They did this already. It’s called Cata look how that turned out
1 Like
Cata didn’t really graphically update anything. The only zone where they actually updated some textures was Silverpine. But otherwise just made zones ready for flying which was rather pointless in retrospect. Most of the added work involved changing zones which more or less made them all more ugly and ruined.
All of that said. Updating every zone in the spirit of BfA Arathi or Darkshore is a massive undertaking. I don’t think they could realistically achieve this unless they made it two expansions worth of content. One for Kalimdor and one for EK.
2 Likes
Elwynn trees got some new textures and some of the trees had the poly counts of their canopies bumped up in cata too, but yeah Cata’s graphical improvements were few and far between.
2 Likes
Elwynn Forest is timelss and…wait, you weren’t serious, were you?
Looka this!
1 Like
Looks like I need to take my new stihl weed eater to it.
Rebuild Silvermoon
And just to compare, here’s the same spot in Classic. Similar but bits have definitely gotten upgrades.
3 Likes
Great catch, an excellent comparison shot.
Blizz doesn’t have resources to do that, and it doesn’t bring money compared to new expansion or cash shop.
10.0 another world revamp 
The expac after Shadowlands given context and genuine lore reasons would be the time to do it. Plus not to mention with another world revamp they could make Cata Classic for even more $$$ and we all know what Blizzard loves more than anything… $$$$$$$$$$$
1 Like
Major difference imo in comparison to what it used to be like.
I think eventually we will see this change, for example, it can’t be 2030 and old zones still look as they did back in 04-10.
Hopefully next expansion we see major updates to old zones.
1 Like
But, no one is conflating “modern standards” with those of other games, only with what WoW itself has put out more recently (e.g., via Exile’s Reach).
Exile’s Reach is arguably the most iconically “WoW” zone ever put out, in terms of its aesthetic. Giving a zone some actual grass, stylistic-but-far-from-jarringly-low-poly trees, more interesting clouds, and ground textures that aren’t clearly just gridded out on repeat, did not come expense to its Blizzard art style. They enhanced it.
2 Likes
It still holds up a lot better than most of tje 2000s and 2008s games imho
I would be happy with that to be honest
it most certainly would
I hate seeing all the old zones empty and untouched. That’s what classic’s for, please revamp our zones to higher quality and add some new zone related questlines to keep people moving through our world of warcraft.