WoW-clone is not misused....at all. Games often take from the best, its simply the fact. Just because its a Bright Wizard instead of a Fire mage doesn't mean y doesn't equal x. It's a WoW clone in that the combat is the same, and people with WoW experience had no trouble with a WAR transition because of it. It's a little more PvP centric version of WoW, still the same theme park garbage.
Ya, after all, WoW was the first game to include a fire spell casting wizard.....oh wait, it wasnt, so much for that.
Damn, forgot, the other games used time machines to come forward in time and rip Blizzard off, nothing else makes sense.
Apparently stating the truth in my sig is "trolling" Sig typo fixed thanks to an observant stragen001.
WoW-clone is not misused....at all. Games often take from the best, its simply the fact. Just because its a Bright Wizard instead of a Fire mage doesn't mean y doesn't equal x. It's a WoW clone in that the combat is the same
So using this logic WoW is an EverQuest, Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies, Final Fantasy XI, City of Heroes, Lineage 2, EverQuest 2 clone because WoW has similar combat as all of these games that came out before it?
Alright... if you say so.
"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
"WoW clone" has always been a bit misleading. If WoW was cloned, there'd be two WoWs, each with 5.5 million subs.
OK this probably isn't true. The second one would be a haven for pvpers trying to make fresh starts but would otherwise be ghostlands. The blood elf "Ghostlands" would be a sort of double ghostland.
"Ripoff" is a better term. Just because developers forever blatantly do this to one another's "I.P." doesn't make the deed less despicable, numb to it as I'm sure we all are. Perhaps if the definition of I.P. tortuously covered things like the layout of the UI, the colour of health and mana (and the name "mana"), we might eventually end up with a game that is original.
Creativity is just the power of association. If you associate with the most recent thing with which everyone is familiar, and bugger all else, you're not likely to offer anything new are ya?
I would add "lag" to the list. Over time this term has come to describe any slowing of the game. However, the perceived "lag" can be due to a lot of different reasons including:
reduction in available bandwidth due to other programs downloading at same time
game program slows due to other running programs
high latency or reduced available bandwidth due to problems or high volume of useage on the internet between client and server
high latency due to the game server responding slowly
a reduction in frame rate because the graphics card is not coping
a reduction in frame rate because the graphics are too tightly tied to what is being downloaded, and the graphics freezes because it cannot draw the next frame until further information downloads
I guess it wouldn't really count for the article, but I think one phrase people need to stop saying on forums is:
"Can I have your stuff?"
That phrase has lived long long after pretty much all valuable equipment in MMORPGs became bound to the characters. No, you can't have my stuff. Ever hear of BOE?
Oh, stop it. Of course 'WoW clone' is misused, just as 'EQ clone' was. It's inevitable that the biggest hit at any given time will encourage a certain type of design for as long as it maintains this position. But it's no more cloning than all the various MP3 players are clones of the iPod.
Favorites: EQ, EVE | Playing: None. Mostly VR and strategy | Anticipating: CU, Pantheon
Finally someone said it... I'm tired of being called a "fanboy", as I'm not any fanboy. According to true meaning, I'd rather be a "hardcore D&D Online" player, as I'm very active yet I see the flaws of DDO where they are for me, and errors of Turbine when they make it (in my opinion). People who like to complain call everyone who is positive about anything a fanboy, beacause... it's easy and doesn't require even a slightest thought. It's just like an offense or insult now, without any truth to it. What am I talkin about? Here's this quote: "Over the last few years though, as arguments over released and upcoming games has heated up, the label of Fanboi and Hater has been thrown around so much as to have changed meanings almost entirely. Instead of describing an over-enthusiastic fan who is incapable of recognizing even the smallest flaw in his or her chosen game, the term Fanboi is now being used to label anyone who expresses a positive opinion about a game or company. Similarly, the term that was once reserved only for people who steadfastly refused to see any positive points at all about a given game is now being applied to any person, fan or no, that dares to point out any flaws that might exist in a game."
Fanboy hater
I think Next gen should have been in there, its tossed around so much in our life (not just in MMO's) that it has lost almost all meaning.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds -Solid non level based game -Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
Originally posted by lethys WoW-clone is not misused....at all. Games often take from the best, its simply the fact. Just because its a Bright Wizard instead of a Fire mage doesn't mean y doesn't equal x. It's a WoW clone in that the combat is the same, and people with WoW experience had no trouble with a WAR transition because of it. It's a little more PvP centric version of WoW, still the same theme park garbage.
