One of the top reasons Bethesda's titles are so beloved by their fan base so much is the photorealism in their titles. I know this much detail would be next to impossible to accomplish with hundreds of players in an area. This dosent negate the fact however that a lacking (or different) art style, will turn off many in TES fan base.

IT's true, at least for me. I was already kinda turned off by some of the cartoon-ish, stereotypically MMO-styled character and enemy models. For a series with realism as one of its core aspects, I was/am still hoping that they will not go the usual MMO route with weird cartoony disproportional characters, enemies and equipment.

I wasn't aware anything from Arena to Oblivion had photo realistic graphics. The screen shot of Sentinel harbor looks less cartoony than Oblivion. And the characters in all except Skyrim look very stylized. I think the top reason its beloved graphics wise is the draw distance, the visual scope of the landscape. It looks like that is happening in TESO aswell

Completely agree. I think the Sentinel screen looks less cartoony than Oblivion.

The problem with photo realism is that it doesn't age well. Not sure how Zeni is going to address this, but I agree that the Elder Scrolls isn't supposed to have a WoW color palette.

Sentinel Harbor looks really good though, so I was very excited to see that. The character/armor models seem hit or miss right now, but there's reason to believe that we'll continue to see more inspired models later.

Besides drawing the alleged 'cartoony' style into question, it's also a matter of how these styles will age. Realistic aesthetics tend to have a very short shelf life compared to games with a set style. Compare Tekken 3 to Klonoa: the realism to be found in Tekken 3 has since faded, but Klonoa's style is still very nice to look at.

MMOs are games that are supposed to last several years. You can't overhaul the graphics every so often because they're becoming stale, so you need an art style that will last.

Of course, I quite like the style of TES Online.

Initially I wan't very fond of the graphics, but the new screenshots look very nice. Especially the godrays.
I wish I could show them to you =(

Personally I think the environments are very impressive and a true testament to the hard work and effort ZeniMax Online is putting in this game to truly bring Tamriel to life. The character models themselves are a different matter and I'm not terribly a huge fan of how they are shaping up, but how the game feels and breathes is much more important to me than the polygon count on the screen or the particular art direction. This game may not having the visual realness of Skyrim, but it definitely looks better than any of the predecessors in the franchise and I look forward to seeing how the game looks live, rather than seeing screenshots.

as long as they go easy on the body/armor designs I will not mind a few missing polygons

Stylized is Ok when you got less graphical fidelity. But do it in a good way. Daggerfall was stylized. Hell Morrowind was stylized too in a way (normal people dont have that many wrinkles) but if you do it stylized, make it stand out. Valve is good at this. Having stylized visuals doesnt mean you gotta do "standart stylized" such as Rift and so on. Rather have a unique Artstyle that stands out. I would have liked it if they were going for a more morrowind esque style.

The point is. Even if its slightly cartoony. It still looks bad. Look at the screens, the low polys just stand out so much, and the Character faces look horrible. I mean just look at how silly the beards look. Not to mention the painted on Armor, painted on Armor wasnt even realy "ok" when WoW came around. Hell Everquest 2 had proper Armor Meshes and that came out at the same time as WoW...

=(
I guess you can't, so stop teasing us.

I think te environments look great. So do some of the armors. However some look very awkward looking.

As much as Cartoon graphics don't look "Elder Scrolls" enough, I do agree that they prolong the shelf life of a game much longer. I've always found all Elder Scrolls games to be a "realistic/Stylized" look. Looking back on them now they might seem cartoonish but for the time they would have been as real as it gets. The more realistic the textures look, the more information must be passed around inside your PC, this is where loss of detail makes an appearance. There's nothing worse when you play a game and your PC (or the servers themself) can't process the amount of information on screen, especially when in a raid or a RvR battle. This is where cartoon graphics outshine realism. I for one would fully back cartoon style over realism if it meant more characters on screen at once. Just as long as they stayed true to the TES lore and art direction a cartoon style could work quite well in my opinion.

For me it's at a point where I'm not even sure if I will buy the game, let alone pay a monthly charge to play it... I'm worried the stupidity of the three alliances

What's wrong with the alliances?

Stylization hides poor graphics because it brings down our expectations.

Some stylized games stand the test of time. Photo realism doesn't.

Realism won't. Photo realism will, but that's still far off.

who cares it's elder scrolls with friends!

I just have to ask: how come the GI article scans were everywhere online, and yet this Gamestar thing is so hard to find? I know you're not allowed to post scans; I'm just curious as to why it happened with one article but not another.

That being said, if anyone happens to have a link... *cough* PM *cough*

Because Morrowind and back was Photo realistic???

Skyrim was the only one that had that realistic look to it

and I dont find the TES: O screenies to be all that cartoonish

I would rather see more stylized art and less photo real, photo real is boring, I see photo real things 24/7.

This! is the whole main point of the idea of a TES MMO.
Back to topic: AS someone said, "it seems like Morrowind with better graphics" and I agree. I liked the screens Ive seen so far A LOT.

Obviously you can't understand the point, how could a open world game back in 2002 be photoreal? but we can tell the goal of bethesda was always to make the graphics more "Realistic" beside the giant mushrooms/monster lol
And no. oblivion is by far not cartoony, you guys are troll or blind, compare this http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5041/5243657386_533e2f8a6c.jpg to this http://www.hardmob.com.br/attachments/jogos-pc/6196d1336178082-the-elder-scrolls-vira-rpg-online-lancamento-previsto-2013-elder_scrolls_001.jpg (Sorry, i don't know how to remove the url )
But there will always be someone defending zeni to death, so i'm probably just wasting time..

I honestly prefer the second picture.