The WILD Evolution of WoW's Graphics | Xaryu Reacts

[@kurtev]

POV its 2005 and you come back from school to play wow...PRICELESS

[@teej143]

REALITY CHECK: It's 2024, and you HAVE to be an adult.

[@imunfathomable]

Nah fighting my parents for video game time was pure aggravation. Now I'm an adult and can stay up until 4am and get 4hrs of sleep of I fucking feel like it.

[@Arcexey]

@@teej143 second reality check: it's 2024 and wow is not the same game and it sucks now and the magic is gone.

[@chrisc202]

I dont mind the graphical changes of the characters. But why did they fuck up the running animations?

[@valor2746]

No kidding.

[@theUnmorph]

Dracthyr ironically have the worst run cycle in my opinion, it just too cartoony and their arms feel a bit too stiff from a side view

[@justine8398]

Yup, like the female Tauren's when they run, they're leaning forward, and running on the tips of their hooves looking like they're going to fall forward looks dumb as version before MoP was WAY better. The Night Elf males run like their junk is too big looking very stupid when they run, and it took me a long time to get used to those changes. Dracthyr runs on the tips of their feet like they're constantly trying to take flight. Male Worgans run like they are pulling a never-ending sled and female Worgans run just like Dracthyr just a faster version 🤣

[@Kristers_K]

Indeed. The tauren, particularly male, animation stands out like hell. Like who thought designing them tiptoeing, running like flower girls about to topple over was a great idea?

[@peirs3071]

They REALLY fucked up the animations. There's a couple that look fine, but so many look absolutely ridiculous when running now.

[@RaimaNd]

8:43 INSTANT goosebumps from that music alone.

[@5HeadTaste]

TLDR: art is subjective

[@kylesmith987]

For me It is not soo much the updated graphics that i think made the game feel different. I think it is mostly the updated animations, which you could argue go hand in hand. The old animations even with how limited they were had this weighty impactful feel to them. To me i think the point that proves this is how WOTLK clearly had improved graphics but the game still felt the same to play and this is down to the animations being basically the same. I think the biggest offender for why retail wow feels so drastically different to classic wow these days is when they did the massive animation overhaul. I believe they started changing the animations pretty drastically around MoP time frame but I think the largest majority of animation updates happened during the WoD/Legion expansions, they basically overhauled all the animations for basically every class in the game during this time frame. I remember people being pretty hyped about this at the time but now looking back on it I'm not sure it is as well received anymore especially after getting to play classic again. I don't know that I agree that the graphics of current wow are not in the same relative art style as old wow but I do agree that it does feel more cartoony then classic did.

[@jfunn]

The current cartoonish overly colorful graphics of modern wow is a departure of what made classic graphics so timeless and grounded.

Current is not overly colorful, it's the opposite.

[@EternalClouds]

Copium, classic wow graphics are trash and look more cartoonish old man.

[@jfunn]

@@EternalClouds yea you’re not overly emotional about this at all

[@holyrs1575]

​@@jfunnwow classic graphics are cartoonish aswell, what are you talking about

[@rossstars4518]

Retail snowflakes can’t tell the difference lol , retail is garbage graphics what’s wrong with you guys

[@valor2746]

The lost movement animations over the years kills me. Especially Trolls who skip in retail now 🤦‍♂️

[@Trollbane96]

After playing a lot of classic over the past year or so i have to say that the model update really destroyed something. I hate how the modern models are all so "bouncy" with everything they do. And even the faces lost a lot. THere was more variety with the old faces. All of the new ones at least for races like human males just have blank expressions.

[@RaimaNd]

Yeah new movements look soooo stupid... also casting animations etc. :(

[@rovendagod]

the way dwarves and humans bounce around when they run, it's horrible. Night elf males just look ridiculous standing there. People will say it doesn't matter, but you literally play the game through your character, it matters a ton

[@Trollbane96]

@@rovendagod Yup. I'm someone who has always played Humans and Dwarves and again, after going back to classic, it irks me so much what they've done to the retail models. The old movement and animations were so much better. And Night Elf males are really in a bad position too. I remember they DID originally "Fix" their run after the update because it was even worse, but it still doesn't look natural. Outside of the animations though too, they fucked up a lot of the hair styles for Human Males and even Dwarves. Some of them don't even remotely resemble the old ones. Even the colors are different. Dwarves don't have their iconic orange color anymore.

