People hate WoW's graphics because they are blocky, cartoony, and the textures are poor. Colors are saturated and the whole world looks bland imo.  Sure the cities are well designed (and crammed into the nooks and crannies of the zones), but that doesn't have anything to do with the graphics. Entering Stormwind along the bridge looks like it came from a Fisher Price kid's toy, how everything looks so square and plastic.

When comparing say City of Heroes or Guild Wars graphics to WoW's you'll notice more details, more work, more shapes, more animation than wow's. Wow's graphics are ok but the other game's are good. Most of the time you don't notice cuz you need to look close to a still object to appreciate all the details of it.

I originally (4 years ago when the game came out) thought WOW's graphics were weird, now I love them. It looks pretty and plays well on crappy old computers. Whats not to love?

After playing some new games with more 'realistic" graphics it's just not all about the graphics. To me good looking and good preformance should be both considered by devs.

In terms of technical quality, World of WarCraft was noticably behind when it released back in 2004, so of course today it is extremely outdated with no sign of improvement in sight.

In terms of style, the matter is, of course, subjective, but in my case I hate the graphical style because, quite simply, I think it is both ugly and silly. I find nothing about any of the races visually appealing. The Humans remind me of American hillbillies, and the Elves... only Blizzard can disgust me with my favourite fantasy race, it seems.

Nothing is subtle with Blizzard. I can't stand that they seem incapable of, or uninterested in, anything subtle, refined, ambiguous, complex, or otherwise pleasant or interesting. Everything is:
 
OMGWTFINURFACELOL!!!!!
 
For lack of a better expression.

The simplest example of this is their use of colour. People often say that Azeroth is colourful, but I must disagree. From the brief time I spend within it, I noticed six colours:

OMGRED
WTFPURPLE
FTWBLUE
GGGREEN
LOLYELLOW
ROFLORANGE

While I don't like WoW, and I'm not a giant fan of it's graphics, make no mistake about the genius behind keeping things a little simpler and not creating a giant curve prejudiced to high end gaming machines.  It hurt Vanguard huge, it will hurt AoC huge, IMO as well.

I dunno, my machine is slightly under min req for Tabula Rasa and i could still afford some eye candy. It's all suggestive really.

Originally posted by pussaykat

I dunno, my machine is slightly under min req for Tabula Rasa and i could still afford some eye candy. It's all suggestive really.

WoW (with B.C.) = P3 800 MHz processor, 32 meg 3d card, 512 RAM

TR= P4 2.5 GHz processor, 128 meg 3d card, 512 RAM

Because nto everyone likes the cartoony look but Blizzard does that well. If you want to see amazing artwork look no further than Arenanet. Guild Wars artwork is amazing.

Originally posted by Vincenz

While I don't like WoW, and I'm not a giant fan of it's graphics, make no mistake about the genius behind keeping things a little simpler and not creating a giant curve prejudiced to high end gaming machines.  It hurt Vanguard huge, it will hurt AoC huge, IMO as well.

I'm not sure that I agree. Vanguard can be scaled down to look as bad as World of WarCraft, but World of WarCraft cannot be scaled up to look as good as Vanguard.

The more realistically oriented style of Vanguard's graphics means that lowering the quality is more noticeable, of course, and that can't be helped, so I agree with you insofar as the highest levels of realism will never be the most popular, but I'm also quite convinced that World of WarCraft released too far in the opposite direction.

Originally posted by Saerain

Originally posted by Vincenz

While I don't like WoW, and I'm not a giant fan of it's graphics, make no mistake about the genius behind keeping things a little simpler and not creating a giant curve prejudiced to high end gaming machines.  It hurt Vanguard huge, it will hurt AoC huge, IMO as well.

I'm not sure that I agree. Vanguard can be scaled down to look as bad as World of WarCraft, but World of WarCraft cannot be scaled up to look as good as Vanguard.

The more realistically oriented style of Vanguard's graphics means that lowering the quality is more noticeable, of course, and that can't be helped, so I agree with you insofar as the highest levels of realism will never be the most popular, but I'm also quite convinced that World of WarCraft released too far in the opposite direction.

You can scale down Vanguard and make it look crappy...but you're still going to be running it on at least a P4 2.4, 128 meg 3d card....vs. a P3 800 and 32 meg card.

That's the difference.  Crappy hand me down laptop owned by college kid=runs WoW.

p.s. and that's WITH burning crusade.

I'll mention this one more time.  Most of the MMO games with high end graphics just don't focus on minor details in world creation.  They only focus ont he people and motion blur with bloom effects. (which I hate GuildWars).

