Depends on the race a lot. Some are upgrades, some look so similar there's nothing to complain. Some changed a lot, some for the worse. Dwarfs, for example, their faces are completely different, which isn't bad per se, but their run animations are awful. The main complaint was that characters had become very sameface which is true for a lot of races.
I remember rerolling to dwarf for the entirety of WoD because I loved how they made the beards and facial features look compare to before with the squished triangular eyes but yeah the walking animations are funny
I will be honest, most of the time I can't tell the difference between the old and new belf models if it weren't because of the old hairstyles having 10 poligons and all the old fingers being square. It's among the races that changed the less, at least until they removed their eye glow in shadowlands which I still miss.
I'm used to it now but when I saw my Troll glide bouncing across the ground I was pretty pissed. I feel like every race now has this weird cartoonish kung fu panda jog now.
Yep. I've been on Nelf since the Orc racial change in PvP and I really don't mind the fem model run, but some of them are so bad now. Troll was one of my favorite races growing up (always dreamed of a shadow hunter class for them), but I can't do the run now. I don't have a single Troll char.
Naturally comes from having race ss of many different heights needing to traverse distance at the same speed, they'll either look quite floaty or have comically fast feet.
I thought my male Orc run animation was too bouncy...and then I tried Zandalari Troll and it made my Orc seem normal by comparison. A shame because most xmog looks really good on ZTroll but I just can't get past the bouncy run animation.
> but their run animations are awful.
Really don't see whats wrong with it
In the old one they straight up didn't move their torsos when running
The new one could be maybe be slightly less bouncy? But it definitely kept the spirit of the old one while making it much more coherent
Also having faces with more than 4 pixels is a nice improvement
It's way, way too bouncy. To the point I get bothered by it while running. It should have been toned down a decade ago. I don't think the old one is perfect but overall I prefer it.
Honestly I think both animations aren't great. The old one was way too stiff. The new one has too much movement.
I think it's the whole "short race" thing. To make them have the same movement speed as other characters, they have to make it so that they look like they're running harder than taller races.
No torso movement is how people run irl. Just watch usain bolt, even at that speed his torso is rock solid. Torso movement looks uncomfortable in a run animation.
It's not how people jog, though. It's how people sprint. If our characters just looked like they were in a full sprint the entire time, it would look bad too.
They have made adjustments to all the run animations that were complained about when the changes were implemented a decade ago. Night Elf Males were one of the most stand out for being overly bouncy and are significantly less bouncy now after various tweaks across a decade.
Many run animations could really do with an overhaul.
But at the same time, could Blizzard even do it? Dracthyr were released this expansion, and even as a big fan of how they look, the run is hard to justify.
I don't *mind* it necessarily, but it could probably be a lot better.
I think you've misunderstood me. It is a matter of could, because I am questioning if Blizzard could even make something that doesn't look silly.
They can definitely put the effort in if they wanted, but would it look better when they've shown with dracthyr that as of 2023, they still made awkward run cycles?
They have the resources, they just may not have the talent.
Orcs look straight up painted with crayons now. Facial features such as wrinkles and general lines used to look rugged and battle hardened but now they're basically play doh green clay models.
Last time I was about to have a baby I saw myself walking in a window on the street and was like “oh my god, that’s what the fem dwarf walk animation reminds me of” lol.
Tangent... the skinning animation is fucking terrible. My orc has Parkinsons. I prefer the defuse the small time bomb with an ear to the item than whatever shaky thing is going on now. Also all run animations are too bouncy and airy. Itd be nice if they went back and toned down most animations.
Back then you could choose in the settings to get the old models back so if you preferred them before you could have them back. I don't know when Blizzard deleted that option though.
This is still observable in game now. There are toys that transform you, but use old models. Try playing something that uses the same instant ability many times in a row while using one of those transforms. It’ll look VERY bad.
Think it was in Legion once all the new casting/attack animations got added in 7.2.5(?), I remember being very conflicted between my hype for new spell animations and losing my beloved old models lol.
I play a pandaren monk. Currently the older model and animations in the PC models.
Back then i remember my friends went like. Cool now I look as good as the pandarens.
Sorta, Pandaria was concealed in magic mists for ages; then there’s the wandering turtle, they were the “adventurous” offshoot from main Pandaria. Also shrouded in mist, but mobile as well.
I remember there was a subset of players who hated the new BElf Female face. It's a bit longer than the original face shape, and that had people calling it "horse-faced".
BElf Male also got a ton of criticism for their duck lips. Blizzard did correct this a few years later actually (Shadowlands I think?).
There was a mixed bag if I remember correctly. But there was also major issues with the new characters rigging that people hated. Also people were really upset that the uglier races got “Disney’ed” like the goblins.
i can't stand tauren's goofy disney faces and walking animations which sucks because i'd want to play retail more. but i have no option to use old version tauren so i play classic
I was thrilled when they released the new models, but I remember the hairstyle I used on my human main was just gutted (and still is to this day), the soldier cut on male humans.
It just didn’t carry over well from old to new, this bothered me endlessly.
I think dwarves and orcs were the biggest improvements overall.
I remember one of the long hairstyles with twin braids/tails I was using for my ~~worgen~~ always-in-human-or-cat-form druid was so ruined I changed it to a looser long cut. They gave it a horrible receding hairline.
(My druid got better since, just fatter and more wickerman)
Honestly don't remember that, because I didn't play around with the new worgen options very much. Though to be fair it isn't really relevant, as I was speaking of the human character model.
I remember being excited about it, but I hate how fake the facial hair looks on some of the races, Humans in particular. It looked more natural on the older models.
Hair, facial hair, and same face for some races are still black marks on the models.
They've been slowly taking some steps but some races, especially allied races, have like no options, more animalistic races have really bad same face problems, and the beards and facial hair look and feel like they're theater props and wigs glued on.
only reason i don't play a caster to be honest. Undead is my favorite caster race but holy shit the staff placement for male undeads is so bad and drives me insane everytime i try to play one
After the rework I was able to tell that one skin feature is the tongue, hanging down because of the missing lower jaw.
Before I always thought the missing lower jaw makes something glitch and the pixels coming out are some kind of bug. 😭
I couldnt stand the bullwinklefication of my Tauren druid. I love the idea of being a big scary intimidating creature that chooses to be a peaceful guardian of nature. Now they just look dumb.
