The Art Design of WoW
by Matthew Rossi 
Oct 31st 2007 at 2:45PM
Jon over at The Bronze Kettle (I especially enjoy the way the husband and wife posting dynamic plays out on this site, it's getting bookmarked) makes an interesting post about how World of Warcraft's art direction works for him when other MMO's fail.
While we've discussed the Uncanny Valley here on the site before, Jon's post comes with a nice visual representation of what he's talking about, contrasting another MMO to WoW. You can see that in many ways, the UI is practically identical but what sets WoW apart is the more stylized look of the characters. Clearly the more realistic look has come a long way... the character in this screenshot looks a lot better than you would have seen just a few years ago. Eventually, you might well expect the valley to be crossed and an MMO to have art and character design almost indistinguishable from a person, without the stilted poser quality you still see today.
But WoW, as Jon indicated, skipped right over that hurdle by deliberately stepping well away from it. WoW's graphics mean that they don't come close to the uncanny valley, and as a side benefit WoW can be less demanding on your machine, so more folks can play it. A shrewd way to sidestep the issue and make more money, I'd say. As always, what do you think? Should WoW stay the course or start moving more towards an attempt at realism?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
- Oct 31st 2007 3:01PM
Maintain. Blizzard's art direction has evolved significantly since its first iteration of Warcraft, and I think they struck a chord with the "Disney does LOTR" crowd that wants a Conan in superhero-meets-saturday morning-cartoons style.
New artists always being new vision, but I hope everyone in their art department has enough respect to acknowledge and be caretakers of its current brand.
9600baud Oct 31st 2007 3:02PM
WoW's "graphics" are ridiculously ugly... the textures look like giant blocks and dont get me started on the armor "models" (I didnt know plate armor was painted on your skin)
I with/pray/hope for improved graphics in WoTL but I doubt it'll happen...
RogueJedi86 Oct 31st 2007 3:10PM
WoW does overdo it sometimes though. Why must all males(Gnomes and Trolls excepting) be buffed-up musclemen, while all women are busty, dainty, and scantily-clad?
And human males push that uncanny valley a little.
Andrew Oct 31st 2007 3:30PM
I play both WoW and LOTRO and I have to say one thing that blows me away in LOTRO is the landscapes. You feel a greater connection with the game when you're standing in one zone looking into the distance and seeing a landmark such as Weathertop (a zone away) on the horizon. It would be like seeing Blackrock Mountain looming over Elwynn forest.
It is the one thing I think WoW is missing. I like a lot of the other crazier and more fantastical elements of WoW, but I wish the environments were a bit more lively.
Theadrick Oct 31st 2007 3:20PM
Don't change a thing. Those that don't like it can move on.
Savel Oct 31st 2007 3:20PM
Maintain IMO.
I like the current look of wow for the most part. I like the non-realistic approach and avoiding that debacle of EQ2's release where most comps could barely run it on moderate settings.
However if they do update, how about allowing people to choose muscle mass/weight/bust/eye color ect...
It would be really cool and allow some more diversity in character types and appearance.
Jon Oct 31st 2007 3:24PM
WOW Insider is a staple of my daily interweb diet so I was quite amazed to see the image of my lowly priest alt on the front page.
We're flattered to be be noticed and pleasured to be recommended. Thanks for the link Matthew.
clozer Nov 2nd 2007 9:02PM
Realism is overrated.
People who think WoW should change to a realistic approach have no comprehension of how art direction can make a game. WoW would not have the charm it has if it didn't look the way it did. Yes human models could look more unique from each other, but there is something amazing about how they look that skews the game perception away from the old belief that humans are the 'good guys'. Maybe it's Blizzard's own critique of ourselves in that the models look more like silly awkward puppets. I don't think we'd have 10 million subcribers or the fanfare that has gone this far if murlocs looked like walking frogs.
