"WoW Clones"

Sam · **Posted:** July 18th, 2009, 2:53 am

Okay, I've heard people use this term A LOT when describing certain MMOs, and it is getting old. Every time I mention EQ2, EQ, AoC, City of Heroes/Villains or any MMO's of the like, the first thing that I hear come out of people's mouths are "LAWL WOW CLONE!". Really? EQ, a game that came out in 1999 is a WoW clone? You have to be kidding me. AoC, a game with different game play(crap none the less, but game play), is a WoW clone? I've even heard some people call EVE a WoW clone, and by some recent posts about EVE, I hope we can all disagree with that. I haven't seen much of this at RSBandB(if any) but I just wanted to get your opinions on this.

Adbot · **Posted:** July 18th, 2009, 2:53 am

King Kulla · **Posted:** July 18th, 2009, 3:39 am

It happens when someone comes along and revolutionizes a certain genre of anything. For example, most early FPS's were called "Doom Clones" because of Doom being the first game to popularize the genre.

So for someone to call anything a "WoW clone" is not a new concept. A lot of people will do this while generally knowing little about the "clone" while adhering to the idea that the thing being "cloned" is far superior.

Slimppu · **Posted:** July 18th, 2009, 4:47 am

It's a silly term. The gameplay WoW has was first implemented in EQ, so shouldn't they be called EQ clones?

trekkie · **Posted:** July 18th, 2009, 8:12 pm

if you think about it, anybody who is a mega fanboy of WoW are totally idiots. they are probably just as bad as ps3 fanboys

Shreder · **Posted:** July 18th, 2009, 8:14 pm

yeah i used to be an uber Guild Wars fanatic and people would be like ew that's a WoW rip off.
i'd be like oh really? then how come it won game of the year before WoW was created?

i see your point, hate it too.

Iron Maiden · **Posted:** July 19th, 2009, 9:32 am

WoW fanboys are the worst kind of fanboys that exist, It's the main reason why I hate that game.
Major part of them dont even know what they are talking about.

I remember some moron who said Diablo 2 was a clone of Warcraft 3...They are both from Blizzard, idiot.

Consoles fanboys are also incredibly annoying, like Trekkie said. PS3 and X360 hardcore fanboys are the worst

(Hey I'm not a fanboy, I flexible and I find pros and cons in every console

)

Adbot · **Posted:** July 19th, 2009, 9:32 am

Mr Pink · **Posted:** July 19th, 2009, 2:23 pm

Iron Maiden wrote:

WoW fanboys are the worst kind of fanboys that exist, It's the main reason why I hate that game.
Major part of them dont even know what they are talking about.

I remember some moron who said Diablo 2 was a clone of Warcraft 3...They are both from Blizzard, idiot.

Consoles fanboys are also incredibly annoying, like Trekkie said. PS3 and X360 hardcore fanboys are the worst

(Hey I'm not a fanboy, I flexible and I find pros and cons in every console

)

I don't know what kind of WoW "fanboys" you've been talking to, but majority of the WoW hardcore crowd are huge Blizzard/EverQuest fans.

Brad · **Posted:** July 20th, 2009, 4:21 am

I agree that the term is overused, the only real WoW clones are the games that have come up after WoW's popularity using a good chunk of WoW's gameplay features with some new stuff thrown in to try and steal some market share (but failing so far) Ala LOTRO & WAR.

Sam · **Posted:** July 20th, 2009, 5:08 pm

Brad wrote:

I agree that the term is overused, the only real WoW clones are the games that have come up after WoW's popularity using a good chunk of WoW's gameplay features with some new stuff thrown in to try and steal some market share (but failing so far) Ala LOTRO & WAR.

I agree with this, but there are also many things that WoW can take and implement off WAR that are pretty good ideas. i.e. Public quests, RvR, more lower leveled PvP zones with capture points.
Though I have no idea how much of that has been implemented in WoW, so correct me accordingly.

Ninjaa · **Posted:** July 20th, 2009, 5:13 pm

Ive played many games in the same mould as WoW, guild wars and AoC for example. And the only one that I have ever considered to be a genuine rip off of WoW is WAR (Warhammer Online / Age of Reckoning).

But totally opposite, I would almost encourage Blizzard to take some ideas from other MMO's trying to take the market from them, RvR on WAR is a prime example. When playing WoW, it doesnt seem to be that blatantly obvious that the horde and alliance are in fact at war with one another, the only thing that I have seen to remody this in recent times are the "For the Alliance/Horde" achievements. And surely there is more potential in the horde vs allience conflict than the occasional city raid?