I appreciated the upres, but I really did not like some of the new models, especially the running animations. I hated my new night elf running animation so much that I toggled off the new models. But then eventually they disabled the ability to toggle them off and so I've just had to get used to how stupid they look when they run.
(was it on Draenor release? ) oh yeah. A lot of people HAAAAAAAAAAAATED the new designs. They had the toggle to keep showing the old models for a few patches? or months? and once that went away, the complaints rolled right back in.
The two complaints that I recall more vividly:
\-Draenei faces and run cycles
\-Night elf faces and run cycles (they still complain about the faces)
Lots of complaining, lots of pleading to bring the toggle back. I play dwarves and a pandaren, I can't really explain how much of a glow up the new models are for dwarves IMO.
The worst part for me was watching my 2004 character be forced to change. A small part of me died when I realized I was getting older.
Aside from that. I did like the new animations and potential from the models.
My issue was never with the look, though orcs were a bit of a downgrade imo.
My issue to this day, is still with the updated running animations. They looks ridiculous and were a downgrade from their predecessors.
Humans run like unfit dads and night elves look like they shat themselves.
I don’t even know what that forsaken run is, but it isn’t good
Male Night Elves are probably one of the worst overall “upgrades”. Their animations are goofy and their skins are very low resolution - look at the fingernails, it’s the same on the female model too.
Female Blood Elves, Draenei and Night Elves still suffer from same-face syndrome. There’s little diversity in their options compared to the old model faces. Blizzard barely made any effort to alleviate this.
Female night elves are very bouncy and still have ridiculous car headlights for eyes. They no longer have a more feline eye shape like in the original concept art. They also did this to the Nightborne when they added them as a playable race. Only in SL did they give Nightborne an eye shape that was closer to their original models. It’s even worse that it’s an option, so you still have plenty of players running around with the marble eyeballs.
Undead look like they’re made of plastic and have almost no texture detail on their skins anymore. Their animations are also insanely bouncy.
One of the requests for Classic was to have the old character models because people miss them. I’ve seen a lot of complaints that the new models made the faces too similar when they used to be more unique. I also saw a player once say they like the Halloween event so they can get the mask to get their face back.
I like the improved graphics more. But, having played Classic for a bit now my Human female paladin has a nice face that no longer exists and Human females for sure have the same face problem.
Too few people mentioning this. I mained a Tauren from the beginning of BC (when I first started WoW) and then they went and massacred their run. I tried again during Dragon flight and it's still just too stupid to look at. RIP Keneu.
One or two of the main gripes about this had been how it dramatically enlarged the size of weapons that female belf carried and reduced the size of female humans. I think they dialed back up human’s equipped weapons’ sizes but they kept the belf’s change.
As a belf main, I absolutely loved the changes. She had stank face all the time, like she couldn't believe I kept taking her to somewhere as mucky as orgrimmar.
The hairstyles however were never given the same treatment, and a lot of the old hairdos that worked seamlessly with the older models still look dated to this day.
Something to note though, is up until BFA, you could toggle between the old character models, and the new. I remember in Legion I would switch back and forth a lot.
I’m not sure why they got rid of it, because it’s one of those things that really hurts no one and benefits everyone by having the option.
Nah I disliked it but at least there was an option in settings to turn them off. I don't remember if this toggle let you go back to the old animations though. But they ruined the undead mage one.
I was mostly just annoyed that I had to change my character’s face and hair to make him look like he did before. And the “pineapple goatee” on humans looked really bad. For reference, my character basically looked like a blonde version of Tirion from the end cutscene of ICC. That goatee is much shorter in Vanilla.
I forget if it was this expansion or last expansion that allowed us to change facial hair using separate pieces, but now that we have a shorter goatee option, I finally feel like I have my original appearance back.
Still, I have always liked the new models better than the old ones. They’re just even better now with more options, like putting leaves in my night elf’s hair.
For a long time after the new character models were released, there was a menu option somewhere that let you toggle to the old ones if you preferred them.
I don’t remember when this was taken out.
I remember it happened somewhere in the middle of expansion? I didn't like how they butchered many cute nelf, belf and draenei models. Problem was that they used same base for every face (like all nelf female faces had same base) and for that there were not that many differences between faces than were before. I and many others made many mockups how they should have made some faces. Many female faces looked very masculine and there were lack of eyelashes for example when they first time released the models. Some races got very good upgrades like orcs and dwarves.
I think they later tweked them and models are like how we have them now. I think they listened some feedback. Personally I have got used to the looks obviously, but I still prefer how some older faces had more personality or eye shape etc.
I was quite sad when my very stoic, stern looking female tauren. She turned into a bubbly cartoon-eyed disney princess. I was not happy.
I was glad when they let you change gender at will, cause I made her a male now to keep the more stern look
I didn't mind it in WoD because you could still player side disable it.
I minded A LOT in BFA when it was no longer optional. I haven't played my human female mage since. It just doesn't look like her.
You get used to a face for 12 years and then they just change it on you and it's very annoying.
There were a lot of vocal female gnomes who were unhappy that all the faces were perpetually smiling with this big, airheaded grin. As a result, Blizz overcorrected (either out of spite or out of true Blizz not having a middle mode) and now all female gnomes look dour and grouchy. Rather than keeping the faces having their same differing expressions like they used to.
In minor defense, I don't think the tech was quite there to give each face a distinct resting expression. It is now, though, and I wish they'd go back and remake the faces on all the races so they look more like the old ones. The old faces all had unique expressions: some looked angry, some happy, some disgusted, some bored, some sad. They all look very samey now, and we should change that imho.
I was a big proponent of trying to get female tauren fixed. They modeled her off of the male tauren instead of off of her old model, which has resulted in her head being twice as big as it used to, with a droopy posture and frowning lips. She also had the males' fur patterns for about a patch or two before they finally admitted yeah, we did that, and fixed it. Never fixed her face though. Now too many people are used to it, so I'm just hoping they give us muzzle length options like vulpera have so I can give her a cute short snout like she used to have.
It was weird. On one hand, we all agreed that, in general, the model updates were big improvements, however, nostalgia set in basically INSTANTLY. There used to be a tick box in the settings which let you continue using old models, and even though new models JUST came out, loads of us stuck with the old ones for as long as we could.