I am currently playing Perfect World and the cities have nicely decorated buildings, but thats all they are.  empty buildgins with a shop keeper in front of it.  The buildings are just dropped in to give a sense of a town and that is it.  The same goes for Lineage 2, Anarchy Online, DAOC, Guild Wars.

When I look at WoW, I see details to their world.  What they lack in high end graphics they replace with details. Right in the main courtyard of Stormwind (by the auction house) is a wagon.  Why is it there?  No reason.  Behind it in the alleys you will see things like buckets, brooms, animated rats moving about, an out of place bush, and all sorts of little objects that make a city look and feel like a city.

Because they seem to be made for a 12 years old kid.

Originally posted by donmaximo

Agreed. The reason most games that attempt to look realistic fail for me is because they end up looking fake. Blizzard was brilliant in creating a cartoonish environment where they could make things look pretty without having to make them look real. In doing so, they naturally created less skeptisim from the player about the immersiveness, while amazingly actually helping in that aspect of the game. Though, now I do agree it's becoming outdated and could use a facelift.

Well said! You hit the nail smack on the head. Blizzard's graphic choice for WoW is indeed brilliant. Everyone talks about how amazing Lotro looks. Well ultimately the graphics fail. For the exact reason donmaximo mentions in his post. At first they are impressive but with time, the desire to make them look so real, ends up making them look fake or plastic. WoW on the other hand creates a new look for their world so your mind does not try to connect the graphic to the real world. What this creates is a stronger sense of immersion. EQ2 suffers from this as well but not to the extent of Lotro. What Blizzard offered in WoW was a consistent visual experience on all levels. Every visual in WoW is handle with the same care and inspiration. In both EQ2 and Lotro some areas are inspired and some feel under inspired or even rushed. The consistency of WoW graphic makes the above mentioned immersion possible. I also believe a facelift is due. However, if this was to happen they need to maintain the consistent cartoony style that they do so well.

Originally posted by eccoton

Originally posted by donmaximo

Agreed. The reason most games that attempt to look realistic fail for me is because they end up looking fake. Blizzard was brilliant in creating a cartoonish environment where they could make things look pretty without having to make them look real. In doing so, they naturally created less skeptisim from the player about the immersiveness, while amazingly actually helping in that aspect of the game. Though, now I do agree it's becoming outdated and could use a facelift.

Well said! You hit the nail smack on the head. Blizzard's graphic choice for WoW is indeed brilliant. Everyone talks about how amazing Lotro looks. Well ultimately the graphics fail. For the exact reason donmaximo mentions in his post. At first they are impressive but with time, the desire to make them look so real, ends up making them look fake or plastic. WoW on the other hand creates a new look for their world so your mind does not try to connect the graphic to the real world. What this creates is a stronger sense of immersion. EQ2 suffers from this as well but not to the extent of Lotro. What Blizzard offered in WoW was a consistent visual experience on all levels. Every visual in WoW is handle with the same care and inspiration. In both EQ2 and Lotro some areas are inspired and some feel under inspired or even rushed. The consistency of WoW graphic makes the above mentioned immersion possible. I also believe a facelift is due. However, if this was to happen they need to maintain the consistent cartoony style that they do so well.

I too, can't see why people think WoW's graphics suck, and although they aren't "ultra-realistic" they are by no means bad.  this may have already been mentioned as i didn't take the time to read every post as this thread is already quite lengthy. but I myself am a 3D modeler/texturer and overall graphic designer, and if you've ever just looked at wow's graphics, they are quite remarkable really. some of the best i've ever seen.

Granted, they aren't normal mapped, they don't have parallax mapping, they don't look like Guild Wars or Crysis or anything, but they are just as if not, even more so amazing.

Blizzard's texture artists deserve a raise...being a 3D modeler its easy for me to see seems, and to see polygons and the basic modeling shapes used, and the great thing with WoW and blizzard in general is that they are great when working with these constraints...you can look at a simple object of theirs, like referenced before in a previous post, a bucket and stormwind...and it looks like a believable bucket. no it may not be perfectly smooth, or have all of the indents that would go with the wood grain, but the way the texture is applied and painted in general, it very easily looks like it could be. and thats just a simple bucket! take the time, walk around WoW, and really just observe, no they may not be next gen, but they are still amazing and the more i walk around WoW and visit new areas, the more I appreciate its graphics.

Originally posted by paulocafalli

Because they seem to be made for a 12 years old kid.

Lol, best comment on this topic, XD

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.

Originally posted by saluk

People who play WoW's are mosty 12 year old kids.