Players often will select a race or look in a game because that's how they want to look to others. If a game arbitrarily changes that then it removes that. Don't forget that there's a social aspect to these games that's highly valued. While I respect everybody's right to have the game look as they want it to look, I think that it would be confusing if you kept referring to your friend as having a big nose when most everyone else says it's small. Or you say that your friend has a small head even though he actually has a big head. But you don't know that because you changed the options so that his big head is 1/3 the size.
In MUDs people will oftne write a description for their character. Something like "A tall elf with dark sun dried skin. His left leg limps almost unnoticeably. There's a tatoo on his neck of a dragon with a spear piercing its heart." I can understand shutting off descriptions or not even looking at them (/examine mefe), but what if you changed it to say, "A short elf with light moon dried scales. His bottom finger bends almost painfully. There's a gash on the backside of his head with worms oozing out of it." I understand that's what you want to see, but part of writing descriptions for characters is the expectation that this is what -others- will see.
Part of the problem is that the luclin models have a entirely different character. For example, a human caster looks like an average man, mostly. But luclin humans look like they belong in a wrestling ring or in a body building gym. That's not to mention that they have different faces and do not look remotely similar. I guess some people think it's perfectly average to look like hulk hogan yet also be a wise wizard that frequents libraries and study halls. None of this addresses that the luclin models weren't available during classic through velious.
The old models aren't perfect, of course. Check out the polygons on half elves. Look at the size of their arms. It's not always easy to tell, but if you zoom in it's easy. They're huge! It could be the limited polygons. There're other examples of strange or weird looking things. And some people who play ogres or trolls do not want to look dumb or out of shape. Understand that. Best you can do is select a smart, stern face. I always enjoyed that dumb look. The lore is supposed to justify it. But I think they (the modelers) had some "fun" with it.
All in all, I think the old models don't take themselves as seriously as the luclin ones. I like that about them. But I know many people want models that're not cracking jokes about themselves. Maybe they want less of this or more of that. Or they just plain like the flavor of the luclin models. But again, you have to consider the social aspect of the game. Do you or do you not want to respect the choices others make about their appearance? By forcing luclin models, you take that choice away from others and remove that aspect of the "social" game. I would be all for luclin models if what -I- selected is what others saw, but that's not how it works. So what the end result is is it's either old models OR luclin models, not both - unless the code is changed.
So my argument here is based on the "social" aspect. This is contrary to what happened on live, where you could select old models or luclin models on a whim. And it's not based on the argument that luclin models weren't available pre-luclin so therefore they should not be on p1999. It's my own argument.
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