I never said this game would be the next WoW, but the complaints about the graphics while the game is in pre alpha are ridiculous. People bitched the same amount early on when WoW was being made, then the game released, and everyone just shut the fuck up. If it releases with the same graphics and animations they're currently showing, then that's obviously going to be a huge problem. However, there is still a shit load of time to smooth out both.
Brace yourself: The expectation that there will be huge changes to the art style are naive.
I know people don't like to hear that, but it's true. They do not have the time, nor the manpower/money to re-do large portions of the world. They will be extremely fortunate to have the three continents worth of zones done for a Winter 2020 launch, at their current/expected pace.
And given how badly they estimate their milestones, I'm being overly generous.
Animations and particle effects will see some tuning, but beyond that, this is what you're going to get. If people don't like it, they don't like it. Next game-- not the target demographic.
Models -may- see some tuning, but it will be slight. They do not have a full Animation Department with 20+ animators all just waiting to hand rig 8 playable races plus an unknown number of NPC races. That depth does not exist, currently nor will it until years after launch, and only if it's successful. Each playable race will likely have one major content-animation pass, at best, before launch, if similar past products are any indication.
History has demonstrated using the customer-repeated excuse line of "It's just pre-pre-alpha, it's just pre-alpha, it's just alpha, it's just beta, it's just launched" will get you exactly one thing: A
very crappy product. The devs are big boys & girls, they can defend themselves. Defending bad crap gets you more bad crap. Constructive and Destructive criticism will get you a product refined by fire.
