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Okay I have to ask....
Soraksis
Member UncommonPosts: 294
WTF is a WoW clone? I mean what is the actual accepted definition of a WoW clone? Because I see all these posts about this game or that game being a WoW clone and so I check some of these games out or play them or even get into the beta's and find they are nothing like WoW. Most of the time the only thing I see they have in common is they are a video game.
So really what is a WoW clone and how does one determine a game to be a WoW clone? Example: Lately I have seen people lable Rift a WoW clone. From every video, interview and screenshot I have seen says it doesnt look like WoW it has extremely different classes and class customization options. I will say tho that it does have quests and you do have to use WSAD to move and have an action bar. But WoW was hardly the first and only game to have quests or action bars so again and for the last time what is it that makes a game a WoW clone?
Comments
Well you have two types that uses the word WoW clone. Group A use it to describe a game that has taken the best features of all the great older MMORPG titles and made it easily accessible and dumbed down the gameplay. Group B which i believe is the majority use the term because WoW was their first MMORPG. They don't know anything else so everytime they see some standard MMORPG elements, then it must come from WoW.
Example: Oh shit!. It has vertical and horizontal hotbutton bars!. LAWL!! WoW Clone!!
I don't know much about Rift. Does it have buttonmashing? (Pounding Keys 1 through 9)
Games are usually called WoW clones because they share mechanics (Not Lore) and features (Raids, buttonmashing, grinding mobs, static quests, getting the l33t gear).
So far I hear Rift has mobs randomly spawning from different planes, but I can't say anything right now because I have not tried it out yet.
I only used Rift as an example because it was the the most recent game forum I visited when I seen the,"Its a WoW clone" comment. That is what finally spawned my curiosity.
When people use that term I tend to ignore what they say. Good, bad, or indifferent.
A level based them park type of game
The default Rift UI is virtually identical to the WoW UI, reskinned. Party member nameplates, enemy nameplates, enemy debuffs, rogue combo points, buffs, minimap, quest tracker, bag position, hotbars, and chat window are all in exactly the same positions.
Here's a random video I picked to demonstrate it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa4bHeBdLgU
That to me is the biggest reason for the "WoW Clone" responses.
Obviously there will be combat differences, but at first glance it looks similar with global cooldowns and such.
Rift has talent trees that are different than WoW's. Rift, you gain different abilities based which trees you put points in. With WoW, for the most part you have all your core abilities regardless of spec and your trees modify them and maybe add 1-2 abilities. Still, both have trees, so that's in common.
Rift has rifts, WoW doesn't, but both appear to have quests and quest hubs outside of that (1:55 in that video). Exclamation points above heads and whatnot. That's another similarity.
Rift has much better graphics.
I don't know if it's a WoW clone. That term just seems to annoy people and it's so open to individual interpretation that it's not even worth arguing about. WoW copied a lot from earlier games as well, but it is a lot of people's first exposure to MMOs. I played EQ1 for a long time, but even I would still say something like "Rift appears heavily influenced by WoW", and not try to trace it back any further than that.
Still, google videos of whatever game and see if they remind you of WoW. Decide for yourselves.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." -Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
buttonmashing...i mean really...pressing buttons is what leads you to a wowclone? If you don't press buttons please tell me how you play the game. Until they get WoW or any MMO out on kinect then i think "buttonmashing" is the only acceptable way to play an MMO
wow clone....singleplayer quest grind to max level possible afew group instances for gear otw , end game do the same few instances over and over, both group and raid to get the amazing gear. and well at no point the world matter more than right here right now as you experience it.
am sure can put more words to it :P
Sorry, didn't make myself clear.
Pressing buttons on your hotkey bar (1 through 9) using different attack skills without (manual, not chance based) dodging or blocking of the enemy attacks. With the autotargetting and no way to defeat a player that is a higher level than you through clever tactics or combat.
Extremely similar gameplay, sometimes even to the little details.
Extremely similar content (instance, instance, quest, raid, "battlegrounds", instance, raid).
Predictability (expansion! what's in there? instances, raids, level cap raises, more battlegrounds, more quests).
Similar UI, similar economy (not a bad thing, but together with all of the above makes the similarities even more obvious).
Similar progression system and similar class system. Sometimes better, sometimes worse, but always done on the same foundation.
Race limitations. (OUR MADE UP LORE IS RUINED IF YOU PLAY A FLURBLE WARRIOR (/implies devs care about lore- lol))
Alt-focused.
Very similar game structure. Even if games use different game engines, they feel the exact same. It's like everyone used the same mold to build their games. "They do it because it works!". I know. I don't care.
And lastly, before anyone says "OMG GAMES BEFORE WOW HAD THESE" that is irrelevant. To most people these features didn't exist before WoW- therefore it is simpler to call them WoW clones since most people know what you are talking about, even if the term is not 100% accurate. Call a game a "DAoC clone" and most people have no idea what you mean. So don't bother.
Basically, I can say Dante's Inferno is a God of War clone, and that is true, even if the games are not 100% similar. It's the same for this genre.
And that would be cool, if they really improved the genre. DI didn't really improve much. But for example Bayonetta- made from the Devil May Cry concept, but it actually improved the genre overall- same can't be said about MMO's. But what do you expect, MMO's build themselves over years. It's not that simple to improve.
Bayonetta gets away with copying. Dante's Inferno and MMO's don't.
World of Warcraft is a WoW clone.
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More seriously, a WoW clone is a game that does too many things that you don't like and that WoW also did and you didn't like when WoW did them, either. "WoW clone" is intrinsically a pejorative moniker. If you love endgame raiding, then for a game to have a lot of endgame raiding doesn't make it a WoW clone. If you hate endgame raiding, then for a game to be heavily based around it makes it a WoW clone, and therefore, a bad game. Or substitute in a number of other features that WoW has instead of "endgame raiding".
When considering whether a game is a "WoW clone", it doesn't matter if it launched before or after WoW, or whether you personally played it before or after WoW. If there are features common to both EverQuest and WoW that makes you hate both games, then that makes EverQuest into a WoW clone for you.
No, that is the WoW original XD.
I'd suppose a WoW clone could be a WoW-alternative. There are several alternatives to World of Warcraft that offer the same convenient, simpler pve-centric game-playb style with controlled, partitioned-off and scheduled pvp. Some with more emphasis on pve, some with less and some more balanced, depending on your tastes.
This might be an interesting read on some "alternatives". http://mmohut.com/editorials/best-free-wow-clones
Jehova, Jehova...
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sorry, couldn't resist. XD
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
WoW is the clone of many games, so stop with the WoW clone garbage. You WoW fans are worshiping a damn game! Stop living in a hole and get some air!
There is a famous quote by a judge about pornography, "I can't tell you what porn is, but I know it when I see it."
A WoW Clone is the same way, you know it when you play it. It just plain feels like WoW as you play it.
Sent me an email if you want me to mail you some pizza rolls.