Character Models: Glowing Eyes and Further Customization

While its true impact on gameplay will probably be minimal, one of the most exciting features coming with Warlords of Draenor is the introduction of new character models for the eight vanilla races and the two Burning Crusade ones.

Blizzard showed off fairly complete-looking previews of the male Orc, Dwarf, and Gnome, as well as a pretty good look at the female Gnome, plus some quick previews of the male Undead, the female Dwarf, and the male Tauren.

They all look fantastic, and I really have to hand it to them for really retaining the conceptual look of the races in most cases while just making them look more modern. I think they did an especially good job on the female Gnome and the male Undead, which give off the feel of "oh, so this is what they were meant to look like all along!" In some of the other cases, it looks like they also had a very subtle re-think of the way the character ought to look, but in everything that has been previewed so far, it's an improvement.

Obviously, we will have to wait and see how the various faces and hair-styles get translated over (wondering if I'll have my Paladin go back to his old hippie braids,) but I'm optimistic.

One of the things that really struck me was the Undead eyes. Currently, unless you go with an eye-less look, Undead simply have glowing spheres for eyes - presumably just a sprite, rather than a 3D object. You can even adjust this via the Barbershop. Likewise, Night Elves also have glowing eyes, which I also believe work the same way, as sprites that float just in front of your character's face. In the new Undead model, the eye does appear to actually be part of the model, but it is still yellow. I wonder if it will still glow if you find yourself in a dark place.

Four of the playable races have glowing eyes, as well as all Death Knights. I'm very curious to see how they translate this look to the new models. Granted, I believe that the BC races had already transitioned to glowing eyes that were just part of the face (in a bright area, it's hard to tell if my Draenei Mage has glowing eyes at all.)

Blizzard has said that priority one is to update the currently-existing models for old characters. We should be seeing a high-res recreation of every face-style and all hair, beards, mustaches, etc (wonder how gruesome the DK-only faces will be?) But once that is accomplished, we may begin to see new options come about.

The most obvious, I think, would be new skin colors. Perhaps we could get dark brown Mag'har or grey Blackrock skin for the Orcs (how come Saurfang has green skin?) Dwarves could obviously get either grey Dark Iron skin, or possibly facial tattoos to appear as Wildhammers. Among the other races, there are probably fewer obvious variations that haven't been taken care of. That said, facial tattoos (beyond the Wildhammer) and maybe scars would be kind of an interesting thing to include.

There's still a lot to show, and I'm sure a lot of it is in a state that they're not ready to show off yet. But from what I've seen, I'm really excited. Let's hope we get this in 6.0! Soon as possible! I expect my Draenei's face tendrils to be magnificent!