A WoW Graphical Update?

I really don't have a problem w/ the graphics in fact I'm glad that they are mild. I don't think that there would be 9m ppl playing if it required a gaming computer. It's a beautiful thing to me that I can burn the game onto a DVD and throw it on my brothers 2y/o laptop and show him a few things.

Now my opinion on the OT subject:
To go along w/ the Age thing I agree whole heartidly w/ LiveWire I think that its the maturity lvl of ppl you play w/. My 10y/o cousin was one of the best Halo 2 players online(lvl 45) it was a little strange to watch him play but he beat some ass at that game. A Navy buddy of mine's 16 y/o brother plays and he's on of the best PvPer's that I've ever seen. He's also a hell of alot more mature then the College kids I play w/. I'm 23 which is a kid to alot of you but I'm fairly mature for my age.

My theroy on that and it seems to be true from my little experience is if you want to deal w/ imature ppl role a Horde Toon or play on a Role Playing Server.


(I'm going to go ahead and point out that the sentence structure and spelling of my post may not make a whole lot of sence but if you read it a couple of times you'll understand that I'm trying to say.)
 
I
if you want to deal w/ imature ppl role a Horde Toon

Barrens chat is mind-numbing; everytime I roll a new toon I just /leave General. But from my experience, so is Westfall. /shrug

As for the graphical topic, I agree with shmitty. I'm playing the game on a integrated laptop chipset graphics card, and while it may not be the best gaming experience the game runs just fine overall. I kinda compare WoW to CS in terms of playability across hardware. You never had to have a state of the art computer to play CS, and that attracted tons of players and still does. WoW does the same thing, just a bit more modern in terms of technology available.
 
Barrens chat is mind-numbing; everytime I roll a new toon I just /leave General. But from my experience, so is Westfall. /shrug

As for the graphical topic, I agree with shmitty. I'm playing the game on a integrated laptop chipset graphics card, and while it may not be the best gaming experience the game runs just fine overall. I kinda compare WoW to CS in terms of playability across hardware. You never had to have a state of the art computer to play CS, and that attracted tons of players and still does. WoW does the same thing, just a bit more modern in terms of technology available.

Well, it would be nice if you could choose on how good you want the graphics to be, if only they added more features.
On lower settings, I would have to say that WoW does look better than alot of the games. My lappy with 7600GT can run WoW max with no AA, running LOTRO on medium really looks bad however.
 
Searched all over the web to find nothing. Does anybody know if Blizzard is planning to update the aging WoW engine? Would be quite nice if they did :)

Current info mixed with speculation is that in the next expansion there will be some updates to textures, lighting, etc, and other minor upgrades. Probably along the same lines as the transition from original WoW to BC (possibly a little more). There is no evidence that it will be as substantial as a complete overhaul (ie EQ Luclin). Watching the preview trailers gives you a good idea. It's basically more of the same with some added polish.

On the plus side, anyone with a 2-3 year old graphics card can run it on absolute max settings. :p

From WoWiki:

The expansion is expected to enhance World of Warcraft's graphical engine - for example, a new shading system is being coded for use in ice caves, whilst flame animations are noticeably more detailed. In addition, the art for the expansion will look more like "classic Warcraft" (gothic fantasy), and less like Outland art (high fantasy).

System requirements have not yet been published, but are expected to be similar to that of the previous expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.
 
gameplay > graphics IMHO.

But seriously though, i dont see Blizzard taking any time to upgrade the aging gfx, even with the new expansion. Dont be suprised to see the same remodeled items with new stats on them.
 
WoW's environmental art direction was its only saving grace. Even so the art assets are heavily cut and paste and the tech behind the game was old at release.

It was never a game that was going to age well and it hasn't. It looks awful now and they seem to have lost the plot with the equipment and player textures. Any area with lots of players looks like multicolour vomit.

For a game that makes so much money, they never struck me as pumping enough of that cash back into the game. Content is slow to come and repetitive. Older, less successful MMORPGs have been much better at churning out innovative content and upgrading their graphics engines. Blizzard spends aeons implementing and polishing the smallest of details, which is laughable since WoW is the most derivative MMORPG to have appeared in the last 10 years. It's finely polished... but at what price?

Have you ever played the MMO Lineage 2? If so...on a well popluated server...you could go to Giran(main selling city) and there will be Hundreds of people sitting around with sell/buy shops up. And on semi- outdated hardware, your shit will lag HARD unless you flip on the lower detail check box. One reason why a lot of people don't play the high graphics games is because their system can't handle it and they don't want to spend over a grand to update.

Why would Blizzard do anything such as a graphics overhaul when they have over 9million subscribers that are still paying that $15 a month and spending the 40 hours a week on the game? Why would they risk loosing subscribers with a graphics overhaul when everyone seems to be (for the most part) happy with the way the graphics are now.

It's not a logical business solution.