[@rovendagod]

@@Trollbane96 completely agree. I wish they kept the same or similar animations and just maybe upgraded the textures a bit if they were going that way

[@barrelz8646]

the real final answer is that wow in it's entirety has great art style, and rest is just preference. I am one who loves classic art style as well as the modern dragonflight one, yes you can argue that races look more " cute " now which i do definitely see and it's not as gritty as it was but in reality wow in all it's expansions is immersive, and has great art style.

[@mllohrma]

The newer versions dont feel immersive to me cause everything is glowing and outlined when classic felt like I hace to use my eyes

[@BrodyCanuck]

You can turn that off if you mean the outlining when you hover your mouse over stuff.

[@BrodyCanuck]

@@joe8133 no clue what you're talking about. I've never seen that before

[@aceej3079]

the music for the Wrath trailer gives me goosebumps everytime I hear it

[@dannyp9210]

The Classic graphics style is better. Retail looks way too much like a Disney or Pixar-production, and lacks the "grittiness" of the old games.

[@teej143]

I kinda agree with you when the noticeable difference in art style started.. in WoD. But with respect to the "cartoony", wasn't Warcraft cartoony from the start and they just polished it? Even in the original solo RPGs, the models looked more like animated board game pieces, which I thought was the entire point. I think people have the different expectations on what WoW should look and feel like, and the people who don't like the 2024 style probably expected WoW to be more like Elden Ring when they say "WoW is soft". Whimsy has always been in Warcraft's DNA.

[@holyrs1575]

He is just coping out of nostalgia, the new charachter models are just improvements over the old ones

[@huntersmith9344]

Old orc is chad. New orc is awful even before you see them bounce around. Undead is literally the only race (that matters) that was improved

[@BrodyCanuck]

It was cartoony, but not goofy/disney style cartoony. It had a more serious cartoony look to it...the new models have a goofy/disney non-serious style look to its style.

[@a1kron]

Retail WoW is not trying to get realistic tho, its just improving the current cartoonish graphics to a higher resolution. I get Xaryu's take but it makes you think that modern wow is drifting away from cartoon graphics to realistic graphics, in which is not the case imo

[@Kerbz012]

If anything it’s drawing too much towards a cartoonish Disney/fortnite style where the game in general looks all trolly-wolly. It’s a direction that took much of the ‘Warcraft’/badass fantasy away, and I think the point Xaryu tried to get across (albeit not too clearly) is that many would be interested to see them take a more Warcrafty art style approach with more polys, keeping more of the serious, dangerous, pristine feel to it.

[@radonite90]

You are wrong, in the new models one thing is missing: Chris Metzen.

[@fwam2k7]

The difference between WoD and DF is insane, they’ve come leaps and bounds. I absolutely love the new style of cosmetics, I just really really want to see them re-release some of the older sets like they did with ToS. I’d happily keep redoing the mage tower for updated cosmetics so they aren’t just free.

[@trysephiroth007]

Xaryu loves Classic so much he even sees a screenshot of WoW and says it looks worse than WoW to defend his game.

[@markmichael6529]

1 of thes reasons i refunded dragon flight was the dialog was all feeling like a disney xpac

[@RaimaNd]

Old models are much better. Not just the models itself but also how they moved, fought etc. I hate retail animations/fighting/models so much.

[@sholandia]

I agree 100% with Xaryu. I love the classic art style (and sound effects) of vanilla, TBC and Wrath. Part of the reason why retail does not have the same appeal to me as the classic versions of the game is that the modern presentation no longer has that rugged feel of World of Warcraft. I still enjoy playing retail but I wish it felt more like classic. It would be cool if Blizzard provided a visual toggle option for older expansions up until MoP (including character models, zones, transmogs, etc.), and allowed the community to customize the visuals and sound effects of post-MoP content through addons.

