EWoM's art is one of few things which were done right, and it reflects setting quite well.

There are some annoying clipping issues, and some weapons like bows do not work with some poses, but these things will be fixed sooner or later.

Elemental's art style is originally what drew me into the game. I guess it's one of those things you either love or hate. And I love it!

Actually they look pretty BAD. Elemental has the most generic, unispired, dull art direction I can remember in a while.

Not that gameplay was any better, anyway.

You can even dislike WoW art direction as a matter of personal taste, but surely Blizzard knows how to deliver a vivid, compelling art style, with good animations and 3D assets that have a personality even with a very low policount.

Point me another game that look as good as WoW being so little demanding about hardware.

Age of Empires! (awesome game):

Age of Empires Online (Disneyland?  Where's Jafar & the Cartoon Network? omg)

Age of Empires again, just because it's so cool.  You can play it today, and it's still cool:

Age of Empires (Disneyland?):  The fruit bushes are bigger than the settlers, the goldmine is a huge rock with gold coins sitting on it so....they don't have to get their hands dirty??  The sail on the ship is so short it won't hold wind and the mast is huge (nearly perverted anime style).  None of the rooves are straight.  The canopys are too big.  The lighthouse has light even during the day.  The water looks like candy.  IT'S WEIRD!!!  Someone give me a better word.  /pls

Diablo II, dude gets so greedy, he shoves the (spoiler warning) huge gem in his forhead:

Zug-Zug wants to realse World of WarCraft bug free, directors get greedy and kick him out, WoW is bugged, they patch it, Zug-Zug needs a job and goes for....girls with guns?...In a dungeon.  Now I'm all for girls.  And I'm all for guns.  Heck you can even feed me cake, idk.  But fantasy is suppose to be...orcs & spears, barbs, catapults, and I'm getting fuzzy-wuzzy-mommie-still-wa-wava-love-a-U!  /puke

(Can you get a shorter skirt on the next patch, and bend over a little more pls...WTF!!)

There are a few factors in the more common use of what, as has already been described in this thread, is known as stylised visuals.  The single largest factor is simply the industry's shift to mainstream entertainment, and the search for increased profit margins.

The first primary reason is simple performance.  Realistic rendering of light, shadows, particles, models, textures and so forth has some very large system requirements.  By lowering the complexity - such as that of a stylised art design - you also lower the system requirements.  This ensures that your game can run on a host of machines, and thus increases your potential market.

The second primary reason is that of the cost of content creation.  Making enemy models for id's Rage, for example, is expensive.  Very expensive.  Animation, Textures, Bump Maps, A.I., etc.  It's not cheap to make AAA quality content.  By using a stylised art design, you can lower the cost of production of the content for your game.  Instead of 150k polygon models, you can use 15k polygon models, decreasing contruction time considerably.

The third primary reason is that of standing out.  World of Warcraft's Art Design made it standout upon it's release; since then, we've seen it immitated in every conceivable genre.  Now, Publishers are looking at ways to make their product standout from the pack.  One way to do this is simply use a different art design.  Look at Borderlands, for example.  The original art design was a gritty, very realistic one.  The one we have now is something unique, distinctive.  People remember Borderlands.

The last reason, and the least used one, is simply artistic direction.  Chosing an unique art style to match your game design, lore, characters, setting and story is the primary method for helping mesh the entire chaotic mess of a game into a perfect, unified whole.  This is often neglected; few Publishers allow their Developers the freedom to do this; it's either Call of Duty Realistic or World of Warcraft Cartoon - these are the proven sellers, so mimicking them is safe, secure and trust worthy.

I'll end this with an example of how Art Design can make your game distinctive, memorable and incredibly unique and fresh...

... and also completely alienate the mass market, and thus cause it to be shunned by consumers.
This is the game 'XIII', released for the PC and Original Xbox.  It didn't sell very well, however ask anyone who played it: it was memorable, fun and a damn fine game.

ZehDon, WoW was blockie: Toons with puppet mouths, arms that looked like large triangles tacked on, bears with square limbs.  They changed to Disneyland.

Age of Empires went from full rendered units to .jpeg-ie looking things to save memory, and now are going for Disneyland.

Diablo had ghosts, burning churches, and now we get some baseball looking guy on steroids you'd hug after a game in Torchlight <--Disneyland.

Don't get me wrong.  Not trying to say Asian art is bad.  Saying 15 year old art is creepy bad.  I'm looking for a word for it.  It's not asian, but it might be an asian influence.  idk.  idk where it's coming from.  All games today are doing this.  It is odd.  I need a word.

okay Kyogrel12 I give up.  All games are wonderful.  My bad.  /twitch /twitch

Did I say that? I must have missed that. Is the text invisible or something?

LoL I'd like to see them take that advice.

Are you talking about stylized? There is a difference between stylized and cartoon art styles, and no stylized does not make your character clearer to see, because that's what it is, stylized. Stylized is probably second worst form to 3-D model next to anime. I won't go into wow because I have not seen the concept art, whether it is stylized or not I cannot say for sure without viewing it. The reason stylized is second worse to 3-D model is because it is harder for the 3-D modeler to translate information over, because in the very sense it is stylized. Now this doesn't mean it can't and hasn't been done before.