A bad case of Mandela effect, and nostalgia can do crazy things to the brain
You can also turn this around and ask why are Classic fans so determined to convince people how great it is and that Live is going to die?
I’m not even going to log in there. I already played classic and prefer modern WOW.
If some have been around long enough then it’s probably not a big deal to them. Graphics aren’t everything.
I have no issue if they allowed retail models. After all, all you see is whatever you have selected. This is one of those harmless things that wouldn’t effect anyone else gameplay… All ready a lot of the clutter etc isn’t the same.
There’s always been a market for hyperrealistic graphics, but I think for most people (especially around here) art style is more important, and Blizzard’s artists and animators have always been top-notch.
In general, highly stylized games like WoW age much, much better that games that go for maximum realism.
There’s also the whole argument of gameplay vs graphics. People still play ASCII games like Dwarf Fortress and Rogue because they have solid and ageless gameplay despite their primitive graphics.
edit: Also, MMORPGs by their nature always have simple graphics for their era simply because of the strain of having 100s of characters on-screen at once in some places.
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This , but they could have allowed new graphics for those who wanted it… BDO did this a few other games have done this.
People want vanilla for the game, not the looks. Same with TBC and Wrath. Heck some of those pirate servers have retail model clients.
I think it would make Classic more successful (5-15% more players by allowing this option). That may sound odd, but the number of mmorpg players i know that care MOSTLY about what their character looks like and finding different gear to dress them is high (yeah its a lot of females.)
But you are not getting that, the client is 7.x you’ll never get that. “Other options” will be more authentic at the end of the day.
Probably because we’re old and graphics aren’t a huge issue compared to the type of game play classic provides.
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Also I wouldn’t mind a graphics toggle - I’d play Classic with retail graphics in a hot minute. But I don’t wait another six months for them to get it working. Maybe it’s something they can do later.
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BDO can be fun, the downfall of it is the enhancement system. Or is it enchanting? Forget, all I remember is the rage I would feel after farming for some rare off pieces and then trying to upgrade them only for it to break and be gone forever 
So i will be about to use healbot or one of the others to one button heal the entire raid while scaling? Nope, different API. See Its not Vanilla its classic, they already admitted they made it different (on many levels). And this effects everyone. A client side model change only effects those who want it… WHy cannot you allow others to play as they wish when it 100% in NO WAY effects you?
Its a 1 day effort. Pirate servers have them, you can actually do it yourself (but you may get banned for modding files). It takes almost no effort.
Right now this minute my 11-year old is doing a livestream of undertale from his PS4. (Undertale being a very unique game concept but also very unsophisticated gameplay and graphics.) Super Mario Crossover from exploding rabbit free online one he liked too. Castlevania going back to the retro snes and nes consoles we have here, also got Netflix so he could watch their castlevania cartoon (they don’t cuss more than the average youtuber). Alternates between roblox and Minecraft as main games - lost interest in Warcraft after a few weeks. Also got a Gameboy, ds, 3ds, and switch at his request. Pokémon Kirby and some other games. snesfun and gbafun dot com websites online are pretty big.
He can be the curator of the retro game websites when the current admins die of old age in the 2020s. 
Amazon actually has a pretty good secondary market of people promising they installed new batteries on game cartridges they’re selling, so the savegames will stick. Couple of youtube videos showing people how to change the batteries in a cartridge they already have too.
I love classic graphics, but, at age 70, looking pretty is not a top priority anymore. Not even in the top 100.
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Someone already pointed out that new character models would impact RP and visuals for other people wanting a classic world.
Unless blizzard spends time and resources they don’t want to spend rigging a way to translate your new model to one of the classic model configurations most closely resembling it. If you don’t mind being someone who looks beautiful to yourself and dodgy to everyone else. 
The team who made classic might do it somewhere along the way though, once they’re into routine maintenance phase of their development cycle and have some time.
As for it not being a broken or cheaty as vanilla was, that was already granted from the start. Aside from not bothealing, you have leashes on world raid bosses, an open all button in your mail, maybe some other things people noticed.
Edit: also guildie says beta server is rougher than what we saw on stress test or likely to get in game. She’s seeing a fair number of untextured places walking around beta too.
I love the old graphics and models. To me they’re infinitely better than the Disney models in BFA with their goofy animations. Maybe Classic just isn’t the game for you.
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The Models of Vanilla>Modern Models
New Models look so terrible. They’re all made to be pretty and have almost nothing unique about their face
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Ancient Domains of Mystery! (ADOM) Get that grey elven archer and destroy everything. One time I had a grey elven mage hiding under a large 2-h crystal shield just doing lightning balls and fireballs and iceballs around him to survive a mess he’d gotten into. Later version made it so mages can’t hold big 2-h shields though. Kicking things out of the shop to steal them in old versions was funny too. Learning to stand off to the side of a locked door before kicking it in was important for reasons. Or walking around kicking walls until one does something different and you find the secret door. Fun stuff! (I beat it several times on several classes, but never managed the chaos god or perfectly lawful endings. Someone attempting perfectly lawful got pretty far in and saw a unicorn step on an explosive trap to nix that effort for them.)
The latest versions made some 2-d graphics and music, but you can still find the ascii versions online. Now if windows 8-10 would quit being jerks and let us fullscreen it…
Someone already pointed out that new character models would impact RP and visuals for other people wanting a classic world.
No it wouldn’t at all. The easiest way to do this is client side… how would a client side option effect others?
Ex: Im am using a name plate addon, if i group with you do you now have to see the name plats my addon adds for me… NO. What were you thinking?
Right now, you can drop in retail files into the classic folder (basically) and get retail models on Classic. If they wanted this option for Classic all they would need to do is literally have one option old/new models. You pick one and only your client uses those models.
Now if your argument is people trying to RP with new models may not match up with others… that isn’t likely and well if a person wants to RP with old models they pick the old models…
I mean old models all look like trash verses others, so yes people picking new models should understand they will look like an old one to people who chose that. In any case NOT allowing it means they look like trash no matter what in your given example. Why not allow them and others who wish to have pretty graphics. I mean Blizz isn’t limiting your resolutions or text pixel quality.