WRUP: Why the ugly face?
by Fox Van Allen 
Aug 26th 2011 at 8:00PM
This past week, someone filed a complaint on the official forums about the WoW character models -- specifically the Orc -- not being up to Cataclysm standards. Ultimately, blue poster Nethaera responded to the thread:
orc needs (model) buffed
We often see people request for model updates. This is something we'd definitely like to do at some point in time, but time is a very limited commodity for our art team. We also have to be very careful about what it means to "update" a model. We've made changes in the past to various characters and had some people be a bit upset that it was changed on them as they had made very specific choices about the look of their character. We try to be as sensitive as possible about these types of things.
Who the heck are these people who would riot in the streets if they changed the original WoW character models? I mean, nostalgia is one thing, but have you ever looked at your character's hands? Or a Human male's face? Yikes.
This week, our WRUP is all about in-game models. In addition to the usual What are you playing? question, I asked our columnists: What in-game model would you most like to see retired and why?
Allison Robert (@AllisonRobert) This weekend it'll be Allie and Allie's Little Brother versus Hurricane Irene, which should be fun. As for new models -- dear God, will someone please replace the goddamn wyvern?
Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) I am spending my weekend hammering in the kitchen and doing my best not to break anything, including me. New models? Both male and female Orcs, male Humans, male Night Elves (they are so ridiculously lumpy in a Liefeld kinda way), and give female Trolls some more face options because everyone goes with the "pretty" one anyway. Oh, and Dwarf males. ...oh heck with it just update the polygon count on all vanilla models and smooth out all the harelips and strange muscles that shouldn't be -- BE/Draenei/Worgen/Goblin are fine.
Daniel Whitcomb (@danielwhitcomb) (gplus.to/danielwhitcomb) I'm only a couple rares away from Professor, so I'm definitely finishing that up. Also, still farming purple Judgement, though now I'm leaning toward the DK starting zone gear for my transmog set. As far as models, Human males, please. We look like shaved gorillas. It's even more of an insult with how awesome, say, human Arthas, or Kalec's human form, or Vrykul look. A close second is male Night Elves for looking like ungainly, flipper-handed freaks.
Fox Van Allen (@foxvanallen) (gplus.to/foxvanallen) I've spent this past week dogsitting my parents' new puppy down here in New Jersey. It's super-adorable and really excited to be alive. I've been keeping busy over the past week despite my extended vacation state, and I'm going to keep that trend going into the weekend. I'll play a little bit of WoW, and then switch over to Zelda: Ocarina of Time if the hurricane cuts out power around here. I'll also do some more 8-bit art painting. Earlier this week: Boo (see right). This weekend, I'll be starting a nine-piece series from Mega Man 2.Joe Perez (@Lodurzj) I will be playing some more League of Legends and preparing for my big move next week. Still have so much to pack up. As far as retiring models, I think there's a few extra skins for just about every race that looks very similar to other ones. Dwarf males for example have a couple skins that are almost identical in coloring, and some of the faces could be removed. I can only hope for an updated polygon count on the classic skins and maybe some embellishments, like facial tatoos for my Wildhammer shaman.
Josh Myers (@Elamqt) Still no internet, so I might finally break down and go buy a PS3 game and reap the benefits of having a roommate who plays console games. For remodeling, I'm a fan of seeing the environment touched up, with trees being my main concern.
Kelly Aarons (@Cadistra) Life is keeping me very busy, but I want to work on some achievements for WoW and keep playing Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. New models would make me so happy! All of my female Tauren would really like some teeth. And better hair. And a rounder, more defined snout. And ...
Lisa Poisso (@emused) (gplus.to/lpoisso) This weekend, I'll be poking through all my old gear and figuring out who'll be wearing what old sets. Delicious! As for remodeling, I'm all for focusing on the overall polygon count, better Night Elf hands, and maybe a closer look at the flow of robes and capes -- things that I actually notice from behind while I'm playing my character.
Mat McCurley (@gomatgo) (gplus.to/gomatgo) Getting ready for Hurricane Irene by playing League of Legends and WoW. World of Warcraft is in desperate need of a model revamp, and more people would come back to the game for that than anything else Blizzard could do, period.
