Yeah Wow Is a Great Game. and yes it has "good" Graphics... and killing stuff is fun... But Seriously The Game needs a Face lift! I mean, come on Blizzard We Need Less Lag. and the Framerates Suck even with an awesome gaming rig.

I hope that activision can help you see the light. Oh and whats up with the nerfing so much of the game. Why cant we customize our toons more? I mean seriously, are you going to just leave us with Voice Chat and talking to others and expect that to be enough? We do pay for this you know. lets make the game better in performance and options. Make it more scaleable.

Btw - Wow is still the best game ever, I just want to encurage growth in a game that could last for years to come.

True that i have also been playing WoW, although these "good" graphics really get's ripped when you see unfixable low-res 50 yards away skins, the only way i could fix was setting my graphics so low no difference was there. I don' t even have a good gaming rig i could run max everything and still get 30+ fps, even in Shattrath i had 20+ fps, but WoW itself is bad, i played because of story and RP WoW is awesome ppl-ppl RP but wooow... WoW sucks at following it's own story "And Illidan's body was left in the cave"-Story
"Woohoo! We ****ing got Illidan!!!"-Ingame... See the difference? If you have good grammar, want to learn English or anything KEEP AWAY from WoW, it really ruins it. And WoW really ain't much of a game, when you are 70 your mission is, go to an instance you haven't been before, get gear. Repeat, no more new instances, repeat with old. Earn money, instances sell whatever you get, farm kill SAME mobs over and over..

And PvP? Pff go PvP and what happens, you finally ding 70 and it's chaotic no one follows strategies, because mainly WoW is existing of selfish, bad, un-tactical, players they can't understand that if you attack and defend correctly you win. Only PvE brings people together, and then few RP guilds can actually get people to meetings... What's going on? Why is people like that? Seriously 1 billion dollars? To make a game better? Make a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. online and get players, well everything else than WoW, try to start at the game, asking someone, oops it was a powerleveler... Hmm i'll try this guy, oopps he was too selfish.. Uhh, help? I have a 70 and wow... That was the worst experience in my life, i had good moments, real good moments. Wich i can't get elsewhere, but i could have gotten those with a 30+ as well... Only in RP WoW reveales it's good sides... Wich aren't good.

I'll try touching on a couple things here.

Graphic overhaul:

WoW isn't exactly Crysis in terms of graphics nor could WoW ever look that good, but I highly doubt that is your aim at all. One issue with WoW right now is the huge variances of data that could be on the screen at one point. Blizzard wants their game to be playable (albeit not necessarily pretty) on all kinds of systems. Now, is it possible that they could try and create almost "two engines"... one that caters to the low-end systems ranging to maybe medium systems and then another that tailors toward high-end systems? Probably, but even then, there's two problems with that. First off, that's really unnecessary development time and the earned value (god, Program Management loves terms like that) is so low from a change like that, there's really no need to do it. Also, You mentioned yourself that the framerates can be poor in the current implementation (which I will touch on). Why would Blizzard try to increase the graphic prowess when current higher-end machines can't really stand-up to it.

But now there is another thing to consider when discussing WoW performance. You've got to look at the reasons why WoW has such bad performance at times. From what I've noticed, here is why you'll have performance issues:

1) Particle Effects. Blizzard knows this is an issue and it's being fixed in 2.4 (it's in the patch notes). I have a fairly decent system myself and I can tell you that I'll be absolutely fine and at a decent framerate... until some flame shoots up on my screen. Earlier today fiddling around in Hellfire Peninsula, a flame shot up covering my whole screen and reduced both clients ("dual-boxing" on one machine) to below 10 FPS with ease. Turn down particle effects and see how much smoother your game runs, but unfortunately, it also makes things seem a bit dull.

2) Too Much. Half the time, there's simply too much on the screen. As much as Blizzard loves to populate cities and such with items, they also create lag as the computer has to work to load in new models, skins, sounds and perform animations. When there's a couple creatures or players around, this isn't an issue, but when you're walking in Shattrath City with entire platoons of Aldor laughing and fighting with players running and flying around... well, it isn't pretty.

