Is Warcraft a "ripoff" of Warhammer?

[But I Hate You All]

You couldnt prove my point in a better way. Orcs are less bulky, have smaller tusks and their face is not prolonged much but thats where differences end. They even have same skin tone.

better one is this

[Shaderas]

based on what exactly? Humans fighting orcs? Undead? Dragons? Hmm, what genre thought of these things before warha...OH YES, Lord of the rings.

Warhammer took all the concepts of lord of the rings and spun its own universe from it, just as wow did. But warhammer started with as much as as little originality as warcraft did.

I'll actually disagree with you slightly on this point. I'm going to say that Warcraft started with less originality than Warhammer, due to the fact that they initially weren't making their own game, they were making a video game for Games Workshop that would have been a Warhammer game. The deal fell through, so they then started adapting it to their own world over time.

But, I think it's mainly semantics. What are some of those old sayings "Good writers borrow, great writers steal", "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", etc.

Honestly, I think people make a way bigger deal of this stuff than it really is.

[Eazy]

Do you see Varian in Warhammer? Do you see Death Knight class in Warhammer? Do you see: same characters, similar lore, same races or similar places? No? Then it's not a "ripoff". Maybe they just based somethings on Warhammer, but it's not ripoff.

[Blackmist]

Ah, typical MMO-C. Answer is given in the first comment. 12 pages of argument ensues...

[kojinshugi]

And lord of the rings and its characters were written in the 1930s. Are you honestly trying to say green orcs didn't exist before warhammer? That warhammer thought up the concept?

LotR orcs have nothing to do with Warhammer/Warcraft orcs except for the name. Also, the art direction of a 2001 movie doesn't count as evidence for anything (even if you didn't cherry pick the one picture where it's not incredibly evident that WETA was deliberately avoiding the Warhammer orc archetype).

[08nolanni]

Wow does something WH could never do. Give basement dwellers the chance to interact with women.

That and I'd never be caught dead playing WH. It's social suicide.

The War Hammer shop at Chermside in Brisbane makes most be shudder...

[Gothicshark]

253 74.63% people don't know the history of Warcraft. Blizzard has repeatedly stated in the past that Warhammer was a Major influence on Warcraft. Granted they have evolved their own lore and style, but all the basics of Wacraft 1-3 are taken directly from Warhammer. Even down to green orks and blue trolls. Traditional trolls are made out of stone, or turn into stone in light. Warhammer made goblinoid looking trolls.

[Vuljatar]

Do you see Varian in Warhammer? Do you see Death Knight class in Warhammer? Do you see: same characters, similar lore, same races or similar places? No? Then it's not a "ripoff". Maybe they just based somethings on Warhammer, but it's not ripoff.

Warcraft was a ripoff of Warhammer.

Emphasis on "Warcraft" (referring to the first game in the series) and "was" (referring to the fact that 9 games later a lot has changed.)

[Pull My Finger]

This is true.

He is the Manifestation of all the Warcraft haters and victims of sub-par MMOs.

I bet he doesn't have an actual physical form.

LOL, post of the day.

[Gothicshark]

LotR orcs have nothing to do with Warhammer/Warcraft orcs except for the name. Also, the art direction of a 2001 movie doesn't count as evidence for anything (even if you didn't cherry pick the one picture where it's not incredibly evident that WETA was deliberately avoiding the Warhammer orc archetype).

First came the legends of old.

Tolkien used the term Hobgoblin and Orc interchangeably Ork being the Hobbit word for Hobgoblin.

Classic Hobgoblin


Semi Modern Tolkien based Hobgoblin/Orc/Ork


Ralph Bakshi LOTR Orc/Ork


Old D&D Orc


Warhammer Ork


Warcraft Orc

[skulmar]

The look for tyranids that was in use when Starcraft was released first appeared in Advanced Space Crusade, published in 1990.

The tyranids were not all that different from the original designs published in 1987, which were obviously heavily influenced by the Alien films. The design would continue to evolve several times post starcraft, the first being in the 2001 third edition tyranid codex.

[PBitt]

I agree with OP...they definitely borrowed from Warhammer which borrowed from other things....and there is big difference between all-out ripoff and borrowing....I see nothing wrong with borrowing from something (or many somethings) and having your own vision of it....Warcraft has it's own lore and setting that really has nothing similar to Warhammer at this point despite being fantasy and sharing some of those same basic elements. If no one was allowed to borrow ideas then we'd have about 3 games to play, six books to read and five movies to watch.

[Boogums]

Sorry but you are wrong there. Tyranids were in the first edition 40k rulebook (rogue trader) from 1987.
And many people got Tyranid minis from the Advanced Space Crusade game from 1990, here is an image of them :


Starcraft was released in 1998.

Yea, and those things don't look like hydralisks.

[Doylez]

Blizzard struck a deal with Games Workshop to create a PC version of the "Warhammer" table top miniatures game. After completing work on the game, the deal fell through, and Blizzard, left with unfinished and unpaid work on Warhammer, created "WarCraft".
http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment

If that's not a ripoff, I don't know what is.

Shame they didn't get to do Warhammer, Warhammer has the better lore/style but Blizzard makes the better games.

[Gothicshark]

Blizzard struck a deal with Games Workshop to create a PC version of the "Warhammer" table top miniatures game. After completing work on the game, the deal fell through, and Blizzard, left with unfinished and unpaid work on Warhammer, created "WarCraft".
http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment

If that's not a ripoff, I don't know what is.

