were to copy the WoW graphics, I would not be playing MMORPGs.
I guess since MacDonalds sold whatever billion(s) of hambergers then all cooks in the world should only cook MacDonald hambergers.