Has WoW gotten "too" family friendly?

**Lorgar Aurelian** · 2023-08-09, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by Orby

lol Nothing about them looks 'metal' lol.

I don't think WoW has any 'metal' like imagery today. Unless its scourge, Foresaken, Legion, Vykrul or Dwarf related.

Off the top of my head id say there are a few “metal” things in DF, like if you put that shadow flame portal thing on a dragon force cover it wouldn’t be out of place, or the first boss of the current raid with its metal plating/raw flesh and bones under it.

And SL was way over board on metal with like every single thing in the maw looking like a night wish cover.

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Originally Posted by Kralljin

In TBC, it was only the Netherwing flight, which is mostly an offshoot dragonflight and completely optional.

TBC also had the bronze, friendly blacks with Sebb and Kel repping the blue’s with him getting his own manga about how he was in love with the sun well.

**Diaphin** · 2023-08-09, 09:45 PM

Originally Posted by Kralljin

I think you are very much in the wrong if you think that the WC3 were supposed to be cute, they were clearly cartoonish - which was absolutely intentional by the way but looking at the variety of WC3 models and going "yep, those were supposed to be cute" is just acting obtuse.

Illidan literally has Pandas on his Warglaives.

The comparison with Starcraft and Diablo is bad for an obvious reason: Those were 2D games, whereas WC3 was literally Blizzards first 3D game.
The fact that it's an RTS also plays an obvious role in the design, the head for example is very intentionally big as to make the units very readable from the top, very intricate designs are also distracting, nevermind the performance issues any more detailed stuff would've caused (remember, we're talking about a game that was in development since before the year 2000).

If you want to have more "realistic" or detailed models, then you have the Reforged models, which look okayish in the modelviewer but absolutely terrible in the game itself, especially once army gets larger and it becomes difficult to tell units apart.
Disregarding that the Reforged art style has received almost universal criticism.

And it doesn't changes the fact that Blizz went for a very cartoony, colorful and more friendly look. Another example, the Peons. you can't tell me they weren't supposed to look cute.

In TBC, it was only the Netherwing flight, which is mostly an offshoot dragonflight and completely optional.
But even there you have to put tremendous effort to actually earn their trust, it's not a given.

But i agree that Wotlk is arguably the point where Dragons distinctly moved away from their more original image, whereas previous they were used in a much more restricted fashion, Wotlk used them far more often and also made most of them friendly by default.
I think DF however it also becomes were apparent because the story very much humanizes them, which has its story purposes but in my eye makes them less distinct as dragons.

I mean, they also released a ton of books and even a Manga before that, where Dragons are heroes and protagonists.

No, i am not.
I literally wrote an entire paragraph to make it clear what i'm talking about.
Going "Nuh-uh" isn't going to change that.

Yeah and it had not a single coherent argument on why the artstyle has supposedly become elss mature. Especially considering that aesthetically, Heavy Metal is the most juvenile style imaginable.

Again, for you there are seemingly only two extremes:
Cute and Dark / Serious.

If you only think these two exist, we need not discuss this further.

You can't coherently explain what the problem with the current style is though.

Bolvar as the Lich King was a character people have speculated about his return for over a decade and people were quite hyped when he powered up after rising from his throne.
Him just getting wrecked by Sylvanas and seeing the Helm of Domination destroyed had my, to put it in "modern terms", expectations subverted.

It was also rather dark and serious, something that supposedly doesn't exist in WoW anymore since you left college.

Cute and cartoony are however not the same thing.

And honestly, throughout this 30+ page thread, you are the very first person i've seen to claim that the WC3 models look "cute".
Which is probably a hint that you're not exactly in the majority with this opinion.

Yeah, but I also am an emotionally healthy adult who isn't so stuck in their nostalgia bubble due to whatever personal dating related crisis that I delude myself into thinking Illidan having little pandas on his Warglaives isn't cute. There are people who cry about wokeness in this thread, which means that alot of people who agree with you are either the dirty f-word or will die virgins.

At this point it just becomes very tiring to argue because it's clear that you cannot differentiate between more than two dimensions.

Again, using WoD as reference on an aesthetic level, it has little semblance to the aesthetics of Shadowlands (the expansion, not the cinematic).
Those delivered completely different vibes and if you frankly are unable to discern between the two, it is utterly pointless to argue about this because you either are unable or simply do not want to make that distinction.

Yeah, because Shadowlands and WoD have entirely different aesthetics and settings. I could also say that WoD is all childish with their horns and bright colors and that Shadowlands is a return to the golden day of Wrath of the Lich King, as it uses similar color schemes and designs as Icecrown. Guess why.

No, not really.
They both are cartoonish, but that's about it.

Nevermind that 2D and 3D are always difficult to compare (and most 90's cartoons were 2D).

Not really, considering that the style deliberately leans into aesthetic styles of the classical 2D Cartoon. Otherwise we would talk about a realistic style.

**Kralljin** · 2023-08-09, 11:14 PM