And just because a word isn't used as originally intended doesn't mean it is wrong. The word "upset" was never used to describe the underdog winning until the horse "upset" won a race against the odds, and ever since it has been correct usage of the word. So this article is horrible.
WoW-clone is not misused....at all. Games often take from the best, its simply the fact. Just because its a Bright Wizard instead of a Fire mage doesn't mean y doesn't equal x. It's a WoW clone in that the combat is the same, and people with WoW experience had no trouble with a WAR transition because of it. It's a little more PvP centric version of WoW, still the same theme park garbage. And just because a word isn't used as originally intended doesn't mean it is wrong. The word "upset" was never used to describe the underdog winning until the horse "upset" won a race against the odds, and ever since it has been correct usage of the word. So this article is horrible.
Well, because Warhammer is over 20 years old and the only thing Blizzard changed was some of the names of the classes due to the inability to acquire the Warhammer IP all those years ago (hence the term Warcraft), you might as well just go ahead and begin calling them all WAR clones, including WoW. Nothing in WoW is unique and it's a direct clone of Warhammer as that was what Warcraft was intended to be. Changing the name to Warcraft was all they could do since they were unable to use the Warhammer name in the end. But you'd need to be a bit older to remember the history.
Personally "whatever-clone" annoys me. If Games Workshop doesn't need to fling around such words then Blizzard and their followers definitely have no place to do the same. If you fail to acquire an IP, just going ahead and taking all the elements and using a similar name just doesn't cut it.
blah, all these people with ideas of who is the origin of whatever. Tolken anyone?
Anyways, Dana, great article. Hands down very enjoyable read and felt very true. Thanks for posting up this article, I think many people needed to get a refresh in MMO edicate.
Well the major issue we have is that these days any tom dick or harry is able to get online (retard or not). unfortunatly us being the humans we are, are flawed to one major issue, Ignorance.
I see alot of people blaming kids younger then 18 for being missfits in MMO's (hense why you see alot of 18+ only in MMO's) and setting a bad example as a gamer but when i was just 12 i remember playing in a clan of 6 guys on Half life multiplayer, and thats another thing since when did the term GUILD or CLAN turn into a COMMUNITY? (more then 20+ players).
Nice productive reply, by the way WoW Clone has never once assumed that WoW invented all of the mechanics that they have used so move along
Let's put it this way:
My mom bakes a great apple pie. Let's say I take that pie and give it a flakier crust and more apples. It becomes really popular among my friends. So popular, in fact, that my neighbor makes his own apple pie with a flaky crust and lots of apples and starts selling it. All my friends start calling it an aurick clone because he copied my pie. But wait a minute... my pie copied most of the elements of my mom's. It's much more accurate to say that both of our pies are mom clones.
Or to use logic vernacular:
If A = B and B = C then A = C
Just because B is the big branding success that everyone recognizes doesn't mean that everything after B can only be a clone of B. B is just as much a clone as C is.
I would like to add: IMO "WoW clone" is a term thrown around by fans of the genre who are frustrated with the lack of original game design. Now before you freak on me let me explain. Because of WoW's success I think it's logical to assume that developers will feel comfortable sticking with the same basic MMORPG layout that was in EQ, WoW, etc. etc. Not that these are all "clones" of one another because they're obviously not, they're not the same games how could they be, but they all play predictably the same way. However, for many, especially those one this site, it seems we want the genre to take a somewhat different direction in some significant way, so when games with the same layout come about they are automatically labled as "WoW clones".
To sum things up on a grand scale. I don't think the MMO genre has found its identity yet. There are many games that seem to not have a clear direction as to what the game is. Too many things trying to be achieved with no particular strong, shining elements. I think the day will come for this but the reason it's taken longer than other genre's IMO is the much more difficult and costly production process and upkeep. Not as much room to experiment and much more following of a similar RPG model. Just my opinion so take it or leave it!
Was dolly the 1st sheep? Still her clone is her clone, and not one of 1st sheep ever. Yes it's features are derived from 1st sheep, and no not all sheep are dolly cones. So it is missused a lot, but it has it uses.
