Is Warcraft a "ripoff" of Warhammer?

[Pull My Finger]

*looks at poll results*


clearly, no one knows anything about blizz pre-WC3.

Everyone should know that back when they did rock-n-roll racing and lost vikings they were suppose to do a RTS or turn-based game on WARHAMMER but never went through with it. So, instead, they made they own game with WC1 being basically a clone of WARHAMMER.

Since then, they have evolved it into their own game, but u can still see the "inspirations." lol (looking at you, green orcs)

Now, that's something that clearly noone before you pointed out in this thread.

Also, you don't have a point. Maybe you should check your terminology and read up on the definition of what a "rip off" is.

[Gothicshark]

Time active, and amount of expantions. Player designed gear.... WOW is superior, just saying that EQ does have a few things (minor) on it, still.

That is an apples versus Oranges subject. When comparing a ground braking video game which was one of the pioneers in a genre that had yet to be tested, and a massively successful cash machine. EQ is one of the greatest MMOs of all time, and if WOW never happened it would have been one of the most profitable ones as well. But WOW creating a personal Market which was 10xs larger than all the other MMOs combined really makes it hard to compare with anything in video games.

[Detheavn]

Well you really can not say a game is good off of the number of subs. yes 10 million subs sounds good for marketing but lets be real how many of the 10 million are pay to plays from the east.

Last time I checked, people from the east are human beings with personal opinions and tastes as well ...

[Goldfingaz]

Now, that's something that clearly noone before you pointed out in this thread.

Also, you don't have a point. Maybe you should check your terminology and read up on the definition of what a "rip off" is.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rip-off

Definition #2

" Something, such as a film or story, that is clearly imitative of or based on something else."

Based off of that definition, Warcraft ripped-off Warhammer. It did eventually grow into it's own "being".

There is nothing wrong with this, it's how things are done.

[But I Hate You All]

Last time I checked, people from the east are human beings with personal opinions and tastes as well ...

And play by the min =/= sub

[Gothicshark]

Now, that's something that clearly noone before you pointed out in this thread.

Also, you don't have a point. Maybe you should check your terminology and read up on the definition of what a "rip off" is.

2: to copy or imitate blatantly or unscrupulously

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rip%20off


Fairly sure Warcraft: Orcs Vs Humans, and Starcraft fit this definition fully.

[But I Hate You All]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rip-off

Definition #2

" Something, such as a film or story, that is clearly imitative of or based on something else."

Based off of that definition, Warcraft ripped-off Warhammer. It did eventually grow into it's own "being".

There is nothing wrong with this, it's how things are done.

100% this. It's shocking how much in denial people are about it

[Vuljatar]

You'd think that on a forum like this people would be a bit more educated about the history of the Warcraft franchise.

[Osmeric]

After the episode described at the following link, I have zero sympathy for GW for any presumed "ripoff" of their presumed intellectual property.

http://io9.com/5969092/games-worksho...m-space-marine

If GW didn't sue Blizzard over anything, it's not because GW is nice, it's because they wouldn't have succeeded.

[Detheavn]

And play by the min =/= sub

No, but it does count towards people potentially enjoying the game, which is what this entire deal is about.

[But I Hate You All]

No, but it does count towards people potentially enjoying the game, which is what this entire deal is about.

Whatever you say LOL

[Gothicshark]

After the episode described at the following link, I have zero sympathy for GW for any presumed "ripoff" of their presumed intellectual property.

http://io9.com/5969092/games-worksho...m-space-marine

If GW didn't sue Blizzard over anything, it's not because GW is nice, it's because they wouldn't have succeeded.

True, because Blizzard can show every idea they took from GW has been used previously, also Blizzard got the Trademarks and legal stuff taken care of before GW did. Remember GW was started by a group of British Hippy wargamers and now is a billion dollar a year business. When the two companies where talking neither was hugely profitable. And Blizzard got to the top of the heap before GW got to the top of the wargame heap.

[Zuben]

Nope. The world and lore are different enough, WC and WH merely share common fantasy elements.

