Login Screens

Community WoW Community Council
1

A login screen is the single most viewed artistic element in a given expansion, followed closely by primary city loading screens. When we AFK long enough it’s the ambient music and screen that takes up the screen space. Also, these screens are the exciting first glimpse of an expansion people see, it invites them into a whole new world.

Let’s take a look at all of the login screens throughout our history:

–

Original

The Burning Crusade

Wrath of the Litch King

Cataclysm

Mists of Pandaria

Warlords of Draenor

Legion

Battle for Azeroth

Shadowlands

Dragonflight

The War Within

Here are some themes that the proposed login screen diverts from previous login screens:

  • Lack of landscape, much motion, or showing any structures or much fantasy.
  • Background music (datamined) is taverny, poppy, and chipper, in contrast to the dull and gloomy login screen.
  • The screen is dull and without much light - with the exception of having the light under the UI element. In previous login screens this brightness existed; it was almost as if our login was moving us forward into the landscape, portal, or to face Deathwing. But this one has us “moving forward” into a rock of some sort.
  • The expansion logo seems much smaller (top left-hand corner) than the previous login screens.
  • The red buttons - “login” and (presumably) future added buttons like “create and account” etc. all seemingly blend into the dark reddish/brown background. Even very sandy and dark login screens like Cataclysm or The Burning Crusade added lighter buildings or pillars to make these buttons pop out a bit more.
  • It doesn’t really read like an expansion login screen, maybe more of a powerpoint title slide. This isn’t to say “Oh this looks so bad” - I’m sure the artists spend a ton of time on it and it does look good - but I’m just not sure if this is the right medium for it. I think as a loading screen element this wouldn’t be too bad.

Thanks for reading!

Oh wait, one last thing. What if we made it like this? –

Kidding of course! Happy holiday to friends and stuff okay bye ty.

20 Likes
2

Sorry for the necro (kinda), but I wanted to correct something I said:

I was mistaken on this, and the login screen background music is subtle and ominous, fitting the background quite well actually. Sorry about being mistaken or hasty to assume what I heard datamined would’ve been the background.

I hope we can all grow from this experience. lol :slight_smile:

Just throwing this out there, but it’d be kinda cool to have unlocks for login screens, or have it customizable. Would be neat. Thanks!

3 Likes
3

My hope with this bland login screen is that as the expansion progresses, more is added to it. It’s such a change from the DF login, which felt dynamic, and could benefit from continued dynamic elements if not revised altogether.

4 Likes
4

Looks like some datamining is suggesting we’ll get a login screen with more of a classical-landscape tie-in vibe!

I think something like this is pretty cool! Excited to see what it ultimately ends up looking like :slight_smile:

<3 our artists at Blizzard

3 Likes
5

Okay, okay, we’re getting somewhere… Let me think.

The orb in the middle is a little awkward, it makes me want to see the beautiful scenery behind it. But maybe that’s what a login screen is good for? Making someone want more?

The whispy-ness of the portal in front of us is really refreshing but it really contrasts heavily now with the orb. Side note, is the orb Azeroth? Should we just be saying Azeroth? That’s my guess.

It’s just a lot of movement and excitement flanked by an almost static Titan design. I don’t know if it works together but maybe I’m being far too picky at this point. Azeroth being in the center is very thematic but it really feels like a bug rather than a feature in this setting.

With a magic wand (that I totally shouldn’t own), My preference would be something simple:

Hallowfall. Add in some movement, maybe an NPC walking, maybe some bugs flying. Simple. If we want to get more complicated then the crystal in the back can fluctuate it’s day/night cycle somehow.

I think this scene would be good too because the darkness of the center would make a good focal point to the login UI.

Idk, either way a step in the right direction ty! :slight_smile:

2 Likes