[@Terry.M.I.]

love how i can sit through the video disagree the whole video and still like the video and watch the next because people have different preferences and i get to watch what a classic enjoyer thinks about the game i still love playing retail

[@atelierbagur3831]

Naw man Xaryu only says shit like to keep himself look good. I mean heck just look at the chat during the parts that he disagrees. Chat is full of suck ups and kiss asses that start talking down at the video and calling them a dumbass for not agreeing at somebody who's clearly biased with WoW. I dont even know why I keep watching these videos, I mean sometimes Xaryu has some alright opinions but the dude tends to be too dismissive and the chat follows with that attitude and makes the rest of the reaction just hard to watch. I guess Im a sucker for shit content

[@TheShooWee]

"Inferior for it's era" Yes very true. I don't know why WoW in that era is always compared to things like runescape and EQ, a web browser mmo with no dreams of where it is now in OSRS, and an at that time 'old' mmo in EQ. WoW was "new" then and was competing with the current and very soon to come titles. In an era where consoles were really starting to pop off as well. Very big yes it's true. If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone talk about WoW's terrible graphics back then I'd be old money rich

[@marv4312]

The old graphics just look like the warcaft 3 graphics and that is what i like so much

[@lebowski3748]

Graphical fidelity =/= artstyle

[@julius_1200]

This.

[@Trevan2412]

Worgen and goblins weren't originally as high-rez as they are now. They were updated in BfA. Also, there WAS a checkbox to go back to the old character models but they had to remove it in Legion when they overauled a lot of spell animations and keeping the old models would've just been way too much work for how few people were using them.

[@Andy-xd5dj]

I am pretty confident had wow not gone in this very stylistic cartoony direction it would have suffered much more significant player losses over the years

[@kamranjasimov1056]

Me personally enjoying the graphics upgrades wow having. And yall need to keep in mind that “it’s not final! They keep trying to improve yes very slow but they doing it and im so proud of them. I really wish they will improve further and find a way to take facial features from disney style back to warcraft realistic style by keeping same high quality modeling”

[@trxe420]

I don't know, I am a classic fan boy, it's the version of wow I still play. For me though, I actually really like the retail wow textures. I think they look great while still not straying too far from wow's style. I am probably alone in that, but I think the current wow art team is goated.

[@Uchiha_Cloaky]

what are you arguing for ? this ain't a subject to talk about and do such a drama.. this is wow retail now, love it or hate it, this is it's graphics now if you don't like it.. there are a lot of its versions with the old ''art style'' (sod classic, hardcore, wrath..idk) you said that the game has ''art style'' that does not necessarily needs to be ''good''... well then, don't say retail graphics looks cartoony or idk the conclusion is, its a video game, and man, if you are saying that this is a reason why people quit the game... you should not be serious.. wow lost it's popularity in cata.. and its a ''good/warcrafty'' graphics that you love... it should be more popular right!? why did it went down then ? and why millions of players still playing the ''bad/cartoony'' game now... it must be another reason ..therefore, what are we arguing for? we have been playing this game since 2000's we are adults now, who cares about these things, just have fun we are not playing it 24hrs a day like we used to do, what i'm trying to say with this is, just don't focus on these things now PLAY WHAT YOU LIKE you have multiple wow versions now enjoy the rest of your gaming experience before having more responsibilities and wont be able to play.. ty for reading this and sorry about any grammar/vocabulary issues. English is hard :')

[@JustPlaytheTrack]

Had to pause at 4min at google Elder Scroll Oblivion screenshots. Had no idea the textures were so good at the time!

[@fwam2k7]

You’re capping comparing the original wow graphics to GW1.

[@TheRobochicken5494]

higher texture res is good, i think everyone agrees. The change in art style however is a very subjective topic. I completetly agree that right now or since WoD the new models look way too cartoony and that environments look way too generic and same-y in every expansion. Some fidelity was lost that gave older wow models a greater lvl of detail. I think what mainly makes the newer models look so cartoonish and especially the new animations is that they are very expressive and way over the top.