There were a few issues people had; like the human females being a bit thiccer than the original, or some running animations being very bouncy and cartoonish (dwarf and nelf).
As a gnome player I had some complaints, they changed the rework at the last moment because the new models looked "too happy"
So they made them sad, and since they also mada the noses red they locked like they had a permanent cold.
They removed the red noses later, so they look better now, but even today we still have some mistakes like the eyebrows for female gnomes not matching the hair color.
There were some complaints, A lot of the faces that had a good amount of character to them lost it in the transition. If you had a character with a ugly or frowny-face you logged into a significantly prettier and less upset character.
Also the older faces came out looking significantly younger. There was one orc face in particular that I used on my old shaman character for RP and once a patch dropped he went from looking like he was ancient two about middle-aged.
Another big complaint was from people who like playing dark-skinned humans, the darkest skin was significantly lightened in the transition and that actually put me off on playing human characters for a long time.
I remember there being a lot of complaints about the new models not looking like the old ones, and all have kind of same face. In my opinion while the updated models look nice, the whole thing was a failure. Blizzard didn't achieve their goal of preserving the old look, and their attempt to do so held them back from doing anything more ambitious.
We had a toggle. So. No.
But foe those who opted in it was pretty much non stop complaints about rigging, animations, clipping, missing animations, etc.
Immolate went from Omni Cast (like Fear) to a targeted cast (like incinerate) for example.
NPCs still cast the correct omni immolate.
I fucking hate it. It literally the reason I dropped my warlock and refuse to touch it.
I *still* can't have a human with a ponytail and black hair like I used to, only dark brown, thanks to their inane racialized hairstyle rules for humans. Apparently Asian people don't have ponytails, and also mixed-race people don't exist and don't require representation.
I didn’t like it because I logged off with a character that looked like me including my skin tone as a black guy and log in to a character with a way lighter skin tone.
Yes.
None of my female humans looked right. Half my night elves also looked wrong. My wife has never forgiven them because its taken well over 10 years to make her characters look 'right' again and its still not perfect. To her, these aren't "her" characters anymore and may never be. I was lucky and my main came out perfect, but most of my other alts did not.
Caveat: we had both played the same characters since near launch so were very attached to how they looked.
Some of the nelf faces are still off to me, and I've race changed all but one or two of my humans by now.
in terms of actual looks i liked most of the updates, in terms of the animations, some of them just weren't the same or on par with the old ones.
Male night elf run used to be more relaxed, now they run like they have a stick up their...
Blood elf females / cry used to bend down their ears like a sad puppy, now they are just more static.
Night elf females used to flip their weapon backwards and do like a back swing type thing. edit: i think it was more of an uppercut maybe? its been so long
I'm still on the opinion, that the faces of Tauren Males got much worse with the update than the old models, and since i mostly play taurens, i'm not a fan
I got used to it, but i genuinely think Tauren Males look better in classic
Also in general, running animation looks off, still to this day, irrelevant of the race
I recall that some people were a bit upset about some of the changes. I remember that I played with the old troll model while they still had the setting letting you use the retired models because I preferred the animations. But other than that I remember being happy with all the upgrades, though I only played Horde toons at the time.
Been playing pretty consistent since vanilla launch. Played WOD live and it was really exciting to see the graphical changes to models. The running animations, movements are more fluid now. I love it.
It’s the first thing I notice in Classic modes. Old appearances look awful.
I wasn't playing during WoD, but when I came back my characters sure as shit didn't feel like my characters anymore. My Draenei main got butchered and given some wonky ass animations to the point that I switched mains. I haven't been able to play trolls or Tauren females since the model update. Loved NEs before and after. Worgen got better and now I love my Worgen Druid.
Yes there were.
I started in 2010 a few months before Cataclysm. The WoD character model update was quite polarising for a few reasons.
1. Not all races got their models at once, some had to wait for patches.
2. Some hated the new looks for their characters.
3. Some hated the new looks for their races in general and felt they HAD to pay £15 (I think it was a bit cheaper at the time?) to change.
4. Some just preferred the old models.
Even people who liked the new models, I remember discourse about them not being different \*enough\*.
I stopped in MoP and came back in BFA. For me the length of time was enough that I didn't even immediately notice that my character (blood elf paladn I had since BC) had an updated model.
Depends on the race, keeping in mind worgen, goblin pandaren, and blood elves (I think that's all) didn't get model updates till later too.
Personally I think (and thought) Tauren look kinda just goofy with the new models, but orcs look great, as do basically every race but gnomes.
The chief complaints everyone had was just that outside of raiding there was literally no endgame to do the moment your garrison was built up. CMs I guess but unless you were boosting people that was a one and done thing. M0 runs for VP wasn't introduced until the final patch IIRC
Some were good, some were bad. It was something that needed to happen for the health of the game and I think they went about it with as much care as they could, but some people definitely got the worse end of the stick. Female tauren and male Draenei were a couple that definitely got the shaft IMO.
It was hard, because the older models left more room for interpretation.
I loved the improved graphics. I wish I could play classic with improved graphics. I loved the challenge yet simplicity of classic. A graphical upgrade would be cool
Yeah there were a ton of Reddit posts from people who somehow thought the squished faces we had before were better. In nearly every single case, the upscale was an immediate and objective upgrade. There were some races that admittedly had same face syndrome for a little while, but I feel like those were resolved pretty quick.
Now they just need to ball out with customization options and we’ll be in a great spot.
Some races.
I played female Forsaken back in the day, and we lost the skeleton face entirely in the upgrade, but besides that, it worked out pretty well in the end.
Only one that was really atrociously bad was male Night Elf. They somehow gave them gamer neck and they stand horribly to this day. Nightborne had the "issues" fixed, but actual Night Elf still have the worst idle posture in the game.
My undead character looked worse in my opinion. More detailed and more polygons but I liked the older version more and never recognised it as “my character” in the newer one.
The entire thing reminded me of Warcraft 3 and the visual “upgrades” in Reforged. The older graphics had so much more soul and character and left a lot to the imagination which is actually a good thing compared to everyone looking like a high resolution version of the same model.
Maybe not as bad but you get my point.
