Is WoW becoming more cute?

[IIamaKing]

Im just going to be another in the long line of "games had "cute" since day one" comments.

[qwerty123456]

Literally going to hell next expansion and op thinks its too cute.....

[Powerogue]

Literally going to hell next expansion and op thinks its too cute.....

Can't wait to get my cute forsaken death knight some cute bone wings from cute Maldraxxus.

[Nathanyel]

Gnomes also come to mind. They were always supposed to be small and cute looking, they just upped the polygons.

Speaking of Gnomes, Chromie. One of the "sweetest" characters in WoW, part of the game since Vanilla. Another example, Mylune, was introduced in Cata already. Less about looks with these characters, but the way they act.

[Powerogue]

I'm surprised that this, thread hasn't been locked yet a war is literally going on here.

This is the true Faction War. Cute Vs. Grimdark WoW influences.

And just like the in-game one I'm fighting for both sides.

My fluffy alpaca-loving vulpera would be BFFs with my forsaken DK edgelord, like Pixie and Brutus.

[Zaqwert]

Why do people always offer the same response when someone points out a trend of something becoming more so?

"WoW is getting cuter"

"WoW has always had cuteness though..."

That's not what he's saying. OP is arguing the level of cuteness has steadily risen and I agree with that.

Just because WoW always had elements that could be considered cutesy doesn't discount his observation. Over the years those elements have grown large in number and more prominent in visibility.

[Alkizon]

- - - snip - - -

In fact, “new owls” just same way don't fit into "wild"/frightening original WoW style as new ghouls. Yes, they were somehow cute in weird way, especially from horde point and in especially in thier behavior, but at the same time they weren’t - they were fitting, but now they don't. These're just plush toys based on their appearance, unlike picture in your message. So, I'm looking at this picture and see relevant art, and then I look at picture (on right part) where friend criticized new one... and I completely agree with all that statements. It looks unnatural, emphasized silly. By the way, color scheme for "abomination-like" here is much sane, not so wrong one, like they made for its standard models (since original pale pink, almost yellowish was ideal solution there, but it turned into bright stupid colorful ugliness, although there are much less claims to model itself, still don’t understand why cutting knife couldn't be made more sharp bladed at the end, not hammer-like, and "sticking-out-insides" less fat, it turned out not guts, but some kind of hoses (but this, at least, I can considering kind of sane, acceptable))... so extra "high-quality" details spoiled whole art style of the game.

ps. *once again starts to wince looking at new gnome picture* just disgusting *spits, gets up and leaves*

[Powerogue]

Just because WoW always had elements that could be considered cutesy doesn't discount his observation. Over the years those elements have grown large in number and more prominent in visibility.

No idea what you're talking about.

[Flower Milk]

No idea what you're talking about.

Duh, obviously Dottie is actually a succubus in disguise, did you see how she used Seduction on those blood trolls in the video?!

[reemi]

I understand what you mean. I always hated games with Rabbits like FFX and all those cute humanoid PET style.

Orc/Gnomes, etc are different... Playing a rabbit is not something I like, and I will never play one too .

[Powerogue]

Duh, obviously Dottie is actually a succubus in disguise, did you see how she used Seduction on those blood trolls in the video?!

And she passed by Icecrown, so she was obviously the one that weakened the Lich King's forces for Sylvanas.

Dottie: No one will ever believe you. * hops away *

[Nathanyel]

Duh, obviously Dottie is actually a succubus in disguise, did you see how she used Seduction on those blood trolls in the video?!

I thought of this scene:

[bufferunderrun]

While playing Shadowlands demo on Blizzcon, I've faced stewards of Kyryian covenant - owl-like humanoids. It felt mismatched to see such a cute species in the death realm. In parallel to that vulpera race felt the same way in terms of warcraft fantasy - mismatched. Should I say that making them death knights feels dissonant.
Imo Wow never was a dark fantasy and there was always place for humor and absurd. But I can't remember WoW universe having such examples of cutiness like lately, however, I might be wrong. How do you feel about stewards and vulpera? Do they match WoW fantasy in your opionion?

wow is probably the most cute mmo out there and has always been, probably the most scary monster wow has ever seen is yogg saron.

