130
rate

WoW likely candidate for visual overhaul

May 16, 2008 in News comments 8

If you've been wondering just how long World of Warcraft could maintain popularity with newer, better looking games coming out all the time, rest your fears. Producer J. Allen Brack says they'll likely be rebuilding the games visual components from the ground up in the future.

"That's actually something we talk about every expansion," Brack admitted when asked about top-end visuals. "I'm positive we'll talk about it next expansion."

"A lot of people continued to play with the original client, because it was faster, or they preferred it, or were just used to it or whatever," the producer said, adding a note of caution. "And so for me as a game developer, the idea that we would spend so much time and energy on something and have people go, 'meh, that's not really for me,' that's not very exciting."
chautemoc via eurogamer.net »
Favourite this article Add source
| More
Report!
News story attached to:
Additional sources:

Comments

Register as a member to subscribe comments.
  • 1
    Shadow of Death May 16, 08
    Well, you gotta expect a big, online game like WoW would want to compete with newer MMORPGS. Wit ha visual overhaul, people would pick WoW over it's potential rivals, since graphically, it would hold up to snuff (post graphical update, of course)...

    WoW has what? +10 million members?
  • 0
    Slumpy monkey May 16, 08
    They should have a High detail option and a Low detail option for peepz without mega powerfull pc's.

    ^^^ 10 mill members.

    How many of them are active is another question.
  • 0
    Redemption May 16, 08
    I'm one of the few who feel that WoW's gfx are fine as they are (haven't loaded it up in 2 years so I'm a bit out of touch with it now). Rebuilding them from the ground up is a pipe dream unless all their original textures were created in very high resolution, otherwise they'd have to redo EVERYTHING. But I kind of like Slumpy Monkey's idea of a detail level option. That could be cool.
  • 0
    Shadow of Death May 16, 08
    @Slumpy - To be more accurate, it is 10 million or more active subscribers. As in, they're currently paying a monthly fee. Sure, they don't have to use it, but why pay a monthly fee if you don't use it?

    Redemption, I'm not the most knowledgeable member when it comes to game development and such, but I do believe that all they'd have to do is retexturize (re-skin) everything. It is quite possible they already have higher resolution textures backed up, but haven't used because it would put strain on the servers and such. I would imagine that game devs would like to have a 'master' copy of everything (everything in high resolution), for editing purposes. I do the same thing when making banners, avatars, and other image editing stuff. I use highest resolution original source material I can find, and simply resize it so it fits contstraints (such as Neo's 65 x 65 pixel avatar limitation), so it'll work.

    Even if they have to redo some stuff, I doubt they'd have to redo TOO much.

    I dunno if they could do that over an update, or whether people would have to purchase an 'upgrade' disk....It would simply involve replacing the textures stored on a user's HDD.

    I plan to avoid WoW, good graphics or not, you hear horror stories about it....And I don't have the cash to burn on getting it, the expansions, and the monthly fees >_>

    ZOMG, I R a higher levelz than redemptions! I R awesome! Lol, nice to see the Neoseeker boss-man isn't too 'l33t' to post around with the rest of us plebians ^_~
    • 0
      Slumpy monkey May 17, 08
      Its extremly time consuming to update everything, It would be like developing a whole new game, while at the same time maintaing wow.

      It would take 2 years at least for a full overhaul.
      • 0
        Shadow of Death May 17, 08
        I wouldn't think so. As I said, a lot of the textures are probably already there. And I don't think it'd take nearly as long as making a new game, since the game's mechanics wouldn't change, just a graphical overhaul.

        I'm not saying it wouldn't take some time, just that some of it is probably already done anyhow.
        • 0
          Slumpy monkey May 17, 08
          No, even if its just a graphic overhaul it still would take tons of time, If there talking this gen graphics.
  • 0
    Final Blade May 17, 08
    That girl in the pic is hott.

This news story is archived and is closed to comments now.