Markymark Nov 1st 2007 1:01PM
Keep up the good work we don't really need any enhanced graphics.... if you want that play EQ2. People like Wow's simplistic graphics thats just its art style trying to add realism will most ensurely ruin gameplay. Those who don't like it tough cookies..
Jon Oct 31st 2007 3:50PM
@Andrew - I agree, that some of the landscapes are a bit dreary and repetitive. The Barrens anyone? But Blizzard has definitely improved in that respect. Some of the Outland zones are extremely epic in look and feel. The skies especially. I'm betting that we'll see the bar raised again when WotLK ships.
TeragX Oct 31st 2007 3:42PM
If WoW ever tried to become realistic graphics wize, it would be bitter sweet, outland itself wouldnt look right if it was realistic, because its a very out there look which can only be properly grasped with that style of art, as with the draenei and Blood elf starting zones. However, the good side is that the races would look very good, as in Humans not being muslce toting madmen, elves hopefully not looking fruity as can be, and gnomes looking like hobbits, the way i would like to picture them, and not as crazily small people who are inevitably fat. Also somethings in wow would become actually scary, alienating some players, because honestly the uber realistic versions of the eredar are slightly scary (though draenei dont bother me). So basically, i wouldnt mind them making it look like a mixture like the CG scenes, but hyper realism would most likely make me stop playing, not because of some people looking freakier, but just some places not looking good anymore, which i previously enjoyed.
TQ Oct 31st 2007 4:07PM
The majority of us play WoW to find something greater, fantastical, and more enjoyable than "real" life.
What would be the point of looking "believable"?
Candina@WH Oct 31st 2007 4:17PM
I remember coming from Neverwinter Nights to WoW. I had a short period or dissonance coming from the Anime/Realistish camp to the WoW marvel super hero ish camp.
But then I got over it, and truly enjoy the more 'living comic book' that is WoW. Trying to build a virtual world that is as realistic as possible is both pointless and technically unfeasible. People would reject it on smaller and smaller critiques as you got closer and closer to 'real', so why bother?
I just hope we see more new models in WotLK, not just reskinned models. And no more ogres... I have had enough of ogres to last me forever...
chebu Oct 31st 2007 5:05PM
leave the photo-realism for the movie!
Aralaz Oct 31st 2007 4:30PM
There is a huge difference between changing art direction and improving graphics quality. Take a look at the fantastic Team Fortress 2. If anything, it is more cartoony than WoW, but at the same time it makes full use of high-end graphics.
I'd personally love to see WoW move in that direction. Keep the awesome cartoon look, but pull up the polys, particles and environments closer to current single player games.
MechChef Oct 31st 2007 4:33PM
Maintain the overall feel. But, I would be interested in at least a few more polygons to dull the edges just a little bit more.
Greater character customization would be a welcomed change too.
Zegim Oct 31st 2007 5:40PM
Keep the art in WoW as it is. It's some of the things that make the game unique. Changing it would be like making The Simpsons more "realistic".
Realism for the sake of realism is, in my humble opinion, not only pointless, but stupid. You don't have to change things just because you could.
Arioch Oct 31st 2007 5:51PM
Graphic quality and stylization versus realism are not always the same thing. Improving graphic quality does not necessarily mean making things more realistic. Take for example CGI movies just as those produced by Pixar -- they're very stylized, but also high quality in terms of graphics.
WoW is, always will be and always should be stylized, but that doesn't mean that the graphic quality in terms of texture size and polygon count shouldn't improve. Already you can see improvements in the detail of some new models (the Blizzcon Murloc suit is an excellent example). Burning Crusade introduced a noticeable improvement in the graphic quality of the environments, and hopefully Lich King will continue in that direction.
Burgdorn Oct 31st 2007 6:19PM
Being a professional artist I really respect Blizzard's art department. Much like a company many wouldn't relate to art, Rockstar, Blizzard has always looked at what they can and can't do. For an artist this means knowing your boundaries and working with limitations. Often times I get annoyed with that "real" look that is often pushed as the true artistic feet when we as a society have often considered the virtually real as more classical.