Matt Low (@Matticus) Deus Ex! I'm actually going to be taking a break from it. In fact, I'm going to be playing everything since by the time you all read this, I'll be in PAX! The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, Counterstrike: Global Offensive, and League of Legends: Dominion will just be some of the games I'll be merrily feasting my gaming hands on.
Matt Walsh (@Rhidach) I've been talked into getting this game, Sword of the Stars, or something like that. Some kind of space 4X. Looks interesting. Otherwise, I'll be working on my Bastion New Game Plus and finishing up the achievements there. I just want Blizzard to fix male Blood Elf shoulders. Everything else is gravy.
Michael Gray (@writegray) (gplus.to/writegray/) This weekend, I'm getting ready for the new episode of Doctor Who and ... uh. Dodge the hurricane I guess. I think the boomkin model could use some love, I guess. In terms of the races, I think remodeling them would be almost a little masturbatory since most of the models are covered up by armor and gear anyway, so I'm not sure what model changes they could make that isn't just, yanno. New gear. And since people are clamoring to go back to old gear-looks anyway, I don't understand how remodeling the races will suddenly change the world. If we're doing real remodeling, I'd look to all the dated trees, mobs, and stuff like, not things that get model upgrades every tier anyway.
Robin Torres (@cosmiclaurel) (gplus.to/cosmiclaurel) Animal Crossing. I got The Spawn hooked and now I'm rehooked. We're playing the original GameCube version for now. Otherwise, I'll be looking for my sanity, since it seems to have gone missing these last two weeks before the start of school.As far as upgrading the looks of my characters, I want more customizations. I want scars and piercings and hair styles and noses and more face choices. I also would like body types. It doesn't have to be at the level of the superhero MMOs, but I would like to have at least some chance of my character not looking like hundreds of other characters.
The weekend is the perfect time to kick back, relax and enjoy some game time. Are you an achievement junkie? Can't get enough raiding? Rolling a new alt? Considering taking the leap into roleplaying? Whatever your favorite way to play World of Warcraft, let us know in the comments what you're playing this weekend!
Filed under: WoW Insider Business
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
JC_Icefox Aug 26th 2011 8:09PM
*shudder*
-Unchecks 'Hide Helm'-
Amaxe Aug 26th 2011 8:54PM
I always use:
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/hattrick.aspx
(Still works just fine)
Pryn Aug 27th 2011 4:41AM
Why have an addon when you can make a toggle on and off macro and stick it on a bar tucked away for out of combat (or easily clickable if you are an RP with many outfit changes!).
/run ShowHelm(not ShowingHelm())
By extension:
/run ShowCloak(not ShowingCloak())
And I like to keep them both together in a left click/right click toggle for helm/cloak
/run if SecureCmdOptionParse("[btn:2]") then ShowCloak(not ShowingCloak()) else ShowHelm(not ShowingHelm()) end
Ithrandil Aug 27th 2011 4:53AM
cataclysm broke the addon for me, so I deleted it. Was still broken when I tried it again, but looking around I found a fix in the wowace comments for people that can't click the checkboxes (it's 2 command lines you copy/paste into the .lua file)
Amaxe Aug 27th 2011 9:57AM
@Prynn
"Why have an addon when you can make a toggle on and off macro and stick it on a bar tucked away for out of combat (or easily clickable if you are an RP with many outfit changes!)."
Because it's one less space on the bar. I use it enough I don't want to go into the menu to change but I don't use it enough to want to make it into a macro. For me macros are for things you do frequently, not for things I do occasionally.
@Ithrandil
Hmm, now that you mention it, I think I did have to make that .lua change. Sorry for the misinformation on my part.
Maxilimus Aug 26th 2011 8:08PM
Some things I can understand, but using the "Time is of the essence, we don't have enough people" for something like art is a bit excessive. Blizzard you are huge, you rake in insane amounts of money. Im sure there are many many artists who will work for even min wage to work at blizzard. Hire more people for those sectors. Its not like its something that needs to be constantly overseen like game balance.