You might say 'Well they need to update the graphic system or else I won't play anymore' and they wouldn't want to see a player stop playing because of that but..if say 100 people protested that...that wouldn't effect them one bit.

If you had 3 million of the subscribers protesting....then it might change.

Blizzard is the only MMO company to do something right in an MMO. Make simplistic graphics engine that still looks decent and fun to look at PLUS have the game play that it does. It's the reason behind 9 million people playing it. Lineage 2 peaked about 2-3million worldwide playing...but now it's below a million and MAYBE 100k just in the US. It's because NCSoft thinks it's better to make the game look awesome rather then deal with cheaters and fix the game.

My post might be a little off the wall and jumbled but I'm at work and trying to rush lol.
 
Have you ever played the MMO Lineage 2? If so...on a well popluated server...you could go to Giran(main selling city) and there will be Hundreds of people sitting around with sell/buy shops up. And on semi- outdated hardware, your shit will lag HARD unless you flip on the lower detail check box. One reason why a lot of people don't play the high graphics games is because their system can't handle it and they don't want to spend over a grand to update.

Why would Blizzard do anything such as a graphics overhaul when they have over 9million subscribers that are still paying that $15 a month and spending the 40 hours a week on the game? Why would they risk loosing subscribers with a graphics overhaul when everyone seems to be (for the most part) happy with the way the graphics are now.

It's not a logical business solution.

You might say 'Well they need to update the graphic system or else I won't play anymore' and they wouldn't want to see a player stop playing because of that but..if say 100 people protested that...that wouldn't effect them one bit.

If you had 3 million of the subscribers protesting....then it might change.

Blizzard is the only MMO company to do something right in an MMO. Make simplistic graphics engine that still looks decent and fun to look at PLUS have the game play that it does. It's the reason behind 9 million people playing it. Lineage 2 peaked about 2-3million worldwide playing...but now it's below a million and MAYBE 100k just in the US. It's because NCSoft thinks it's better to make the game look awesome rather then deal with cheaters and fix the game.

My post might be a little off the wall and jumbled but I'm at work and trying to rush lol.

it's all about the choice though, If I can choose to play with better textures/shadow in WoW, why can't they add that? I understand the fact taht some pc's won't handle it, but those folks can downscale.
 
Probably not the spot to post, but I figured why not. My GF is running my old machine:

AMD X2 3800+ 939
2GB PC3200 RAM
7800GT (currently using my 7900GT cause my pc broked)

Problem is I see the fps go into the 20s-30s and 40s regularly in populated areas and even just outdoors in areas with some mobs. I've tried playing with the settings but this just shouldn't be happening imo. I don't ever remember having these issues when I used the system. I have points, mostly indoors when the fps will be fine. It just shouldn't be dipping into the 20s. Her monitor runs at 1440x900, but when I play I switch monitors to mine, which runs at 1280x1024. Now my system is in the sig, never had an fps problem. I'm sure if I change the resolution it won't make a huge difference.

I was thinking it could be the cpu. How possible is this?
 
[ T ] A C O;1031695768 said:
I know your a mod and all but comon, your reading way too deep into something that isn't there. There was nothing inflammatory about that statement, he was just telling people what he thinks, and reading other posts it seems others agree.

Not everyone agrees. When I first read it, I thought "troll". Had this been a general MMO discussion I'd say it's fine. Being that this is a discussion on WoW, someone coming in talking about how another game is great and bashing WoW is, by definition, trolling.

Probably not the spot to post, but I figured why not. My GF is running my old machine:

AMD X2 3800+ 939
2GB PC3200 RAM
7800GT (currently using my 7900GT cause my pc broked)

Problem is I see the fps go into the 20s-30s and 40s regularly in populated areas and even just outdoors in areas with some mobs. I've tried playing with the settings but this just shouldn't be happening imo. I don't ever remember having these issues when I used the system. I have points, mostly indoors when the fps will be fine. It just shouldn't be dipping into the 20s. Her monitor runs at 1440x900, but when I play I switch monitors to mine, which runs at 1280x1024. Now my system is in the sig, never had an fps problem. I'm sure if I change the resolution it won't make a huge difference.

I was thinking it could be the cpu. How possible is this?

I currently have it running on an Opteron 170, 2GB ram, and a 7800GT... I haven't gotten into huge raids, etc... but I've been fine so far. No slowdowns to speak of running at 1600 x 1200.


As for the graphics, I'd have to agree: Gameplay > Graphics, but to a point. For instance, I had tons of fun playing Diablo II v1.09. The graphics were *VERY* outdated, but it was still fun, even dueling hacked characters with legit ones. The problem was that they didn't curb the cheating, then went to 1.10 which made everything 1,000 times worse. My point is, I'd like pretty graphics, but I'd like gameplay better. Personally, I'd like to run at full detail... because that means everything will look as good as it could, so update or not, I'm fine.
 
Much of the time in WoW you are spamming a few buttons though. I dip into the 20s in raids a lot but don't really notice it because I'm trying to keep people up
 
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