It is true that getting real life looks is something game art still strives for but I think by not paying attention to the limitation games such as EQII, and LoTR. Don't get me wrong those games have their strengths, but presentation isn't about having a nice set of clouds and a bland lackluster ground. The whole picture needs to have the same feel, unless your attempting to in EQII for example, try and make the player have a visual key in their avatar that they aren't a part of the world, then that is fine. Problem is that isn't the point the game is aiming to get across, I hope.
Blizzard looked at the technology at the time and appropriately developed the game to function for a wide audience. It is important for an artist to know what is going to work for the target audience they are aiming for. Being a broad market Blizzard made 2 billion appropriate aesthetic decisions when making the game, and the proof is in the pudding.
Only other game which seems to be taking a bit more care with the their art work is Warhammer's developers , Mythic. These people have taken a lot of care in making a world that seamlessly works with itself. It makes a portrait of the board game brought to life, which is important sense the market they are aiming for are the same hobbyist who paint models so they can display their armies in gorgeous detail. Sadly the gaming developers are on two sides of this debate, one being realism in sacrifice for performance and design, another for a proper analytical approach that looks at the limitations at hand.
Just think at the limitations such greats as Sqaure-Enix had back in the day with Final Fantasy character pixel ratio being something like 16x24 pixels. They looked at their limitations and pushed those boundaries, and looking from the development of the first FF to the last iteration on the SNES you can see a clear development of skill within that limitation. It is sad that developers now-a-days can't seem to regain that sort of approach to designing their games, if any of the artist went to an Art school, it doesn't show. Either that or they were just pushed in a direction which was deemed profitable, which in that case I deeply empathize with artist put in that situation.
Salty Oct 31st 2007 6:40PM
Blizzard's game design is very tricky. First of all, Blizzard is amazing at low polygon modeling. You should be thankful the models look as good as they do with the tight polygon restrictions they use. There is a very good reason the characters look cartoony, do you have any idea how AV would _perform_ if everyone (80 players, 40+ NPCs) had 5,000+ poly models? By contrast, blizzard uses 800-1200 polygon models, and that's with mirroring one side to the next.
There's a reason Blizzard designed the game the way it looks and a reason 9 million people can play it on their computers. I can tell you that 9 million people do not have the 7800 GTX+ quality graphics you need to run super high end graphics. There’s the reason those games have such low populations. Personally, it doesn’t matter how awesome a game is, if I can’t get 40+ FPS on my high-end workstations, I won’t be firing it up very often. If load times are long, I won’t be playing it.
Blizzard also uses extremely powerful particle systems, which is why spells and effects are so fantastic (and they really are top quality, adapted directly from 3D Studio max). And really this is where the overhead they’ve cut by using low end models gets utilized.
“Pretty Graphics” is what has made FPS games crap since Quake 1. It’s a video game, and once you get past the eye candy, it’s pretty important that fast gameplay and replayability are there – which is what WoW has mastered. Nobody plays a game for 3 years because it looks pretty.
There will come a time when CG-quality real-time graphics can happen. It will start out with a very small subset of rich computer enthusiasts and SLOWLY (3+ years) work its way into commoditization, unless a “market” opens up whereby graphics card companies can sell more units to push high-end 3d applications.
I think that Blizzard could use much more high-resolution textures, as most 3d graphics cards have plenty of memory for it. With that, the game will become much more attractive, and it won’t impact the environment so dramatically. Texturing is a huge endeavor, but 2D graphics are much easier to manipulate than 3D scenes.
In the end – it’s easy to rag on low-end graphics, but the game is HIGHLY playable and nobody’s complaining about that. Contrast that with these shooter games, where you can’t even land a shot because your video is rending at fractions of a frame per second during an explosion that takes way too many cycles to compute.