I don't really care about how my character looks. Most of the time i'm zoomed out to the max anyway.
I hope they don't mess it up, they really can't afford to.
Okay, let me state some points before I get to my personal opinion.
A lot of people said that new character models can't be considered the most important thing in the game. Doing so only expresses one's opinion, nothing more. And I have to agree with that. You obviously can't objectively tell which feature would be the most beneficial addition to the game. However, at the same time, you can't go around claiming that adding new models isn't the most beneficial thing to add. Because there's no objective measurement to support that claim, either.
As for the whole "gameplay > graphics" argument, I do think that it is a bit silly. At this point, Blizzard isn't overhauling the actual gameplay much. Adding raids that (basically) play the same as previous ones might be new content, but it surely isn't changing how the game plays to a substantial degree. Also, purely visual features have had a decent impact, I feel. People are farming their butt of to acquire vanity items such as mounts or transmogrification gear. This leads me to the only somewhat objective way to measure whether new character models are important or not: The amount of players that use strictly cosmetic features.
That amount seems quite high. Whenever I'm in Orgrimmar or any other capital city, I see people with transmogged gear. In fact, I'd say that the majority of players uses that feature. As well as different mounts. Neither affects the gameplay directly, but these features are still widely used. Thus, I'd conclude that a large portion of the player base does care about strictly cosmetic features, such as new character models.
Now, my personal take on the matter. I can hardly believe it's been this long without an update for the old character models. Whenever I compare my male Forsaken to, say, a Pandaren, I can't help but feel a bit annoyed by how outdated my prefered race actually looks. I might not be looking at its face 90% of the time, but I do so every time I log in, every time I change a piece of gear, every time I transmog something and so on. I might not actually see the difference all the time (ignoring the inferior animations, that is), but I am reminded of the fact more than often enough.
So, yeah, on a personal level, I can't wait to get new, MoP-quality models for the vanilla races (and the BC ones, too). You could easily make a business case that shows that new character models would be a worthwhile investment of resources just as well, so I actually wonder why Blizzard didn't implement them earlier. Transmogrification must have shown them how much players like strictly cosmetic features, I assume, but they're at least working on it now. That's something, isn't it?
Let's jsut hope the new models turn out well enough. There'll be a lot of QQ'ing (there always is, no matter what) anyway, but Blizzard should try to make the new models the best they can be. Looking at some of the new(ish) NPC models, I'm not too concerned, though.
The argument that you don't see your character anyway under big epic armor sets and while raiding with others, seeing nothing more than the boss, the UI and the mass of spells and abilities is beyond all reason and sanity.
Not everyone is just leaving for another MMO or just taking a break, life changes. You find yourself in situations where family or work don't even allow you to invest so much time in a game, so WoW is trying hard to attract new players.
Let's say want to try this game out. First thing you run into is the character creation screen. "Pandaren, yes, look great, but too furry, same for Worgen. Goblins, heh, awesome! But I want to play a mighty warrior, or an undead mage, something (stereotypical) to start with. WAIT, WHAT'S THAT? Did I just Alt+Tab to Minecraft? Why do Humans, Orcs and Dwarfs look that outdated? Isn't this, like, the most successfull MMORPG? WTF???".
I like to add that I felt the human and undead models were outdated when Classic was released, at least the male ones. So yes, it's been a long time waiting. Can't wait for new teasers.
Sing like no one is listening - Love like you've never been hurt
Dance like no one is watching - Masturbate like no one else is on the bus
Ehhh... I'm more excited for good raids and such. Sure, I'm glad that we're getting new models, it's long overdue, but it's just another matter of Gameplay > Graphics for me.
Best thing to happen to WoW in years? Nah.
To your comment about the Dwarf starting zone... Dark Iron and Wildhammer have joined with Ironforge, and it would seem rather normal to have "recruits" of those two sub-races start off in Dun Morogh.
I honestly can't wait for the release of the new character models. Being an RPer, I do solely focus on the looks of my characters more than anything else, so this is perfect for me.
Makes no difference to me. I'm covered in armor and I'm zoomed so far that my character is a little blob. And IMO that female troll model looks awful.
Normally I don't like things what Blizzard does to WoW nowadays. But at least these Troll new models look amazing in my opinion.
I can see the nostalgia threads about the old models coming already.
Actually I don't care about new models and I'll bet than all people excited about it will forget it at WoD day 5 so... enjoy it
I know Draenei are supposedly in the queue after all the vanilla races, but since this is a Draenor expansion, I'm kind of hoping Draenei are updated by release. Especially since many of the npcs are going to be Draenei. If they didn't update the old races' graphics, they would have a hard time attracting new players and lapsed players. It'd be like trying to market Quake 1 today.
TBH gear covers most of the models, but what we're getting visually are much better animations, such as subtle finger movements, better cloak animations and more. The models themselves will get covered with gear, and you're not going to notice much change if you play with camera panned out (which I figure would be most of the time).