I think they have copied more than just the art style from WoW. I was watching a video of wildstar the other day which showed gameplay. The character being played was a robot race and its combat style and animations while using a two-handed sword looked identical to a male night elf from WoW right down to the way it rocks on its heels while holding the sword. It looked like I was watching a reskinned WoW where a nightelf was killing lions in the barrens.
All the recorded gameplay I've seen so far make the game look very dated and it's not just the graphics and art style. Combat looks boring, quests appear to be simple kill or fetch quests. There was no voice over for these in the video but apparently that will be in the final game but no amount of voice over can change the nature of the questing. Character customisation (at least the customisation shown so far) looks very basic with just a few hair and head choices, no options to change weight/height etc.
Now Wildstar may be a good game, but you can't deny after looking at gameplay videos available at the moment that it looks like a reskinned WoW.
I think it is a blatant attempt to attract healthy proportion of those many folks playing Warcraft to put on a comfy pair of slippers and at the very least give Wildstar a bash for a proper success. Even a small proportion of migrating WOW purists would make this game bulge with healthy numbers ... to maintain populations all they have to do is make the game fun, playable and fully loaded with everyone's wish lists from housing to decent PvP and huge open environments and they will crack it. I think by releasing so much footage and gaining so much feedback means that they are more likely not to have to cross their fingers at launch having something to hide, which seem's to be the tale of so many 'uber' MMO's of late.
To me a proper shameless Warcraft clone will / should work ... far too many games have been called clones just because they have a map in the top right hand corner etc. The truth is what MMO that has been released of the same 'type' as Warcraft has really been as thorough. WOW 2013 might well be dated but at it's heart is an open world and not a load of spliced loading screens. I always thought that Age of Conan was way ahead of it's time graphically and really most new MMO's share the same loading screen style of Border / Door entry today with no real sense of travel. It is this failing that I think prevented it from making it really big...... these type of limitations for me has tainted many games, denying them the possibility of offering a believable 'living' experience.
I think if the style of Graphics Carbine has chosen with Wildstar allow for a slicker more 'natural' environment to digitally exist in, whilst at the same time offering a genuinely diverse MMO with many different paces of game play to experience, they will certainly win many people over. Sometimes I just want to trek around whilst drinking a Beer not just zipping around in a hyper fashion until my eyes bleed....so if I have a house with robotic antlers on the wall... all the better...
..I hate to use the word cool.... but that's what this game is...
Well I figured the diehard fans of Wildstar wouldn't appreciate my opinions. Of course there had been some names and labels thrown my way. Some of you however have made some valid points. Some of you obviously didnt read through my original post because you are talking of things I never wrote.
I've seen every video and read most article for Wildstar, and youre right. The game just isn't for me. Im not into "paths" I dont want to jump around and explore like a platform game. I was never a Sonic or Spiral the dragon fan. I dont want to build stuff for others unless its making me rich.
I like discovering ways to make gold that others haven't come across yet and cornering the market. I like bragging that I soloed content that takes a party for most. I enjoy getting the most difficult gear in game, that only 5% of population owns.
Because it doenst matter what mmo you're playing, at some point you are going to have down time for whatever reason. And what do most of us do at this point? Stand around town and show off our gear and achievments. And after I have accomplished these things I dont want my character to look cartoony. I dont want the house I put so much time into to be leaning to one side and looking dilapidated. If im going to build a huge turret to kill fellow PvPers, I want it to be scary looking. Not like a nerf gun. I am not impressed with graphics or the art.
This is my opinion. Some of you feel differently. But this is what these forums are for. This is why we hype games. This is why we play mmos.
I get ya. And I may disagree but thats just opinion points. Have you ever tried EVE yet? That is the MMO to live in if your all about markets since literally ANYTHING possible done in the real world can be done in EVE. Give it a try, its has the most depth of anygame ever.
Originally posted by FoxieVox Perhaps they want to ensure that as many people as possible have an opportunity to play the game? Not everyone has top of the range gaming hardware.