Trust me on that, I've seen a "wow clone". If you've ever seen wow, even once and just on screeenshot you'd recocgnise the similarity with the one I'm talking about, and if you played wow you'd say it is a wow clone, and a poor one to boot. Well it still isn't out and I'm bound to keep silent about that junk till people see it themselves grrr... It's not getting a worldwide release, so consider yourself relatively lucky...
That said, wow itself is a missused word. These days you can't use this word in it's orignal meaning (as in "pleasant surprise") without an mmo gamer poping out of nowhere and misunderstanding you...
I agree with hater and fanboi being missused, but "failing to see a good/bad point" is a missuse of word "fail". We're talking tastes here, "open world pvp" (tm) is a good point for one and bad for another, "active combat", character design, and who knows what else, are all veiwed differently. So many men so many minds. Get it into your thick skull already you fanbois/haters...
And I'd add "active combat" to the list, all of a sudden active combat = strafing around like crazy... go figure...
So, who else here is old enough to recognize this:
> kill goblin You attack the goblin with your sword. You do 12 damage. Goblin attacks you. You take 5 damage. You have 145 hp. You attack the golbin with your sword. You do 14 damage. Goblin attacks you. You take 8 damage. You have 137 hp. > cast fireball You cast fireball on goblin for 25 damage. You have 13 mp. Goblin dies. You gain 12 xp. > loot goblin Goblin had: 1 rusty sword. 1 overripe tomato.
Yep, the original click-to-fight combat system: The MUD. Most MMOs since then have, largely, been MUDs with graphical interfaces. Meanwhile, single-player RPGs have moved on by strides and bounds since then - but MMO players seem content with the same old recipe.
Awesome awesome article. You know, MMO's did exist before wow, so the term "wow clone" is just utter idiocy, as well as "Failure" and "Wow killer". Wow is very very succesfull mmo, but it doesnt need to be compared to every other MMO anymore, give it a rest.
I really wouldn't have had Wow clone in there. Wow Clone isn't overused. While WoW's mechanics aren't original, they are replicated in a way throughout so many games that it is a clear-cut WoW clone.
Nextgen should have been #1. Very few MMOs have anything remarkedly "next-gen".
Technically, you can trace it back forever, no doubt. Most generally give EverQuest the first title. But that's just DIKU Muds done graphically, but nonetheless, I'm happy to give the badge to the first game to do it in 3D. It is responsible for most of the conventions of MMOs (hotbars, classes, static spawns, quests, radar, etc.).
"While World of Warcraft does indeed make use of all of the above mentioned elements and more, the fact of the matter is that they were not the first, and they will not be the last."
I think what you guys are missing is that people realize that. They use the term WOW-clone because it makes sense to use a subject that your audience is familiar with when making a comparison or drawing an analogy. If someone wrote/said "DikuMUD clone" far fewer readers/listeners would know what the person was talking about. Heck, with the influx of millions of new gamers with WOW, even "EQ clone" is too obscure or unclear a reference in some circles.
-- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG - RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? - FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
I think what you guys are missing is that people realize that. They use the term WOW-clone because it makes sense to use a subject that your audience is familiar with when making a comparison or drawing an analogy. If someone wrote/said "DikuMUD clone" far fewer readers/listeners would know what the person was talking about. Heck, with the influx of millions of new gamers with WOW, even "EQ clone" is too obscure or unclear a reference in some circles.
That's exactly it. As another poster mentioned, Dolly was not the original sheep. Nor was WoW the original MMOG. So cloning Dolly means cloning a sheep, but the clone is still a clone of Dolly, not a clone of Protobaa The First Sheep. Likewise, a game that comes out with most of the features that WoW has and precious little actual innovation (uh oh, did I use that word right? ) is a WoW clone. When forumgoers worry it'll be 'just another WoW clone', they worry that it won't really bring anything new to the table, that it's yet another attempt at playing it safe - which incidentally seems to me to have a high failure rate. Is that misusing the word? I don't think it is.
Comments
Ya, after all, WoW was the first game to include a fire spell casting wizard.....oh wait, it wasnt, so much for that.
Damn, forgot, the other games used time machines to come forward in time and rip Blizzard off, nothing else makes sense.