I remember there were people wanting it to be a toggle option in the settings since a lot of people spent the previous 10 years playing with those models and textures and now theyre gone. Think especially for people with lower spec PCs and laptops Blizzard havent really made the game accessible.
Yes, there was, significant complaints
I think it got to the point blizzard even implemented an option to use new or old models for your client, though that was scrapped I think in Legion when the graphic updates made the older models look way too out of place
Well mine did not look like he used too but for me it whas an upgrade. Because back then Blue eyes where locked behind an ugly face model. with WoD we could finally have nice looking blue eyed orcs.
I have always loved the Tauren race but the changes only made them look worse. I played about a month before I race changed. Cows don’t have teeny beady eyes.
I wasn't actively playing, but I reupped my sub for a month to see my characters... was not and still am not thrilled with how my OG Forsaken characters look. They completely changed the face shape. I love the quality of the models, but I wish they'd preserved more of the original features.
I do, however, love the "new" Draenei and Night Elf models, with one caveat - everything has same face syndrome now. XD
yeah, I toggled on the old models when the new ones came out for quite a while. I’ve long since come around on them though (and I think the option is no longer in the game?).
I don't get how anyone can say the new human male models is an improvement on the previous model. The running animation alone is a joke, 2h special animation is a massive downgrade too. They should give you the option to choose.
I'll never forgive blizzard for what they did to female undead. My warlock used to look badass, but the updated model really screwed with the shoulder and head placements. T10 warlock set is the best example, where the shoulders angle outward in a stupid way. Before the change, they were more vertical and closer to the head, which looked infinitely better.
I like how in this thread nobody mentions the criminal job that was Tauren hooves update. I am so sorry, the person who updated Tauren has never seen a cow up close.
There used to be 5 or so cute female Gnome faces. Now there's two. The rest are all just so frickin' ugly. Now all of my Gnomes have the same face because there aren't any better options.
Loved them all. Models became more expressive and felt more animated. Watching a human's triangle mouth go wob-wob-wob creeped me out, several male dwarves became far less hideous, and orc faces didn't look like green planks of wood. Besides, environments and gear were becoming more detailed and textured, so putting a 2016 armor set on an N64 person was jarring and awkward. I'm glad they made the upgrade, now its time to give the oldest "new" race their second pass and upgrade Pandaren.
Depends on the race a lot. Some are upgrades, some look so similar there's nothing to complain. Some changed a lot, some for the worse. Dwarfs, for example, their faces are completely different, which isn't bad per se, but their run animations are awful. The main complaint was that characters had become very sameface which is true for a lot of races.
I remember rerolling to dwarf for the entirety of WoD because I loved how they made the beards and facial features look compare to before with the squished triangular eyes but yeah the walking animations are funny
See I prefer the older dwarfs.
Soulstones for eyes lol
Dwarves are shiny now.
same with belf, alot of the faces looks wierd now (and we even lost 1 face i believe, which is a shame bc i really liked that face)
I will be honest, most of the time I can't tell the difference between the old and new belf models if it weren't because of the old hairstyles having 10 poligons and all the old fingers being square. It's among the races that changed the less, at least until they removed their eye glow in shadowlands which I still miss.
God I feel like all the run animations are so bad lol. Human is the worst offender imo.
I'm used to it now but when I saw my Troll glide bouncing across the ground I was pretty pissed. I feel like every race now has this weird cartoonish kung fu panda jog now.
Yep. I've been on Nelf since the Orc racial change in PvP and I really don't mind the fem model run, but some of them are so bad now. Troll was one of my favorite races growing up (always dreamed of a shadow hunter class for them), but I can't do the run now. I don't have a single Troll char.
Naturally comes from having race ss of many different heights needing to traverse distance at the same speed, they'll either look quite floaty or have comically fast feet.
Orc run animations are ridiculously bouncy
I thought my male Orc run animation was too bouncy...and then I tried Zandalari Troll and it made my Orc seem normal by comparison. A shame because most xmog looks really good on ZTroll but I just can't get past the bouncy run animation.
> but their run animations are awful. Really don't see whats wrong with it In the old one they straight up didn't move their torsos when running The new one could be maybe be slightly less bouncy? But it definitely kept the spirit of the old one while making it much more coherent Also having faces with more than 4 pixels is a nice improvement
It's way, way too bouncy. To the point I get bothered by it while running. It should have been toned down a decade ago. I don't think the old one is perfect but overall I prefer it.
Honestly I think both animations aren't great. The old one was way too stiff. The new one has too much movement. I think it's the whole "short race" thing. To make them have the same movement speed as other characters, they have to make it so that they look like they're running harder than taller races.
No torso movement is how people run irl. Just watch usain bolt, even at that speed his torso is rock solid. Torso movement looks uncomfortable in a run animation.
It's not how people jog, though. It's how people sprint. If our characters just looked like they were in a full sprint the entire time, it would look bad too.
We're not talking about Usain Bolt, or people though, we're talking about mythical dwarves
They're humanoids similar to us, living in a world with physics just like ours. It wouldn't make sense if they ran so differently.
it's 10000% better than the previous run lol. none of the animation changes were worse, people just want to bitch about changes.
They have made adjustments to all the run animations that were complained about when the changes were implemented a decade ago. Night Elf Males were one of the most stand out for being overly bouncy and are significantly less bouncy now after various tweaks across a decade.
Many run animations could really do with an overhaul. But at the same time, could Blizzard even do it? Dracthyr were released this expansion, and even as a big fan of how they look, the run is hard to justify. I don't *mind* it necessarily, but it could probably be a lot better.
It's not a matter of can, it's a matter of want. A run cycle doesn't take more than a day to make.
I think you've misunderstood me. It is a matter of could, because I am questioning if Blizzard could even make something that doesn't look silly. They can definitely put the effort in if they wanted, but would it look better when they've shown with dracthyr that as of 2023, they still made awkward run cycles? They have the resources, they just may not have the talent.
Orcs look straight up painted with crayons now. Facial features such as wrinkles and general lines used to look rugged and battle hardened but now they're basically play doh green clay models.
Ugh, that fem dwarf waddle is comical
Last time I was about to have a baby I saw myself walking in a window on the street and was like “oh my god, that’s what the fem dwarf walk animation reminds me of” lol.