This. With WoW, its very possible that you can play at a decent frame rate (~30 fps) in the open world on a pretty cheap gaming rig (was doing it on a core 2 duo with a ati 5670, 4gb 1333). They are trying to cater to a very large market - and if they wanted to rebuild the engine completely, they'd be better off just making a new MMO (*cough* Titan *cough).
With Wildstar, I have a gut feeling that you will have issues on an older gaming rig, such my outdated (and recently replaced) one.
Well I figured the diehard fans of Wildstar wouldn't appreciate my opinions. Of course there had been some names and labels thrown my way. Some of you however have made some valid points. Some of you obviously didnt read through my original post because you are talking of things I never wrote.
I've seen every video and read most article for Wildstar, and youre right. The game just isn't for me. Im not into "paths" I dont want to jump around and explore like a platform game. I was never a Sonic or Spiral the dragon fan. I dont want to build stuff for others unless its making me rich.
I like discovering ways to make gold that others haven't come across yet and cornering the market. I like bragging that I soloed content that takes a party for most. I enjoy getting the most difficult gear in game, that only 5% of population owns.
Because it doenst matter what mmo you're playing, at some point you are going to have down time for whatever reason. And what do most of us do at this point? Stand around town and show off our gear and achievments. And after I have accomplished these things I dont want my character to look cartoony. I dont want the house I put so much time into to be leaning to one side and looking dilapidated. If im going to build a huge turret to kill fellow PvPers, I want it to be scary looking. Not like a nerf gun. I am not impressed with graphics or the art.
This is my opinion. Some of you feel differently. But this is what these forums are for. This is why we hype games. This is why we play mmos.
I understand your points and of course we all have to decide which game suits us. Reading through your post I have total empathy with your desire to find a game that has that immersive quality that has you working for your dosh / dollar in a real effort = gain environment. I can also appreciate that you like realism within a game especially as you put it with 'House' building where you clearly have dark 'Gothic' aspirations. For me I am not saying that all is perfect with Wildstars style but I do think that from what I have played recently it's do-able. I think this is the point.......... total realism of a freedom with which you long for is not tangible with today's software - hardware mix. Look at the number of beautiful looking MMO's there are...until you try and walk off the path or around the corner...then 'bump' either an invisible wall or loading screen.
Imagination is always the key .... a freedom to walk where ever etc in a solid, plausible world in 2013 has it's limits. From what I can see Wildstar meets the current brief with an attitude and diversity that I personally haven't seen for quite a while....
I am also North European .... which means that if I was say 'South Korean' we may be looking for different things .... cultural differences and all that .... lets face it ... do Vikings cut it if you are from Tokyo or Seoul ...
You can certainly see today where MMO's are conceived by their infrastructure .. for me I hate glowing, flying disproportionate (couldn't work due to the effect that gravity would have on their exoskeleton's) bug's ..... stupid and I hate it. But it would seem that the Asian market love it.....I would bet on Odin's one blazing eye that most of us would agree....hmmmm...who else has a blazing one eye .....
Who cares actually, AoC looked great how did that turn out for the masses that could not run it.
/thread
Now imagine how awesome Wildstar would be with AoC's graphic art style.
/thread
it would be for the worse because it would not fit with the theme, style, humour or concept of the game!!! when will kids learn that graphics does not equal awesome game, and stylised graphics are not inferior to realism, just different.
Who cares actually, AoC looked great how did that turn out for the masses that could not run it.
/thread
Now imagine how awesome Wildstar would be with AoC's graphic art style.
/thread
it would be for the worse because it would not fit with the theme, style, humour or concept of the game!!! when will kids learn that graphics does not equal awesome game, and stylised graphics are not inferior to realism, just different.
You know how ironic it sound? that also on wildstar forums.
THis game could turn out, and keyword being could, to be absolutely brilliant, but some people are not going to play it because it doesn't look real? that's their decision but to say the game is objectively bad because of it is flat out wrong. realism has its place but it is not a measure of how good a game will be which is the mistake a ton of ppl make.