Apparently stating the truth in my sig is "trolling"
Sig typo fixed thanks to an observant stragen001.
i still think "twink" is the most misused word in mmo's.
its origin pre dates mmo's by about 40 years as it has its roots in male on male adult pornographic films.
im not going to spell it out for you, thats what google is for. but still every time someone tells me about their "twink" it creeps me out a little.
Games i'm playing right now...
"In short, I thought NGE was a very bad idea" - Raph Koster talking about NGE on his blog at raphkoster.com
So using this logic WoW is an EverQuest, Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies, Final Fantasy XI, City of Heroes, Lineage 2, EverQuest 2 clone because WoW has similar combat as all of these games that came out before it?
Alright... if you say so.
"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
"WoW clone" has always been a bit misleading. If WoW was cloned, there'd be two WoWs, each with 5.5 million subs.
OK this probably isn't true. The second one would be a haven for pvpers trying to make fresh starts but would otherwise be ghostlands. The blood elf "Ghostlands" would be a sort of double ghostland.
"Ripoff" is a better term. Just because developers forever blatantly do this to one another's "I.P." doesn't make the deed less despicable, numb to it as I'm sure we all are. Perhaps if the definition of I.P. tortuously covered things like the layout of the UI, the colour of health and mana (and the name "mana"), we might eventually end up with a game that is original.
Creativity is just the power of association. If you associate with the most recent thing with which everyone is familiar, and bugger all else, you're not likely to offer anything new are ya?
Good article.
I would add "lag" to the list. Over time this term has come to describe any slowing of the game. However, the perceived "lag" can be due to a lot of different reasons including:
I guess it wouldn't really count for the article, but I think one phrase people need to stop saying on forums is:
"Can I have your stuff?"
That phrase has lived long long after pretty much all valuable equipment in MMORPGs became bound to the characters. No, you can't have my stuff. Ever hear of BOE?
Yeah, I'm silly...
Great article. 8 / 10.
Oh, stop it. Of course 'WoW clone' is misused, just as 'EQ clone' was. It's inevitable that the biggest hit at any given time will encourage a certain type of design for as long as it maintains this position. But it's no more cloning than all the various MP3 players are clones of the iPod.
Fanboy hater
I think Next gen should have been in there, its tossed around so much in our life (not just in MMO's) that it has lost almost all meaning.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
Are you trying to fit the stereotype?
Well, because Warhammer is over 20 years old and the only thing Blizzard changed was some of the names of the classes due to the inability to acquire the Warhammer IP all those years ago (hence the term Warcraft), you might as well just go ahead and begin calling them all WAR clones, including WoW. Nothing in WoW is unique and it's a direct clone of Warhammer as that was what Warcraft was intended to be. Changing the name to Warcraft was all they could do since they were unable to use the Warhammer name in the end. But you'd need to be a bit older to remember the history.
Personally "whatever-clone" annoys me. If Games Workshop doesn't need to fling around such words then Blizzard and their followers definitely have no place to do the same. If you fail to acquire an IP, just going ahead and taking all the elements and using a similar name just doesn't cut it.
blah, all these people with ideas of who is the origin of whatever. Tolken anyone?
Anyways, Dana, great article. Hands down very enjoyable read and felt very true. Thanks for posting up this article, I think many people needed to get a refresh in MMO edicate.
Well the major issue we have is that these days any tom dick or harry is able to get online (retard or not). unfortunatly us being the humans we are, are flawed to one major issue, Ignorance.
I see alot of people blaming kids younger then 18 for being missfits in MMO's (hense why you see alot of 18+ only in MMO's) and setting a bad example as a gamer but when i was just 12 i remember playing in a clan of 6 guys on Half life multiplayer, and thats another thing since when did the term GUILD or CLAN turn into a COMMUNITY? (more then 20+ players).
Let's put it this way:
My mom bakes a great apple pie. Let's say I take that pie and give it a flakier crust and more apples. It becomes really popular among my friends. So popular, in fact, that my neighbor makes his own apple pie with a flaky crust and lots of apples and starts selling it. All my friends start calling it an aurick clone because he copied my pie. But wait a minute... my pie copied most of the elements of my mom's. It's much more accurate to say that both of our pies are mom clones.
Or to use logic vernacular:
If A = B and B = C then A = C
Just because B is the big branding success that everyone recognizes doesn't mean that everything after B can only be a clone of B. B is just as much a clone as C is.
Great article! I really enjoyed it.