[@julius_1200]

This. Also, already back in the day people complained about the "same face syndrom" of the pandaren. Now all char models suffer from this.

[@Neal_YouTube]

The most immersive expansion? BFA. Horde side. Zuldazar.

[@mllohrma]

Classic was probably the most immersive to me. Felt really odd at some point. I really dont like the increased animations like I am some super hero. Id rather play as myself or a normal person for the world.

[@jamesg9468]

Ever since the character model updates in WoD, I felt like I lost my connection to my characters. They weren't mine anymore. Like if you had a son who came home one day and said "dad, I'm a girl now". Anyway, Vanilla Undead Male casting animations are the GOAT.

[@julius_1200]

Felt the same 😢 I was hoping animations and faces would be the exact same, just higher fidelity. They messed up..

[@bloodfire7247]

Why classic people love hating everything about retail though? Whenever Xar plays I always see some grade A knob saying vile stuff about retail players, like how toxic and non-social we are. Meanwhile, I just started playing LK/Cata classic until War Within comes out, and I had about 8 times more toxic experiences in random groups than over on retail. It's like classic players have this idea that they're the superior OG gamers, yet half of these 99 parser loud mouths couldn't do more than 2-3 Mythic bosses in a retail raid, grey parsing on the way, and that's being generous. I started playing in 2006, but I'd pick retail graphics, and retail community on any day of the week.

[@riverfilms4548]

I hate everything, but I don't care what others prefer. I mean it's totally subjective. As someone who played the old Warcraft RTS games and read the books first. Retail lost the style of these old days and this is/was the Warcraft I like. Meaningful Stories and Characters. But I can understand that there are things, that people like about retail.

[@Foxcs_]

classic to mop was the better version imo

[@nightknight7748]

I think its less about the models and more about how vibrant the game became overtime from using more dull colors to bright ones changing the looks from being less gritty and more happy

[@Aureliants]

Agreed, with WoD the characters felt stupidily worng wrong to the point i never ttouched retail again.

[@muukun4053]

As person who started playing wow in OG TBC graphics definitely IMPROVED WITH TECHNOLOGY I don’t think it was so on ART STYLE change but as progression of technology? I don’t mind retail graphics and also don’t mind vanilla graphics each has their own flavour that shows time skip that we talking about 20 years of development.

[@riverfilms4548]

It's both. And it is very interesting that the will to just "update" the graphics can change the whole artstyle and feeling of the game. Maybe this was intentional and if you like it or not is totally subjective. I hate it on WoW tho. Even tho I can clearly see the overall quality of the Textures are more detailed and sharper, it lost the original Warcraft Feeling which was dark and rough.

[@aaronjohnson2215]

Major improvement hsppened in Wod. There is nothing wild in this evolution. It looks acceptable but way below today's standards. It's for multilayer performance but still the engine is ancient. On the other hand it's quick and easy to design things so simple so this is also a factor. Yeah I like wows art style but it's still simple. Should be closer to Overwatch imo, still with it's unique style. I mean more what effects engine can show.

[@Aurazan]

Honestly, I strongly disagree. WoW was always cartoonish. It just went from janky cartoonish to just cartoonish. It was never anything else. I remember hating those faces back in Warcraft 3 even. I was like "What is this crap? What is this awful mouth on this guy? Why does everyone look and move like a monkey with a stroke?... Well at least the game is good". Early Warcraft and WoW graphics were always just straight up awful to me. Proportions, designs, colors are always off everywhere, especially on armors in Vanilla. It's like someone puked all over the model and called it a day. Now they are just, kinda acceptable I guess? I wish it was less disney'ish though. Also Minecraft is the worst example ever since the first thing everyone I know does when coming back to Minecraft (me too) is install ReShades, ray-tracing, texture packs, environmental animation mods and so on. Minecraft is straight up unplayable for me without those cause it's ugly as hell without them.