Who cares actually, AoC looked great how did that turn out for the masses that could not run it.
/thread
Now imagine how awesome Wildstar would be with AoC's graphic art style.
/thread
it would be for the worse because it would not fit with the theme, style, humour or concept of the game!!! when will kids learn that graphics does not equal awesome game, and stylised graphics are not inferior to realism, just different.
So true. People moaned how WoW graphics looked toonish but it fitted humor of WoW and made different zones very different from each other. Most MMOs are boring grim darks with very brown color palette
Who cares actually, AoC looked great how did that turn out for the masses that could not run it.
/thread
Now imagine how awesome Wildstar would be with AoC's graphic art style.
/thread
it would be for the worse because it would not fit with the theme, style, humour or concept of the game!!! when will kids learn that graphics does not equal awesome game, and stylised graphics are not inferior to realism, just different.
It's not that it would be worse...just not even slightly possible with today's Hardware ... when AOC was released as it was - it killed systems for breakfast. I love the game and music score. The Combat is still superb...Christ if Funcom had used AOC's combat style in The Secret World they would be swollen with subscriptions...me for one.
With WildStar 2013 you get big, broad and possible for the many / mass .. might not be the 'cult' game of the decade but it will certainly be actually played .....
Definitely not what you'd hope for a 2013 game. The "artistic choice" argument grows old and boring, and nobody believes it. I have another name for it - "low budget".
My opinion is my own. I respect all other opinions and views equally, but keep in mind that my opinion will always be the best for me. That's why it's my opinion.
As someone who draws a lot, and has attempted to animate a few times, the art of Wildstar is great to me. I understand that it won't be for everyone, but I think more people are coming around and realizing that graphics don't make a game. And if not, it's their loss I guess. They have other choices.
Originally posted by Alber_gamer Definitely not what you'd hope for a 2013 game. The "artistic choice" argument grows old and boring, and nobody believes it. I have another name for it - "low budget".
The amount of detail is actually quite amazing in Wildstar, but the textures are not realistic. They weren't going for realism. Disney movies today don't look much different than Disney movies 10 years ago, and that's what they were going for. You can call it what you want, and you can also be wrong.
The same silly argument pops up regarding Borderlands. They didn't go for realism for BL2 even though so many people complained, they stuck with their "artistic choice", even with a big budget. Let's face facts, you just don't like it. That's the beginning and the end of your argument.
I was also extremely against WoW's Graphic engine when i tried their beta. It took me a few days to (look past it). Once the beta ended we needed to wait 5 days here in europe before the game went live. Me and my friend where in a online F1 racing simulation group and we coulnt stop talking about WoW.
I subbed to WoW I leveld I raided I pvp'd 7 years later to much had changed and the people i played with where no longter there.
I tried every other AAA mmo that came out, and none of those offered me that same gameplay. From Vanilla to Cataclysm - i was there <---yes Shamelessly stolen from Eve
Fast forward to your post OP
Wildstar uses similar style, but if the game is as good as WoW was when i started playing it....then i can only say:
Originally posted by Alber_gamer Definitely not what you'd hope for a 2013 game. The "artistic choice" argument grows old and boring, and nobody believes it. I have another name for it - "low budget".
lol believe it or not in 50 years time not all games will be aiming for realistic graphics because their are tons of different styles of graphics and ways to portray a world. I have another name for your trolling "lazy"
Actually I prefer that a game stay to the left of the uncanny valley. What is the point of shooting for hyper-realism in a fantasy or science fiction MMO? There are thousands of different ways you can approach the problem of graphics to the left of the valley and only ONE approach to the right of it.
Originally posted by Arcticnoon blah blah graphics wildstar = wow
No. Put original wow screenshot next to wildstar screenshot and tell me they look anything similar. If you do they think, you have no idea what graphics even mean.
Originally posted by ShakyMo The graphics don't bother me.
It's the endgame from 2003 that puts me off.
