WoW's look and feel were jaw-dropping nearly ten years ago, when the reigning king of the MMO space was EQ.

I still have the short videos from ECTS back in 2001, and, frankly, the game hasn't changed much... Hell, the model used for Loken was killed in a preview video back in 2002 I think it was (In arena combat, by a Tauren and an Orc if memory serves).

So, while folks may say the game looks 'dated', because it's five years old, they don't realize they're looking at models and textures that are, in some cases, nearly ten years old. :)

A true testament to the art direction of this game - Lok'tar Ogar Samwise, Lok'tar Ogar!

Same here.

Though, any more I find I'm looking at race selection and armor variation more than the number of sliders available for the avatar's nose... After all, even if you spend *hours* in the character creater getting the perfect look, once you're in the same armor as everyone else, the only thing really differentiating you is maybe height.

I like the games with interesting races, which allow for a lot more variation in backstory or even in-game origin story. After all, I play some random variarion of 'human' for all of my wakign hours every day, so I want my escapist reality simulator to offer something else.

For example, Aion has probably the most detailed character creator out there right now, with maybe the exception of CoX/Champions, but it essentially boils down to an infinite variation of two things; male and female human.

Sure, the Asmodians have claws and glowy eyes, but - yeah, basic human.

AoC was even worse; 6 shades of literal human... I realize one can only do so much with the source material, but...

There is a reason for this by the way; ease of armor modeling. If everything in the game fits the same basic form factor, all you have to do is tweak a few pollys between races and you're done. (Shadowbane had centaurs - talk about an armor-model nightmare I'm sure)

Anyways, this thinking is probably the big reason I was so pro-horde in vanilla WoW - a good choice of races. Once BC hit I switched sides and rolled Draenei (hey, I thought the spacegoat thing was pretty cool) - and now, thanks to this decision, I get access to werewolves *and* heirloom items for them. :)

And to be even further away from short, tall, pointy eared, funny colored - human...

Welcome to the fray Kelly!

The part folks seem to be missing is that it appears this was done for the Make-A-Wish foundation.

I hope this catches on, then my life can come full circle...

In my youth we used to hack party lines from corprate PBXs so we could all sit around and chat in 'cyberspace', then digital communications and the Internet happened (and we all grew up and went to work for various baby bells)...

Now most of us work as IT directors for big multi-nationals and it sounds like soon(tm) we'll be able to hack each other's gibsons to sit around and chat in 'cyberspace'. ;)

I love technology.

Meh.

As a proud Alliance Shaman and Druid, I just don't see what all the hubbub is about.

Hmm... Our hunters will get no end of grief for wearing this. I can hear it now on vent:

Look, sportin' epic wood!
His armor is happy to see you!
Please consult your physician if you wear the helm for more than four hours...
He's got the "Smiling Bob" set.
Stupid hunter, the codpiece does NOT go on your head...

etc, etc.

Fun times. :)

Horizons (now called 'Istaria')

About twice a year I give Virtrium another couple months of subscription money.

I really like that game and the crafting, player housing, races (Dragons!), community, and other player-aimed features are awesome - it was simply designed around having a lot of people making the world 'go', and unfortunately there aren't any.

So I eventually head back to WoW where a lot of my RL friends play and the guild I started welcomes me back with "Get your priest, we raid 10-man whatever in five minutes!"... And I play healthbar whack-a-mole for a couple months until I burn out again.

As I type this and move my mouse around, I note that my thumb is integral to actually holding the mouse and moving it.

I tried moving the mouse about with my thumb off the side, as if I were pressing a key, and simply wasn't able to.

As a mouse-turner in WoW who lives by my ability to jump, half turn, cast, half turn, run - I don't know if I could use this over my DeathAdder+Belkin n52te (super key automation GO!) setup.

Istaria (Horizons)...

The game I always seem to circle back to... Probably because my Dragon has half a lair done and I feel like I actually have some sort of responsibility to finish it some day. :)

Any MMO without meaningful crafting, player housing, and innovative races is really missing out on something.

I also miss Shadowbane, for similar reasons.