It's probably taking so long, because they're trying to do a major overhaul.

And when you do a major overhaul of how characters that players have had and cherished for 8 years, it's not something to be taken lightly.

In fact, it's a very big and needless risk.

Originally posted by aphydork

It's probably taking so long, because they're trying to do a major overhaul.

And when you do a major overhaul of how characters that players have had and cherished for 8 years, it's not something to be taken lightly.

In fact, it's a very big and needless risk.

Is it a needless risk in another 8 years? 15 years? Just saying, the game gets outdated more and more year after year and it's supposed to attract new players into it to keep it going. Updated vanilla races is something that the game needs badly imo, it just looks stupid silly when an orc and panda stands next to eachothers looking like they are taken from two different games.

I don't get it, is the point just to add polygons, and are armors just skins?  I thought maybe armor had their own polygon sets, etc.  No?

Outside of the face and hands, not sure what models would add when covered with armor.

completely agree that it sucks they pulled this but ever since GC was put in charge things like this are not uncommon. Remember the dance studio? Remember the promised return to vanilla standards? those promises were made in the two other expansions that were made before this one, neither were delivered and they swept it under the rug just like this one.

So....

Not only do they charge for their expansions (something players already pay for in spades btw with the monthly fee), but they don't fulfill their promises to their players, that is of course, unless they lose at least 2 mil subs all at once. (which historically was the reason for Transmog).

I regret not listening to people's warnings, because I was severely disappointed with WOTLK ending and with CATA's ending.  :(

Originally posted by FrodoFragins
Why does it take so long to update player models?  Won't it use the same skeleton and animations, they would just look better and have more polys?  They pick the weirdest things to prioritize.

Not necessarily. The "skeleton" for the pandaren is even more complex than that of the worgen/goblins who were added only an expansion ago. They aren't just looking to reskin their older models, but completely recreate them to be more in line with the complexity of the pandaren. Additionally, if you're going to all the trouble to revamp older models, you may as well come up with some newer animations as well. Many of the animations are very robotic (human 2hander animations are terrible). It seems to be an all or nothing type of scenario for Blizzard.

The reason why it's taking so long is because they are running a skeleton crew for the Live team now. I also remember reading somewhere that the live team and expansion team are now one in the same. So you have the same group working on content patches and hotfixes for the live game, in the meantime they are also working on the next expansion pack. New models just isn't a top priority, which I am ok with. I would like to have new models for old races, because they look pretty old now. At the same time, I don't want it to eat up dev cycles for new content or even bug fixes.

Originally posted by IfrianMMO

As many WoW players know,  before MoP was released, Blizzard announced that they were working  on new and graphically upgraded character models for the old races.

Close to MoP ´s release, they claimed they had the Dwarven models almost done and were starting with the Human and orc ones.

Well,  yesterday they confessed in the US forums, that such thing is not true, that what they said previously was a "misscomunication" and that  they plan to make the new models "sometime in the future" ( they said this in TBC) but that it would require a lot of time and people to do, so it won´t happen anytime soon.

They also confessed it is not true the models the claimed were ready are ready at all, and that they did not even really start on it.

I do not mind content or features being pushed to a later date in favor of different ones, but being downright lied in the face to hype an expansion and then being told it was just a case of "misscommunication" is insulting.

 

OMFG, they really said that. Can you link?

This company is making money hand over fist. And they use the excuse it costs too much money (and time) to upgrade character models.

That is the biggest bullshit statement Ive ever heard.

They're not talking about new animations or whole new characters. All they need to do is up the poly count over the existing models so they dont look like shit.

This is a company that has gotten so greedy that they dont feel the need to provide a better experience to the subscribers because they know they got the hook buried past the barb. They are like a dealer who has provided a good quality product to addict the user and now they are cutting the quality more and more because in the end they know it wont make a difference, they'll keep coming back for more.

Originally posted by Kuinn 

Is it a needless risk in another 8 years? 15 years? Just saying, the game gets outdated more and more year after year and it's supposed to attract new players into it to keep it going. Updated vanilla races is something that the game needs badly imo, it just looks stupid silly when an orc and panda stands next to eachothers looking like they are taken from two different games.

I didn't say people didn't want it, but you have to realize that there are those that don't want it as well. And it is a needless risk, anyway you look at it.

Players do not respond as well to change as you think they do. There's going to be a backlash either way.

Kind of like why Square Enix holds the idea of a FFVII remake over its fans heads and doesn't talk about remaking FFVI. They could potentially ruin those games for a lot of people. Needlessly.

Blizzard isn't dangling it over our heads purposefully--at least, I don't think they are--, but they could spend a lot of time and care into making it, only to create a divide with mixed reviews between people who like and hate it or spend that same amount of time and effort creating new content, which is much less controversial.

Certainly time to rally the villagers, grab some pitchforks, and chase Bliz back to the Castle, for sure.  Burn!