Well said
I'm not into large raids either but there are a ton who do like it and enough for a company to target them. Most mmos have gone away from the large raids or flat out dropped them leaving those players in the dust. I prefer even older "old school" mmo traditions but old school raiding is indeed on it's death bed in many games and it seems this developer thinks the audience is worth targeting.
The best raids in WoW ever where the 40 man raids. Not the 25 / 10 man raids...
it was getting this large group of 40 players working flawlessly together. a single dead could mean a wipe and waiste time and bring frustration. but completing said raid after manny wipe nights and a steep learning curve brings you not the gear, but the glory that brings brothers together.
Gear is only needed to progress, but the bonds that are made last long.... ive missed this since Nax in Vanilla, and altough some days were heavy with such hard contend, the road to the last boss made it totaly worth it.
Blizzard failed to build on that mechanic, they listened to the casuals wich broke the big guilds down to small guilds. And forced some players to even put in more time then they needed to invest in bigger raids as the teams became smaller and smaller.
It was a domino effect that rippeld trough the pawn and slowly from that point onwards wow was never the same anymore.
Wildstar introduced this platform as they have developers who not only had acces to raid data back in early wow days, but have seen how community's formed up on servers that lasted for years.
I dont give a fucking rats ass to casuals who wants to be spoonfed with epics and gear with minimal effort. When i play games i want a challenge so hard that when i stand there in the city people look and see gear that only 1% works for untill the next tier is availeble.
Elitist you say ? not even close. Work for your pixels, ive never had bad attitude to people willing to learn or invest time. But the people that want to log in and play 45 minutes and be decked out int he same gear as me made most mmo's wortless... I was rank 13 extemely close to Rank 14 in Vanilla, but let my friend get it as i knew i was going to take a break.
Wildstar might be that game for us hardcore prestige raiders and pvp'rs that go the extra mile and want to show for it, aint that why we play hardcore mmo's ?
There are so many casual mmo's out there right now, i realy hope Wildstar wont give in to these kind of players and they stick to prestige mmo gameplay. pvp or pve
Also when i dint raid in wow's early days and saw a guy named Vargur with the warlocks Tier 1 set i wanted to have it. I joined a raiding guild, builded up friendship and had the best time in WoW. Took me quite some time to get the full set, but damn what a trip it was.
Originally posted by Alber_gamer Definitely not what you'd hope for a 2013 game. The "artistic choice" argument grows old and boring, and nobody believes it. I have another name for it - "low budget".
The amount of detail is actually quite amazing in Wildstar, but the textures are not realistic. They weren't going for realism. Disney movies today don't look much different than Disney movies 10 years ago, and that's what they were going for. You can call it what you want, and you can also be wrong.
The same silly argument pops up regarding Borderlands. They didn't go for realism for BL2 even though so many people complained, they stuck with their "artistic choice", even with a big budget. Let's face facts, you just don't like it. That's the beginning and the end of your argument.
I also don't like the style, but it isn't because I "only" like realistic looking games.
If the game actually were highly detailed and quite amazing that would be one thing. From everything that I've seen they are simple and maybe a little whimsical/nostalgic but not really breathtaking.
I remember playing Mario 64 and being blown away by the awesome graphics. It wasn't because they went for realism it is because they put a lot of detail and atmosphere in the game to take advantage of the technology available.
Maybe some wildstar fans could post some screens that exemplifies how this style works well, and is not just an area of the game they neglected.
Am I the only one who realizes that WoW has one of the worst graphics engine and art design of any half popular mmo out? We give WoW a break because, hell their engine is going on 10 years old, but then I look at a game like FFXI that is even older and was created for PS2! Look at water in one and then the water in the other and you tell me what you see.
Could you elaborate on this? If it's an attack on WoW's water, then it would be an inaccurate assertion (unless you're talking about their old water). Back in Cataclysm they gave it quite the update.
Though I guess this is a nitpick as to the point of your topic and what others are discussing. It comes down to what you like and if you don't like something, don't play it. Trying to convince people who do like it that they're wrong, or inform them (for some reason) they have bad taste (through implications or directly) won't do much except start a "fanboy" versus "troll" argument with a few good points here and there for both sides.
