I didn't think this was ever even in question.
Warcraft started as a Warhammer ripoff. Literally. In every way, shape, and form, Warcraft originated as an in-all-but-name clone of Warhammer. From there it evolved on it's own and grew differences over time, and the modern Warcraft universe is clearly it's own entity, but the original Warcraft was, undoubtedly, a Warhammer ripoff.
Pretty vaild to say it like that, I think.
I wouldn't have started playing with sub, if it wasn't close to the Warhammer world back then. I played Warhammer table top, and loved it. WoW gave me a nice replacement. Not the same at all, but similar, and that was good enough for me. That simple.
To those saying the Zerg are a ripoff of the Tyranid, well, technically the Tyranid are nothing more then a rip off of Heinlein's Starship Trooper's, (book, not that god awful movie) yet how many people start "Warhammer ripped off Heinlein" threads? Yes, they borrowed and was influenced by what came before it. Myhtology, Tolkien, DnD, Warhammer and then Wacraft. Influence is very very different then rip-off.
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.
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It obviously has heavy influences from the warhammer universe, and as others have pointed out, it may actually have started out as an attempt to make a warhammer game, but I think blizzard have changed it enough and crafted their own universe fairly well, to call it a "Ripoff" would not be fair.
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Stylization. LOTR orcs are a far cry from anything warhammer. Both warhammer and warcraft humans had the exact same technology, but completely different to that of LOTR.
Honestly, WC1 and warhammer back in the day it is clear to say it was either as the rumour goes meant to be a warhammer RTS, or was a complete ripoff. It may have expanded from there but the original concept would look like a genuine Warhammer fantasy game to the letter if you stuck "white citadel" on it.
Try reading whats said next time. Am I arguing that blizzard took ideas from warhammer into there own game? No, they obviously did, and had there own ideas. But Warhammer isn't the one that started this trend either, as they took concepts from other genres before warhammer and incorporated them into there genre.
#boycottchina
The fact that a company takes a concept and designs with there own take on it doesn't mean they didn't take the idea from another source. Lord of the rings is the forefront of all these fictional RTS themed games, from dungeons and dragons to warhammer to warcraft, its common knowledge everything in these genres stemmed from LOTR
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#boycottchina
Trassk did you add the green dude onto your sig? I swear he wasn't there before
LotR provided some of the base concepts and tropes (as indeed it did for all modern fantasy) but the vast majority of the original Warcraft was straight-up carbon-copied from Warhammer. This is a fact, it's impossible to deny if you know anything at all about old-school Warhammer (and old-school Warcraft), and pointless to deny given the fact that it has actually been confirmed by the original Warcraft devs.
Keep your shirt on, I'm not hating on Warcraft--I love Warcraft (and I'm actually not very fond of Warhammer), and it certainly can't be considered a Warhammer clone anymore at this state in the history of the franchises. It's as if Warcraft and Warhammer were identical twins who went on to have children with completely different people, whose children then had children with people who also had nothing in common.
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