I’ve been a WoW player from vanilla → cata. Came back for classic and SoD. Have tried playing retail a few times but the graphics have gone so down hill that I don’t want to play. Every time I see a cutscene on youtube or a new release the bosses look like Disney villains… they are not one bit scary. compare the bosses to BWL, NAXX, black temple, stratholme, ect… where the bosses are actually dark and scary. This is why the game has gone so down hill from it’s original origins. Classic feels like dark medieval fantasy, while retail feels like care bear land. All said and done, we need a WoW 2 with that badass feel again, retail is too far gone.
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What you’re referring to are the aesthetics, not the graphics of the game.
Aesthetics can be subjective, but we seriously cannot argue that the graphics haven’t improved since Vanilla.
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Part of it has to do with the textures and lighting
Qamaits, stop waving the DH around! They get motion sick!
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How ‘dark and scary’ as you stated, is still part of their design choice, not their technical advancement in visual graphics of the environment or textures.
Vault of the Wardens was dark af
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Yes the Disneyfication is a problem. The graphic style dropped using darker lines around textures to. Everything looks all smoothed and pastelish which gives it a cartoon look. Then you add in the increased amount of animal races and it feels like it’s made for kids when the main people playing are probably 18 to 45. It’s off putting for me I prefer the pre WOD graphics style. They can have the modern graphics but give it some shading so it doesn’t look like a cartoon. The villains look stupid to you are right the dragons human forms all look like they came out of transformers beast wars.
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Legion was a long time ago, talking about more recent content
It’s always looked like a cartoon, though.
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However recent or old is not the point, it’s knowing the difference between graphics and aesthetic/design choice.
Graphics continue to improve each expansion.
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The game is in a better spot than it ever was, graphical- and design-wise. Just go back to the BfA-content and walk slowly through the zones. What you’re missing is an overhauled Forsaken design for the cities and so on. They aren’t there yet.
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Legion has the same art style and graphics quality as Dragonflight. What you don’t like is the design of some characters in Dragonflight. I agree they look stupid and look like they made for kids.
I wasn’t a big fan of the aesthetic of a lot of the zones or the primal sets and raid of s1. But there are a lot of golden spots. I love Vald, Azure Vaults, Tyrhold and Algethar. Dungeons also slap. DotI is so cool on so many levels. Amirdrassil is really pretty. Zaralek sucked and I didn’t like the Niffen 
Graphics overall have been really good though.
This was an unsolicited opinion from Adorability.
I don’t really agree with the idea that the graphics have gone downhill. Everything looks far better than Classic has ever looked.
Maybe WoW’s graphical design just doesn’t appeal to you anymore, but also as pointed out Dragonflight’s overall theme is a lot different than other expansions so it probably doesn’t feel the same.
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Lmao
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This is where I stop taking anyone seriously.
Nah, this spawning in my face and killing me with a fire dot in seconds wasn’t scary at all. 
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Especially since there are some pretty scary Disney villains.
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Chernabog: combination of a Minotaur and a Mayan demon.
The Horned King in Black Cauldron:
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I really think all these people just watch a streamer and copy what they say without applying even an ounce of critical thought.
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I think the tuskaar in Brackenhide would vehemently disagree with this statement if they weren’t thrown over wooden posts, dead, and being used as target practice. 
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