WoW: Forever Players Want That Old-School Look

Ever booted up a game and thought, "Man, I miss when things looked like they were held together with duct tape and hope?" That's the vibe in the World of Warcraft: Forever beta right now. Players are loud and clear: they want their old-school visuals, and they're not shy about saying it.

Forever is basically a love letter to WoW Classic, but with some modern conveniences sprinkled in. One of those is the option to use updated HD character models and portraits from modern WoW. But here's the thing—when Blizzard first tested Forever, they didn't even plan to let players swap back to the original models. According to content creator Savix, who got early access, testers had to fight for that option. Blizzard listened, and now you can toggle between standard and HD models. But that hasn't stopped the community from side-eyeing every other HD upgrade.

Take the quilboar boss that accidentally showed up with its modern WoW model. Players freaked out, and Blizzard quickly reverted it to its classic look. Then there's the character creation screen, which used HD portraits for most of the beta. Earlier this week, that finally changed—now it's back to the original 2004 portraits. It's like Blizzard is playing whack-a-mole with nostalgia, and the community is holding the mallet.

But the battle isn't over. The new playable Skyborne elf race currently only has HD models. In a comment on a video about Skyborne lore, Blizzard teased, "stay tuned regarding Skyborne models," which sure sounds like standard-def versions are coming. Even with these wins, some players want more—specifically, a toggle for the user interface. Forever's UI is a mix of old and new: cleaner like modern WoW, but inspired by Classic. There's no official option to revert it, so a player-made add-on called ClassicUI Forever does the job, making everything from action bars to bags look like 2004 again.

This push and pull is bound to continue. Content creators have debated whether Blizzard should just pick a lane, but for most of the Forever community, the answer is obvious: the older, the better. The beta runs through October 21, with full launch on November 4. In the meantime, Blizzard is dealing with an RMT controversy and surveying players about 11 potential new classes. So, what do you think—should Forever fully embrace its retro roots, or is a little HD polish okay? Will you be picking this up?