Wow has changed its artistic direction

[Slant]

op never made it into felwood, or winterspring, or desolace, or plaguelands, or swamps, or silithus, or original dark duskwood, or aszshara. The game was WAY darker / grimmer on classic wow, at some point they patched in more brightness. And a darker and grimmer and duskier zone than the originial felwood , and a more weirder and lost space than aszhara never existed.

Ooh, I forgot the eternal night of duskwood. And Stitches coming round every 10 mins to butcher hordes of newbies. Can't get grittier and darker than that nightmare. Mor'ladim... 'nuff said.

[Afrospinach]

I can't stop admiring how detailed some of the new textures and shapes are.

Personally I find it more impressive how they build such an awesome world with a distinct LACK of highly detailed textures. Some of those trees in Pandaria had leaves that looked like pencil shavings yet the trees looked awesome.

op never made it into felwood, or winterspring, or desolace, or plaguelands, or swamps, or silithus, or original dark duskwood, or aszshara. The game was WAY darker / grimmer on classic wow, at some point they patched in more brightness. And a darker and grimmer and duskier zone than the originial felwood , and a more weirder and lost space than aszhara never existed.

There was also that mountain in the barrens that when you ascended had a blood red sky and haze, not sure if it is there anymore.

[Lightfist]

So... things have too much detail, so you can't tell what they are?

lolwut?

[Deleted]

Even the darkest zones in vanilla, like BRD, felwood etc were more "colorful", defined and cartoony than anything after vanilla/tbc. Wotlk started the shift into bland color themes and it got worse over time. And now that graphics are more "modern", the game has lost essential feel that the vanilla/tbc really had.

[Lightfist]

Even the darkest zones in vanilla, like BRD, felwood etc were more "colorful", defined and cartoony than anything after vanilla/tbc. Wotlk started the shift into bland color themes and it got worse over time. And now that graphics are more "modern", the game has lost essential feel that the vanilla/tbc really had.

Are you literally blind? I have a legally blind friend who plays, but aside from that, I can't understand how you could think this.

Have you seen Shadowmoon? How about any of the vibrant Mushroom Forests? Nagrand?

Also, calling Felwood 'colorful'. Fucking no.

[RAFFLES]

What i do to preserve that vanilla style graphics feeling is that i drink 2-3x Cherry Grog (cheapest heavy alcoholic drink in-game) and that gives a glowy / blurry art style which i like :P

[Tenjen]

There was a lot of gritty and dark in vanilla. Everything to do with the scourge and Cthun are top of the list but not the only things out there. Darkshire, desolace, etc etc.

the artstyle is the same, the quality has risen.

[Deleted]

Vanilla locations:





Cataclysm:





I just will leave that without a comment.
R.I.P. beautifil vanilla locations, ruined by Cataclysm.

[LanToaster]

Vanilla locations:
I just will leave that without a comment.
R.I.P. beautifil vanilla locations, ruined by Cataclysm.

Maybe you should compare the zones directly. Or at least compare the zones with a proper setting. Thoses zones you showed, are essential opposites to each other. (Apart the exception of the Hinterlands)

You Compare zones devoid of life with zones wich are almost life itself.

Also, you have pretty much proven the Point others are telling: The Art style didnt shift from "Colorfull to Bland", rather the opposite.

[Souflikar]

"Wow has become gritty dark"

Yep...and that's why I love it all over again!

[Deleted]

You guys dont get it, the old vanilla models and colors were often well defined, current wow doesnt not feel the same at all. There are exceptions of course like Hyjal in Cataclysm, but for an example just look at those images above, the game just doesnt look like that anymore.

Maybe "colorfull" isnt the exact term, because you can have alot of colors but still the art can look lackluster and "colorless" if they are not well used. Vanilla wow certainly had better art, regardless of lower image/model quality.

This art change really shifted during MoP, the cartoony style of the game has pretty disappeared at that point. And in WoD everything is just dark, even the Gorgrond looks very grey, there is no contrast. Tanaan Jungle during WoD opener was quiet nice, but it still doesnt look like STV.

