I’m sure it’s been put out there before. Probably many times.
Have there been internal discussions on how to attract more people to the game who aren’t returning for nostalia’s sake?
There was something very special about World of Warcraft when it came out. The interactions between people and guilds, the difficulty leveling, the customization of characters (even if you wanted to try something unusual and non-optimal)
I think it would be great to create an option in the client to make use of all the modern graphics that are possible nowadays while experiencing that original wonder at the world.
I imagine Duskwood with modern lighting, fog, textures, tessellation, updated buildings and trees, monsters/player models, etc. But without changing the original system timing or size. (basically so a person could play the game in either modern or classic graphics) This would really draw in new players.
Otherwise this really feels like a missed opportunity to recreate the game for a new generation (without having to revamp 18 years of extra expansions in the process).
Yes! You are correct.
This is Classic WoW, not Classic WoW Reforged. Please read the stickies to learn more about the philosophy behind the Classic WoW project.
To be honest, I feel like the number of people who would play Classic if only it had the graphics of BfA are rather small.
WoW has never been a game with great graphical fidelity. People who care that much about graphics that they’d refuse to play a game simply because “it looks bad” probably aren’t going to play WoW in the first place.
Not to mention that even in BfA not all of the old models have been updated, and none of the old Vanilla era textures have been changed. Try transmogging yourself into T1 or T2 gear.
That’s what your modern model character would look like in Vanilla.
This has been brought up several times, the search feature at the top is helpful.
A pseudo-blood elf wanting to look pretty in classic. Color my shock.
It does have better graphics than Vanilla.
Not sure if you saw the new client on beta or stress test, but if you set the graphics options to “Classic” in the settings, it sets it to the highest settings as it were back in Vanilla. But that’s only at 3/10 on the graphics scale in this new client - you can still crank it up to 10 and max everything out so it’s way beyond what Classic ever was.
I should note I’m talking about graphical fidelity.
WoW has always had a great aesthetic, and even running the 1.12 client on private servers on max settings on modern hardware at 1080p(even if forced, the 1.12 client wont render at 4k) looks fine provided you aren’t somebody who cares a great deal about graphical fidelity.
Fidelity is more about things like texture resolution, which WoW has never been that great at compared to other games of the same timeframe. Other games in 2016 like Doom or Titanfall 2 blow Legion away in this regard.
Playing the stress test I realized how much better the game looked back then. Everything about it: models, textures, animations, spell effects. It was all superior in the original form. My one complaint is that they have an option for the newer water effects, which look awful. I have no idea why anyone would use that garbage. It looks like a texture error. The old water effects actually have life to them.
Not talking about getting it up to BFA, I’m talking about pushing further. And yes, I’m aware it’s a faithful recreation (in it’s current format). I just think that is a mistake, and I disagree that it wouldn’t draw a lot of people in. Almost everyone I talk to doesn’t want to play wow anymore because of the antiquated graphics (even in BFA). It’s a big turn off for a lot of people who actually miss the game experience itself.
Don’t play with Max graphics… you can’t see ppl in bushes and certain water areas… Vanilla graphic settings are best for a PvPer.
If these people don’t want to play BfA because of the graphics, why would they play Classic which even running all the modern bells and whistles would have lower res textures?
That’s what I mean. Full graphics replacement. (Graphics only) with classic systems and feel
If they wont do it for BfA, they definitely wont do it for Classic.
They don’t consider Classic a major release, and this would be a fairly massive undertaking that would take a lot of resources.
It occurs to me that continuing this line of commentary for me is useless, Blizzard made this decision already and most of the people left in these forums to argue the point are people who agree with them. It’s all good, just my own selfish wish.
The graphics have been upgraded significantly compared to 2004. While it’s not quite BFA, it’s totally not 2004 if you crank it up.
Honestly you’d probably have an easier go of this on General Discussion to get the changes in BfA.
What you’re talking about sounds more or less like a complete overhaul of the graphic engine and game’s textures/models.
Which is simply far outside of the scope of Classic. If it would be good for the game at all is purely academic, because Blizzard just isn’t putting that kind of resources into this project.
Im curious as to how many would also decide not to play classic as a result of the mixed updated graphics models/animations/etc.
Well said. Warcraft was never about graphical fidelity. It was always cartoonish and colorful.
I think it comes from the “GOTZ 2 HAVE 4K” clans. It’s all about numbers.
BotW came out 5 months after the PS4 Pro did and it was only 900p yet broke records.
I for one can tell you if they had the modern character models shudders in Classic WoW, I would certainly not be playing.
Adding an option would be no different than what has been done with, say, the Master Chief Collection for Halo. As long as it’s not forced on anyone, they really shouldn’t have anything to say about it, i.e. no matter how much #nochanges courses through your veins, you can shove it if you’re trying to control someone else’s exclusive experience with Classic.
That said, the principle only holds entirely or not at all – which is something that advocates for BFA’s level of graphics are probably overlooking. Like it or not, the people that are coming to Classic for an authentic original experience should be respected just as much as those that would prefer modern graphics. I can only think of two ways that providing an option for better graphics could violate that.
The first is if upgraded graphics are shown to give a gameplay advantage over those using Vanilla graphics. The obvious case of this would be increasing the max draw distance. A less obvious (and more subjective) case would be upgraded textures, effects, or animations providing greater clarity to only certain players in PvP combat. It probably shouldn’t be widely believed (let alone objectively proven) that turning on modern graphics tends to make people “play better”. This is purely an aesthetic issue.
The second is if the effort entailed for Blizzard to offer the option detracts from basically any other development priority for Classic itself. If there’s something we could be getting instead (even something nebulous like more thorough internal testing of later phases), then I can see very strong arguments against Blizzard bothering to do this. However, development projects this large involve a resource management task that is much more complex than just a raw manpower equation. If they can give us this option and it doesn’t require sacrificing some other potential Classic deliverable, then great!
There’s nothing wrong, in principle, with introducing this option. If you think there is, then you’re taking #nochanges out of context. It’s about the feeling of playing Vanilla. What looked good then looks less good now. And, Classic already has incorporated countless other enhancements that WoW has accrued over the years about which no one complains (e.g. support for 64-bit processors, widescreen with AMD GPUs, significantly more sound channels, accessibility options, modern LUA, protocol and rendering bug fixes, etc.).
As long as it’s not forced on you, it doesn’t give any advantage to people that do turn it on, and it doesn’t cost us any other Classic development… it’s fine.
(Pssst! ACTIVISION? ARE YOU LISTENING? You could even charge us to unlock the graphics option. I would pay for it…)