Update: as commenters have pointed out, these are actually very old models from pre-1.0 World of Warcraft, so placing them in Old Hillsbrad is just another Blizzard joke. See the wayback machine for more screenshots.
Months ago Blizzard representatives confirmed a slight polygon increase in the Burning Crusade expansion. I hadn’t noticed any significant change, but I’ve recently come across several new styles of human NPCs. After two years with the same hairstyles and face textures, the differences are striking.
The textures have always given some variety to the players with hair being the most dramatic difference, but these new styles are a far cry from what we’ve grown accustomed to.
So, this raises the question: are the new styles restricted to NPCs, an attempt to differentiate players from non-players? Is Blizzard expanding player model choices, but hasn’t yet incorporated the changes into the character creation screen? Are they adding the salon people have been asking about for so long? I think we’ll find out soon.
Please note that those “new models” you’ve shown have been present almost since game relase, if not since then. Download Wow Model Viewer, open the creatures category and everything that starts with HUMF (for human female) or HUMM (for human male) is a model not used/rarely used.
Interesting. I wonder why they haven’t been used until now, and what made them use these models instead of the traditional ones available to players.
They are noticeably lower poly models, first of all, and lack the polish of the retail models imo. Perhaps the Blizzard design team decided it was simply easier to redo from scratch than to touch the old ones up. Leaving them in the resource files isn’t something Blizzard is alone in doing.
I have a pretty big archive of old WoW beta screenshots, and I immediately recognized the female2 model/texture, so I can pretty much back Galivice up in his statement.