Not to mention, as unintuitive as it may seem, things should not be clumped together so much or there should simply be more than one. For example, there is only one arena coordinator in Shattrath City at the Horde PVP place. So, you will have Horde and Alliance queuing for Arenas here as well as Horde queuing for BGs. Of course there are other ways to queue, but no one will deny that Shattrath is a fairly popular city and not even the lack of an Auction House will stop that (although it was a good attempt, Blizzard).

3) Add-ons. Believe it or not, add-ons can be a huge drain on performance. Try turning off all add-ons and hit CTRL+R (this is the built-in way to display your Frames Per Second). You should notice that if you had significant add-ons that took a decent amount of processing or displayed some fancy graphical interfaces... that your performance should increase quite a bit. I see this on almost each PTR as I have to shut off numerous add-ons to quell the incompatibilities.

{EDIT}
4) Poor System. Obviously a lack of a well set-up system will provide lower framerates than a well-built machine. 512MB of RAM is not suitable for Shattrath and I would certainly recommend 1.5GB of RAM or more for playing WoW. I thought it best to edit this in in case anyone suspected that I were creating a "full list" of reasons for WoW issues :P.
{/EDIT}

WoW... the Best:

Is World of Warcraft the best game? Mmm, to be honest, I don't think I'll ever see what I'll consider the best game. I've loved many games over the years ranging from various Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger (I'm a bit of a RPG fan if you couldn't tell), to other various games. Yet, another game will always come out that will grasp my attention. Of course, you could argue that WoW has held my attention for over 3 years now, but WoW also never ends, so that's a moot point to even bring up.

So what am I trying to get at? I don't think WoW is necessarily the best game ever, but I think Blizzard saw what people, and by people I mean those possibly disenfranchised by other murmorpurgers or simply looking for something fresh, wanted to play in a game and gave that to them. World of Warcraft offers almost the same thing as some of the other MMOs, yet it offers it in a simpler package. Why go through all the strings, all the red tape for the same reward? That's the thing, in WoW you don't have to. You don't have to find a group to do the most menial of task like in Final Fantasy XI. Although, I'm the first to also admit that the strong Single Player aspect of World of Warcraft also hurt the group aspect of the game, but that's another topic.

In simpler (and not so verbose) terms, Blizzard chose the formula that matched the most people. You get people to play and those people will get more people to play. Look at yourself as an example... have you got anyone to play the game? Some even turned off by MMOs or complex games in the past see WoW as an easier game, yet looking at a site like Elitist Jerks, you'll see thousands of pages discussing various aspects of classes that these "simpler" (no offense to them) players will never even think of. The game is complex to those that wish it to be, yet provides a simpler experience to those that prefer that.

So no, $1 billion will most certainly not guarantee you a WoW killer at all. A well thought-out player-centric game plan is truly the right step toward a WoW killer.

Alright, I've been talking for far too long :).

I am having a bit of a hard time agreeing with the part about the gfx.
This game has pretty crappy gfx when you compare it to say... Crysis or other recent FPS's
I dont know what kind of system any of you guys have but saying this game is very laggy and blame it on your system rather then say your internet access is kinda lame. I have a pretty heavy rated system all purchased in last year and have absolutely no problems with framrate in this game. I have all the option max and partical affects give me no slow down at all, 40 man or soloing in any zone with any amounts of people and npc's
I really cannot agree about Realdude's comment on how this game fps sucks with even an awesome gaming rig. Dont know what system specs your running but I havnt notice much problem at all, the occational lag but rarely a problem.