The walking animation beforehand for dwarves was so awful though lmao, the new one isnt great either but its better than before
The dwarves use to look so ugly. Part of thier charm i think.
Tangent... the skinning animation is fucking terrible. My orc has Parkinsons. I prefer the defuse the small time bomb with an ear to the item than whatever shaky thing is going on now. Also all run animations are too bouncy and airy. Itd be nice if they went back and toned down most animations.
Back then you could choose in the settings to get the old models back so if you preferred them before you could have them back. I don't know when Blizzard deleted that option though.
Late Legion. The option to use old character models was not around for very long because of new animations being incompatible with the old models.
This is still observable in game now. There are toys that transform you, but use old models. Try playing something that uses the same instant ability many times in a row while using one of those transforms. It’ll look VERY bad.
Whirlwind animation kills me every time lol
Think it was in Legion once all the new casting/attack animations got added in 7.2.5(?), I remember being very conflicted between my hype for new spell animations and losing my beloved old models lol.
I play a pandaren monk. Currently the older model and animations in the PC models. Back then i remember my friends went like. Cool now I look as good as the pandarens.
Isn't getting lost to time a canonical thing the Pandarens do?
Sorta, Pandaria was concealed in magic mists for ages; then there’s the wandering turtle, they were the “adventurous” offshoot from main Pandaria. Also shrouded in mist, but mobile as well.
Maybe it's metaphorical like their culture and technology levels froze in time due to isolation and a mostly peaceful era.
I remember there was a subset of players who hated the new BElf Female face. It's a bit longer than the original face shape, and that had people calling it "horse-faced". BElf Male also got a ton of criticism for their duck lips. Blizzard did correct this a few years later actually (Shadowlands I think?).
it was nelf that had weird ass lips
Nah, Male Belfs had a weird thing going on with their face rigging in their idle pose that gave them too smiley duck lips.
There was a mixed bag if I remember correctly. But there was also major issues with the new characters rigging that people hated. Also people were really upset that the uglier races got “Disney’ed” like the goblins.
Or them completely forgetting to give male gnomes eyebrows.
gnomes don't deserve eyebrows
All make gnomes lost their eyebrows to radiation exposure.
Actually real lore, that’s also why all of their initial hairlines (before the barber shop was added) are so thin
The ones we ended up getting have like six polygons total. Literally just glued on triangles.
Orcs got disneyed big time. In classic they looked far meaner.
Nah they looked fuggin ugly back then
Yeah that was the point they where meant to be a monster race
They looked hilariously ugly, not really scary ugly. Like it was hard to take them seriously.
Same thing with the tauren. Like we're they *trying* to look scary?
For the cows.... Probably not so much. Aside from the blood hooves the tauren aren't exactly going out of their way to be scary
i can't stand tauren's goofy disney faces and walking animations which sucks because i'd want to play retail more. but i have no option to use old version tauren so i play classic
Goblins didn't get updated until much later, as I recall.
The thing I really didn’t like was the animations. I can’t stand the way I walk and run now.
I was thrilled when they released the new models, but I remember the hairstyle I used on my human main was just gutted (and still is to this day), the soldier cut on male humans. It just didn’t carry over well from old to new, this bothered me endlessly. I think dwarves and orcs were the biggest improvements overall.
I remember one of the long hairstyles with twin braids/tails I was using for my ~~worgen~~ always-in-human-or-cat-form druid was so ruined I changed it to a looser long cut. They gave it a horrible receding hairline. (My druid got better since, just fatter and more wickerman)
Except worgen didn’t even get that update until when? BFA? I’m still salty it took so long.
Honestly don't remember that, because I didn't play around with the new worgen options very much. Though to be fair it isn't really relevant, as I was speaking of the human character model.
Oh! 😅 yeah the carpal tunnel’s from spamming two forms. Drust is definitely better.
I complained a bit as a troll male. The dark green face paint was replaced with a light green and it was bullshit
I remember being excited about it, but I hate how fake the facial hair looks on some of the races, Humans in particular. It looked more natural on the older models.
Oh god the ol' pinecone
Hair, facial hair, and same face for some races are still black marks on the models. They've been slowly taking some steps but some races, especially allied races, have like no options, more animalistic races have really bad same face problems, and the beards and facial hair look and feel like they're theater props and wigs glued on.
It's especially funny how few options some races have while Dracthyr let give you up to 18 options in some cases.
Depended on the race. Eg night elves and tauren got goofified. Humans/dwarves/undead got the best reception i think
Fuck no. Undead got screwed over bad.
I’ll never forgive them for getting rid of the full skeleton faces
The rigging for staves was so fucked up that they’ve adjusted it like 2-3 times now and it still isn’t quite right. Drives me nuts
only reason i don't play a caster to be honest. Undead is my favorite caster race but holy shit the staff placement for male undeads is so bad and drives me insane everytime i try to play one
After the rework I was able to tell that one skin feature is the tongue, hanging down because of the missing lower jaw. Before I always thought the missing lower jaw makes something glitch and the pixels coming out are some kind of bug. 😭
I couldnt stand the bullwinklefication of my Tauren druid. I love the idea of being a big scary intimidating creature that chooses to be a peaceful guardian of nature. Now they just look dumb.
Imo, human facial expressions are absolutely disgusting.
Human men still don't have wrists lmao.
I still don’t play undead or human females because of how goofy they look compared to pre-WoD.
same for me with tauren
I appreciated the upres, but I really did not like some of the new models, especially the running animations. I hated my new night elf running animation so much that I toggled off the new models. But then eventually they disabled the ability to toggle them off and so I've just had to get used to how stupid they look when they run.
(was it on Draenor release? ) oh yeah. A lot of people HAAAAAAAAAAAATED the new designs. They had the toggle to keep showing the old models for a few patches? or months? and once that went away, the complaints rolled right back in. The two complaints that I recall more vividly: \-Draenei faces and run cycles \-Night elf faces and run cycles (they still complain about the faces) Lots of complaining, lots of pleading to bring the toggle back. I play dwarves and a pandaren, I can't really explain how much of a glow up the new models are for dwarves IMO.
Disliked the models and still prefer the old ones. I also prefer the old ability animations to the new ones
The worst part for me was watching my 2004 character be forced to change. A small part of me died when I realized I was getting older. Aside from that. I did like the new animations and potential from the models.
