I find the characters in this game really ugly/weird

[_Pigzig]

I prefer ESO's art style over WoW's any day of the century, but that's my opinion.

Was talking about my signature lol but I'll comment on this anyway.
WoW kind of pioneered that whole cartoony look that a lot of games use, especially on mobile. So it should be credited for that. WoW's artstyle actually changed over time though. When it launched the artstyle was different but it was actually very impressive looking. Hard to imagine now but this was before even games like ES:Oblivion.

[Strongfat900]

Was talking about my signature lol but I'll comment on this anyway.
WoW kind of pioneered that whole cartoony look that a lot of games use, especially on mobile. So it should be credited for that. WoW's artstyle actually changed over time though. When it launched the artstyle was different but it was actually very impressive looking. Hard to imagine now but this was before even games like ES:Oblivion.

I do love cartoony artstyle myself. For example, I love the artstyle of DragonBall Xenoverse games. I do like the WoW recent artstyle from 2014 more than the old one which is pretty dated to say the least even though I don't really like it. I also like Overwatch artstyle a lot as well. Oblviion's graphics were great back then, but now, it looks very dated and ugly if you don't use mods to replace the head and body models. I like FFXIV artstyle which has a distinct Final Fantasy flavor to it.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Was talking about my signature lol but I'll comment on this anyway.
WoW kind of pioneered that whole cartoony look that a lot of games use, especially on mobile. So it should be credited for that. WoW's artstyle actually changed over time though. When it launched the artstyle was different but it was actually very impressive looking. Hard to imagine now but this was before even games like ES:Oblivion.

WoW didn't really pioneer anything. The original game was literally stuff they took from other MMO's that came before it covered in a paint of Warcraft.

[MoofiaBossVal]

WoW didn't really pioneer anything. The original game was literally stuff they took from other MMO's that came before it covered in a paint of Warcraft.

Texture wise, perhaps. But the exaggerated proportions of the armor and characters was very not standard at the time. It was a design necessity for WC3 so to make each unit identifiable from the isometric perspective, and that design philosophy got carried over into WoW. Open world PvP was also really big early on in WoW so it was important to be able to identify who was who from a distance (race and therefore whether or not they were a friend or foe, which class they were and thus what abilities they could use and their weaknesses, etc).

[Strongfat900]

Texture wise, perhaps. But the exaggerated proportions of the armor and characters was very not standard at the time. It was a design necessity for WC3 so to make each unit identifiable from the isometric perspective, and that design philosophy got carried over into WoW. Open world PvP was also really big early on in WoW so it was important to be able to identify who was who from a distance (race and therefore whether or not they were a friend or foe, which class they were and thus what abilities they could use and their weaknesses, etc).

Sort of, but the graphics still look dated which didn't age well like other games from that time. 2D graphics age much better than 3D, and both WC3 and WoW look dated. Of course, there are 3D games that aged well for like the Silent Hill games from the PS2 era and etc. Honestly, what they did with the graphics for Diablo 3 is beyond inexcusable. Diablo 1 and 2 looked very cool and hellish while Diablo 3 looks like I was playing old WoW graphics which really ruined the atmosphere of the game. I'm glad that Diablo 4's graphics looks cooler and different from it's predecessor. Overwatch's graphics looks clean and unique though which I really like.