I think WoW looks very good considering its age, especially the newer zones.  It really looks like a 3D animated Disney film.  The decision to go with the stylized art direction was a huge benefit.  Blizzard has some very talented people working in their art department.  Even other games that attempt a stylized art direction (99% of MMORPGs released after 2004) seem to graphically age far faster.

I do think the character models need an update though.  The human models are abysmal.

I hadn't checked out WoW in a few years and watched some pals playing MOP. Still looked alright to me. It's stylized as far as the art goes, but WoW's animation is still pretty top notch. 

Originally posted by Zeus.CM
Don't foget that engine is really old now, it is very limited today and don't expect wonders.

I think the engine is actually still really viable, and since it's built in-house, they don't have to wait for major revisions for newer features.  What's needed is just higher polygon models and maybe some better animations.

Originally posted by DavisFlight
Its needed an update since it launched, and has never gotten one. Why would they do it now?

Cata never happened, right? right?

Originally posted by azrael466

Originally posted by DavisFlight
Its needed an update since it launched, and has never gotten one. Why would they do it now?

Cata never happened, right? right?

Let me rephrase.

WoW has looked out of date and hokey since the day it launched. None of its graphics updates have ever brought it up to par. Now instead of looking like its from 2000, it looks like its from 2005.

Originally posted by DavisFlight
Its needed an update since it launched, and has never gotten one. Why would they do it now?

^^^ this ^^^.  That is unless you seriously liked the cartoonish BS in the first place.

Originally posted by Xiaoki

 

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Originally posted by azrael466

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Originally posted by Xiaoki  

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Originally posted by azrael466 There are rumors going around that they're going to give all the races a model update to match the increased polygon count that pandarian models have.   Not sure if its been confirmed, but there's that. Full game graphical update? don't count on it.

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They are working on a graphical update for the playable races. Blizzard has said that Dwarves were the first to be finished.   Just dont expect them to be released until the next expansion.

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I don't see why, sure graphical updates are a huge thing worthy of an expansion, but blizzard as never struck me as the type to hold something like that back for an expansion if it was ready almost a full year, unless it's specifically made FOR the expansion; IE, pandarians, professions and the like.

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So they can use the graphic update as a major bullet point for the expansion.

 

Also, what Blizzard are you talking about? This is Ghostcrawler's WoW now. He doesnt want anything major to be changed or released mid expansion.

Blizzard added transmogrification in between expanions and that was something players wanted for a long time. Same with the raid finder, same with void storage, same with the new darkmoon faire.

As for the OP's question:

While WoW makes some minor changes to it's graphics. Water and trees look far better than they did in vanilla. I am curious if there has ever been a game that changed it's graphics engine. (Which WoW would have to do to make any significan graphic changes to the game)

Originally posted by Johnie-Marz

As for the OP's question:

While WoW makes some minor changes to it's graphics. Water and trees look far better than they did in vanilla. I am curious if there has ever been a game that changed it's graphics engine. (Which WoW would have to do to make any significan graphic changes to the game)

Maybe EQ but I may be wrong.  It's been a very long time since I played that game and if they did it was after I canceled my sub.

Originally posted by Xiaoki

They are working on a graphical update for the playable races. Blizzard has said that Dwarves were the first to be finished.

Just dont expect them to be released until the next expansion.

last i heard, Humans and Orcs are first

source:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2923-Developer-AMA-Live!

I am eagerly awaiting the redesigned Orc and Human models because as said during Gamescom, if these first two are successful then you’ll move onto the other races. My question is thus: do you plan on keeping the animations the same or develop something different?
Part of doing new models would have to be doing new animations. The pandaren are just capable of so many more evocative or even charming animations than the older models with their older rigs can do. Obviously, that makes the task bigger, but that's what we'd like to do.

If you skipped WOW or Minecraft solely because of the graphics/low-polys then you did yourself a disservice.

How many people would have skipped EQ for the same reason?  I'll admit I skoffed at their graphics, but I skipped it becasue of teh time commitment required and where I was in life were incompatible.

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Originally posted by Impeator101
I hope by the next expansion the entire World/Models will have a major graphics update. I heard they were gonna redo the race models first but when will they do this? The Character creation system really needs some work. I wanna adjust facial features and want it to be very detailed like Skyrims Character creation, they should have height adjustments to.

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why would they need to? would it generate more profits to offset the cost?

Originally posted by nsignific

 

I'm running everything at max (ultra) and honestly, it looks better than the low poly / high shader GW2 fiasco.

 

Miles better.

 

i almost choked with hot chocolate when i read this.