Should better gear look more unique?

As I said in my post on the Celestial Steed, aesthetics can be serious business in WoW. It's for this reason that something as simple as the look of the gear that drops off of bosses can create as strong a reaction as it does. As someone who doesn't raid frequently and is just happy to get his hands on whatever gear he can, I never thought about this much until WoW.com did a breakfast topic on the subject of the lack of unique models in the Lich King's loot tables. It's easy to understand where the author comes from; the Lich King is, after all, the final boss of the expansion pack, so it seems ludicrous for him to not drop unique-looking items. But is it really?

As I have said before, loot serves two purposes: it acts as a gatekeeper to determine how quickly we can move through content, and it represents the challenges we overcame to obtain it. Whether the loot has a unique model is only relevant to the latter purpose, so we'll focus on how the loot's appearance relates to its representation of our achievements. (Still, imagine what WoW would be like if how cool gear looked were relevant to both of its purposes: "Look, man, I am proud to be a part of this guild, but our tabard just looks so... plain. It really is in our best interests that I wear the Tabard of the Shattered Sun instead; we've been banging our head on the wall on this boss for the past week, and it may give me the advantage I need to help us kill this guy." "Fine, but once we get him on grind, do you think you could wear our tabard instead?" "Alright; I guess it will help keep him interesting once he's no longer a real challenge for us.")

So, if the look of gear is supposed to be reflective of the challenges we overcame to get it, then the more difficult and significant a challenge is, the more impressive the gear should look. That's why the coolest mounts drop off of the hardest bosses, and that's why people were so indignant about a mount as impressive as the Celestial Steed being available to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who shelled out the money for it. Well, the Lich King is certainly the ultimate challenge of Wrath of the Lich King, so it certainly follows that he should drop the coolest loot in the game. "Cool" may be subjective, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that unique models are the coolest models of all.

Granted, we can't expect Blizzard's artists to be able to come up with twenty of their best models on the spot, but they certainly could have saved their best ideas for the Lich King. As they were going through making models for loot from quests, normal dungeons, heroics, and the first tier or raiding, and even as they were making models for Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader, they could have taken one of two of their ideas and said, "That's one of our best. Save that one and flesh it out for the loot that drops off of the final boss." If they didn't do that this time around, then it's too late to change anything about that, but at least it can be a lesson for the future.

So, the Lich King should drop unique weapons because he is the final boss of the expansion, as well as the greatest challenge of the expansion, and the gear he drops should reflect that visually. Case closed, right? Perhaps, but that's not all there is to it. We must remember that the models of the items in-game take time and creativity to develop. Some artist at Blizzard had to first come up with the idea of a unique model for a weapon or piece of armor, then spend the time it takes to actually develop that model so that we can see it. I imagine that process takes a very long time, and I don't think any one piece made me realize that more than the Conqueror's Nightsong Raiments, which I used to wear on my druid. Just go ahead and go look at the screen shots of that piece. I'll wait.

Back? Did you see just how intricate the design of that piece was? How many details there were? And that's just one model for one piece of armor. The art team has to churn out hundreds of those in the duration of any given expansion, not to mention models for enemies, bosses, the raids themselves, etc. And with every piece that's made, that's one good idea they likely won't be able to use again, limiting their reserve of creative ideas for future models. What I am trying to say is, every single thing in the game was the result of some artist's long work and effort, be it a weapon dropping off of the Lich King, a blue-quality drop from a heroic, a level 68 baddie in Borean Tundra, or just a small plant used to add scenery. I think we sometimes get too caught up on the look of one thing to appreciate all of the amazing artwork in this game.

So the next time you log in, as a favor to me, the design team, and yourself, just look. I don't care what you look at; it could be your character, the raid you are in, the heroic you run, the world itself, or even just an herb you pick or a node you mine. Just take a look, and appreciate all of the effort the art team puts into this game. And whatever you look at, think to yourself, "An artist worked hard to make this, just so I could see it." Gratitude and appreciation, my friends; that's all I ask.