As long as the current strategy continues to pull in record setting subs, Blizzard will have no incentive to upgrade the graphics.

Truthfully, few people avoid WOW strictly  because of its graphics (there's always other reasons as well) and the cost to create a high rez client would not be offset by a gain or retention of subs.

One day this may change, but this is not that day.

Originally posted by Dreamstrider

Originally posted by ghettobooste

Here is the thing, I don't give a crap about some poor ghetto kid with a p3 800 and voodoo 3dfx card trying to play the game.  I want it to look awesome and be able to hold its own against the competition in the next few years. 

It would be a great move for them to make a High Res client, and it would definately add a few more years to WoW's life.   So yeah they should, it's the best selling game of all time and they keep it around alot longer that way.

 

I have to say that I don't only disagree with this, but I would actually go as far as say that you are wrong. Here's why:
Developing a hig res client would take a huge effort and would only cater to a small user group (people like you and me who either make lots of money, or who have a rig because we work with graphics) The so called enthusiast segment is extreemely small in comparison to what is called the "main stream" segment. The main stream segment have computers capable of running wow on high graphics, but that's about as far as it goes. As a final comment, I would like to add that I believe one of the big problems in the PC game industry is that they are pushing the graphics part too fast and therfore limiting sales to those that have money to upgrade their rig once or even twice every two years.

I bet over half the WoW userbase has a computer capable of handling over twice the workload of what WoW currently takes... And whose to stop blizz from keeping current servers as "Low res" and then creating new servers for the "High res" and giving everybody and there mom a free server swap, "1 time" exclusively for the purpose of going to a high res server, but no inbetween low res server swapping. It is just like, "Dare I say it" Runescape... And it worked with runescape, they had traditional old graphics servers,  and the new and enhanced, slightly better but still crappy graphics servers...
 

It's curious that only a mere 2.5 months after the disaster of Age of Conan our players already seem to forget that so called "Hi Res" graphics don't mix well with MMORPG's.

Putting 25 Gigabyte of data into 256/520 MByte graphics cards isn't the ideal solution for open seamless worlds of MMORPG's.

The client couldn't keep up with it in Conan, so FunCom clearly showed the limits there.

Go out on the web and search for the End game Sieges of Conan and see the 3 frames per seconds (on 9800 cards !) and awful resolution.

So unless you want long loading screens, instances, copys of zones and still more loading screens, you are indeed limited in playing MMORPG's.

I can't blame some players they don't understand this simple limit, but you can blame developpers who try to sell loading screens in MMO's, just to have a few pixels more.

 I bet over half the WoW userbase has a computer capable of handling over twice the workload of what WoW currently takes... And whose to stop blizz from keeping current servers as "Low res" and then creating new servers for the "High res" and giving everybody and there mom a free server swap, "1 time" exclusively for the purpose of going to a high res server, but no inbetween low res server swapping. It is just like, "Dare I say it" Runescape... And it worked with runescape, they had traditional old graphics servers,  and the new and enhanced, slightly better but still crappy graphics servers...

Once again I have to say that I believe you are outright wrong. I wish that I could post the source of this to back up my statement, but I can't seem to find the interview with the CEO of Stardock. Apparantly they had done heavy research into the computer specs of the average gamer rig, and they were quite surprised that a lot of people still play games on what is now considered very low end.

Originally posted by Chillingham

It doesn't really need it yet. But do you tihnk Blizzard will make an upgrade to all the graphics eventually?

Umm.  Look at the history of games which went after massive graphical upgrades this far into the game's lifespan.  Almost all such endeavors, at best, failed with minor bad press, and at worst, made things far worse.  Runescape and UO are two examples of horrible attempts.  EQ is a good example of an attempt which merely got them a bit of bad press.

What you don't realize is that merely updating the engine isn't going to provide nearly the kind of improvement you want.  WoW's main fault at this point is its low poly count, and redoing model geometry across the board is simply impossible.