I would like to add: IMO "WoW clone" is a term thrown around by fans of the genre who are frustrated with the lack of original game design. Now before you freak on me let me explain. Because of WoW's success I think it's logical to assume that developers will feel comfortable sticking with the same basic MMORPG layout that was in EQ, WoW, etc. etc. Not that these are all "clones" of one another because they're obviously not, they're not the same games how could they be, but they all play predictably the same way. However, for many, especially those one this site, it seems we want the genre to take a somewhat different direction in some significant way, so when games with the same layout come about they are automatically labled as "WoW clones".
To sum things up on a grand scale. I don't think the MMO genre has found its identity yet. There are many games that seem to not have a clear direction as to what the game is. Too many things trying to be achieved with no particular strong, shining elements. I think the day will come for this but the reason it's taken longer than other genre's IMO is the much more difficult and costly production process and upkeep. Not as much room to experiment and much more following of a similar RPG model. Just my opinion so take it or leave it!
the only misused word worth mentioning was the last one
all the others are subjective
Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.
lol how true as per the article. I would be even more interested in learning "who the hell thought up some of these terms?"
Great read 9/10
Was dolly the 1st sheep? Still her clone is her clone, and not one of 1st sheep ever. Yes it's features are derived from 1st sheep, and no not all sheep are dolly cones. So it is missused a lot, but it has it uses.
Trust me on that, I've seen a "wow clone". If you've ever seen wow, even once and just on screeenshot you'd recocgnise the similarity with the one I'm talking about, and if you played wow you'd say it is a wow clone, and a poor one to boot. Well it still isn't out and I'm bound to keep silent about that junk till people see it themselves grrr... It's not getting a worldwide release, so consider yourself relatively lucky...
That said, wow itself is a missused word. These days you can't use this word in it's orignal meaning (as in "pleasant surprise") without an mmo gamer poping out of nowhere and misunderstanding you...
I agree with hater and fanboi being missused, but "failing to see a good/bad point" is a missuse of word "fail". We're talking tastes here, "open world pvp" (tm) is a good point for one and bad for another, "active combat", character design, and who knows what else, are all veiwed differently. So many men so many minds. Get it into your thick skull already you fanbois/haters...
And I'd add "active combat" to the list, all of a sudden active combat = strafing around like crazy... go figure...
So, who else here is old enough to recognize this:
Yep, the original click-to-fight combat system: The MUD. Most MMOs since then have, largely, been MUDs with graphical interfaces. Meanwhile, single-player RPGs have moved on by strides and bounds since then - but MMO players seem content with the same old recipe.
Awesome awesome article. You know, MMO's did exist before wow, so the term "wow clone" is just utter idiocy, as well as "Failure" and "Wow killer". Wow is very very succesfull mmo, but it doesnt need to be compared to every other MMO anymore, give it a rest.
I really wouldn't have had Wow clone in there. Wow Clone isn't overused. While WoW's mechanics aren't original, they are replicated in a way throughout so many games that it is a clear-cut WoW clone.
Nextgen should have been #1. Very few MMOs have anything remarkedly "next-gen".
"While World of Warcraft does indeed make use of all of the above mentioned elements and more, the fact of the matter is that they were not the first, and they will not be the last."
I think what you guys are missing is that people realize that. They use the term WOW-clone because it makes sense to use a subject that your audience is familiar with when making a comparison or drawing an analogy. If someone wrote/said "DikuMUD clone" far fewer readers/listeners would know what the person was talking about. Heck, with the influx of millions of new gamers with WOW, even "EQ clone" is too obscure or unclear a reference in some circles.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
That's exactly it. As another poster mentioned, Dolly was not the original sheep. Nor was WoW the original MMOG. So cloning Dolly means cloning a sheep, but the clone is still a clone of Dolly, not a clone of Protobaa The First Sheep. Likewise, a game that comes out with most of the features that WoW has and precious little actual innovation (uh oh, did I use that word right?
) is a WoW clone. When forumgoers worry it'll be 'just another WoW clone', they worry that it won't really bring anything new to the table, that it's yet another attempt at playing it safe - which incidentally seems to me to have a high failure rate. Is that misusing the word? I don't think it is.
The most misused and abused word in MMOG history is "lag." Nothing else even comes close.
Some ancient cultures used to worship cats as gods. Cats have never forgotten this.