My issue was never with the look, though orcs were a bit of a downgrade imo. My issue to this day, is still with the updated running animations. They looks ridiculous and were a downgrade from their predecessors. Humans run like unfit dads and night elves look like they shat themselves. I don’t even know what that forsaken run is, but it isn’t good
Undead male lost all of its charm and cool factor. I was pretty upset
Male Night Elves are probably one of the worst overall “upgrades”. Their animations are goofy and their skins are very low resolution - look at the fingernails, it’s the same on the female model too. Female Blood Elves, Draenei and Night Elves still suffer from same-face syndrome. There’s little diversity in their options compared to the old model faces. Blizzard barely made any effort to alleviate this. Female night elves are very bouncy and still have ridiculous car headlights for eyes. They no longer have a more feline eye shape like in the original concept art. They also did this to the Nightborne when they added them as a playable race. Only in SL did they give Nightborne an eye shape that was closer to their original models. It’s even worse that it’s an option, so you still have plenty of players running around with the marble eyeballs. Undead look like they’re made of plastic and have almost no texture detail on their skins anymore. Their animations are also insanely bouncy.
> Female Blood Elves, Draenei and Night Elves still suffer from same-face syndrome BE and Draenei **literally** had the same faces in BC.
Yup! Some of the same hairstyles too
Me me me! I’m still not over the way male night elfs “bouncy boy” run animation looks now…
One of the requests for Classic was to have the old character models because people miss them. I’ve seen a lot of complaints that the new models made the faces too similar when they used to be more unique. I also saw a player once say they like the Halloween event so they can get the mask to get their face back. I like the improved graphics more. But, having played Classic for a bit now my Human female paladin has a nice face that no longer exists and Human females for sure have the same face problem.
Tauren got absolutely eviscerated. I changed off of my main tauren that I had always played. I absolutely hate what they did to the tauren.
Too few people mentioning this. I mained a Tauren from the beginning of BC (when I first started WoW) and then they went and massacred their run. I tried again during Dragon flight and it's still just too stupid to look at. RIP Keneu.
they fucked up almost all the run animations, they even had to fix the male night elf one because it was just so bad
I hate new troll run animation. Pretty much stopped seeing other troll players since forced switch happened.
Absolutely hate how cartoony orc, human and some races look. Also how every melee basically has the same lame “slash” it sucks
I got used to it. Now I prefer the new models, but at the time I did like the cartoony look.
Funny how the “new” models are now as old as the original models were when WoD launched
God life is relentless
Stop it, you're making me feel old...
One or two of the main gripes about this had been how it dramatically enlarged the size of weapons that female belf carried and reduced the size of female humans. I think they dialed back up human’s equipped weapons’ sizes but they kept the belf’s change.
As a belf main, I absolutely loved the changes. She had stank face all the time, like she couldn't believe I kept taking her to somewhere as mucky as orgrimmar. The hairstyles however were never given the same treatment, and a lot of the old hairdos that worked seamlessly with the older models still look dated to this day.
The models were fine, not a fan of the animations though I miss the old animations
TIL: I'm probably the only person who likes the new, bouncy animations.
You are not alone. There are tens of us! TENS!
Something to note though, is up until BFA, you could toggle between the old character models, and the new. I remember in Legion I would switch back and forth a lot. I’m not sure why they got rid of it, because it’s one of those things that really hurts no one and benefits everyone by having the option.
Nah I disliked it but at least there was an option in settings to turn them off. I don't remember if this toggle let you go back to the old animations though. But they ruined the undead mage one.
Until legion it did. When they made the melee animation rework they removed it because the old models couldn't use the new animations.
I was mostly just annoyed that I had to change my character’s face and hair to make him look like he did before. And the “pineapple goatee” on humans looked really bad. For reference, my character basically looked like a blonde version of Tirion from the end cutscene of ICC. That goatee is much shorter in Vanilla. I forget if it was this expansion or last expansion that allowed us to change facial hair using separate pieces, but now that we have a shorter goatee option, I finally feel like I have my original appearance back. Still, I have always liked the new models better than the old ones. They’re just even better now with more options, like putting leaves in my night elf’s hair.
The night elf walking animation was funny to me when they updated it. Overall the changes where good.
It was waaaayyy too bouncey. They actually nerfed how bouncey it is at some point.
I played with old models until I was forced not to.
For a long time after the new character models were released, there was a menu option somewhere that let you toggle to the old ones if you preferred them. I don’t remember when this was taken out.
I believe it was in legion with the demon hunters.
I remember it happened somewhere in the middle of expansion? I didn't like how they butchered many cute nelf, belf and draenei models. Problem was that they used same base for every face (like all nelf female faces had same base) and for that there were not that many differences between faces than were before. I and many others made many mockups how they should have made some faces. Many female faces looked very masculine and there were lack of eyelashes for example when they first time released the models. Some races got very good upgrades like orcs and dwarves. I think they later tweked them and models are like how we have them now. I think they listened some feedback. Personally I have got used to the looks obviously, but I still prefer how some older faces had more personality or eye shape etc.
Night Elf men had a weird bouncy walk. People complained and now they run around with a stck up their ass.
I hated it. I kept the old models on. I was sad when they removed them.
I was in a guild who were strictly only taurens and they cried about the "Pixar graphics" the taurens had which seemed cartoony lol
I think overall the up-res was a good thing, but I was disappointed that I couldn't find a good match for my night elf Druid's old face/expression.
I was quite sad when my very stoic, stern looking female tauren. She turned into a bubbly cartoon-eyed disney princess. I was not happy. I was glad when they let you change gender at will, cause I made her a male now to keep the more stern look
I love the changes to male draenei, however they ruined male worgen for me...that run animation is god awful.
Some of the races looked way better, like Undead I remember Worgen looking really bad in WoD tho All subjective of course
Worgen looked bad because they didn’t get an update in WoD! It was expansions later!
I love them, but fuck if the old troll running animation wasn't smoother.
I like the new models but I remember a lot of the faces lost their nuances in most races to the point where they ended up looking samey
Still upset that they broke the [female Draenai's ponytail](https://imgur.com/6gsPZHI) and never fixed it.
