Now with high-resolution underwear!
Blizzard has outdone themselves this time. For a game coming up on its tenth year of play, World of Warcraft dearly needs a graphical update, and it seems now that Blizzard is ready to spring into action. This expansion is all about redesign, be it brand new character models, the construction of Draenor before the Burning Legion tore it apart and even the very beasts native to the continent, both living and dead. To the average World of Warcraft player, this is great on its own, finally being thrust into a world that does not show its age. However, this leads to the question of just how long World of Warcraft can last when a large portion of the game is a decade or more old?
Certainly, other MMOs have lasted longer than World of of Warcraft, but none have kept the hype nor achieved the fame that Blizzard has, and it seems that such hype is not going away any time soon.The Elder Scrolls Online, released just last week with little to no fanfare, Star Wars: The Old Republic, is forever known as the ToRtanic, and the next one up to bat, Wildstar, looks to be just like its predecessors. What is it then that makes Blizzard’s trademark game so popular?
The answer can be traced back years ago, to The Burning Crusade. January of 2007 marked the release of World of Warcraft‘s first expansion pack, changing the frustrating and cumbersome forty man raids into equally challenging ten and twenty-five man raids, not to mention the PvP revamp, two new races, flying mounts, and of course, the addition of a new continent rife with factions and daily quests. The game became more accessible and had far more content than other MMOs of the time, so why would anyone pick another over the behemoth of World of Warcraft?
Of course, this popularity rose for another three years, topping off at a whopping 12.1 million subscribers in 2010. Unfortunately, such success could not be sustained, and subscriptions began to drop at an exponential rate, currently sitting at 7.8 million (a 200,000 player increase since the previous quarter, funnily enough). Still though, nearly eight million active accounts ensure the fall of World of Warcraft to be a faraway thing, but again, it brings forth the worry that this game will look even more dated five years from now.
The new, upgraded town hall as players will see in their personal garrisons. Will it be upgraded in the old world as well?
At the very least, Blizzard has a few things to worry about. Sure Runescape can get away with low graphics, but it is expected. World of Warcraft is the MMO, the most popular, most profitable game on the market. Sure they can upgrade graphics with each expansion, but the old world, aged as it is? That will take quite a bit of work.
One wonders how long it will take, how many years more Blizzard can pull this off. I do not see myself quitting World of Warcraft any time soon, nor do I see millions of others. But in five years from now, even players with low end systems, an important part of Blizzard’s market, will look at the old world and see terribly outdated trash.
Granted, Blizzard has a long time to pull itself together on that. Remaking the old world is a challenge (as seen with Cataclysm) but it is not impossible, and indeed can be done one chunk at a time. Perhaps all trees get new models, or all buildings are replaced with their new Warlords of Draenor redesign. Maybe we will see Blizzard drag their game into the current generation one step at a time, ending with a beautiful game without decade old skins.
Or, much more likely, nothing will change, and patches of Azeroth will forever remain caught in the past. Oh well!
So, World of Warcraft players, what are your thoughts on the new models showcased and datamined thus far? Love the new direction, hate what the game is turning into? Be sure to comment below and let us know!