Most MMOs have lax requirements so that there are more potential customers. Add to that that aesthetics outlast graphics, and a MMO is supposed to last, and one could understand just why most of these games have chosen to go the paths they have. With regards to FFXIV, they promised to update their graphics continuously so that they don't go out of date (though I imagine that will be a huge endeavor in itself). Other games that are "realistic" will realize that they age much quicker as consoles mature and computer technology improve in accordance to Moore's law.
If you expect a game to focus on a particular art style as opposed to being "ultra realistics" it lasts longer in general. We can take a look at Call of Duty and how fans expect that 5-25% improved graphics with each game, or the game "sucks" to a good portion of the fans. With people who love aesthetics, they care less about graphics and more about game play and what keeps them in that game for the long run.
Due to frequent travel in my youth, English isn't something I consider my primary language (and thus I obtained quirky ways of writing). German and French were always easier for me despite my family being U.S. citizens for over a century. Spanish I learned as a requirement in school, Japanese and Korean I acquired for my youthful desire of anime and gaming (and also work now). I only debate in English to help me work with it (and limit things). In addition, I'm not smart enough to remain fluent in everything and typically need exposure to get in the groove of things again if I haven't heard it in a while. If you understand Mandarin, I know a little, but it has actually been a challenge and could use some help.
Also, I thoroughly enjoy debates and have accounts on over a dozen sites for this. If you wish to engage in such, please put effort in a post and provide sources -- I will then do the same with what I already wrote (if I didn't) as well as with my responses to your own. Expanding my information on a subject makes my stance either change or strengthen the next time I speak of it or write a thesis. Allow me to thank you sincerely for your time.
Comments
I think it is a blatant attempt to attract healthy proportion of those many folks playing Warcraft to put on a comfy pair of slippers and at the very least give Wildstar a bash for a proper success. Even a small proportion of migrating WOW purists would make this game bulge with healthy numbers ... to maintain populations all they have to do is make the game fun, playable and fully loaded with everyone's wish lists from housing to decent PvP and huge open environments and they will crack it. I think by releasing so much footage and gaining so much feedback means that they are more likely not to have to cross their fingers at launch having something to hide, which seem's to be the tale of so many 'uber' MMO's of late.
To me a proper shameless Warcraft clone will / should work ... far too many games have been called clones just because they have a map in the top right hand corner etc. The truth is what MMO that has been released of the same 'type' as Warcraft has really been as thorough. WOW 2013 might well be dated but at it's heart is an open world and not a load of spliced loading screens. I always thought that Age of Conan was way ahead of it's time graphically and really most new MMO's share the same loading screen style of Border / Door entry today with no real sense of travel. It is this failing that I think prevented it from making it really big...... these type of limitations for me has tainted many games, denying them the possibility of offering a believable 'living' experience.
I think if the style of Graphics Carbine has chosen with Wildstar allow for a slicker more 'natural' environment to digitally exist in, whilst at the same time offering a genuinely diverse MMO with many different paces of game play to experience, they will certainly win many people over. Sometimes I just want to trek around whilst drinking a Beer not just zipping around in a hyper fashion until my eyes bleed....so if I have a house with robotic antlers on the wall... all the better...
..I hate to use the word cool.... but that's what this game is...
I get ya. And I may disagree but thats just opinion points. Have you ever tried EVE yet? That is the MMO to live in if your all about markets since literally ANYTHING possible done in the real world can be done in EVE. Give it a try, its has the most depth of anygame ever.
This. With WoW, its very possible that you can play at a decent frame rate (~30 fps) in the open world on a pretty cheap gaming rig (was doing it on a core 2 duo with a ati 5670, 4gb 1333). They are trying to cater to a very large market - and if they wanted to rebuild the engine completely, they'd be better off just making a new MMO (*cough* Titan *cough).
With Wildstar, I have a gut feeling that you will have issues on an older gaming rig, such my outdated (and recently replaced) one.