Windows Vista 64
dual core 2.13
Asus P5NE-SLI
Ram- Kingston 4g
Geforce 8800 GTS SSC

realdude19 is smoking the finest crack. WoW may suffer from lagginess based on your network connection, it may suffer from lagginess caused by database load on the server side, but one thing that it absolutely does NOT suffer from is framerates that "suck even with an awesome gaming rig". The graphics were very carefully designed to focus on colour and artistic design rather than masses of polygons, so that it would run well on modestly specced systems (and I mean modestly specced 2004 systems, not current ones), and it shows.

Why you need to change the graphics? Wow is WoW only if it looks like it looks now. It is different, it has a special magic, it is one of a kind.
Look at Age of Conan for example - great graphics and physics ( which will be very unwelcomed because of the hardware consuming ) but when you make a game look realistic you have to keep everything realistic - so then all the weapons, armor and stuff have to be realistic ( means there will be no differences, no funny shapes, no "anti gravity self floating shattered axes" or so., no flying mounts, no funny pets like murlocs or so, when you encounter an boss with 20+ ppl the boss is supposed to react on every hit because of thy physics - show me how it looks like when 20 people is hitting the bos at the same time :) )

Do not try make WoW realistic. The WoW will not be the same game after that.
It is like changing the shape and colour of the sun - Why? It is working now and it probably should not after the change.
the hardware requirements are average and you can still be with 250 ppl in Shattrath and it is still moving smoothly.

DO NOT TRY TO CHANGE SOMETHING WHAT IS WORKING!!! LOT OF PEOPLE TRIED BEFORE YOU IN HISTORY. THOSE PEOPLE ARE FORGOTTEN. THEY ALL MADE MISTAKE.

Believe me WoW has no good graphics, it has only good graphics for kidz with hi-color like cartoons but when you see Warhammer, you realize how WoW is graphically sucking, I know cos I'm beta testing it and I have read other beta testers comparaisons to wow. Warhammer is the one that could beat Wow.

For those trying to compare WoW's artistic style to say a realistic FSP and saying the graphics are bad are totally missing the point. For as amazing as that realism looks right now try looking at it again a few years (or even a few months) later down the line when technology has reached even higher standards. That realism will look absolutely fake or even laughable. Too much realism can make things boring IMO. Everything starts looking the same without really standing out. Besides, why would you want to look at something realistic when you can go walk outside and see that everyday?

On the other hand, a certain style or design, while not realistic ages infinitely better, leaves a unique, lasting impression and not to mention can play on as many computers as possible, which has always been something Blizzard has been very keen on. (I still think the first Diablo and Starcraft look great to this day). WoW owns its style. No other game can even be mistaken for it and should any other game try to copy that style it will only be disowned as a very cheap, uncreative knockoff.

Just for fun: Compare an in-game screenshot of WoW, and screenshots of a few of those realistic FPS games ppl are so hyped up about and show em to non-gamers. Which one is more likely to stand out more to them and that they'll remember if they happen to see it again?

The cartoonist style of Blizzard is exactly why it is so popular. It appeals to young kids because it reminds them of cartoons, while for adults it reminds them of fairytale books and science fantasy drawings.

How can you compare WoW to Crysis? Wow in no way tries for realism, and for that fact it doesnt require a $1000+ rig to run.

I have played WoW on a PIII 700MHz with a 32mb video card without a problem whatsoever.

Blizzard makes games so EVERYONE can play, not just for the big game nerds and computer enthusiast.

St0rmie, I think you're making a grave error in computing terms here. Lagging is not the same as "chugging," which is a term given to when a computer is grinding attempting to keep up with whatever is taxing it so much. A "hiccup" between the server will cause issues such as spells not casting, mobs not appearing, etc and you may have slowdown when all of this action finally takes place, but when a user is walking around a crowded city normally with no obvious lag issues and their computer is chugging.. then yes, there is an issue with the computer being unable to keep up.

I have a beastly machine myself and I can drop below 20 FPS in Shattrath City while running two clients at once (which is fairly common). Running with one client will drop me below 30 FPS on occasion.