[Deleted]

You guys dont get it, the old vanilla models and colors were often well defined, current wow doesnt not feel the same at all. There are exceptions of course like Hyjal in Cataclysm, but for an example just look at those images above, the game just doesnt look like that anymore.

And this is sad. Not because Cataclysm and over aren't such colorful, but, in fact, they are too colorful. Green and red is too much saturated, in vanilla all colours was more toned, natural looking. I love vanilla art style much more. For example pretty green lands, like jungle in vanilla looked like that:


Nice, natural looking green, nice sky, etc.

And Cataclysm ones:

Colors are too saturated, it's looking unhealthy and hurt the eyes.

The same with lava thing:
Vanilla:

Nice, dark, hot, volcanish wastelands full of ash.

Cata:

Just too red. My eyes!

Also cured lands in Felwood in Cataclysm are looking more unhealthy than before:


Before it was just plagued forest.


Look also on this:


In vanilla:
- dark
- sad
- haunted
- destroyed
- misty

In Cata:
- better arhitecture, I admit
- saturated colors
- saturated green sludge
- general feeling like from "Nightmare before Christmas"

New Forsaken architecture is great, but general feeling was IMO better in vanilla. Cata brought too saturated, bright and eye-hurting colors.

[Kelimbror]

Oh threads like this....

Ok, I'll bite. The game has more fidelity and more liberal use of color than many zones from Vanilla. Just look at the screenshots in the thread for your proof. Nostalgia glasses distort images apparently, even though you can go look at how awful many zones look from the early game. I guess the OPs aesthetic of preference is for desolate wastelands, but with saturation and brightness turned up to 11? Hellfire Peninsula? Radioactive red dirt, horrible textures, best eva!!!111

Shadowmoon Valley had me in awe as I quested through it and the zones just got better from there. Nagrand is stunning. This is the best iteration of their world art I've ever seen. Simply amazing.

[Eurhetemec]

New Forsaken architecture is great, but general feeling was IMO better in vanilla. Cata brought too saturated, bright and eye-hurting colors.

I don't disagree re: Cata zones (including all the new Cata zones), but MoP and WoD do not have that particular problem at all. Indeed people complained about MoP not being as colourful as Cata at the time!

[Deleted]

MoP has colors alot, but the way colors are expressed and style of the models, it just aint the same anymore. Ultimately MoP feels very bland compared to almoust any vanilla content. WoD only made it worse.

[Ryme]

Yeah man, I'm so gutted we're not in Silithus, Desolace, Barrens, Westfall, Ghostlands, Badlands, Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands, Felwood, Dustwallow Marsh or Tanaris.

Those zones were so vibrant and not dark or shitty at all.

[Deleted]

Yeah man, I'm so gutted we're not in Silithus, Desolace, Barrens, Westfall, Ghostlands, Badlands, Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands, Felwood, Dustwallow Marsh or Tanaris.

Those zones were so vibrant and not dark or shitty at all.

Thise zones often had better colorization than most of current zones. Its not about just colors even, the models were better because they were more cartoony and looked more like WC3. WoW has shifted into more realistic looking style, which isnt as good and it also affects how the colors are presented because obviously they are moving out of the previous cartoon style vanilla had.

[Ryme]

I think you're confusing low fidelity with artistic style.

[Deleted]

I think you're confusing low fidelity with artistic style.

They could have for an example model trees etc same way with higher texture resolution and polygons but they choose to make even different trees. Look at Teldrassil, wow aint the same anymore. But maybe it is also the "low fidelity" that creates certain athmosphere.

[Kelimbror]

I think you're confusing low fidelity with artistic style.

That's exactly what they are doing. Just seeing the phrase that Vanilla "models were better" is baffling. No, they were not better. They are garbage to today's standards. I've been playing since WCII, have heavy nostalgia for all of the old looking stuff, but I can admit it's mostly crap. When I see Heroes of the Storm I nerd out because of how much better the models and textures are these days. WoW is no different.