Brad · **Posted:** July 20th, 2009, 7:31 pm

Sam wrote:

Brad wrote:

I agree that the term is overused, the only real WoW clones are the games that have come up after WoW's popularity using a good chunk of WoW's gameplay features with some new stuff thrown in to try and steal some market share (but failing so far) Ala LOTRO & WAR.

I agree with this, but there are also many things that WoW can take and implement off WAR that are pretty good ideas. i.e. Public quests, RvR, more lower leveled PvP zones with capture points.
Though I have no idea how much of that has been implemented in WoW, so correct me accordingly.

Public quests are good in theory, however as a friend of mine has vouched for, they're a totally stupid idea when they're modelled as such a big part of the 'story' and you can't complete them because the zones are empty now WAR only has 300k players. It's a good system in theory, but when you're on your own and all you can do is grind the first 'wave' over and over waiting for it to reset each time because you can't group up to kill the harder 'waves' its stupid, boring and completely pointless.

The RVR zones are somewhat good, if it weren't for the fact that WAR PvP as a whole spoils it. It's all entirely zerg based, lets group up 20 players and go steam roll smaller groups of 4-5 players roaming about the RVR areas, and when you get a fight of equal proportions its just endless boring combat, spam attacks, spam heals, when you die heal and run back. Theres no tactics or finesse or real skill involved at all (Ala Arena in WoW, ignoring people that ***** about class balance that is), WAR was sold as a WoW beater on its pvp and it failed miserably.

Although the one good thing I enjoy about WAR RVR was the bolstering thing in scenarios, how you could join at level 1 and compete with level 9-10 characters, that was good, but still the zerg nature of the combat ultimately ruined it.

Compared to WoW it was bound to have more PVP areas really, WAR was marketed as a PVP orientated game, WoW was first marketed as both PVE & PVP but its clear that WoW was really designed as a PVE game, the majority of big patches in WoW are PVE dungeons and updates, and the first outdoor PVP zone (wintergrasp) took 2 expansions before it arrived.

Most of my opinions on WAR are from when I played the beta and release last August/September along with a lot of my WoW friends, but most of my opinions are still valid according to the few who stuck with it.

Bellicosity · Runite~Mon Jul 07, 2007 3:04 pm.

semi-on-topic: only reason i'd ever play world of warcraft with actual interest is for its storyline. the main warcraft games have a decent story, and i'd consider trying to hear the rest, though a high lv char of every race seems dumb and too much effort :/

wow clones don't exist. world of warcraft has had two expansions to add content and just like every other mmo, gets patched on a regular basis. the only reason games appear to be clones is because their first version is similar to world of warcraft's current version. given time and a fanbase enough to fun growth, they'd evolve into their own kind of game, and the similarities would become less and less apparent.

Mushroom Queen · **Posted:** July 20th, 2009, 11:50 pm

I quit WAR after rank 9. >_>

I think some games have to be at least similar to WoW because..the system works. The idea of keybindings and macros fits well with a game, so why not use it?

CreepyPirate · **Posted:** July 21st, 2009, 3:57 am

Mushroom Queen wrote:

I quit WAR after rank 9. >_>

I think some games have to be at least similar to WoW because..the system works. The idea of keybindings and macros fits well with a game, so why not use it?

See i differ there. I think to many MMOG are following similiar formulas and think we need someone to come in and shake it up. Go in a completely new direction. Planetside was a good attempt i wouldn't mind seeing another game like that..but..not done by sony cause they suck.

Bellicosity · Runite~Mon Jul 07, 2007 3:04 pm.

wow isn't as revolutionary as you'd think, it too is built off older games, blizzard just put the features together in a successful way. the macro system existed in the lineage series, both of which were created before world of warcraft, and i'm pretty sure they started the system anyway. instances came from the realm online, i can't find what game first implimented a faction style but i'm positive it wasn't wow.

there really aren't any "world of warcraft clones," but rather other companies have come to similar conclusions for what makes a successfull mmorpg.

its possible that some may be intentionally similar to wow, i mean look at runescape and adventurequest. within a matter of months of the anouncement of mechscape, the same company made "mech quest" and i seriously doubt that was just coincidental, since they advertise mostly on sites runescape players are likely to be on.