So, at best, they could add some minor features which would improve the look of the game.  I think realtime shadows will help a lot in that regard.  The only other feature I want now is HDR.  At least I think I want it.  I might end up hating that.  A lot of zones are bordered by generic mountain range #293, and being forced to see that in the distance at all times might look even worse than the gray outlines we have now.

Blizzard said they are always talking about upgrading WoWs engine but dont have time or resources. Yeah, Blizzard has a lot of money but no matter how much money they have are still bound by laws of physics. Redoing the all the graphics for an MMO as big as WoW would take a lot of people a long time to do. Blizzard could hire in a ton of new people to help but would that be worth it in the end?

Also, have you people actually really looked at the graphics in WotLK? The graphics are about 2 times better than old WoW. The modeling is better and smarter and the texture mapping is in a completely different league.

One way that Blizzard could sorta upgrade is to keep the third expansion on the same level as WotLK and bring old WoW and TBC up to the same level as WotLK.

However Blizzard does it WoW will need a graphics upgrade at least once in it's lifetime and it would be better if it wasn't at the end of it.

I don't think we (general public) really understand the magnitude of server bandwidth problems a game like wow can face. Just yesterday I was reading a dev reply on the wow forums about increasing the number of debuff slots on NPCs, because of the additional class. The dev's reply was that yes, they were aware of it, but they are still looking for a good way to introduce it, because it eats up alot of additional bandwidth.

So just think for a second if they have to weight out and "figure out" how to set up a think that we players just see as an additional icon beneath the NPC when we firght them, how big impact has the bigger poly count for example.

And WoW does get better graphics every expansion, It just seems they really weight out how far they can go at any given time, probably calculating in how the minimal computer setups changed in the years since the last expansion and tweak the engine accordingly.

I would love to see the old areas be re-worked though. Yesterday I was moving through Feralas for the first time in years, and the last time I was there there were no weather effects, and my computer was somewhat worse so I couldn't have everything on full. I felt it looked really beautiful, raining and fog and those big waterfalls. It was really pretty in the WOW way. One thing I also think wow Blizz has figured out more than any other game is how to place the character inside the enviroment. The character I am controlling really feels like a part of that enviroment, instead of feeling artificially placed in the playfield.

I think there is alot left that can be done in the soundscape of the game though.

Originally posted by Moodah

I don't think we (general public) really understand the magnitude of server bandwidth problems a game like wow can face. Just yesterday I was reading a dev reply on the wow forums about increasing the number of debuff slots on NPCs, because of the additional class. The dev's reply was that yes, they were aware of it, but they are still looking for a good way to introduce it, because it eats up alot of additional bandwidth.

So just think for a second if they have to weight out and "figure out" how to set up a think that we players just see as an additional icon beneath the NPC when we firght them, how big impact has the bigger poly count for example.

I don't think their problem was quite what you think it was. That sounded like a cost effectiveness and mechanical issue. They aren't hurting for money so badly that they are splitting hairs over that, they just don't want tp put to much money and effort into it.

And skins, which I think most people mean by graphics update for old WoW, are not the same as polygon increases.

For a polygon count increase, better art, etc, I don't think that will ever happen in WoW. As you described, they are apparently trying to keep cuts into profits minimal already.

Originally posted by DeserttFoxx

It doesnt really need it, of course it wont get it. Blizzard is a sequel company, they will make WoW 2 before they revamp WoW.

FTW

its fine the way it is IMO. .. graphics dont make or break a game its the gameplay/funfactor that does. the art direction is good, same with Diablo 3. A more realistic style would be wrong directions from previous warcraft games

WoW's weakest feature is its community, and this is what will prevent a graphical upgrade.

WoW is full of slobs who can barely turn their PCs on, let alone know what spec mean or how to put together or purchase a quality PC.

The upside of this is Blizzard will always have the money to develop quality content.  The downside is of course they will often cater to the common denominator and try to make sure they include as many people as possible in the game, even if those people drag down the experience for others.

Originally posted by miichael

its fine the way it is IMO. .. graphics dont make or break a game its the gameplay/funfactor that does. the art direction is good, same with Diablo 3. A more realistic style would be wrong directions from previous warcraft games

I don't think people are talking about a different art direction at all, just improved and crisper skins and enivronments. For example, look at the WAR screen caps. Same style, but much more detailed and crisper.

