Bugs show a little emotion
by Mike Schramm 
May 14th 2007 at 12:07PM
Sorandra over on Livejournal has an interesting bug happening when she runs WoW in Vista-- her female draenei is showing a different skin in different situations. Out of water, she's got the face you see up on the left. But in water, a different face appears. It looks like her toon just really hates water.
Of course it's just a texture error (a known one, at that), most likely fixed by updating her video drivers. But it does kind of make you wonder a little bit why Blizzard doesn't bother implementing something like this for real, and making characters actually show facial animations. Sure, the mouths move, but we can't actually frown when we /frown or smile when we /smile. If it's this easy to change the face textures, it seems like it would be just as easy to show displeasure for real.
The only obstacle might be that they'd have to design different textures for each gender and race, which would take a bit of time (time probably best spent on the actual patches and expansions). Still, a little more emotion would be fun to have. If Blizzard ever gets around to doing a graphics overhaul (much like Dark Age of Camelot has done with one of their expansions), hopefully something like this will be on the list.
Filed under: Bugs, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Synergii May 14th 2007 1:17PM
What's wonderful is that Draenei females are getting a nice boost in quality in various animations across the board in patch 2.1. The idle animation has a few facial expressions added, in fact. We definitely look a lot less "robotic".
scott veirs May 14th 2007 1:24PM
I have the same thing going on with my Blood Elf warlock. Different faces during different functions.
I wonder if it was intentionally added for the new chars when BC came out.
Gamerz22 May 14th 2007 1:45PM
Um, this isn't a bug. Why it looks different is because of lighting of the model. Just like how a purple NE looks different outside of Teldrassil/Darnassus/Ashenvale (outside of any NE zone).
When you go in apool, do yo ulook the same as outside of the water? No, you have a slight hue of blue/green/etc. Same as that Draenei.
Gamerz22 May 14th 2007 1:45PM
Oh, about the whole "facial" expressions, it is in game. No, the /frown and /smile doen' tdo anything, as you stated, but when you do /dance or /cheer, many of the races "smile" while doing it.The Draenei males smile while /dance.
Mike Schramm May 14th 2007 1:52PM
Gamerz22, as far as I can tell, the mouth does open and close, but when I emoted with my male Orc, the facial expression (eyes, mouth shape, etc) didn't change. I'm guessing this was just a development choice Blizzard made, and I'm saying that it would be nice in the future to try and fit it in somewhere.
Gamerz22 May 14th 2007 2:03PM
I fully agree with you, Mike.
There's so much more than could happen with WoW.... thye just gotta unleash it! :P
Angelus May 14th 2007 2:23PM
I wish they would start refining the older races animations to refresh the look and feel of them. Just like everything else in WoW, the new stuff gets all the attention and the old stuff gets filed away. Like stealth animations, compared to a Belf, everyone else stealths like complete retards.
Obmulap May 14th 2007 2:51PM
Personally I don't spend that much time looking at the front of my toons, I use a far back camera angle anyway so it doesn't even really effect me. I would like see the ability to change things on my toons (other than gear), like the face or the hairstyle. Why not, we do it every time we get our hair cut.
Kourma May 15th 2007 4:58AM
Maybe it isn't a bug and they just made a set swimming animation for -all- female draenei, and that just so happens to the be face they chose?
Tryst May 14th 2007 3:58PM
My gnome female gets a horrible "sexy" face when she dances. That face is really the only thing I don't like about her.
Tryst
Criz May 15th 2007 8:02AM
True, it would be a great feature to add to an already amazing game. But I have to agree that Blizzard's time is better spent working on content than facial expressions and that of the like.
JB May 15th 2007 1:07AM
I don't think it's a problem that can be fixed with drivers, and I know it's not a Vista thing(if you were even implying that, not sure if you were) but yeah I wish the facial expression didn't change when we got in water. The facial expression also changes when we go into combat stance, but that makes more sense anyway.
As long as we're talking about facial bugs, is it just me or do BE females have a facial bug when they are doing the "creation" motion? (making bandages, skinning, etc) The forehead on my BEfemale starts jutting out when I create stuff.
Savok May 15th 2007 2:33AM
The BE and Draenei have full facial expressions. And yes the BE female is buggy during "creation" stuff, her forehead will pulsate outwards.