In the context of World of Warcraft, how much do aesthetics such as character design, armor appearance, spell effects, and the overall visual style of the game actually matter to players when compared to game-play mechanics, progression systems, writing or community interaction?"
I mean, there is a reason why we are playing WoW and not OSRS.
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To me? Quite a bit.
I like feelinā flashy.
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Overwhelmingly, my priorities are making my Characterās Race, Class & Appearance feel cohesive. I donāt want to look pretty for the sake of being pretty.
If Iām playing a, for instance, Female Blood Elf Paladin, Iām more interested in looking like a Blood Knight or member of the Argent Crusade more than wearing a platekini and walking around pantless. If I play, say, a Male Tauren Shaman, my priority is leaning into the Tauren flavor with very natural looking armors, creating a naturally imposing but graceful look.
Not gonna lie, my goal most of the time is to look like I could be mistaken for a well designed NPC 
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Itās important in the sense that I wonāt play half the races in the roster because I donāt feel like I can make them look good. Sometimes I can make them look good but they just look terrible in armor (IE female blood elves just cannot pull off mail armor, Pandaren just look unfortunate in everything and have weird animations so I cannot play them)
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to retail wow players, a lot! they have really cool effects every expansionā¦.like the mythic MO drakeās wings for example! ugly mount but that effect is really neat!
now, please put it on a druid form ASAP
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They are extremely important to me. Mechanically, Druid is my favorite class. It has everything I wantā¦ except the cool factor. I donāt like turning into an animal, I donāt like choosing between a fat ugly joke moonkin or being a transparent blue ghost, I donāt like healing spells that are leaves, flowers, and mushrooms. And so despite the gameplay being mechanically great and covering every role in one class; I can never stick with Druid.
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I think Vanilla is the superior game by a large margin so, very little. Give me my rainbow set of armor or bright blue dress on my tauren. Idgaf, i think xmog is dog water and never should have been added
As an RPGMMO, the aesthetics mean a lot to me. In order for me to even get into the story my character has to, look the part to some degree. Iāll never be one of those players running around in a murloc onsie, or one of the other many silly costumes.
In fact itās the main reason Iām not playing Mage in Midnight, I will not be able to enjoy the story or my character if Iām forced to have 5 giant icicles floating over my head the entire time. If itās so cool, why not put them over Jainaās head too? Or the forced glyph and flashlight eyes for Disc hero spec, if itās so cool and thematic why donāt any of the priest NPCs have it in midnight? Cause it looks dumb.
At least give us glyphs to toggle it, or turn it off when weāre not in combat.
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Based on all the excitement for the new transmog system, immediately followed by outrage over the costs of that system, Iād say thatās an incredibly important aesthetic to a fairly large number of players (like any distribution, thereās some that this is their life in-game and others donāt bother to transmog anything ever).
Theyāre a big part of my enjoyment.
However I think itās 1/3rd of the puzzle.
I think when good aesthetics meets good gameplay and good company. Itās a winning combo.
(Makes me sorely miss one of my old Guilds Paramount during its peak. High performing, friendly, did fun activities too and people were approachable for help. They pushed you to do better but in the right way)
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I mean if I donāt like the character Iām playing that bleeds into everything else, can have the best gameplay to mankind but if itās all in an aesthetic I donāt like? Not gonna be as fun, role playing and immersion is a big draw of gaming for me. Looking at the game like a data scientist where I just care about the mechanics and beating things doesnāt do it for me.
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I think aesthetics are important regardless of what era of WoW you play.
In older versions of the game your aesthetic was linked to how powerful your character was. Your items could easily be identified, one could look at you and know what content you have cleared and where you are on your progression.
In modern versions of the game your aesthetic is whatever you want it to be. Whatever makes you feel cool, whatever you vibe with. And there are a lot of people who actively seek out and collect transmog to that end.
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I donāt care much about it at all. It was never that big a deal to me, but since they separated appearance from gear it means even less.
I care more about what my gear DOES than how it looks.
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Itās paramount. Spent god knows how much time just trying to figure out which race to level Lemix Rogue as; other than Goblin, of which I got maxed on Retail.
I failed.
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Considering the number of threads here anout transmog costs, quite a bit!
toss all your pizza ingredients onto a plate and see if you like them as much as you do when everything prepared properly and eye appealing.
aesthetics are a huge part of the appeal of most things. Few people want to buy an ugly houseā¦an ugly car, etc.
This is why mogs are importantā¦they help make our characters personality for many of us.
I can do the same āgo kill thisā quest in mists versus in Shadowlands and Im gonna hate it in SL and love it in Mists strictly because of aesthetics.
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I think the only MMO that WoW beats on graphics might be Runescape.
But it has a unique style that has worked since launch.
Geez, I dunno if I can add anything. Iām more accomplished with the particular details such as a name, look, and mount to be correct for certain races. I canāt remember what my character looks like under this helmet after so many years. 
Youāre going to get vastly different answers from different people. Some people are very artsy and it bothers them a lot, others wonāt care. You know the drill.
Personally, my vision disability prevents me from really enjoying finer graphics. Which is great because I can keep settings on low-mid for better performance. 
But itās deeper than that - some games are just hard for me to see / function in if theyāre too modern or have too much flare.
FFXIV was even hard for me to get used to. Those spell effects, man. Ugh, I hate it. lol
WoWās potato graphics are one reason why I love it so much, I think. XD I mean, Iām glad weāre past the polygon rabbit models, donāt get me wrong, but in terms detail, my brain throws a tantrum when my eyes try to process too much at once and it ends up turning me away from āprettyā games. So WoW is great.
I do get really irked by the cloak and hair clipping through armor thing, though. 
I know theyād have to redo too much stuff to fix it, so Iāve accepted it, but my god I hate it. lol Itās why I often wear very specific helms (or no helms XP) in mogs.
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