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. -_-

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

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!

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.