[@Johnny_Bea_Good]

In 2004 WoW's graphics were AMAZING especially if you compare it to City of Heroes or Everquest 2

[@cameronmullen2126]

You have to remember with the Graphics we are RENDERING An entire world on Internet that just surpassed Dial up. Talking 1.5mb/sec to 8Mb WAS FAST dude, its conceptually crazy

[@90VYD]

think back to how spectacular fire mage spells looked on war within alpha - that's where graphics make a diference. that is in a different universe compared to classic fire mage spells graphics

[@filipfenix]

I do agree, the style of the old graphics is lost in the new "realims" looking attempts.

[@deenman23]

they rly rly,should bring back the option to toggle,some races models movements gives me motion sickness,and in some cases the new models are either broken TO THIS DAY,like undead male,or derpy like night elves

[@rossstars4518]

Orc male is so bouncy when it runs I get sick and can’t play it

[@huntersmith9344]

Undead is literally the only class that looks and moves better than its classic version... They took the stick out of the ass. Every other race got a big fat stick WAY UP THERE. And a tuba soundtrack to match their fairy gait.

[@stephenschneider4221]

Old graphics felt rugged and scary. Then they Disney-fied everything. Now dwarves skip around like they are from Snow White.

[@leftyscissor]

Half-Life 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Far Cry all came out in 2004. So, yes; if you weren't bought into the low-poly, cartoonish art style, it was very offputting -even by 2004 standards. I've personally come to love that style but it was definitely a speed bump at first -particularly as someone who'd never played anything similar.

[@CupcakesCampbellYT]

Most immersive experience is hands down CLASSIC

[@Tiberius4500]

This is a discussion I have had with my friends a lot lately, especially with SoD and classic being around. Why does retail feel so different and NOT wow like in many ways, what detracts from it that makes it not as interesting and immersive. I think we have narrowed it down to several things, some of which Xaryu touches on. 1. Massive overall of character animations for players and NPCs. These animations are far more "Punchy" and more arcade like. They typically are very fast movements, faster than you would normally move. In classic doing an ability would use an animation that takes the entire GCD in many cases, making it feel more weighty. In moder wow many times your animation finishes quickly making a disjoint between the ability cast and your GCD. Because of this, many attacks and abilities do not feel as impactful. Character movements/animations feel more arcady than in classic. Yes classic characters could be stiff at times, but they felt more grounded. 2. Soundes. Many of the sounds in retail have been changes and they are more "popping" they feel less dynamic in many instances even if they are more dynamic. They try to do too many things. My friend complains about the pally sounds all the time saying that they are more tin-like or high pitched, the lost some of thier strong base quality. Why is it when we think of sounds many times we think of classic sounds. For me, devouring plague, chain lighting, mind blast, warrior charge all these sounds that where singularly focused but fulfilled what they needed too. 3. Environments: They are large and look way more detailed and immersive, but in many cases way too overpowering. Every section of land is used causing alot of visual clutter. The STYLE has changed as well. I don't know how else to describe it outside of cartoony. Sure wow was cartoony, but if you look at classic it was also grisly. They went for horror in many instance. Now if you go back and play, things like ghouls are not as angular but also look more like a cartoon drawing than an attempt of a scary representation that had graphic limitations. 4. Spell animations: many of the animations have been overhauled and not all of them are bad, but alot of them have become more graphically cartoony for more of a fast paced arcade style gameplay. To be good a graphic doesnt have to be complex. I feel like many of the ability spells are overly flashy intentionally, but the color palette used in them are far more abrasive then classic. They are punchy in your face. Or in some instances they have devolved which is strange, like shaman lightning bolt or chain heal. They are 2 D graphics streched. 5. Immersion: you can turn this off, but my default character and item highlights make this game feel like a phone game, everything points and tells you where to go and what to do. And there are so many things to do at all times it gets overwhelming and confusing for new players. Anyways I know its a long read and I doubt many will read it but, this is what I have observed and why in many cases I like classic more.

