Does WoW Influence Warhammer Online?

OGX writes "While old school geeks & gamers know that Warhammer predated Warcraft, there are many MMORPG fanatics these days that don't know the history of both franchises, and comment that Warhammer Online resembles World of Warcraft. OGX has an article about this very question with some input from Mark Jacobs (Studio GM EA Mythic, VP EA)." From the article: "This history factors heavily in the present situation wherein the Warhammer Online game looks, to many, to be a descendant of the success of World of Warcraft in a market filled with many games trying to be just that. It's easy to see how this confusion would arise, and I asked Mark Jacobs, Studio GM EA Mythic, VP Electronic Arts, to share his thoughts about the situation." Warhammer may have influenced WoW, but WHO's interface still looks like a WoW rip-off to me.

Payback?

[FinchWorld]

If I recall currectly, the orginal warcraft games were heavily influences by warhammer (Failed to get the rights to use the "Warhammer" from games-workshop I believe). So as far as characters, fiction etc. No. As for the interface, likely. But then again, if it works why change it? (Law suit isn't the answer:P)

Re:Missing Link?

[bateleur]

I see what you're saying, but that doesn't really apply to the timeline. After all, they talk about Tolkien and "European Mythology". The huge shoulder pads and art style weren't much in evidence there. Both are in fact a side effect of the fact that GW's games were designed for use with Citadel's 25mm fantasy miniature range. They featured a lot of huge weapons and armour plates because they look great at that scale.

And in fact the first Citadel miniatures to feature this style as we know it today were Chaos Warriors... so maybe we need to add Michael Moorcock's novels to the timeline too?

Re:Blizzard is ripper-offer, but so what

[nsanders]

Actually, Blizzard didn't create Diablo, they purchased it. Blizzard North, was the original creator of Diablo, and before they were purchased by Blizzard they were called Condor. So you can't really blame Blizzard for any rip-offs on that game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_North [wikipedia.org]

Re:Warhammer fantasy was a bad idea from the start

[Wind_Walker]

There's a lot of problems with a Sci-Fi MMORPG. Here's a few off the top of my head:

• Mobs: Who can you fight in a futuristic society? Not dragons or Firelords or giant mutant spiders, but people (maybe with a few cyborgs thrown in too). Not that exciting
• Weapons: Guns. Lots of guns. Guns which are small, not that much fun to wield (from a MMORPG standpoint) and
• Fights: Think about a gunfight. There's a lot of ducking for cover, poking your head out, firing a few times, and then repeating. Not exactly conducive to a MMORPG environment.

I could go on further, but that's enough. There's lots of problem with combat and Line of Sight which are going to cause problems with all the guns around. So instead, let's look at the Sci-Fi MMORPGs which have been released:

• Anarchy Online: Launch problems and poor UI doomed this one, never had a huge userbase to begin with
• Star Wars Galaxies: Repeated "revamps" killed this one, never had a huge userbase to begin with - though it started out well
• Planetside: Pay-to-play a FPS, no thanks.
• Matrix Online: Hah! The very definition of failure

It's no wonder that companies are hesitant to go for a Sci-Fi MMORPG.

It all started as...

[Fallen Kell]

Ok guys for those that do not know. What became the "Warcraft" and "Starcraft" series both started as "concepts" and "demo" versions that they sent to Games Workstop for a computerized version of the Warhammer and Warhammer40000 game systems. GW said no because they felt that they could do either a better job or for some other reason (possibly the whole, we didn't make it thus don't like it mentality). Blizard felt that they had a good thing going, so they changed some things around slightly and still continued creating/developing the games under the new name of "Warcraft" and "Starcraft". And so you have it, the reason they seem similar is because the whole idea of the warcraft and starcraft games to begin with was to be the computer versions of Warhammer and Warhammer40000.

Re:Warhammer fantasy was a bad idea from the start

[Sparr0]

Planetside is free. It works like a Korean MMO. You can actually access the entire game at no charge, but you have to pay if you want to get to the top of MULTIPLE specialties at the same time.