Op,don’t understand what you mean by gritty. 
People are different than they were 20 years ago, they are much more sensitive. Make some tents out of human flesh today and see how fast people would lose their minds here.
It always was, it’s just that people are more sensitive and easily offended today.
There are dismembered bodies in Torghast that look a lot like the ones in the Karazhan crypts (one of the grizzliest things you can see in the game—nobody cares about low res flesh tents that you can’t even tell are made of human flesh unless someone tells you). If people are actually more sensitive now, it’s not about that type of thing.
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I think WoW should be dark and gritty
Play on a monitor with brightness turned down as far as you can.
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