[@steamedturtle]

I don't understand how the old is "warcrafty" and the new is "cartoony," especially just by looking at a static model. Warcraft, going back to Vanilla and Orcs & Humans has always been an over stylized, cartoony style - that's what makes Warcraft's graphics more timeless. It ages better than games that go for realism because once graphics capabilities improve the realistic style looks dated much quicker. Back to WoW: The new WoD & Legion updates just iterated on the original design. Where there are some differences are in the animations. They're more fluid and bouncy. Is that what some people don't like?

[@HarleyAMV]

Oblivion was made for the Xbox 360 which had a 3 core 3.2GHz CPU with 512MB memory and a GPU equal in power to the Geforce 8000 series, which was when "Can it run Crysis" was a meme. WoW was made for Windows 98 and could run off a 1 core Pentium 3 at 800MHz with 256MB RAM and a Geforce 2 GPU. WoW SHOULD be compared to Morrowind, at best! (Which was made for Xbox with a Pentium 3 733MHz CPU and a Geforce 3 GPU)

[@millerthomas4331]

oblivion also came out in 2006 not 2004, back then technological advancement of games was much faster and impactfull compared to nowadays

[@MrDadutch]

My system wouldn't allow me to play the game until Classic came back because my system wasn't good enough. I think I am not the only one who wanted to play but couldn't because of all the graphic upgrades. I never heard anyone take this into consideration but I believe it's part of the success of classic. People who couldn't play retail where able to play classic again. I am one of them.

[@Mando0Melkor]

The shift from more RPG oriented to a match like game made the game much more procedural than adventure like. Leveling became no more than a nuisiance and mostly unimportant, the amount of covenience and streamlined stuff make the game less integrated and in the end because of this you end up in the open world beeing a waiting lobby for your actual game that is stanced pvp, m+ or raids.

[@MLP4242]

Everquest released in 1999. That's another Era.

[@MrBernabn]

I do agree with alot of what you said, but alot of the "art style" of the classic was confined and restricted to the available technology, because if they could they would made wow on the cinematics "art style". I do not agree on the classic been the "offical" look for wow, its just the look they manage to do at the time.

[@jorickthekek2660]

For 2004 standards the graphics were 100% ragged on and outdated but they were supposed to be to make the world so breathable. WoW was the first game where you could go on forever without a loading screen, the cut corners in graphics and textures were to support that.

[@meyelejuega3602]

I disagree with most of the opinions in this video, i started at early Burning Crusade and i think classic fans have nostalgia googles implanted on their brain, they are autistic enough that they can't accept changes, even if its an improvement on what was already there, the only thing i agree with is that the animations that accompany the new models are bouncy, a gigantic bull beast like a tauren shouldn't go bouncing around, same with orcs, the animations feel weightless, but other than that, saying that classic looked better is just negation, the game looks objectively better and while i personally think the classic era has a specific feel to it, saying that the new models ruined the feel of the game is just wrong.

[@SuzakuX]

EQ came out in 1999. Gotta compare WoW to contemporary games that also came out in 2004/2005.

[@atelierbagur3831]

You had games like FFX that were already much better looking in fidelity than 2004 WoW. The graphical quality were already dated but what held up the game was its art style

[@Phoecian]

As someone who has played Destiny for the better part of 8 years, I can relate to the "it looks better but worse" meaning it lost the main thing, the art style. Destiny 2 looks better than Destiny 1 in nearly every single way. but looks worse to look at due to the loss of art style and the focus of high fidelity. Although the shading and lighting has a lot to do with that

[@logangirot9644]

Even look at the cinematics and how their graphics changed with each expansion. The original wow cinematic, burning crusade, and wrath were all beautiful. You could be forgiven for thinking it was live action. From the characters to environments, I think it speaks to the imaginations of the developers as to what this world really looks like when freed from graphical limitations. Then Cata and onward, all of a sudden our cinematics are much closer to the game graphics, and by MoP the human and orc we see.. well, you wouldn't mistake them for live action, that's for sure.

[@AriinPHD]

today i learned that, according to twitch chat, graphics is everything current retail players care about. interesting.

