WAR - Making music (actually pretty cool!)

[Tehfuzz]

Hmm i dont actually know how RVR works... Is it different factions on the same server, but on different parts of the world. Or something like that?

[Ervin]

Originally Posted by Torr

Ervin that's not the point... I don't want to keep selling a game other than AoC here, so I'll try to make it brief. The point is, way back when, Blizzard wanted to make a Warhammer RTS. The deal between them and Games Workshop fell through. So they took the work they had done, changed things slightly (very slightly by the pictures you see above), and called it Warcraft. Games Workshop sued them, but they changed things just enough to not lose the case.

Enter World of Warcraft, did the culmination of thier thievery. The art style you see in WoW was around in the 70s!! Games Workshop has been using this style for 20 years when Warcraft came out. Now someone finally gets around to making a Warhammer MMORPG, and what.... should they now change what THEY created because Blizzard stole from them?

Besides the art style which belongs to Warhammer anyway, the basic premise for the game is very different. Warhammer is an RvR/PvP game from the ground up with PvE peppered in, WoW is a PvE game, with PvP put in after the fact (and an attempt to make it "RvR" like DAoC). The similarity is only in the graphics which Blizzard stole.

Hmmm, so Blizzard is the thief? I didn't know that

[Exo]

Originally Posted by Torr

Now someone finally gets around to making a Warhammer MMORPG, and what.... should they now change what THEY created because Blizzard stole from them?

Actually my answer to that would be yes.

If warcraft hadnt been such a success and had floated away in obscurity then Warhammer would have nothing to worry about. But Warcraft is on the throne right now and all the "public" (that dont know the back story between the companies) see is a Warcraft "Rip-off". Those of us that know the story about Blizzard are in the light, but most people dont.

So it would be better if they had maybe gone with the Warhammer 40,000 theme or something, because its just going to be real hard to shake the reputation of being a "Warcraft Copy".

So if I was in the developers shoes I would put my recources into something that didnt so closely resemble a powerhouse that is out already. People will just compare you to it. Even if it meant changing a design I created.

Take the awesome creativity they used to come up with the warhammer universe, (which was actually created by Tolkien but we wont open that can of worms) and make something just as good but "different".

[Requiem]

I wouldn't mind seeing a Warhammer 40K MMO, they'll probably get around to that someday. Even though the appearance looks similar to that of WoW, it does have some interesting design concepts. There's more of a "RvR" then there is in WoW. WoW's PvP is pretty broken and not that fun. If you look at the character classes of WAR, they seem to be putting alot of thought and personal inspiration into them. But who know's.. it might be very similar with a couple extra bells and whistles, or it might be something very unique and fun to play. It's hard to say until I play it.

[Torr]

Originally Posted by Exo

Actually my answer to that would be yes.

If warcraft hadnt been such a success and had floated away in obscurity then Warhammer would have nothing to worry about. But Warcraft is on the throne right now and all the "public" (that dont know the back story between the companies) see is a Warcraft "Rip-off". Those of us that know the story about Blizzard are in the light, but most people dont.

So it would be better if they had maybe gone with the Warhammer 40,000 theme or something, because its just going to be real hard to shake the reputation of being a "Warcraft Copy".

So if I was in the developers shoes I would put my recources into something that didnt so closely resemble a powerhouse that is out already. People will just compare you to it. Even if it meant changing a design I created.

Take the awesome creativity they used to come up with the warhammer universe, (which was actually created by Tolkien but we wont open that can of worms) and make something just as good but "different".

See though, that's kinda why I really didn't want to respond to this question, because my personal opinion on all of this is harsh. I greatly respect thier courage to NOT back down from Warcraft. It would have been so easy to back down, and I'm sure it was in part Games Workshop's idea to stand thier ground. My opinion is that, people who judge it without knowing what it is (and I was guilty of this myself)... I don't care if they play. They are uninformed and unwilling to be open and flexible to new ideas. I'm glad I am not like them, and did my research... I'm glad I gave the game a chance to make it's case. In the end, most MMORPG players (well except for those new MMORPG players who only play WoW and don't even try anything else.... those people are hopeless) will try out different things. If the buzz gets around that this game is good, people will eventually play it. Those people with thier pre-conceived War=WoW notions will only affect the size of the launch, because I consider them to be followers not leaders... they don't attempt to think for themselves. I'd rather someone say they just don't like the game, rather than compare it to WoW... it lowers my opinion of them, and makes me think they are close-minded.

And don't get me started on Tolkien. My goodness, everything is attributed to Tolkein these days. No one wants to admit that every story in the world has been told, that Tolkein stole many of his own ideas from previous authors and mythology. He didn't invent elves and dwarves, but he did re-define them. You could say that Warhammer elves and dwarves are an off-shoot of Tolkein's take on them if you wish. But thier humans are based on mideval Germany. Greenskins (orcs and goblins), that was thier own creation... they are like nothing before it. Thier Chaos Humans are Cthulu, thier Dark Elves are Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone in origin. Like most authors, they are influenced from a variety of sources, with Tolkien being only a small part of the whole.

[Arkhenneld]

Blizzard definatly ripped off Warhammer. The gameplay should be MUCH different. Much more brutal and mature. The thought of when you first start off as an orc you are in a war zone with Dwarf bodies stuck on a pike brings a smile to my face.

[Heme]

Well the early RvR seemed a little slow-paced, but overall the game looks decent. Is it suppose to be like a "real" RPG - That is, will we only get X amounts of spaces to run? Because it looked like in the game that they were standing still for most of the fighting (not necessarily a bad thing given that you couldn't touch anyone in WoW because they were moving around so much). All-in-all, not too shabby looking.

This whole Blizzard thing sucks... Did anyone see how WoW was supposed to look before (Was it Blizzard that took Blizzard North? Or vica versa?). Either way, the company that was originally going to produce it made the graphics and gameplay look a lot better. There was a video on YouTube that was only there for a few weeks before it was taken down for some reason (unknown to me). That's what originally got me pumped for WoW.