Is Warcraft a "ripoff" of Warhammer?

[The Madgod]

Truly original creativity is impossible. We all take inspiration from something. The ancient cultures looked to nature for their mythology, many fantasy writers then looked to that mythology or modern religion, including Tolkien, who then began the modern fantasy era, which is basically inspired a good deal by Tolkien's work.

A ripoff would be taking something and just painting it another color to call it something else. Having something similar (like orcs that are green, just as a very base example) isn't necessarily a ripoff. A lot goes into creating these things, and it is only really when almost everything's the same that it is a ripoff.

[But I Hate You All]

Except Everquest DOESN'T have better graphics, that's something you can prove

---------- Post added 2012-12-23 at 10:03 PM ----------



WoW orcs are nothing like Warhammer orcs.

[Dreogan]

I am pretty sure that the codex tyranids was long out when starcraft was released which already included at least quite a bit more than just a couple genestealers. I don't remember though if it was earlier than the development start.

Technically correct.

Up until the early-mid 90's Tyranids fielded counts as weaponry that was considered biological, but they lacked the overall look and feel currently associated with both them and the Zerg.

I'm willing to admit I was a bit too vehement in my earlier statement.

Early concept work for the Zerg happened in '95 and '96. The mosern Tyranids appeared in a similar fashion at roughly the same time.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Yeah I'm sorry EQ doesn't have better graphics.

[Smokinya]

@OP

Thanks for funnel!

[Deleted]

....Pretty sure it's more then just Lolmarketing.

Obviously there is more than just marketing, you still need a solid product.

But think about this, if you have two almost identical products, one gets a huge marketing budget and the other one gets only a little marketing, which one do you think will became more popular?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Obviously there is more than just marketing, you still need a solid product.

But think about this, if you have two almost identical products, one gets a huge marketing budget and the other one gets only a little marketing, which one do you think will became more popular?

Last I checked not much Marketing came via WoW as I recall unless there's something else I'm missing.

[Kevyne-Shandris]

You're confusing a good community and a community. A community is still a community no matter what.

WoW doesn't have much of a community AT ALL.

One trip in LFD/LFR/BGs and it's seen vividly.

Dungeons and raids I did in EQ2 were high social affairs, where after each we would even stand around for over an hour chit chatting, that's on top of chit chatting through the instances (as they have built in stellar voice chat, with ready made group leader presets...which is why almost all there are in voice chat, be it in guild/questing/instances. Coming over to WoW was a big culture shock where most still typed in instances like it was 2001). It's what I really miss about that game, it was social and people wanting to help others -- not carry you -- help you to help yourself. How special was it? My first raid to complete an HQ (did it at level), it felt like the whole server joined that night to help, despite the 2hr window having to wait for a respawn. No other MMO was THAT helpful.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

WoW doesn't have much of a community AT ALL.

One trip in LFD/LFR/BGs and it's seen vividly.

Dungeons and raids I did in EQ2 were high social affairs, where after each we would even stand around for over an hour chit chatting, that's on top of chit chatting through the instances (as they have built in stellar voice chat, with ready made group leader presets...which is why almost all there are in voice chat, be it in guild/questing/instances. Coming over to WoW was a big culture shock where most still typed in instances like it was 2001). It's what I really miss about that game, it was social and people wanting to help others -- not carry you -- help you to help yourself. How special was it? My first raid to complete an HQ (did it at level), it felt like the whole server joined that night to help, despite the 2hr window having to wait for a respawn. No other MMO was THAT helpful.

And they still are in certain dungeons and Raids to this day. You're excluding other normal raids and heroic encounters. WoW still has a community weather you like it or not. You can't just consider LFD,LFR and Battlegrounds.

[Kevyne-Shandris]

Last I checked not much Marketing came via WoW as I recall unless there's something else I'm missing.

A lot.

I think what happened was Sony was marketing their Playstation at the expense of PC games, which is why the boxes were rare to find on the shelves. Blizzard literally had them filled. Had to get those boxes out in those days (especially in 2004) because not many were gaming then, still. Then SoE committed a suicide move and went to war with their players, EQ2Flames was born, and the rest is history.

[Deleted]

Last I checked not much Marketing came via WoW as I recall unless there's something else I'm missing.

Are you seriously claiming that WoW doesn't have a huge marketing?

I don't watch a lot of TV, but when I do, there are only 3 gaming companies that have TV ads in here. Sony advertising playstation, EA advertising various games and Blizzard advertising WoW's current expansion. WoW is the only mmo I've ever seen a TV ad for, everywhere in the internets there are WoW ads. I don't really remember how it was on WoW's original launch, but I'm willing to bet they made a big deal out of it. As a bit of anecdotal evidence, even my non-gaming brother knew what WoW was when it launched.

Which reminds me of a certain South Park episode... But no, I guess WoW doesn't have much marketing.

[Solzan Nemesis]

Green skin orcs. Outside of that no.