[@AnthonyStatera]

As a returning player who has spent a lot of time in other MMOs and games, we can compare WoW's graphics with say another MMO like ESO (which is a decade old now). From that comparison point (ignoring the subjectivity of personal preference) WoW graphics look extremely dated. They still look good, but it is certainly a style they are aiming for, ESO is by far a more beauitful game with a more vibrant colour pallet. Of course it has its own problems, its not better than WoW, but from a graphics style, appeal and overall look, its aged far better than WoW over this last decade. In WoWs defence they are standing on the huge shoulders of the tradition and the trend they have set and it runs better on older machines, so looking after your customers is never a bad thing. I am struggling to enjoy the graphics this time around, this is just personal preference now, I use to be really into Transmog and was massively excited when it came out in Wrath, or was it Cata..can't remember, but now I look at the new outfits I think Meh its all lost in the noise. ESO does this way better, with people actually stopping regularily to check out how you have styled your character, along with Housing and Zones, always baffles me how WoW did not adopt ESOs zoning ideas and kept making thier expansions redundant when the new one was released, they wouldnt have issues with the leveling expereince or story if they did.

[@zydian_]

They went from suggestive fantasy and tight animations to walt disney faces and stretchy goofy animations, undead casting animations literally is raped, went from perfect to goofiest animation of them all. Same for spell effects pyroblast is actually pyroblast in vanilla. Pyroblast in retail is fireball or even lower then a fireball. Not to mention the spell sounds. Sinister strike actually sounding like sinsister strike instead of the same *sjling* sound almost EVERY mellee attack now does in retail. its insane

[@ez6791]

guys get xaryu to watch the documentary blizzard made about the making of wow with tons of devs insight

[@ManGrieves]

Everquest 2 was seen as offering much better graphics for the time. WoW was seen as looking as cartoony and goofy, I remember looking at screenshots of Eq2 and Wow and wondering which one I'd play. Half Life 2 also came out in 2004

[@iv9ry]

I think they should just have a toggle button for older/newer character models.

[@dennis20591]

also they made the models look like the movie style which was released kind off at the time wod was released

[@KillerBee300]

As a Draenei give us a better two handed swing animation

[@igorveloso100]

I love the new graphics, but I agree they could change the animation style.

[@rossstars4518]

Mop graphics enhanced would of been perfect

[@Tropicocitwo]

How come this video is so quiet compared to some of my other YT videos?

[@danielrondiras9305]

My english ist not so good, sorry guys. My point here is, the style of the new "Disney" faces are not a problem for me. On the othe hand i have a big problem with the new cast & run animation, i hate them, they running like a hippo! I remember the OG Cast animation from the undead guy, the running style etc.

[@Nightstalker314]

Character animations vary greatly. Male Tauren running looks way better these days while female Troll running never looked that great. Male Human also has a bit too much of a spring in his step. Also: It must be so dire being stuck with the classic purists.

[@tali6479]

I have some friends that didnt play the game because it had cartoonish graphics and that was in 2006 and they were right. WoW always had cartoonish graphics, but it was always uniquely WoW. If you see an image or a video even without UI and sound you know that it is WoW. So yea I dont think that it is more cartoonish now then 18 years ago.

[@BrodyCanuck]

To me they went from looking more serious and badass to goofy cartoon characters with over exaggerated expressions and movements. Graphically obviously look nicer but the style and feeling is worse

[@2o3ief]

Classic and retail have essentially the same style though. One is just higher res, which does change style a bit but its not even close to different styles. Comparing it to the difference between counter-strike and valorant is crazy disingenuous.

[@EternalClouds]

You are wrong. Just old people.

[@warnation2229]

I still use Wrath only mogs on my DK.

[@Neero_90]

the word ur looking for is animations not graphics, they changed the animations and made them terrible back in legion

[@kempe96]

Classic art style is the best. I wish they just upgraded it from there. More realism instead of cartoony overwatch feel.

[@wtfisjuice609]

Yeah the whole "Wow was behind in graphics in 2004..." if they were any better half the audience couldn't even play the game, most normies computers were some bullshit back then, I was getting 3-7 FPS max and I still thought this was the most complex and detailed WORLD I had ever seen.

