World of Warcraft will slowly update graphics to stay fresh

by Alexander Sliwinski on Aug 27th 2008 4:00PM

When a company has one of the most successful ~~MMORPGs~~ games of all time, the last thing anyone there wants to do is throw a wrench into what the customers' rigs can handle. To that end, the Blizzard team explained in a few interviews last week that World of Warcraft's graphical updates will happen over time with expansions. Don't go expecting something like World of Warcraft 2 or a major graphics overhaul, which might hurt the customer base.

In an interview with VideoGamer.com, Blizzard's Rob Chilton explains that "usability" has always been more important to the company than technical prowess. Obviously, Blizzard's judgment on how to run Azeroth, compared to those who yearn for a full-blown graphics overhaul, has paid off in ~~million~~ billions for the developer.

Source -- Brack clarifies graphical update plans (WoW Insider)
Source -- WoW graphical reboot may never be necessary (VG)

Tags: activision-blizzard, blizzard, graphics, Mac, PC, world-of-warcraft, wow, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Reader Comments (30)

I quite like the graphics in WoW. But this is cool news!

Well that's how it should have always been.

I'm glad to hear that, but I at least hope they'll update some of the old world stuff too. Having a blocky looking human warrior walking around the newly shader and shadow induced landscape wont be so great

If they do that, i may just one day return to Wow.
Lets face it, its looking pretty last gen nowadays.

Even a bit of shader 3.0 magic that cards have had for the past year would spruce things up nicely, or something other than those so-bland textures.

Are graphics really that important?
Not to me...
Sure games with wonderful graphics are nice but who cares?
Are you telling me you will never play The legend of Zelda because it's 2D?
Playability is the only thing that matters when playing a game.

Good, they're avoiding the pit that SOE fell into when they released the Shadows of Luclin expansion for Everquest. EQ had updated the character models, but they took up so much RAM that if you wanted to enable them all (yes, they were individually selectable by race/gender) you needed a pretty beefy machine for the time.

Hopefully EQ devs take a cue and do the same...

This is definitely something that console will never accomplish. Major patch overhauls via digital delivery will be the future.

I wish other companies wouldn't charge for graphics overhauled on their games. *cough* Half-Life -> Half-Life Source.

It seems to me that you're implying that console games can't be patched. I'll get to the point: If you are, you're wrong.

PCs dont have to be fully replaced with the newest PC, you can just replace the parts seperatly.
By the time the graphics on a console look out dated, there will probably be a newer console out so there is no need to update them, just bring out a new game.

And I may be mistaken, but there have been a few terrible games that have gotten patches after release on console to make them bearable.

At Metal_Gear,

maybe, but to get a good graphics card for newer pc games cost just as much as a console. So to me, a console is the best option. You know you have at least 3+ years to enjoy where as for a pc, you may have a year in a half at most before you need to upgrade your video card not including your ram, cpu, and newer nforce mobo.

Which consoles can I get for the $150 I spent on my 8800GT?
Which consoles can I do real work on?
Which consoles can I write code on?
Which consoles can play Crysis on very high?

Also, you don't need to replace your CPU and mobo every year. Maybe your graphics card, but that's only every 3-ish years, depending on how hard core you are.

Sounds like how the original everquest was. They simply added more polygons to the new models and upped the resolution of some of the bitmaps of those new models.

If you went back to the old zones it looked like the original ass landscape but with some new character models. The new zones were only a moderate improvement over the old. I suspect a similar idea with Warcraft.

I'd rather them just release 2 seperate clients so people with high end could get better graphics and it would also provide an upgrade path for those who will eventually get new machines.

The whole World(ofWarcraft) would look better and not jsut the new zones/ models.

EVE Online did that. The premium graphics update looks great, and is optional for those on weaker machines.

I like WoWs graphics, they have a certain charm. And textures have been getting sharper over time and with the inclusion of real time shadows soon, things are literally looking good for WoW. ;)

WoW needs the graphics update, it looks old

although... couldnt it be possible to upgrade the graphics pretty exponentially... as graphics options?

(i dont know about WoW, but like how FFXI, you can change the character detail, draw distance, special effects, shadows, and various other graphical things... for people with lower end machines.)

couldnt they incorporate graphical upgrade options for people with tricked out rigs?

First they need to ugprade all of the characters.

If I remember correctly, the models for the new Blood Elf and Draenei races were updated as opposed to the other ones. Time to at least catch everyone up there.

I don't get why a graphics update would hurt consumer base. Have the client run a simple test on the machine, and if it supports some of the good stuff, let them download a patch for high-res textures, models, and all that stuff. It's not like it effects gameplay right? It's like any other games where you have various detailed levels of stuff depending on the settings your PC can handle. If your computer sucks, too bad for you, just wait till you get a new one to look at eyecandy. :P

True, but I think that what would cause the issues are psycological effects; I think most low-end users would feel left out from the pretty graphics other customers are having due to their low end PCs, affecting the time they spend playing, or stop playing altogether. For example, I don't like to play an MMO that I can't handle fully with my PC (I feel I'm not getting what I can possibly get).

Just my reasoning and there are no tests behind my statements. :)

You know, I do think you meant a million billions (the image of the DS "it prints money!" comes to mind).

And yeah, that's essentially the way it works with MMO's - keep an option for the graphics to be the way they were at release but continue with new graphical updates as time progresses, this is what CCP did with the Trinity expansion pack for EVE.

Why don't they simply create a list of qualities and let the user choose? Graphics and GUI are completely set apart from the main engine anyway, as we can see from the GUI mods and other mods out there. They can create the new models and then lower the poly count for older PCs.

Create a new package, sell it online and let the people who wants new eyecandy buy it. I know I would.

I think on this issue Blizzard (and us) can have the cake and eat the frosting too.

I think that's kinda how Cryptic handled it with City of Heroes. The CoV expansion added new graphical features.

Well it worked damn well for EVE Online, which now looks like a friggin' Sci Fi show:

http://static.computergames.ro/cg/assassin/images2/eveonline/eveonline094.jpg

Eve also has far less data to update and far fewer subscribers than any of the popular MMOs that have upgraded.

good,
considering they pull in over $100 million each month with subscription fees, and you can only spend so much in creating daily quests, maintenance, and expansions.
Blizzard is in the money, but they are a gamer friendly company, so i'm not surprised they are sprucing up the game.

I dont understand why more companies haven't followed CCP with EVE. Have 2 versions, the pretty one which the high end people run and the not so pretty one which you use when you want minimal lag.

WoW still looks fine to me.

OK, but who is Rob Chilton?

I just started WoW under a private server. This should be good.

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World of Warcraft will slowly update graphics to stay fresh

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