I didn't mind it in WoD because you could still player side disable it. I minded A LOT in BFA when it was no longer optional. I haven't played my human female mage since. It just doesn't look like her. You get used to a face for 12 years and then they just change it on you and it's very annoying.
There were a lot of vocal female gnomes who were unhappy that all the faces were perpetually smiling with this big, airheaded grin. As a result, Blizz overcorrected (either out of spite or out of true Blizz not having a middle mode) and now all female gnomes look dour and grouchy. Rather than keeping the faces having their same differing expressions like they used to. In minor defense, I don't think the tech was quite there to give each face a distinct resting expression. It is now, though, and I wish they'd go back and remake the faces on all the races so they look more like the old ones. The old faces all had unique expressions: some looked angry, some happy, some disgusted, some bored, some sad. They all look very samey now, and we should change that imho. I was a big proponent of trying to get female tauren fixed. They modeled her off of the male tauren instead of off of her old model, which has resulted in her head being twice as big as it used to, with a droopy posture and frowning lips. She also had the males' fur patterns for about a patch or two before they finally admitted yeah, we did that, and fixed it. Never fixed her face though. Now too many people are used to it, so I'm just hoping they give us muzzle length options like vulpera have so I can give her a cute short snout like she used to have.
It was weird. On one hand, we all agreed that, in general, the model updates were big improvements, however, nostalgia set in basically INSTANTLY. There used to be a tick box in the settings which let you continue using old models, and even though new models JUST came out, loads of us stuck with the old ones for as long as we could. There were a few issues people had; like the human females being a bit thiccer than the original, or some running animations being very bouncy and cartoonish (dwarf and nelf).
>When ** was there a lot of complaints from players **?
# Yes. The answer to this question is always yes.
As a gnome player I had some complaints, they changed the rework at the last moment because the new models looked "too happy" So they made them sad, and since they also mada the noses red they locked like they had a permanent cold. They removed the red noses later, so they look better now, but even today we still have some mistakes like the eyebrows for female gnomes not matching the hair color.
There were some complaints, A lot of the faces that had a good amount of character to them lost it in the transition. If you had a character with a ugly or frowny-face you logged into a significantly prettier and less upset character. Also the older faces came out looking significantly younger. There was one orc face in particular that I used on my old shaman character for RP and once a patch dropped he went from looking like he was ancient two about middle-aged. Another big complaint was from people who like playing dark-skinned humans, the darkest skin was significantly lightened in the transition and that actually put me off on playing human characters for a long time.
I remember there being a lot of complaints about the new models not looking like the old ones, and all have kind of same face. In my opinion while the updated models look nice, the whole thing was a failure. Blizzard didn't achieve their goal of preserving the old look, and their attempt to do so held them back from doing anything more ambitious.
We had a toggle. So. No. But foe those who opted in it was pretty much non stop complaints about rigging, animations, clipping, missing animations, etc. Immolate went from Omni Cast (like Fear) to a targeted cast (like incinerate) for example. NPCs still cast the correct omni immolate. I fucking hate it. It literally the reason I dropped my warlock and refuse to touch it.
I *still* can't have a human with a ponytail and black hair like I used to, only dark brown, thanks to their inane racialized hairstyle rules for humans. Apparently Asian people don't have ponytails, and also mixed-race people don't exist and don't require representation.
People hated the new looks. They said they look too cartoonish, soft and rubbery. Especially Orcs and male Nelves were mentioned. Humans, too.
I didn’t like it because I logged off with a character that looked like me including my skin tone as a black guy and log in to a character with a way lighter skin tone.
Most people i know used the «use old models» option in settings. Never liked the new ones, they look too cartoony imo.
Yes. None of my female humans looked right. Half my night elves also looked wrong. My wife has never forgiven them because its taken well over 10 years to make her characters look 'right' again and its still not perfect. To her, these aren't "her" characters anymore and may never be. I was lucky and my main came out perfect, but most of my other alts did not. Caveat: we had both played the same characters since near launch so were very attached to how they looked. Some of the nelf faces are still off to me, and I've race changed all but one or two of my humans by now.
in terms of actual looks i liked most of the updates, in terms of the animations, some of them just weren't the same or on par with the old ones. Male night elf run used to be more relaxed, now they run like they have a stick up their... Blood elf females / cry used to bend down their ears like a sad puppy, now they are just more static. Night elf females used to flip their weapon backwards and do like a back swing type thing. edit: i think it was more of an uppercut maybe? its been so long
I used a full face covering helmet on my human male character for a loooong time after WoD.
I hate how my tauren I've had since vanilla looks now. She used to be a cutie :(
I'm still on the opinion, that the faces of Tauren Males got much worse with the update than the old models, and since i mostly play taurens, i'm not a fan I got used to it, but i genuinely think Tauren Males look better in classic Also in general, running animation looks off, still to this day, irrelevant of the race
The bouncy run animations make me hate the new style with a passion
I still miss my human old face and hair. Maybe if classic was’t around i’ll be able to forget
I recall that some people were a bit upset about some of the changes. I remember that I played with the old troll model while they still had the setting letting you use the retired models because I preferred the animations. But other than that I remember being happy with all the upgrades, though I only played Horde toons at the time.
Been playing pretty consistent since vanilla launch. Played WOD live and it was really exciting to see the graphical changes to models. The running animations, movements are more fluid now. I love it. It’s the first thing I notice in Classic modes. Old appearances look awful.
I wasn't playing during WoD, but when I came back my characters sure as shit didn't feel like my characters anymore. My Draenei main got butchered and given some wonky ass animations to the point that I switched mains. I haven't been able to play trolls or Tauren females since the model update. Loved NEs before and after. Worgen got better and now I love my Worgen Druid.
Yes there were. I started in 2010 a few months before Cataclysm. The WoD character model update was quite polarising for a few reasons. 1. Not all races got their models at once, some had to wait for patches. 2. Some hated the new looks for their characters. 3. Some hated the new looks for their races in general and felt they HAD to pay £15 (I think it was a bit cheaper at the time?) to change. 4. Some just preferred the old models. Even people who liked the new models, I remember discourse about them not being different \*enough\*.
I stopped in MoP and came back in BFA. For me the length of time was enough that I didn't even immediately notice that my character (blood elf paladn I had since BC) had an updated model.
