So, graphics and animations have been upgraded over the years throughout expansions. However...one thing remains untouched
Mount animations and graphics
Your character holds an invisible rope or something or is supposed to be "grabbing" the mount and yet the hands are in the air not touching anything.
But that isn't the worst thing.
Literally many mounts I can't use because they give me a severe headache and severe eyestrain. Like...raptors
Raptors bounce VERY fast, so fast it literally strains my eyes and gives me a headache. There is a flaming bird mount from Cataclysm that does the same thing (the non-flying one).
And finally...
Why have they not fixed or updated the cardboard cutout style animations on mounts? Your character sits on the mount like a stiff robotic cardboard cutout. There is no animation on your character, no realistic bouncing (just the severe eyestrain thing)...like look at BDO, the character rides horses VERY realistically. Or look at LOTRO or many other MMOs with better mount animations. None of them give me a headache or severe eyestrain.
Why after so many years, has Blizzard not done ANYTHING with mount animations? Its the thing you ride on 99% of the game literally...to do any traveling or to do anything you ride on a mount, and its by far the worst looking thing in any modern MMO.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Comments
I play Hearthstone and everyday i am a bit perturbed at the massive lag for a game with literally nothing on screen and a developer with a lot of money to run servers.
It is like this everywhere i turn,i see a cheap developer offering very little.
Try watching a video that is all fuzzy,you will get that headache type feeling,it is those low end resolution graphics i am talking about because your eyes cannot focus very well.
As to the WHY question?This is not relegated to Blizzard but most all devs,they ONLY move forward on what they can sell NEXT and don't much care to put effort into stuff they already sold you.So you don't think i am just some Blizzard hater,even in my favorite game FFXI,we complained for years of lag whenever mobs cast spells and were never fixed.
As to the individual "Blizzard"when you have millions buying whatever you sell,there is absolutely NO pressure to do anything more than you have to.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I don't particularly like the feel of the old BC Rays or Pandaren dragon mounts because of the way they move, just doesn't look or feel right to me, so i don't tend to use them, i much prefer horse style and Hippogryph mounts. Can't say that i have ever suffered with 'severe eye strain' because of it though.
Never had much of an issue with the animations as riding mounts for the large part is incidental to my gameplay and almost always viewed from the rear anyway. Given the variation of races and the variations within each of those races for size and shape, i think they have done a fairly decent job of it.
Wow has never really been at the leading edge in the graphics area at any point of the 12+ years it has been around, it has been described as utilitarian on more than several occasions and i believe that most players know and buy in to that so it isn't on any high priority list to ensure that every race on a particular mount looks like he is holding the reigns properly, just not that important.
Could be argued on the flip side that if some of those other games had spent as much time on their gameplay as they did on the details of their mounts, they may be better games for it, but that is probably for another thread.
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.