[sam86]

yes, and u can thank china for that
TBC had something between 4 and 6 million chineese player, the game total sub was ~ 10 million when TBC ended
Wrath came, china banned it, and blizz lost (let's take lowest number) 4 million sub in very short time, if not for wrath MASSIVE western success, it would been a massive loss, luckily wrath was so amazing that everyone knew at least someone in their close circle playing it
Why was wrath banned in china ? because it was too 'mature for kids', blizz had to change almost everything in wrath for china, that includes most of npcs remodeled, name changes, u can google right now ICC 1st boss who has no bones shown (ironic it makes him look creepier), and DK renamed 'unhappy knight' in china
Any company would learn their lesson from that, we talk about minimum 4 million solid sub in TBC just lost because they used acceptable teenage material in non-chineese countries, but china market is too massive to ignore, wrath was made pre-activision era after all

Blizz show almost no dark quests anymore like old times, there is no more Thaddius story, as Humirex pointed out, blizz don't talk about how women or (especially kids) suffer in wow, the draenei girl in Legion was a 1 time note that won't happen again
It can also be because scourge story ended, and the scourge was just pure evil, the worst thing happened ever to Azeroth

[omeomorfismo]

yes, and u can thank china for that
TBC had something between 4 and 6 million chineese player, the game total sub was ~ 10 million when TBC ended
Wrath came, china banned it, and blizz lost (let's take lowest number) 4 million sub in very short time, if not for wrath MASSIVE western success, it would been a massive loss, luckily wrath was so amazing that everyone knew at least someone in their close circle playing it
Why was wrath banned in china ? because it was too 'mature for kids', blizz had to change almost everything in wrath for china, that includes most of npcs remodeled, name changes, u can google right now ICC 1st boss who has no bones shown (ironic it makes him look creepier), and DK renamed 'unhappy knight' in china
Any company would learn their lesson from that, we talk about minimum 4 million solid sub in TBC just lost because they used acceptable teenage material in non-chineese countries, but china market is too massive to ignore, wrath was made pre-activision era after all

Blizz show almost no dark quests anymore like old times, there is no more Thaddius story, as Humirex pointed out, blizz don't talk about how women or (especially kids) suffer in wow, the draenei girl in Legion was a 1 time note that won't happen again
It can also be because scourge story ended, and the scourge was just pure evil, the worst thing happened ever to Azeroth

wat?
thats the reason why in cata they made all forsaken quests? were you can even choose to happily smash human heads with a shovel?
or the child in bwomshandi temple what was basically murdered/sacrified by her mom?
or the slave pandare children in jade forest by alliance and i think sacrificies for the horde warlocks?
you can even go to brennhadam or whatever and start to happily murder kultirian parents (no children to cannibalize unluckily)

[Nathanyel]

Why was wrath banned in china ?

Actually, it was only because of visuals, you can't show bones or other open body parts. That's all they did to make WotLK suitable for China.

[TripleH77]

If the term "cute" used by you would mean the same as childish to me, then yes, probably.
These days everything gets "cuter", first best example? the league of legends with their muppets or porgs in star wars... my take on it is - really??!

[LilSaihah]

You can't blame the cutesiness on China, that isn't fair. It's because they want girls playing WoW. How gross is that?

More seriously, in places yeah, in places no. The main thing that interests me is how Murlocs turned from this kinda-feral kinda-scary race into Sir Finley Mrgglton. I think it can kinda compromise the aesthetic to have an ultra-grim storyline with fluffy pandas and foxes running around.

[Jetstream]

Man. I kinda wish WoW had started way earlier. As a sequel to Warcraft 2. So when the Tauren were introduced, people could bitch about them having no lore and catering to furries.

Lore has to start somewhere, dammit. If everything is limited to what was introduced in the RTS games, we run out.

[Ophenia]

yes, and u can thank china for that
TBC had something between 4 and 6 million chineese player, the game total sub was ~ 10 million when TBC ended
Wrath came, china banned it, and blizz lost (let's take lowest number) 4 million sub in very short time, if not for wrath MASSIVE western success, it would been a massive loss, luckily wrath was so amazing that everyone knew at least someone in their close circle playing it
Why was wrath banned in china ? because it was too 'mature for kids', blizz had to change almost everything in wrath for china, that includes most of npcs remodeled, name changes, u can google right now ICC 1st boss who has no bones shown (ironic it makes him look creepier), and DK renamed 'unhappy knight' in china
Any company would learn their lesson from that, we talk about minimum 4 million solid sub in TBC just lost because they used acceptable teenage material in non-chineese countries, but china market is too massive to ignore, wrath was made pre-activision era after all

Blizz show almost no dark quests anymore like old times, there is no more Thaddius story, as Humirex pointed out, blizz don't talk about how women or (especially kids) suffer in wow, the draenei girl in Legion was a 1 time note that won't happen again
It can also be because scourge story ended, and the scourge was just pure evil, the worst thing happened ever to Azeroth

Not sure if true or not, but anyway, you're saying that they had to change because the most successful expac of World of Warcraft didn't sell enough in China, even though it was the most huge success in West ?
And since they changed, they never made the same numbers ever again ?

That doesn't make sense, economically-wise. If shareholders had a lessons-learned from Wrath of the Lich King, it would be "we don't need China lel".

So I'm sure these changes are not China-oriented. They're generation-oriented, or whatever.