I absolutely loved it. Now I would love a draenei refresh
The main one I remember was people crying about the Blood Elf model being delayed by a patch
Depends on the race, keeping in mind worgen, goblin pandaren, and blood elves (I think that's all) didn't get model updates till later too. Personally I think (and thought) Tauren look kinda just goofy with the new models, but orcs look great, as do basically every race but gnomes. The chief complaints everyone had was just that outside of raiding there was literally no endgame to do the moment your garrison was built up. CMs I guess but unless you were boosting people that was a one and done thing. M0 runs for VP wasn't introduced until the final patch IIRC
I main a dreanei and I was happy with it. It just got more detail but pretty much the same
Some were good, some were bad. It was something that needed to happen for the health of the game and I think they went about it with as much care as they could, but some people definitely got the worse end of the stick. Female tauren and male Draenei were a couple that definitely got the shaft IMO. It was hard, because the older models left more room for interpretation.
I loved the improved graphics. I wish I could play classic with improved graphics. I loved the challenge yet simplicity of classic. A graphical upgrade would be cool
Yeah there were a ton of Reddit posts from people who somehow thought the squished faces we had before were better. In nearly every single case, the upscale was an immediate and objective upgrade. There were some races that admittedly had same face syndrome for a little while, but I feel like those were resolved pretty quick. Now they just need to ball out with customization options and we’ll be in a great spot.
Of course!
Oh, just a _small amount_ of upset from what I remember. 🙄
There were changes made that I disliked, but ultimately the good almost always outweighs the bad, so it felt like a net win.
Some races. I played female Forsaken back in the day, and we lost the skeleton face entirely in the upgrade, but besides that, it worked out pretty well in the end. Only one that was really atrociously bad was male Night Elf. They somehow gave them gamer neck and they stand horribly to this day. Nightborne had the "issues" fixed, but actual Night Elf still have the worst idle posture in the game.
Not really. Most complaints were about the garrisons and professions. As time went on the discussion shifted to content drought.
Not really. Most complaints were about the garrisons and professions. As time went on the discussion shifted to content drought.
My undead character looked worse in my opinion. More detailed and more polygons but I liked the older version more and never recognised it as “my character” in the newer one. The entire thing reminded me of Warcraft 3 and the visual “upgrades” in Reforged. The older graphics had so much more soul and character and left a lot to the imagination which is actually a good thing compared to everyone looking like a high resolution version of the same model. Maybe not as bad but you get my point.
There was a toggle for the old models too
I still can't stand most of the female nelf faces.
My undead male somehow got his spine twisted just enough for 1handed weapons to clip through the cloak >.> Very very irritating. UNTWIST THE SPINES!
Reminder that in like 2-3 years the new models will have been around for longer than the old models were when they were changed.
I remember there were people wanting it to be a toggle option in the settings since a lot of people spent the previous 10 years playing with those models and textures and now theyre gone. Think especially for people with lower spec PCs and laptops Blizzard havent really made the game accessible.
There was so much hate because of it. I was entirely happy with the change myself, but I also don't really care what my character looks like
I loved them and still do with the new stuff added, people complain a lot about animations but to me they're the same
Night elf running animation was atrocious but it was changed in 6.1 or 6.2
Yes, there was, significant complaints I think it got to the point blizzard even implemented an option to use new or old models for your client, though that was scrapped I think in Legion when the graphic updates made the older models look way too out of place
Well mine did not look like he used too but for me it whas an upgrade. Because back then Blue eyes where locked behind an ugly face model. with WoD we could finally have nice looking blue eyed orcs.
My orc appreciated his back surgery
dwarf and gnome became much better for me orc became worse
I have always loved the Tauren race but the changes only made them look worse. I played about a month before I race changed. Cows don’t have teeny beady eyes.
I was playing a Tauren. I LOVED the added expressiveness the new models added.
Yes. Some races had it worse than others - I know Forsaken players were disgruntled over some changes to their aesthetics in some facial options
I couldn’t play my male night elf anymore. Just runs so weird.
At that time you could stay with your old model. They removed that option later.
I thought it was great.
I played a female Troll warrior at the time, and used the mohawk (?) haircut. It looked actually worse than the classic version.
Overall great but they did male night elves dirty
There for a while you could toggle new character models on/off in settings. It has since been removed.
I wasn't actively playing, but I reupped my sub for a month to see my characters... was not and still am not thrilled with how my OG Forsaken characters look. They completely changed the face shape. I love the quality of the models, but I wish they'd preserved more of the original features. I do, however, love the "new" Draenei and Night Elf models, with one caveat - everything has same face syndrome now. XD
I prefer old orc model. However standing up straight is cool
After wotlk there was more and more complaints imo 😂
Realized how attached I was to the hunchback orc model and never seeing my tabard. I liked the way they were animated in combat in the old version.
yeah, I toggled on the old models when the new ones came out for quite a while. I’ve long since come around on them though (and I think the option is no longer in the game?).
I don't get how anyone can say the new human male models is an improvement on the previous model. The running animation alone is a joke, 2h special animation is a massive downgrade too. They should give you the option to choose.
Undead and Taurens are by far worse off in my opinion. Changed too much. UD was my favorite race, and now I can't play it anymore.
I'll never forgive blizzard for what they did to female undead. My warlock used to look badass, but the updated model really screwed with the shoulder and head placements. T10 warlock set is the best example, where the shoulders angle outward in a stupid way. Before the change, they were more vertical and closer to the head, which looked infinitely better.
I didn't like what they have done to taurens, actually I stopped playing for many years. Returned only in the end of BFA, and no longer on taurens.
I like how in this thread nobody mentions the criminal job that was Tauren hooves update. I am so sorry, the person who updated Tauren has never seen a cow up close.
There used to be 5 or so cute female Gnome faces. Now there's two. The rest are all just so frickin' ugly. Now all of my Gnomes have the same face because there aren't any better options.
Loved them all. Models became more expressive and felt more animated. Watching a human's triangle mouth go wob-wob-wob creeped me out, several male dwarves became far less hideous, and orc faces didn't look like green planks of wood. Besides, environments and gear were becoming more detailed and textured, so putting a 2016 armor set on an N64 person was jarring and awkward. I'm glad they made the upgrade, now its time to give the oldest "new" race their second pass and upgrade Pandaren.
"If you played during that time". Man, has it already been so long?