[Deleted]

Ron Millar 5 months ago
I was the lead designer and one of the artists on Warcraft. Warcraft was influenced by D&D, Warhammer, Magic the Gathering (influenced Warcraft II) and other games. It's all stuff we played or were into at Blizzard. We read the books, had the posters, loved the art, etc. Warcraft was originally going to be a series of historical battles over time boxed up in white boxes that you could put on your shelf. That was Allen Adham's original vision. He was a Ranger in the military before University. I grew up in the UK and played Warhammer and other tabletop RPG's and games as a kid. I continued that when I moved to the USA in the 1980's. I brought a lot of that with me to Blizzard. Due to Sam Didier's love of fantasy art, and amazing talent, my love of Warhammer and other people at Blizzard being more into fantasy the theme became more fantasy styled. The "roid boy" look of a lot of the characters is due to Sam's art style more than anything. The bold coloring came a lot from our art background making 8bit console games for the TV where everything generally was saturated colors. I was one of those that pushed the bold coloring style that some artists at Blizzard weren't all that fond of. They wanted a more realistic 3D look similar to Diablo. Anyway.. there's probably 50 more reasons why it turned out the way it did. There were a lot of talented people at Blizzard (still are) and we were young and influenced by games and pop culture around us at the time.

This guy is legit, I did a google search on him. On the Kotaku news page

[Kavoo]

I wouldn't be surprised by it being influenced by it but it is most certainly not a ripoff.

This. It had a huge influence back in early rts days, but not now.

[Trassk]

Nope. The world and lore are different enough, WC and WH merely share common fantasy elements.

pretty much this. I can never find myself intresting in warhammer, never could be arsed with its story or characters or backdrop, I also found some races to be far to cartoony to be taken seriously.

[hakujinbakasama]

pretty much this. I can never find myself intresting in warhammer, never could be arsed with its story or characters or backdrop, I also found some races to be far to cartoony to be taken seriously.

/looks over at Gnomes, WoW Trolls, Blood Elves, Pandarian, and Night Elves.

yeah I completely see how 1 is so more serious than the other.

[mordale]

/looks over at Gnomes, WoW Trolls, Blood Elves, Pandarian, and Night Elves.

yeah I completely see how 1 is so more serious than the other.

considering the WH orks are basically a race of frat boys, the dark elves are stereotypically starscream evil, and the "good" humans are lawful stupid, yeah i'd say WH:F is more cartoony then WoW.

WH:40K even more so what with the entire universe being grimdark to the level it comes off more as black humor with no punch-line.

[hakujinbakasama]

considering the WH orks are basically a race of frat boys, the dark elves are stereotypically starscream evil, and the "good" humans are lawful stupid, yeah i'd say WH:F is more cartoony then WoW.

WH:40K even more so what with the entire universe being grimdark to the level it comes off more as black humor with no punch-line.

I'll go back to how he was talking about story and character back drops. I suppose you can make it an argument on "artwork" and even then I'll just /looks over at dancing gnome.

Frankly, they both have the exact same characteristics of cartoon style of several things and then an absence on others. At least War Hammer can go "serious" or "dark" which I've never seen, read, hear, watched, fapped, or contemplated in wow.

Actually, the "darkest" thing in wow is often the most glossed over which is all of the "Go behead that guy and bring it back to me mmmkay?" I'm pretty convinced that both the Horde and Alliance are being run by the Taliban at this point.

[mordale]

I'll go back to how he was talking about story and character back drops. I suppose you can make it an argument on "artwork" and even then I'll just /looks over at dancing gnome.

Frankly, they both have the exact same characteristics of cartoon style of several things and then an absence on others. At least War Hammer can go "serious" or "dark" which I've never seen, read, hear, watched, fapped, or contemplated in wow.

Actually, the "darkest" thing in wow is often the most glossed over which is all of the "Go behead that guy and bring it back to me mmmkay?" I'm pretty convinced that both the Horde and Alliance are being run by the Taliban at this point.

many of the darker aspects aren't shown directly in WoW and are handled more in the books, like how Deathwing's plans for his sisters was to repeatedly rape them to breed a "master race".