MusedMoose Aug 26th 2011 8:23PM
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/193101/orcs-need-model-buffed
Take a look at the rest of the blue posts. Nethaera addresses your suggestion with a simple fact: it's never that easy. I know that the hiring process in my office to get just two new people took months, and our new hires don't need the graphical and artistic skills that people hoping to work at Blizzard's art department would need. My guess (and it's only a guess) is that by the time Blizzard found a bunch of new artists, their current artists probably could get the job done themselves.
Also, and this is a general statement, *not* directed at anyone here: I really wish the obnoxious person who got the last blue reply in that thread hadn't received one. An accusatory, demanding, and generally bratty post deserves only to be ignored. -_-
Maxilimus Aug 26th 2011 8:32PM
Then they need to put the information out that they are infact hireing new artists. If they proverbially whore the information out, then more people would apply. Most people see something like blizzard as something huge, with no possible way of getting in, so they dont bother. If they make it obviously apparent they are hiring then they would get astronomically more aplications. When talking about it they make it seem like they have a art team of 3. They give new models to things that could easily go without them. 25 bosses each patch get a model, yet the ones we see often are stuck without necks, and have a poly count of a piece of dirt in minecraft
snarkygoldfish Aug 26th 2011 8:40PM
Mused - Yes the response is bratty, and I think they could have found a less vitriolic post to respond to on this topic...but I think people are just getting really frustrated. I don't entirely blame them.
Yes, training new art asset creators can take a time - but I am sure there are plenty of people out there with the necessary degree and skill set to do so once they're oriented with whatever proprietary software Blizz is (likely) using.
I've worked in animation -- having the basic skill-set needed goes leaps and bounds into helping one learn the ropes of a company really quickly. Blizz isn't going to hire concept artists to train how to do model work / rigging -- they're going to hire the animation / game design students that already have that prior knowledge.
And damn if I don't know plenty of people in those industries that would kill for a job right now!
Amaxe Aug 26th 2011 8:56PM
Didn't Blizz try some remodels of faces once before WOLK came out? I forget the details, but I recall seeing pictures on WoW Insider. They were hideous.
That doesn't mean any future revamp is doomed to be hideous. Just a past experiment went wrong (if I don't have my facts wrong)
Infamado Aug 26th 2011 9:07PM
Why do Blizzard have such a hard time finding people with the skills to create models when Valve have stacks of professional-looking models submitted to the 12-man TF2 team for free? If they can't find artists, the problem is with their hiring process. Skilled artists exist, and Blizzard is choosing not to hire them.
More likely, they just think the money lost from using low-quality models is less than the cost of updating them. That's fair enough; it beats the common 'graphics are the entirety of the game' mindset.
The idea that players would complain is a pretty obvious excuse. It's just not a good enough reason; Blizzard are a game company, and every single change they make will drive idiots to tears. Given that they worked up the courage to implement the sweeping gameplay changes made in Cataclysm, I can't see how they might think the backlash from updating character models would be too much to bear.
Noyou Aug 27th 2011 1:03AM
I know it's probably a major undertaking but they gave us 2 new races. It can't be fricken impossible. I am tired of hearing "we would like to do this, but..." That is just not acceptable. And as far as the hiring process, I'm pretty sure blizzard hires sub contractors or vendors to do work for them all the time. I worked at a company that hired lots of temps, it doesn't take 2 months. Most places I have worked for I was interviewed, hired, drug tested, and working in less than a week. Blizzard is no small company, I'm sure they can handle hiring/training people in a timely fashion. Either come out and say there's no way they want to put the resources in updating the old models or do it. Quit jerking people around.
MisterRik Aug 27th 2011 1:34AM
I've been a professional cook for 28 years, and Blizzard's tired answer on this topic is very similar to what I've seen over and over again in my industry. Restaurant owners "just can't afford" to fix or replace the aging, beat-to-death, falling-apart equipment in the kitchen, but somehow they can find the money to keep remodeling the damn dining room every couple years.