Shame they didn't get to do Warhammer, Warhammer has the better lore/style but Blizzard makes the better games.

Sad but true, Warhammer has had the same writing staff since the 80's, which includes Micheal Moorcock, and has continued to produce quality stories to go along with the table top game. However Blizzard has been a video game hallmark of quality. I do enjoy several of the 40k based games Sadly THQ is going out of business, because they did not produce consistently good products. (I hope EA buys the GW licenses and hands them off to Bioware.)

The end result the top guys at Blizzard have copied look and feel from Games Workshop for years, but in return they have made some of the greatest video games in history.

[LilSaihah]

Sad but true, Warhammer has had the same writing staff since the 80's, which includes Micheal Moorcock, and has continued to produce quality stories to go along with the table top game. However Blizzard has been a video game hallmark of quality. I do enjoy several of the 40k based games Sadly THQ is going out of business, because they did not produce consistently good products. (I hope EA buys the GW licenses and hands them off to Bioware.)

You... Want a WH40k dating sim? :x


I don't think WC is a ripoff of Warhammer. In the beginning they definitely shared some visuals but the early lore was pretty different than Warhams, and more Christian-driven than Warhammer. The most egregious example of 'borrowing' is the fact that orcs are green, and everything else is pretty much stock fantasy which Warhammer also has in spades.

I also personally find it hilarious that people bring up "GW hired Blizzard for a game". I've heard people say that they hired Blizzard to make a Warhammer game and that ended up being WC1. I've heard people say the same thing about 40k and SC. I've heard the same person say both things.

[Vulgrym]

Does Warhammer ripoff Tolkien?

Does Tolkien ripoff even older works of fantasy fiction?

Who cares?

[LilSaihah]

Who cares?

Is this dismissive or genuinely wondering

Because it's pretty much always Holier Than Thou Warhammer neckbeards.

[Belize]

At this point in time I think it's safe to say that Starcraft is more of a ripoff of WH40K than Warcraft is a ripoff of Warhammer. Largely because Warhammer is neglected in favour of 40K.
For the best, in my opinion.

There's a lot of arguments on the very matter of Starcraft and 40K, more than WoW and Warhammer Fantasy. Some people actually believe that 40K is a Starcraft ripoff, since tabletop gaming has always been more of an "underground" thing while Starcraft was rising. Now with the Space Marine and Dawn of War games, 40K is rising to the surface, albeit after Starcraft took a large chunk of the Sci-Fi scene.

Lets look at the similarities:
Zerg-Tyranids are VERY similar in what they do.
Dominion Marines vs Space Marine armor are also fairly similar.
Protoss - Eldar: Now that's actually a bit of a stretch, as I see how they are both the best Psychers in their respective universes but they behave very differently.
The humans are also very different apart for style.

So in the end other than the Zerg-Tyranids, there aren't THAT many similitudes in between the two universes, at least not enough to cause the massive outcry from, although it will sound biased, the Stracraft fans. I mean I haven't really ever heard an actual 40K fan that plays the tabletop, and not just the mindless Space Marine kill everything games, complain about Starcraft being super similar.

As for the Wahammer - Warcraft thing, I can see where people are coming from, but Warcraft takes a LOT more from the Lovecraft background than Warhammer. I mean, yes they both have "War" in the name (stupid reason to make it a ripoff but I'm certain there's someone out there who has made the link) and they both have the very typical Fantasy race mixes, but it's nowhere near ripoff.

For example:
The Dark Elves/Night Elves have always been in the Fantasy genre under the name of Drow usually.
High Elves/Blood Elves are just boring old pale skinned elves
Dwarves are.... Dwarves.

One of the biggest similarity is how the Orcs look, since Orcs have always been depicted as being dirty, living underground a la Lord of the Rings style. Warcraft and Warhammer both use the super wide shouldered, green-skinned Orcs, which isn't your typical model in Fantasy. The Goblins also look very similar.

Apart from this, you don't really have the whole Chaos thing in Warcraft. I mean, you have The Burning Legion, but that's nowhere near as big as Tzeentch, Slaanesh etc etc from Warhammer... I mean you can't really compare the Empire to the Humans in Warcraft, at all.

So as a TL;DR for all you lazy people: Starcraft and 40K have a lot more in comparison than Warcraft and Warhammer Fantasy.

[Gothicshark]

You... Want a WH40k dating sim? :x


I don't think WC is a ripoff of Warhammer. In the beginning they definitely shared some visuals but the early lore was pretty different than Warhams, and more Christian-driven than Warhammer. The most egregious example of 'borrowing' is the fact that orcs are green, and everything else is pretty much stock fantasy which Warhammer also has in spades.

I also personally find it hilarious that people bring up "GW hired Blizzard for a game". I've heard people say that they hired Blizzard to make a Warhammer game and that ended up being WC1. I've heard people say the same thing about 40k and SC. I've heard the same person say both things.

Actually in the late 80's GW was looking to have a video game made, they contacted Blizzard who was one of the top Licensed game companies at the time to make a Warhammer game, but at the end of the design work up phase of negotiations GW decided to use a different company. Blizzard than took the design work and continued to developed the game anyway. That was the birth of Warcraft: Orcs VS Humans. Ever since that time Blizzard has had a policy of using GW for "inspiration".

It is not just the Creatures being copied it is the over the top weapons and armor, the armies of Order and Chaos...I mean Alliance and Horde.

I could spend days pulling up different things copied. The only actual difference is the background story.