Graphics also aren’t everything, Stardew Valley has graphics that remind me of SNES games (albeit in higher definition) and it has plenty of players.
Yes.
I’d still like to see improvement though; updated models and textures overal.
But the style is good. I don’t want ‘realistic’.
There’s plenty of games that go for that and most of them are soullless, drab and lack personality.
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I think it would have to be a completely different era. Could be 10,000 years ago in the War of the Ancients. Could be 10,000 years in the future. Basically all new characters, if in the future maybe some characters are still around but are retired or like Obi Wan living out in the back of beyonds.
I don’t think you could remake current wow with a new engine as it just wouldn’t feel right.
Also it wouldn’t be worth the effort. It would be very resource intentsive and you’d likely lose as many players (or more) as you’d gain.
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It would look gorgeous but make me feel sick no doubt and I’d be unable to play it. I like cartoony WoW, though I’d love for old zones to get an art refresh like Darkshore etc (not with lore changes just… art changes.)
Well, the alternative is completely wiping everyone’s progress which just means a lot of lost players. I think a middle ground is a better approach.
With a completely new map and story, maybe a post apocalyptic situation, it will make sense to keep the collectibles and achievements as a trophy of participation in 20 years of WoW.
What would be the issue exactly because I don’t see it. We have had several graphic updates over the years.
The blood elf area is from BC and it’s about to get an update which everyone is excited about.
Im tired of people viewing Unreal Engine as the best thing after sliced bread. Unreal engine games are always buggy and badly optimized.
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they really need to fix report system.
every single week i get banned and unbanned because of bunch of gold sellers reporting my name imagine.
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People have been saying that for 20 years, and it still doesn’t make it true.
Wow’s art style is great to a lot of people. Just the fact that Minecraft has such a spesific signature look that people want to keep, should help you realise that wanting a realistic looking game, is tied to a spesific type of taste in visuals. We don’t stop enjoying cartoony visuals, just because there are options to make it look like a photography.
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Since I have played for 18 years by now, I am probably playing in 10 too.
I also do not like realistic looking games. It’s a game to me. I really do not need to look at the same boring apperance of things ingame, as IRL. When I play games, I appreciate the distance to reality.
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Good examples. I love Stardew Valley and Overwatch. Both cartoony graphics. Playing Fallout76 the graphics just annoyed me. Not saying they were super realistic either, but the style is just ugly to me.
I also keep watching my sons playing “super bad quality graphics games”. The 12 year old love the terrible looking games. The 22 year old is more varied in his gaming choices, but realistic graphics isn’t important to any of them it seems.
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Still though, it feels like Blizzard have hit the limit for how far they can stretch their artistic scope within World of Warcraft.
If you’ve played since forever, then new zones today don’t come with the same sense of amazement as they did 20 years ago. Blizzard have basically explored every artistic appearance that World of Warcraft allows for and pushed the view distance, terrain clutter, and camera zoom, as much as it makes sense to do for the game’s size.
So now we’re really just getting variations on a theme with every new zone, raid, and dungeon we see.
And on the other hand you have modern games continuously being released that actually do present some absolutely amazing landscaping visuals in ways that World of Warcraft simply can’t.
And that is just going to continue and continue and continue, whilst World of Warcraft will remain as is.
People still play Ultima Online, Runescape, and EverQuest, so it’s not like the WoW veterans are going to suddenly dislike World of Warcraft because of its looks, but as time goes on the sentiment will definitely shift toward the sense that it’s looking old and that it’s not to the game’s benefit.
No doubt about that.
It wouldn’t have anywhere near the same appeal if the graphics were updated to be ultra realistic, seen plenty of attempts in other games in the past and it just never seems to feel or flow right. Having said that, I’m old AF and can remember thinking Jumping Jack on the Spectrum were good graphics, so I’m easily pleased 
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Wow on unreal engine looks bad. Wow gfx is fine, just need engine that support modern hardware better like multi-core and better coding on it.
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I think this is a personal experience though. I was stunned flying into Hallowfall in flightform. I also found Revendreth pretty amazing looking. The Dragonflight zones, not so much though.
I do love WoW’s artstyle though. I do appreciate and notice the graphical improvemets still.
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I don’t think the younger generation care that much about ultra realistic graphics, otherwise minecraft and various pixelart games wouldn’t be this successful, I mean fortnite isn’t really a graphical powerhouse either.
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I feel this is less about the zones looking better or worse, and more about that after you’ve seen epic zone #21,254 it doesn’t seem as epic anymore.
When Overwatch makes new maps, no-one goes “Oo that’s pretty” they just go and kill the other team same as any other map.
Wow has its unique look going back 20 years now, all videos of wow on unreal engine look bad cause its not it 
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Because of the art as a whole or because of Beledar in the sky?
I mean, were you stunned when you flew to Dornogal the first time and saw Khaz Algar? Probably not, right? It’s just an idyllic zone with grass and blue sky like many other.
And art-wise there’s nothing new to Hallowfall (except that the “weather” changes) that hasn’t been explored artistically before in other places. Creatively it’s a great zone, but artistically it’s the same presentation as always.
And again, that is in contrast to other games that really use the graphics fidelity of the modern day to create a more visually stunning and immersive experience.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora would be a recent example of a game that shows a far more immersive world with a lot more size and scale to it than World of Warcraft, which enhances the feeling of flying:
That’s essentially the same visual presentation as flying on your mount in World of Warcraft, but it obviously looks a lot more visually impressive.
this is so good example.
and this is so weird and odd that you see some people that still saying wow should not be better in graphics.
just think about it someone said i played this game for 18 years and i will play it in the next 10 years but the graphic and the engine should stay the same…
im out of words here…
imagine its like a car that is stuck in something in road and the driver is sayin i dont want o fix the problem and go forward…
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In theory wow current gfx style is timeless as its cartoon and its own theme compared to the rest that tried look realistical, all of those mmos aged faster.
In theory wow gfx style should also be light and perfect for mmo but they keep adding too much unnessecary stuff to it through years trying to make nice gfxs for advertisements but then the actual game runs like 15fps when you go join some epic bg or raid for example.
Be careful what you wish for guys, Im sure they can add raytracing and more polygons on spell details and more shadow details but can they design and optimize mmo that run well on huge playerbase so we can have a lot ppl in the mmo which essentially is the whole point of mmo.
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