Kadamon Aug 27th 2011 3:52AM
I think this part's kind of a sad excuse too.
"... We've made changes in the past to various characters and had some people be a bit upset that it was changed on them as they had made very specific choices about the look of their character."
Honestly?
Just do the changes and give everyone a single chance to refurbish the look of their characters, like what you can do when you do a race/faction change.
Problem friggin' solved.
Hell, they could probably go and charge five bucks for it and make money of off it after the fact.
Drakkenfyre Aug 27th 2011 11:45PM
Kadamon, one of the things they are referencing is when they remodeled the human female face. People logged in, and saw their character's face completely changed. Their eyes now looking different, and their cheeks thinner. It made some people upset.
Never think that someone couldn't be attached to a lower-quality model. People get attached to the way something looks, and even if it's low-poly, they can get upset when it gets changed without the ability to change it back. Imagine the new Druid Tree form. Technically it's higher-quality, but the majority of the people think it's ugly. The demand for the old tree form was so great, they put in a Glyph to use it instead.
Blizzard has said if they change the models, they will give people the option to use either the old ones, or the new ones. I simply hope they only update the original models, because the ones introduced in Burning Crusade look fine. I wouldn't want to enable newer models for everything else, and have to see the Burning Crusade models updated as well, as they are fine.
venslor Aug 26th 2011 8:13PM
Trees. YES! Nothing like flying by them and seeing them disappear because they're only two dimension. Very, very dated.
MusedMoose Aug 26th 2011 8:14PM
I finally got the title "the Flamebreaker" on my fire mage yesterday! So my answer to what I'm playing this weekend is "all my alts I've been neglecting while getting my main the title that lets everyone know she was too hot for the Firelands". ^_^ Also this weekend: costume prep for Dragon*Con. If you're there next weekend, and you see a tall guy painted white with black hair sticking out in all directions because he's dressed as Dream/Morpheus from "The Sandman", odds are good that's me.
And I'm all for model changes for all the vanilla races.
Also: Mr. Van Allen, your 8-bit art is pretty damn cool. Mega Man 2 was the first NES game I ever beat, so I'm looking forward to seeing your art from that. w00t.
Fletcher Aug 27th 2011 3:22AM
I approve of your costume choice. I approve of it so much.
T-roy Aug 26th 2011 8:46PM
Orc and humans for sure need tweeked... Maybe some changes to undead facial features
murmaiderxx Aug 26th 2011 8:35PM
I have been noticing a lot of complaining from people regarding the value of raiding and the consistency of informaiton relating to the game (be it the lore, or in the case of this article the model) Does all of this really boil down to people disliking how they are handling the game or is it the call to rise above where they should be as a company.
Let me rephrase that.
Is the pin holing of the game to acknowledge the inefficiencies that have come to pass from this game as it's aged against the other games that have come after it?
Because a game as it is, if it's worth playing and still appeals to a mass regardless of it's graphics and 'real feel' that comes along with that game people are still going to play.
This may come across as harsh, but as technology continues and it will continue well after this game is obsolete we should remember that these are problems we have with what we think the game should be, and not how it is. Many of the people who write for this site must have played on consoles/pcs that were mere images of what this game is today, and should remember back to your roots and embrace the feel of the game is to you and not the shiny images that come along with it. Really do you spend a lot of time looking your game self in the face? I bet most of your time, like everyone else is spent looking at your back side instead.
A product of such a massive product like this is subject to countless setbacks on things that will take importance over something thats already in place (like outdated character graphics). And just because it's ugly doesn't make it a priority, in fact 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' seems to be the motto in larger companies like that. and that's where you get to the point of asking yourself as the company of something so big, how long can you afford to handle something like that if you're wanting to continue to grow your customer base let alone continue to keep the one you have and have them embrace your product?
You have to think of the things they face like a big wave, in a wave pool.
(This is all talking pretty much in rhetoric for anyone who wants to really think deeper of what's really going on, and to help you remember we could still be playing as one-colored blocks on the screen if it weren't for tireless efforts from a creative team to make the ugly faces of a fantasy world.)