Can you describe the essence of what makes Warcraft great?

[titans_zealot]

I was thinking again about how whenever I see new World of Warcraft story I feel like it's a progressively worse knock off because they reuse old content in bad ways.
So then I watched the "first" World of Warcraft cinematic trailer for the original game, and maybe it's simply the mixture of the music and some nostalgia but I already felt like what I was watching and hearing has really good essence to it.
I can't explain it well, but this essence I am talking about has "raw warcraft" qualities. I look at the dwarf and his bear in Dun Morough still fascinated about a stout man who isn't fully clothed in a snow storm. And when I see the Night Elf sentinel/druid, I think about how cool she looks based off the sharp metal armor and sound effects added to it. I know I like to see and wanted to see more attention on the world building and local factors of a fantasy story.
But I can't help and wonder what's this essence Warcraft has/had that made it so great, but also essences of fantasy media in general. The attention to a single arcane spell versus a barrage of super high fantasy effects or the reminder that Orcs are really burly and deadly creatures that snort really loudly.
Anyways to me the epitome of "warcraft is awesome" is the ending cinematic for ROC.

Can you describe what design You think makes Warcraft so great to you?

 

[A]mun]

Warcraft hooked me (and Diablo too) from day 1 with the original titles.
Back then it were the artworks at first, also the stories - grim, menacing, colorful - simply enchanting.
Thus i share your notions, there was a certain grittiness to all the design - i would say that counts for Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo alike - at first.
Because, if you dive into old footage of like Warcraft 3 and Diablo 3 or WoW, they looked really strange - too "rounded".

Warcraft III still looks much more colorful and lighthearted than its predecessors, yet still manages to communicate serious/dark atmosphere when adequate (e.g. Arthas campaign mainly). For me it's on the sweetspot, shouldn't get more cartoony/polished from there.
With WoW they eventually settled for pretty much identical design, just more detail due to being an rpg - really like it.
Diablo 3 alpha looked very strange, almost D'n'Desque but also rustic - could've lived with that.
Sadly, they went all out with saturated colors (let's not even talk about gameplay mechanics) and created a way too cartoony world for my taste.
There was Path of Exile (GGG studio) that got the grim look down in the beginning - now succumbing to way too many flashy effects and mtx...

I think Blizzard got the balance of gameplay first + decent SFX/GFX and worldbuilding almost perfectly down (a bit like earlier Magic cards).
In a growing market (more like exploding market by now) it's hard to stay true to ones principles, i fear.

 

[Retera]

I talked about this in the intro of some 2018-2019 videos I was making:

Might be relevant.

 

[titans_zealot]

Thanks for the replies, good reading/listening different perspectives

 

[The_Silent]

Custom maps. I never really cared for the standard game mode.