I understand your points and of course we all have to decide which game suits us. Reading through your post I have total empathy with your desire to find a game that has that immersive quality that has you working for your dosh / dollar in a real effort = gain environment. I can also appreciate that you like realism within a game especially as you put it with 'House' building where you clearly have dark 'Gothic' aspirations. For me I am not saying that all is perfect with Wildstars style but I do think that from what I have played recently it's do-able. I think this is the point.......... total realism of a freedom with which you long for is not tangible with today's software - hardware mix. Look at the number of beautiful looking MMO's there are...until you try and walk off the path or around the corner...then 'bump' either an invisible wall or loading screen.
Imagination is always the key .... a freedom to walk where ever etc in a solid, plausible world in 2013 has it's limits. From what I can see Wildstar meets the current brief with an attitude and diversity that I personally haven't seen for quite a while....
I am also North European .... which means that if I was say 'South Korean' we may be looking for different things .... cultural differences and all that .... lets face it ... do Vikings cut it if you are from Tokyo or Seoul ...
You can certainly see today where MMO's are conceived by their infrastructure .. for me I hate glowing, flying disproportionate (couldn't work due to the effect that gravity would have on their exoskeleton's) bug's ..... stupid and I hate it. But it would seem that the Asian market love it.....I would bet on Odin's one blazing eye that most of us would agree....hmmmm...who else has a blazing one eye .....
it would be for the worse because it would not fit with the theme, style, humour or concept of the game!!! when will kids learn that graphics does not equal awesome game, and stylised graphics are not inferior to realism, just different.
You know how ironic it sound? that also on wildstar forums.
So true. People moaned how WoW graphics looked toonish but it fitted humor of WoW and made different zones very different from each other. Most MMOs are boring grim darks with very brown color palette
It's not that it would be worse...just not even slightly possible with today's Hardware ... when AOC was released as it was - it killed systems for breakfast. I love the game and music score. The Combat is still superb...Christ if Funcom had used AOC's combat style in The Secret World they would be swollen with subscriptions...me for one.
With WildStar 2013 you get big, broad and possible for the many / mass .. might not be the 'cult' game of the decade but it will certainly be actually played .....
My opinion is my own. I respect all other opinions and views equally, but keep in mind that my opinion will always be the best for me. That's why it's my opinion.
The amount of detail is actually quite amazing in Wildstar, but the textures are not realistic. They weren't going for realism. Disney movies today don't look much different than Disney movies 10 years ago, and that's what they were going for. You can call it what you want, and you can also be wrong.
The same silly argument pops up regarding Borderlands. They didn't go for realism for BL2 even though so many people complained, they stuck with their "artistic choice", even with a big budget. Let's face facts, you just don't like it. That's the beginning and the end of your argument.
Let me say this about your view OP:
I was also extremely against WoW's Graphic engine when i tried their beta.
It took me a few days to (look past it).
Once the beta ended we needed to wait 5 days here in europe before the game went live.
Me and my friend where in a online F1 racing simulation group and we coulnt stop talking about WoW.
I subbed to WoW
I leveld
I raided
I pvp'd
7 years later to much had changed and the people i played with where no longter there.
I tried every other AAA mmo that came out, and none of those offered me that same gameplay.
From Vanilla to Cataclysm - i was there <---yes Shamelessly stolen from Eve
Fast forward to your post OP
Wildstar uses similar style, but if the game is as good as WoW was when i started playing it....then i can only say:
its your loss.
lol believe it or not in 50 years time not all games will be aiming for realistic graphics because their are tons of different styles of graphics and ways to portray a world. I have another name for your trolling "lazy"
Well said
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
No. Put original wow screenshot next to wildstar screenshot and tell me they look anything similar. If you do they think, you have no idea what graphics even mean.
I'm not into large raids either but there are a ton who do like it and enough for a company to target them. Most mmos have gone away from the large raids or flat out dropped them leaving those players in the dust. I prefer even older "old school" mmo traditions but old school raiding is indeed on it's death bed in many games and it seems this developer thinks the audience is worth targeting.
You stay sassy!