Is this the Drama Du Jour on WoW General then?

Originally posted by IfrianMMO

As many WoW players know,  before MoP was released, Blizzard announced that they were working  on new and graphically upgraded character models for the old races.

Close to MoP ´s release, they claimed they had the Dwarven models almost done and were starting with the Human and orc ones.

Well,  yesterday they confessed in the US forums, that such thing is not true, that what they said previously was a "misscomunication" and that  they plan to make the new models "sometime in the future" ( they said this in TBC) but that it would require a lot of time and people to do, so it won´t happen anytime soon.

They also confessed it is not true the models the claimed were ready are ready at all, and that they did not even really start on it.

I do not mind content or features being pushed to a later date in favor of different ones, but being downright lied in the face to hype an expansion and then being told it was just a case of "misscommunication" is insulting.

 

iirc.  they said they were looking into updating character models,  but and had shelved that idea beacuse people that had grown attached to their characteres after 6+ years might get upset.  if you can provide some hard evidence,  i'd be all ears though.

Originally posted by aphydork

Originally posted by Kuinn 

Is it a needless risk in another 8 years? 15 years? Just saying, the game gets outdated more and more year after year and it's supposed to attract new players into it to keep it going. Updated vanilla races is something that the game needs badly imo, it just looks stupid silly when an orc and panda stands next to eachothers looking like they are taken from two different games.

I didn't say people didn't want it, but you have to realize that there are those that don't want it as well. And it is a needless risk, anyway you look at it.

Players do not respond as well to change as you think they do. There's going to be a backlash either way.

Kind of like why Square Enix holds the idea of a FFVII remake over its fans heads and doesn't talk about remaking FFVI. They could potentially ruin those games for a lot of people. Needlessly.

Blizzard isn't dangling it over our heads purposefully--at least, I don't think they are--, but they could spend a lot of time and care into making it, only to create a divide with mixed reviews between people who like and hate it or spend that same amount of time and effort creating new content, which is much less controversial.

We'll just have to disagree very strongly about this. We are only talking about character models now, but lets say if Funcom re-made the whole AO, new engine, new models, skins, animations, effects new everything to update it today's standards, I wouldnt hesitate to start playing that game again.

In my eyes it's the same principle, just in a lot smaller scale with WoW since we are only talking about a certain aspect of the game. Any time they updated spell effects for example people very happy, almost brought tears into my eyes watching the joy of warlocks when their drains got updated lol :) Maybe someone would rather stay in the old bad looking AO, and I'm certainly some people would, but I will never understand the reasoning of those people.

I dont agree with the "or spend that same amount of time and effort creating new content" either, Blizzard is bathing in money, they can at any point hire extra people to work on certain areas of their game without leaving a scratch on their mountain of money. In theory I understand that they are here to make as much as money as possible and spend as little as possible, but I'm not a greedy person my self so it's hard to really accept that logic so easily. You're certainly a better business person than I am :P

Originally posted by IfrianMMO

As many WoW players know,  before MoP was released, Blizzard announced that they were working  on new and graphically upgraded character models for the old races.

Close to MoP ´s release, they claimed they had the Dwarven models almost done and were starting with the Human and orc ones.

related sources -- Blizzard never said they were almost done

Aug 31 2012

http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/08/31/blizzard-working-on-new-models-of-humans-and-orcs/

Today in an interview with Buffed.de, Ghostcrawler had the following to say:
 

Ghostcrawler and Buffed.de

on September 11, 2012, Blizzard held an AMA

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.

I think it's pretty funny that a lot of people are on here cutting down the OP by saying things like "oh it's like this person has never heard a lie before" or a sarcastic "let's go raid blizzards keep for such heresy" when this is a perfectly logical thing to be upset about.  

Let's not kid ourselves, none of us like to be lied to by developers, and to be lied to by such a massive juggernaut as Blizzard is is even more embarressing.  People have just learned to take what they are given without any backtalk with this game that Blizzard can do whatever they want and still have people come back for more, including lying to everybody.

Reading over the posts there hasn't been evidence shown that the OP is truthful about Blizzard saying they weren't doing it, but they have done this before regardless with the dance studio promise.  No doubt people who follow Blizzard all the time have noticed more lies that they have spoken.

The point is if any other major developer bold faced lied to their community and customers it would be inexcusable, but when Blizzard does it it's just a write off.  People who don't take this shit seriously need some standards.

Ghostcrawler making WoW the new SWTOR.
Wonder how long they will let that man in charge.

People realise this soon enough once the hype of MoP wears off and subs are going down harder then they did in Cataclysm.
Also Annual Pass is about to expire further boosting their so called sub number.

Hate to say it, but the developers working on Titan did a 100000x better job then Ghostcrawler showed for the past 2/3 years.
Kalgan made sure the game remained epic in raids, nothing remains from his legacy.