Amazing...

[Soviet]

In my opinion, this is just a classic case of Graphics = gameplay.

That being said, Blizzard is my second favorite game producing company and they are the absolute masters of gameplay design.

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Blizzard set the terms on graphics really low because then the people with bad computers don't get messed up.

I'm not debating that it is an old game, or that it was built for a wide range of users, but Half Life 2 (also released in 2004) looks 10 times better and is also intended to run on lower end computers.

[Drofder2004]

Understood, didn't see that in your posts...

But in regards to your quote of Zaits, comparing a Single Player FPS with a 3rd Person MMO is just completely stupid.
Very little is drawn due to portalling and VIS in HL2 where as WoW is drawn continously, zones are preloaded as you enter, there are no load screens. You have multiple people casuing multiple diffeent on screen FX, the distance you can see in WoW is probably longer than the entire HL2 SP maps individually.