As far as making or breaking the game, it absolutely does. Poorer graphics/skin details require you to put more effort into playing the game, especially after you have just played a modern release game. You just don't realize it at the time.

Originally posted by Gazenthia

Originally posted by miichael

its fine the way it is IMO. .. graphics dont make or break a game its the gameplay/funfactor that does. the art direction is good, same with Diablo 3. A more realistic style would be wrong directions from previous warcraft games

 

I don't think people are talking about a different art direction at all, just improved and crisper skins and enivronments. For example, look at the WAR screen caps. Same style, but much more detailed and crisper.

As far as making or breaking the game, it absolutely does. Poorer graphics/skin details require you to put more effort into playing the game, especially after you have just played a modern release game. You just don't realize it at the time.

WAR gfx look awful, like they took WoW and tried to make it look "mature" and failed miserably.   WoW gfx look very stylized and have a cool comic feel, WAR just looks boring.  Don't hate blizzard cuz you guys love to blow thousands of bucks on pcs to play crap like AOC.

Originally posted by ShinJezus

WAR gfx look awful,<..>

The entire subject of your post is irrelevant; it has nothing at all to do with the point I was trying to make.


I was using WAR as an example of art-direction that isn't "realistic", but the "comic book" style of WoW. While you may not like how it looks, there are definitely more and finer details in the skins and environment. WTF, exactly, do you think people are talking about when they say they want an update to the WoW models if it isn't that?
 

Graphics? Nah, why? Frankly, I couldn't give a crap, just like a bunch of people...don't give a crap. (obviously, people still play the game)

I hear the detail in Northrend looks smoother, talking about the upcoming expansion, but Blizzard is more about trying to bring more content. Personally speaking, they're doing fine in my opinion. Their only problem is that they have to many whiney customers who think that there is a, "auto add anonymous content button." even though they have a bajillion people who work on the game, the game doesn't make itself.

Graphics have to be passable, but a good game is what people want to play.

Originally posted by Narcin1

Graphics? Nah, why? Frankly, I couldn't give a crap, just like a bunch of people...don't give a crap. (obviously, people still play the game)

I hear the detail in Northrend looks smoother, talking about the upcoming expansion, but Blizzard is more about trying to bring more content. Personally speaking, they're doing fine in my opinion. Their only problem is that they have to many whiney customers who think that there is a, "auto add anonymous content button." even though they have a bajillion people who work on the game, the game doesn't make itself.

Graphics have to be passable, but a good game is what people want to play.

Here are some shots I took from Wotlk, this is from just 1 zone.

Ill let you guys decide if this is an improvement.

Nice long draw distance

Lots of stuff going on here at the allaince base

New dynamic shadows (screenshot not take in outlands BTW)

Some more screens ( not by me )

Those are some nice screen shots. It's nice to see Blizz take it up a notch. are you sure that's just from one zone? I mean, looking at the northrend map I knew the zones would be big, but that's impressive.

lol nightelf.

well at least it isn't bloodelf I guess.

Originally posted by Narcin1

Those are some nice screen shots. It's nice to see Blizz take it up a notch. are you sure that's just from one zone? I mean, looking at the northrend map I knew the zones would be big, but that's impressive.

The screen "not by me" are different zones.. i added those later.. should of made that clear.

One thing that's been on my mind lately is it would be nice if they paid a little attention to the water now after boosting up the shadows and other little things for wrath.

The water looked sub par back when the game released, and now...water effects have come a long long way since then.  It bothers me that there is no shoreline waves and the water itself is so evidently tiled and flat looking.

Underwater looks good, I don't think that needs anything, but the surface of the water could be spruced up and given new life, ultimately improving the way the game looks overall.  Just adding some whitewash effects in at the shoreline, maybe some better tiles to make the water more convincing, it's one little thing they could squeeze in graphically that would go a long way to improving the looks of the gameworld imo.