The best raids in WoW ever where the 40 man raids.
Not the 25 / 10 man raids...
it was getting this large group of 40 players working flawlessly together.
a single dead could mean a wipe and waiste time and bring frustration.
but completing said raid after manny wipe nights and a steep learning curve brings you not the gear, but the glory that brings brothers together.
Gear is only needed to progress, but the bonds that are made last long....
ive missed this since Nax in Vanilla, and altough some days were heavy with such hard contend, the road to the last boss made it totaly worth it.
Blizzard failed to build on that mechanic, they listened to the casuals wich broke the big guilds down to small guilds.
And forced some players to even put in more time then they needed to invest in bigger raids as the teams became smaller and smaller.
It was a domino effect that rippeld trough the pawn and slowly from that point onwards wow was never the same anymore.
Wildstar introduced this platform as they have developers who not only had acces to raid data back in early wow days, but have seen how community's formed up on servers that lasted for years.
I dont give a fucking rats ass to casuals who wants to be spoonfed with epics and gear with minimal effort.
When i play games i want a challenge so hard that when i stand there in the city people look and see gear that only 1% works for untill the next tier is availeble.
Elitist you say ? not even close.
Work for your pixels, ive never had bad attitude to people willing to learn or invest time.
But the people that want to log in and play 45 minutes and be decked out int he same gear as me made most mmo's wortless...
I was rank 13 extemely close to Rank 14 in Vanilla, but let my friend get it as i knew i was going to take a break.
Wildstar might be that game for us hardcore prestige raiders and pvp'rs that go the extra mile and want to show for it, aint that why we play hardcore mmo's ?
There are so many casual mmo's out there right now, i realy hope Wildstar wont give in to these kind of players and they stick to prestige mmo gameplay.
pvp or pve
Also when i dint raid in wow's early days and saw a guy named Vargur with the warlocks Tier 1 set i wanted to have it.
I joined a raiding guild, builded up friendship and had the best time in WoW.
Took me quite some time to get the full set, but damn what a trip it was.
It works 2 ways
Exactly ... couldn't put it better myself ... and as of yet you can't buy an MMO Pepsi ...time will tell...
I also don't like the style, but it isn't because I "only" like realistic looking games.
If the game actually were highly detailed and quite amazing that would be one thing. From everything that I've seen they are simple and maybe a little whimsical/nostalgic but not really breathtaking.
I remember playing Mario 64 and being blown away by the awesome graphics. It wasn't because they went for realism it is because they put a lot of detail and atmosphere in the game to take advantage of the technology available.
Maybe some wildstar fans could post some screens that exemplifies how this style works well, and is not just an area of the game they neglected.
http://xivpads.com/?1595680
http://guildwork.com/users/murugan
Could you elaborate on this? If it's an attack on WoW's water, then it would be an inaccurate assertion (unless you're talking about their old water). Back in Cataclysm they gave it quite the update.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1hnPbayw60
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ6-XTIBcf4
Though I guess this is a nitpick as to the point of your topic and what others are discussing. It comes down to what you like and if you don't like something, don't play it. Trying to convince people who do like it that they're wrong, or inform them (for some reason) they have bad taste (through implications or directly) won't do much except start a "fanboy" versus "troll" argument with a few good points here and there for both sides.
Most MMOs have lax requirements so that there are more potential customers. Add to that that aesthetics outlast graphics, and a MMO is supposed to last, and one could understand just why most of these games have chosen to go the paths they have. With regards to FFXIV, they promised to update their graphics continuously so that they don't go out of date (though I imagine that will be a huge endeavor in itself). Other games that are "realistic" will realize that they age much quicker as consoles mature and computer technology improve in accordance to Moore's law.
If you expect a game to focus on a particular art style as opposed to being "ultra realistics" it lasts longer in general. We can take a look at Call of Duty and how fans expect that 5-25% improved graphics with each game, or the game "sucks" to a good portion of the fans. With people who love aesthetics, they care less about graphics and more about game play and what keeps them in that game for the long run.