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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWRUP: 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 2 of 4)
PLOJR19 Aug 26th 2011 8:33PM
I don't think anyone would mind a graphic improvement to the old races. Just something to make them look better and more updated, particularly as each expansion makes the old models look worse and worse...not knocking them, but for 2011, they're pretty outdated, while in 2004, when everything looked like that, it was fine.
snarkygoldfish Aug 26th 2011 8:34PM
...Is it too much to ask for my Female troll to blink? And maybe a few face options that, while necessarily *pretty* (I am so sick of that one vacant looking "pretty" face) are more akin to fierce that "smashinfacewithshovel."
A little less "man neck/chin" on my female dwarf would be awesome, too. I love her short little curves and most of her animations...but the face and neck shape need some major work.
jfofla Aug 26th 2011 8:38PM
Who are these people? They are WOW players, and WOW players hate EVERYTHING!
WOW players use "Annoying" to describe every aspect of the game.
Amaxe Aug 26th 2011 9:05PM
Hey I don't use the word and I find it annoying that you lump me in with those people...
...dammit
Noyou Aug 27th 2011 1:05AM
@jfofla
That is totally annoying of you to say that.
Al Aug 27th 2011 3:08AM
So.. you're expecting positive consensus from over 11 million people, on everything?
Infamado Aug 26th 2011 8:46PM
"I think remodeling them would be almost a little masturbatory since most of the models are covered up by armor and gear anyway"
Undead characters sing with me! My spiiine, it shows through my clooooak/Yes and my ribcage, it shows through my breeeast plaaate/Why is there thick, plate armooour/except on my elbows and knees/why won't the boss tear my limbs off/it's an obvious weeak... point/Also it looks stupid
Please update the Undead models! Thanks.
Halcyonairspace Aug 26th 2011 8:45PM
Sometime, Blizzard say things that frustrates me. This is one of those time. Why is it that 'SOME' people are (Keyword: SOME) are making Blizzard shake in their boots in regards to these changes? aren't we all paying customers? Who the hell would COMPLAIN about a model update? Keep the old model in and just give us one or two newer models. If people wants to keep playing on the old model, then let them have that choice. We're not asking for a complete overhaul of character faces/body. We're just asking for them to add a few more choices that includes 'NEWER' model alongside older ones.
VioletArrows Aug 26th 2011 10:00PM
As much as I'd love an update, I can actually sympathize with getting that close to one's character that changes like that would be weird. My mains are a female Tauren and a male Draenei. When they did the thing where they changed almost all the guys' face tendrils to have mustaches and weird sideburns... was NOT happy. I also can't change my Tauren's fur color away from black. She just stops being... 'her'.
But I'm confused as to why they don't just do contests like most other companies do now (like the Mass Effect 3 one a few weeks ago). Throw out a bunch of concept art pieces. Here's the kind of changes we'd like to do. Note the fingers are better, their hair isn't one big plastic piece, and their faces are less uncanny valley. Do they need to be 'tougher', taller, thinner, 'prettier', uglier/meaner, more masculine/feminine, etc? Like most contests one entry will always have 2x more than all the others combined. Refine that one. Bam. They're making it sound as if it's got to be completely utterly perfect right from the gate. Lord knows they didn't budge when they trotted out the new Jaina model and everyone's eyebrows went up.
Matthew Aug 26th 2011 8:53PM
I'm going to see Psycho at the Hollywood Forever Cemetary.
No, I'm not joking. They show movies there.
http://creepyla.com/blog/event/psycho-at-hollywood-forever-cemetery/
loop_not_defined Aug 26th 2011 8:54PM
I *love* my female troll's ugly face. :(
Nothing quite says "I'll eat your face" like a good snarl.
snarkygoldfish Aug 27th 2011 11:37AM
I use one of the "ugly" faces as well- it actually looks mean and fierce rather than "melting" which is one some of the others give a distinct vibe of. D:
Tili Aug 26th 2011 8:55PM
Now that Ysera has taken the female NE (and notice she is not chunky or blocky, nor does she have man hands), the female Night Elves could use some serious lovin'. I agree that all the original models could use some smoothing out, more facial expressions, etc.
I also agree that it's not the models alone that make the game. WoW is a beautiful game in it's own way. So the trees are a little 2D, but what beautiful 2D trees they are! Sometimes I love to just fly around and look at the scenery. True, other games have great scenery too, and better character models to go with it, but something about Azeroth just pulls me in and makes me want to admire it. I've played other MMOs but none of them have ever kept me coming back the way WoW has :D
Minstrel Aug 26th 2011 10:07PM
The way I look at it is that the graphics aren't great (in terms of polygon count, engine) which is purposeful from what I've read--Blizzard wants the game playable by a wider range of computers--but the art is great. The scenery, the colours, the general aesthetics are all quite lovely and enjoyable to behold.
There are few things in any game to match things like Dalaran or Vortex Pinnacle. When I first began playing, I marveled at Teldrassil and Darnassus. However, even things like riding across Desolace at sunset, with the sun low over the horizon and the glare in my eyes has filled me with great satisfaction in terms of visual immersion.
Fletcher Aug 27th 2011 3:26AM
Ysera isn't using the female NE model, though. She uses the same model as Alexstrasza and Sylvanas.
Tili Aug 27th 2011 9:13AM
Not the female NE model true, but what the female night elf should be. Notice the purple skin, NE ears, facial tattoos.
Blazing Rain Aug 26th 2011 9:14PM
Yet they still have the fugly mustache on the best draenei beard option.
Minstrel Aug 26th 2011 9:38PM
What I'd love to see (though it's probably too technically intensive to put into WoW's legacy systems) is a body type selector. So that males of virtually every race don't have to be hulking body builders and females anorexic super models. Polygon counts and such are great, but I'd love to actually have, say, a slim male elf.
There are current MMOs with that and much more character customization, but I assume that with the way WoW was built, it would be difficult to implement now. Still, dreams never die!
Merinna Aug 26th 2011 9:46PM
Wait a second: A few years ago, Blizzard made some slight changes to the polygons in a number of character models. Mostly, this was unnoticed, except for the human female faces which acquired a slightly vapid expression as a result. And the playerbase (and WoW Insider) went ballistic about it.
(Not that they weren't right to go ballistic. This slight change was not an improvement from a "looks" point of view)
Even the new-ish druid animal forms were somewhat controversial when they first came out. Every little change like this is bound to cause some uproar in a community as generally grumbly as this one.
But these are the people (or at least an incident) Nethaera were referring to when she suggested tinkering with the models was dire business.
VioletArrows Aug 26th 2011 10:13PM
Might resub. Maybe not. :/ I installed edited a bunch of mods in Minecraft so likely I'll be absorbed in that all weekend. I got a 23" monitor from woot and this thing is *magnificent*. I CAN SEEEEEEEEE!!!!! Did you know Deathwing has rune squiggles and decorations on his wingbones? @.@ And Draenei have two sets of eyelids?