[@Vruui]

Blizzgive somting to change old/new graphic 😓

[@deenman23]

uhm...phasing is more imersive,thats just a fact,the world not changing AT ALL based on what you do,is the oposite of imersion

[@Insurvx]

To me, GW1 had the best graphics out of all of them

[@profion85]

Xaryu you forgot Lineage 2 (2003) had better graphics than WOW in 2004! Also GW had better graphics too when released in 2005!

[@retributionangel5078]

No one plays wow for the graphics It used to be a grown up comics styl. Now its a childs cartoon. Graphics did not imporve. They just became higher res. Wich speakes more to PC development than to wow. LOS lightning has been largly removed from game. If you equip Staff of Hale Magefire the ground around you lights up. All new Weapons are just a sprite effect on a oversized to big weapon. You used to have noticable weather effects in game. When was the last time you go into a snowstorm in WoW? People are overrateing WoW graphics. Its just more cartoony with resolution increas. You still dont have cromatic effects or speculare maps on anything. Metal in game looks like Grey Plastic. Meat & Flesh is just a pink texture Sound is awfull in WoW People are such Fanboys over WoW. They dont see they are paying monthly for a game that puts out minimal content and has hardly improved in the last 20 years. If you had a subed all this while you would have spend over 3000,-$ on the game. Did you get your moneys worth?

[@baro6447]

i personally prefer the new gen graphics way more than classic, i started playing wotlk. Dragonflight and BFA had the best graphics imo.. my fav zone VISUALLY is stormsong valley.

[@guillaumelabonte2702]

the only problem i see with graphics is that its not dark enough, by dark i mean, blood, realism, diablo kind of dark but not to that level. its too childish.

[@ReyRey277]

It's crazy how yall are really convinced that the 2001 graphics look better lmao

[@riverfilms4548]

Not better my friend, we just like them more. :) Better is a subjective word.

[@RevaNOX32]

bad take Xaryu, WoDs new character models don't look less warcraft they just have more emotion.

[@sleshflex4170]

The graphics are better, the animations are awfull. best way to put it

[@bopo900]

wow graphics are like you playing sims 5

[@imunfathomable]

Oblivion hands down had better graphics. But WoW as an MMO was just fine.

[@Slashresto]

Who honestly plays Zoomed in enough to even see their character models? The ONLY time u see them is when u open character panel or char select screen. What made me start to loose hope for wow in WoD and forward was the asbence of the cartoonish art style that wow has ALWAYS had since vanille > WoD. Dragonflight for example is meant to be more hyper realistic and Sci-fi looking instead of its original cartoonish/Fantasy art style that we had all way to WoD with Dragons beeing Dragons and not scaly birds with beaks and shit.

[@Kanoog]

Chat who are confused on what the point was going to be are just .....SLOW or Trolling. I like SOUTH PARK, I think the art style is perfect for what they are going for, does that mean it's horrible compared to DBZ? NO because South Park would be a massive downgrade with DBZ animation. It's pretty F'N simple logic here.

[@vedranmacarol6216]

I remember in late MOP they gave us a setting to toggle between "old" models and "new" models for races. I wish they kept that setting in, while I still enjoy retail i agree with Xar that the old models looked more Warcraft, new stuff is just too cartoony

[@karkashan]

4:20 WoW 100% looked like ass compared to other (non MMO) games of the time. Graphical quality had to take a massive hit because it's an MMO VS something like Metroid Prime 2, Halo, or Resident Evil 4.

[@YellowBoltTC]

Retail wow looks way better than classic wtf lol it has the same style just higher resolution

[@jfunn]

It doesn’t though. Classic had a more grounded realistic “darker” touch. Not dark, but darker. Retail is cartoonish and Easter egg color palletes.

[@Trollbane96]

I'm not a fan of the modern WoW Artstyle. It feels off in a lot of ways, but when it comes to character models, it feels they've made many of the races look way to soft, jolly, friendly & overall Disney tier. A lot of the grim and menacing faces were removed and replaced with boring and blank expressions. The movement of some of the races feels way too bouncy and animated.