World of Warcraft’s Warlords of Draenor expansion has
the community holding its breath awaiting its imminent release, and indeed,
fans of the world’s longest-running MMORPG are right to be excited because the
WoD is much more than a simple expansion: it’s an injection of youth and
vitality. It’s the sort of update which can rightfully be expected to offer yet
another major lease on life for the game.
Besides all the new content and the various
interesting events it will bring to the table, Warlords of Draenor has
something much more subtle, yet potentially much more important in store too: a
graphics update, namely, the introduction of new anti-aliasing technology.
While at first glance, the impact of such a move is
easy to overlook, its potential is great, and coupled with the upgrade-friendly
general design of the game’s visuals, it can indeed become a major factor in
prolonging the life of the product.
According to a statement released by the studio, the
new graphics options are a perfect example of the sort of long-term thinking
Blizzard are renowned for. The statement also said that Blizzard were looking
to continuously improve the performance of WOW, while keeping an eye on the
future and making sure that high-end CPU support in enhanced.
To make a long story short, the way the developer has
managed to keep what essentially amounted to a modified Warcraft III engine,
looking up-to-date over the years, is indeed borderline miraculous. Some
players are already clamoring though, afraid that the added graphical finesse
will come at the cost of more lag.
Whether that is the case or not remains to be seen. One
thing is certain though: the game has to evolve and at this point, graphical
evolution is not even optional for it anymore…
Philip Thalberg works for GosuGamers, the home of the craziest eSports community.
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