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.

Warhammer fantasy was a bad idea from the start

[legoburner]

It is pretty stupid for Warhammer Online to even be considered. Warhammer 40000 is about twice as popular as Warhammer, and will not be a direct, very similar competitor to the most successful MMORPG in the history of Earth. It is rumoured that Blizzard even tried to do a deal with Games Workshop to get Warhammer IP for Warcraft, but were declined as GW thought they could do it themselves. Blizzard now make more money from WoW in a month than GW make per year (in turnover, by profits it is an even more ridiculous diffence). GW are known for fairly terrible management and until it is changed or updated they deserve what they get. The best example is the fact that they conduct almost NO market research at all, claiming it is alright not to worry since they are a niche market (and they even state this on their investor relations pages!)

Missing Link?

[bateleur]

Interesting that the timeline in the article doesn't mention Dungeons and Dragons.

Given that Games Workshop was at one time the sole importer of D&D into the UK (prior to the design of Warhammer) I think I'd be quite confident in alleging they were influenced by it.

Journalists stated that GW ripped off Blizzard??

[Achoi77]

That's an embarassing statement if a _journalist_ writing articles for the gaming industry is that ignorant.

I've always figured that everybody knew that Blizzard 'stole' ideas from GW. My, how times have changed.

They better have been

[Anonymous Coward]

I would say that if you're creating a MMO game today and you're not heavily influenced by what WoW did right (and also paying close attention to what has gone wrong with WoW) you're going to produce a very unpopular product. WoW was the first MMO game that created an experience where anyone could play to the level cap and have a lot of fun doing it; there was tons of content that anyone could complete and very little of the game required you to group (or, in particular, be in the perfect group; my least favourite moments in games like DAoC were being excluded from a group because I was an enchanter). If you're like most MMO game developers and you listen too heavily to the most 'hard-core' 5% of your population you will create a game that is loved by 10% of your target market; if (on the other hand) you target the middle 50% of gamers you'll capture a huge chunk of your potential market.

Of course.

[Wind_Walker]

Yes. Next question?

At this point, the MMORPG market is basically WoW with a few outliers. I'm sure I'll get some EVE Online heat for that comment, but it's true. For much of the population, "MMORPG" is defined to be "World of Warcraft" the same way RTSes were defined by Starcraft. Blizzard has a knack for taking what's great in all its competition, putting it in one spot, and polishing it to a mirror shine. It's what they do.

Game developers aren't stupid. They see the phenomenal success of WoW and know that if they want to compete they have to provide at least the same level of play as their competitor (to get the former WoWers like me) and hopefully surpass their competitor (to get current WoWers). So, WAR takes the UI from WoW and probably steals a few of its other features to ease the transition until they get you hooked.

WAR is hoping provide a PvP alternative to WoW, which primarily focuses on PvE. Even low-level WAR quests involve some form of competition with the opposing faction. One preview I read had a Giant who you would either (a) get drunk to help fight for you against the other faction, or (b) destroy the first faction's alcohol to prevent the giant from getting drunk and thus fighting against you. And that was a newbie quest.

I'm hoping that the WAR team (BTW, that's their preferred acronym, for "Warhammer: Age of Reckoning") delivers on its promises. Give me WoW with a heavy focus on PvP and Realm-vs-Realm and they'll get my money for a few months.

Fuck you Zonk.

[BJH]

Warcraft is quite obviously a ripoff of Warhammer. Similarity of interface in one particular game is nothing in comparison to what Blizzard have done to Games Workshop.

Blizzard is ripper-offer, but so what

[Wylfing]

All three major Blizzard properties are rip-offs of someone else's ideas. Diablo was a rip of Rogue (and all Rogue-alikes everywhere); Warcarft was a rip of Warhammer; and Starcraft was a rip of Warhammer 40,000.

Big deal, I say. It's not like Games Workshop didn't draw on others' ideas too -- Moorcock and Herbert being prime examples. A messianic god emporer? Gosh, where could that have come from [dunenovels.com]? This is the way it's supposed to work. Inspiration breeds inspiration. It's not so much "your" idea as it is your little twist on all the ideas you've absorbed from other people. You don't "own" it, because the person you got your ideas from didn't "own" theirs either. This stuff's not supposed to be locked down and inaccessible. If it was, we'd never have got Warhammer or WoW or any of the rest of it.

Re:Of course.

[EastCoastSurfer]

Blizzard has a knack for taking what's great in all its competition, putting it in one spot, and polishing it to a mirror shine. It's what they do.

I don't think WOW is that good of a game. I think what Blizzard did best was leverage their existing fan base and get them to try an mmo. Personally, I was bored with WoW after 3 months and quit (as did my friends who I started playing with). Keep in mind that we all played DAoC for at least 3 years, so we weren't new to mmos either.

Re:Only because I was just reading it....

[Zevon 2000]

This is one of the best PA comics, and it basically does sum up the entire article, doesn't it? Cartoon is worth 1000 words and all.

Re:Blizzard is ripper-offer, but so what

[Anonymous Coward]

Warhammer's and the LotR's geography both strongly resemble Europe's geography.

Damn; Tolkien ripped off reality!