I find the characters in this game really ugly/weird

[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.