[Xothic]

Big picture-

You arnt honestly saying you think that looks better then current WoW, are you?

[217285]

It's ironic that a thread created to prevent this topic from derailing another thread was almost immediately derailed by the EQ vs. WoW debate.

OT: That really depends what you'd label as a ripoff. I'd say that in this case it lies a bit closer to the "inspired by" category, as there's obviously quite a bit of original content, even back in the first couple games.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Are you seriously claiming that WoW doesn't have a huge marketing?

I don't watch a lot of TV, but when I do, there are only 3 gaming companies that have TV ads in here. Sony advertising playstation, EA advertising various games and Blizzard advertising WoW's current expansion. WoW is the only mmo I've ever seen a TV ad for, everywhere in the internets there are WoW ads. I don't really remember how it was on WoW's original launch, but I'm willing to bet they made a big deal out of it. As a bit of anecdotal evidence, even my non-gaming brother knew what WoW was when it launched.

Which reminds me of a certain South Park episode... But no, I guess WoW doesn't have much marketing.

I saw a Guild Wars MMO Ad, SWTOR MMO advertisement on TV as well. I knew what WoW was when it launched but I didn't play at the time. I just don't think it had that much as it's implied. Honestly WoW ads increased this year.

[Dedweight]

It basically is Warhammer. They were contracted to make RTS games for GW, but GW broke contract and left Blizzard with unfinished projects. Why do you think hydralisks look so much (or, rather, exactly) like Tyranids?

That's not to say, of course, that Warhammer is better than Warcraft. Generally, GW makes shit, and Blizzard shits gold.

Not exactly, if I remember correctly from the video I'll list below Blizzard was never contracted to make a game for Games Workshop but rather they started working on a game based on Warhammer(was effectively a demo to show GW what they were capable of) but was denied access to the Warhammer IP to continue working on it in that direction. They still wanted to make a game that had strong ties to Warhammer but because of GW's denial they changed a number of models and the story to what we see in Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. That said, no I don't think it's a ripoff of Warhammer but there a lot of similarities between the two.



If you haven't seen it it's a great watch, if you have seen it it's worth watching again if you have an hour to spare.

[Alcapown]

WoW doesn't have much of a community AT ALL.

One trip in LFD/LFR/BGs and it's seen vividly.

Dungeons and raids I did in EQ2 were high social affairs, where after each we would even stand around for over an hour chit chatting, that's on top of chit chatting through the instances (as they have built in stellar voice chat, with ready made group leader presets...which is why almost all there are in voice chat, be it in guild/questing/instances. Coming over to WoW was a big culture shock where most still typed in instances like it was 2001). It's what I really miss about that game, it was social and people wanting to help others -- not carry you -- help you to help yourself. How special was it? My first raid to complete an HQ (did it at level), it felt like the whole server joined that night to help, despite the 2hr window having to wait for a respawn. No other MMO was THAT helpful.

Kudos to Blizzard for deleting 6,100+ of your posts.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

No. They're all rip-offs of Lord of the Rings.

[Kevyne-Shandris]

And they still are in certain dungeons and Raids to this day. You're excluding other normal raids and heroic encounters. WoW still has a community weather you like it or not. You can't just consider LFD,LFR and Battlegrounds.

As Cata demonstrated: WoW is but about instances now. So much Blizzard removed the conveniences of guild group travel to get players back into the world.

[Kurioxan]

No, they call games "WoW clones" because the follow the basic premise gameplay wise. Warcraft is a video game, Warhammer is a tabletop game. That's like calling Warhammer a Monopoly clone because they both use dice and game pieces that you move.

Does the Warcraft story borrow elements from Warhammers? Sure, but that's not what a "Warhammer clone" is. If someone made a giant table top wargame using Star Wars pieces and used all the same rules from Warhammer's table top game, then that would be a Warhammer clone.

Hey why quoting me from another thread? also the reply you gave was to another guy :P

And oh boy you had to do this thread didnt you *sigh*

Anyway.
I will say it again since you aparently didnt read the first time:

Warcraft was to be a warhammer game
Starcraft was to be a warhammer 40k game

But, they couldnt work out a deal with gamesworkshop in both ocasions, so they changed some things so it wouldnt be a intellectual infringement.

So technically, warcraft is an altered warhammer.

However i wouldnt call it a "ripoff" a "ripoff" is something like a chinese fake, it is intended to be a copy of something but (usually, not always) of lower quality (i had an chinese iphone that was better than a real iphone i shit you not).
Warcraft was meant to be something but didnt because they didnt manage to get the deal on and had to change things.

Not a ripoff, a modified version of.
Cant even really call it "based on" because it WAS warhammer at start, then altered, which is different from being based of something.

Anyway they both evolved past the point of one is similiar to the other, warhammer is like the quote you have, bigger in terms of lore, size, span and so forth, warcraft is more focus on the video games lore and now starting to extend via novels.