I originally wasn't going to post this, as [a] it's a mini-rant, and [b] it's something that I've already mentioned too much in guild chat and in our forums. But while I was in the shower I thought of this post's title and, well, I can't let something like that go to waste. So I guess I'll just have to go into more detail.
Before I get started, I should also mention that this is pretty much an "Accentuate the Negative" post. While I am complaining here, I'd like it to be clear that I do like WoW, and druids, and all their capacity for shapeshifting. It's the models that I have some issue with. The models for Travel Form and Aquatic Form, specifically. In and of themselves, they're perfectly cromulent models, and they're incredibly useful spells. But they're bland.
Perhaps they only seem bland because of the semi-recent changes to Cat Form and Bear Forms, and all the variety that they offer, but my point remains. They're bland. Travel Form is the greater offender in this case, since the model for that spell is actually a placeholder. Travel Form was originally going to be a stag, but they put in the cheetah model we know and love [and we do love it] as a placeholder in beta to be changed later. It's been three expansions. But both models have been in since release, and if nothing else, compared to a lot of other stuff we're seeing in-game they're poly-count is really quite low.
In all honesty, some of my complaints about travel form rise from the fact that I'm colour-blind [anomalous trichromancy, protanomaly for those curious]. It's not a huge deal as in a lot of games, WoW especially, it doesn't effect too much of the gameplay for me. I don't turn on WoW's colour-blind mode, for one thing. It does make Audiosurf a bit harder than it has to be though. And obviously, some of the more red-tinged zones tend to give me a bit of difficulty [Badlands, and Hellfire I'm looking at you], but I've adapted. Interestingly, it also seems to affect some forms of yellow as well. Not entirely sure if that's normal, but c'est la vie. That does cause some other interesting interactions though. Gathering in Badlands is doubly hard, if using the minimap to notice nodes. And seeing where I am on my screen while in Travel Form and in Azshara... I've been told by others that they've lost track of themselves momentarily there due to the camouflage tendencies of the cheetah pattern against the yellow ground with high vegetation. I pretty much have to shift out and cast a spell to find myself.
In other games I'd have an easy choice. I'd either stop playing the game, muddle through [I'm an exceptionally stubborn individual], or modify/replace whatever model was the root of the problem. While not the easiest thing to do in a lot of games, it's not all that hard to figure out. Thanks to the internet, if I can't figure out how to do something, about five minutes of looking on Google, not only will I have found thirty people who know how, but whom have done it better than myself. I have very little graphical talent, so if I've gone the route of model-editing over model-swapping, I usually end up going to these resources anyways.
WoW, however is a special case. There's plenty of models to choose from. If I wanted Aquatic Form to look like a makrura or a grouper, I could. If I wanted Travel Form to look like Ashtail or a different cat model, I could. It wouldn't even be very hard compared to some of the model swaps I've done in the past. But there's a caveat. I could change the Travel Form model [and incidentally have all mobs that use the model look like whatever I switched it to as well] but I won't. Blizzard's Terms of Use [You know, that thing that you don't read and you click the button that says you agree to?] disallows model swapping; "You agree that you will not, under any circumstances: ... D. modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of the Game Client or the Service in any way not expressly authorized by Blizzard;". In other words, if I model swap, I run the risk of having my account shut down. No, thank you. I'll struggle on.
Also, as others have pointed out to me, I'm sure a redesign on Travel/Aquatic Forms [and hopefully Moonkin as well, though that's a form I don't use and thus have no opinion on] are in the works, though probably not even middling in their priorities. Soon™
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