As a reference, here's my PC's specs:

Intel Q6600
Gigabyte P35-DS3
4GB (4x1GB) OCZ Platinum DDR2 PC6400
eVGA eGeForce 8800GTX
WD 150GB Raptor
Vista Ultimate x64

Resolution:
1680x1050x24x24x1

Settings:
Max (except AA)
Level of Detail = OFF
V-Sync = OFF
Full-Screen Glow Effect = OFF
Windowed - Maximized

I just logged on and did a "Tour de Shattrath". My framerate ranged from high 60's to high 20's. But also note that this was done at 3:20PM EST on an EST server, so chances are that Shattrath isn't really as packed as it normally is (during heavy times, the server is either High or Locked, it was Medium when I logged on).

I changed the settings to use full-screen mode, which turned off Aero (less processing for the graphics card). The lowest framerate I saw then was 35 and I'd say the average was around 50. Full-screen does provide a "smoother" experience, yet it limits you to effectively one client per machine and makes viewing and accessing other data (such as wowdb!) harder to do. In other words, for me Windowed is more convenient.

So yeah, in short, WoW can be slow even on beastlier machines :).

Ive had some really horrible gaming rigs honestly, but the graphics of WoW are still great. If you people think that the graphics suck, get a better monitor. The instant i got a flatscreen monitor for my computer, the graphics for WoW seemed to become 10 times as great. Warhammer really isnt that great for the MMO, and i highly doubt itl will surpass or even come close to WoW's number of players. And thsoe of you who think WoW sucks, jsut stop playing it... Once you hit 70, it gets more fun than doing instances, if you actually take the ime to finish all the quests from every region, the story line is great and the fun is almost endless. And then for instances, yes you run them countless timnes over and over, but once you actually get the gear you want, the instance jsut gets better because it becomes easier and you can attempt to change the way its being run, such as Kara being run and completed with 10 paladins. For PvP, of course it sucks when you pug run it. Nobody is going to listen to you when they dont know who you are and they wont have any respect for you. All people really care about in pugs is farming honor, if you want to do PvP with good strategy, get a PvP'ing guild and get Vent and talk stragies with people who know you as a person and respect you somewhat, if you cant get a guild, put up with the non-strategy groups and learn to work with it.

I read this and i totally agree but one thing i can figure out is(that i noticed u metioned) how do u get the screen to go to full screen? I cant figure that out is it ingame settings or where?? please tell me im tired of a small cramped screen.

If you've been playing the game any amount of time, you know the shatt issue is temporary. Ironforge used to be the same way until AHs were added in Darn/SW. (good lord, remember when AQ first came out!).

Blizz has been pretty good w/recognizing and addressing problems, and I'm sure that in time they will fix Shatt as well. Just too many people using it as a hearth. I can't think of any other area the game lags like that. I think it's just part of being on the edge of a new technology - the game's only, what 3 or 4 years old now? And suddenly 10 million people on it! I'd expect some bumps along the way.

The improvement over the last two years is tremendous . I've been on a crummy little laptop the past two months while traveling - and even on this, the game is still 99.99 percent lag - free.

Just go to the video settings menu. It's in the upper right corner... check or uncheck the box that says 'windowed mode'.

I agree with you to an extent, but the problem is that the issues in Shattrath are not just because of players. For example, when I ran my "Tour de Shattrath", the point in which I achieved my lowest framerate was not when I stumbled across some new players. I actually hit the lowest point when I stumbled upon a group of training Aldor near the Scryer's Bank. Although, based on proximity loading, it may've been those Aldor combined with any players outside/inside the Scryer's Bank that dropped me further.

In other words, the NPCs that Blizzard added for flair can also hurt framerates and most cities do not have as many NPCs as Shattrath. I figure this might be because Shattrath is an "open city" (as in little to no housing) so Blizzard has to make it seem populated where as other cities have houses and such inside so it's an assumed thing? That's really all I can guess about why we need battalions of Aldor practicing every 100 feet.