By Kieron Gillen on March 18th, 2010 at 11:21 pm.
I picked up this up from Soren Johnson a few minutes ago. I offer without comment.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
World Of Lordcraft
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Read our finest words
Respond to our gibber
- Ghoulie : “I believe that the conversation should remain as normal, except have a few of the options taken out (the options that only a smart character ...” on Obsidian Want To Know What You Want Them To Make
- Skabooga : “I have a question regarding the platforms needed to play this game. Looking at the store pages for Gotham City Impostors on Steam, Origin, and ...” on Wot I Think: Gotham City Impostors
- clippa : “"Could you confirm if the Catwoman pet is available through leveling? I’ve heard it’s not." It is, I've got it :D” on Wot I Think: Gotham City Impostors
- Untruth : “I feel like I'm the only person in the world who enjoys this game. But, I like it. For all it's flaws, it's brilliant fun.” on Wot I Think: Gotham City Impostors
- masiif : “A PC FPS with peer to peer hosting is an absolute no go. Furthermore if the match making is still as aweful as it was ...” on Wot I Think: Gotham City Impostors
Noticed this a couple months ago. I especially like the codemonkey translations all over the website.
“NEVER SURRENDER YOU FREEDOM!!!”
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I look forward to the sequels World of Baroncraft and World of Earlcraft. Also that other brilliant new Fantasy MMO where you play as the Architects from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, War of Worldcrafters.
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World of Murray-Craft: wherein the player takes on the role of the homeless guy from around the corner in his quest for a cigarette and a bottle of whiskey.
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Whiskey? That’s expensive, brah. I’ll settle for my no frills diva, Night Train.
More info and hilarity @ http://www.bumwine.com/
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Also look out for World of Serfcraft. Not in fact the long overdue Surfing MMO, but a game where everything you earn, craft, or find is taken off you by your NPC lord. Should you not login enough to keep up with his payment demands, he burns down your house and has you executed.
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@Tom-INH
I would actually pay to see what War of Worldcrafters looks like.
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I’d have thought War of Worldcrafters would be a beat-em-up arena game starring Raph Koster, Ragnar Tornqvist, Richard Bartle, Scott Jennings and many other virtual world building luminaries.
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12kill4: with exclusive Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar character if you pre-order now.
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@GT3000 I say, going to college in america, I’ve had the (dis)pleasure of having drunk excessive quantities of all those fine drain cleaners. Come to think of it, bums and students have far more in common than either would like to admit!
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Impressive. I’m assuming they’ll be getting a “cease and desist” shortly?
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“Alyssa Milano: Of all the cheap shots… Joel.
Joel: I know, I know. I’m suing, I’m suing.”
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Now why did they think this was a good idea.
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I was going to suggest that surely ‘World of Lorecraft’ has a better ring to it, but I guess that would be a rip-off.
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Coming soon? since 2006? This doesn’t really add up.
Also, checking Lordcraft, not only the name and the style, which could pass (it’s only similar!) but they’ve also copied the tauren, which are a race exclusive to warcraft, this sounds like it’s going to be sued already.
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…are those assets right out of War 3?
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…yeah, pretty much. The shamelessness of the plagiarism is rather astounding.
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World of Massive-copyright-infringement-lawsuit-craft?
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I feel like if it was a joke, they’d be trying harder…
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Is this genuine, or is it a joke? I’m a bit hesistant to give them my email.
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I’m a bit hesitant to answer your question. >_>
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What is the big deal, anyway? If you read the description of the game, it’s obviously not a WoW ripoff:
“World of lordcraft isn`t a copy of wow,It`s a extension and you’re gonna love it!”
“World of lordcraft create a new Middle Ages fantastic world ,which totally different from world of warcraft.”
TOTALLY DIFFERENT! ‘Nuff said. ;)
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@Zerai
So a tauren, aka “a minotaur” is exclusive to warcraft? Ah-buh?
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Ouch, got me there, i suppose i should re-read my mythology
On the other hand, the name Tauren (which they use) may be trademarked by blizzard
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Calling them Tauren however, seems to be.
EDIT: Doh. Ninja’d
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I have to say that the Tauren are really quite different from the minotaur itself. The minotaur was really a human with the head of a bull, whereas the Tauren are more of a humanoid race descended from cows.
It makes a difference in that the Tauren’s BODY itself is more bovine, including hooves, where the minotaur is a man from the neck down.
{Obligatory addon comment so I can post this in reply properly}
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@Nick: You’re overthinking it. Google ‘D&D minotaur’ and stare at wonder in all the variations (including many with hooves).
While I’m at it, I might as well trot out this oldie-but-goodie which seems somewhat relevant here:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10/
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Say, what language is it that “Taur” means four?
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@nick
I know it’s been said, but evidence is nice:
http://7.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ks8majtphh1qzb1rlo1_500.jpg
That’s a Dungeons & Dragons Minotaur, and those looked like the Tauren before the Tauren even existed. That’s one of the problems with Blizzard though, they find it difficult to create original races/settings, everything I could think of has been borrowed from somewhere else.
It’s true that everyone does it, but I’ve never seen anyone do it quite like Blizzard. So if they did sue, it could only really be over similarity of name, because the setting, the races, and just about everything else has all be done before.
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Oh wait, they’ve used art assets from Warcraft 3, didn’t notice that.
Had they used their own art though and a different name, they would’ve been fine. Hell, they could’ve even just called their cow race the ‘Minotaurens’.
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Lovely! ANOTHER Evony clone, this time ripping off WoW instead of Civ! I love the announcer’s accent: it’s like they don’t care if you know it’s another online “free-to-play-but-you-actually-need-to-buy-stuff-to-really-do-anything” scam from China (or possibly Korea). They’ll lure in plenty of suckers by pretending to be a free version of WoW instead of pretending to have porn!
I’m just waiting for the day there’s a “free to play” “Fortress Team Online” and it turns out to be another city management sim but they’re ripping off TF2′s graphics.
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They should all be the same game, just with different for the buildings. And if someone attacks you, they use the units from their skin!
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I can’t wait for NIGHT Online and it’s console counterpart Grit 832
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Cool, I’ve always wanted to build an “unprecedented epic castle.”
The announcer’s voice is superb.
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I have to say that the Tauren are really quite different from the minotaur itself. The minotaur was really a human with the head of a bull, whereas the Tauren are more of a humanoid race descended from cows.
It makes a difference in that the Tauren’s BODY itself is more bovine, including hooves, where the minotaur is a man from the neck down.
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And of COURSE it didn’t put my reply to freaparn, but a separate post…
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anyone mentioned Heroes of Might and Maagic III yet?
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Why would someone mention THAT?
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@nick
Presumably because the battle scenes look like they’ve been ripped straight from a HoM&M game.
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The amazing thing is that while they’re obviously ripping WoW off at every step of the way, the actual game looks like an MMO version of Heroes of Might & Magic/King’s Bounty, which is actually pretty neat.
If only they’d just used their own art.
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I think we may have found the WoW killer we’ve been looking for!
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My WoW killer, Progress Quest. Thrilling stuff.
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Is it the same guy who did the voice-over for orcs and humans?
I giggled at the 1/2 orc 1/2 human image at the end.
Arthas indeed!
I also love how the screenshot section is simply titled “screenshot”. Wept a little when there wasn’t one :(
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“as 10000 players from almost 10 different countries”
Almost 10….like 9.536 countries!!
Totally playing this!!
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I think it’s pretty much awesome that you research “scientech” – science, apparently – at the Shrine of Belief.
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Wonder how long it’ll take before we have scantily clad elven maidens (pictures taken from other games, people’s flickr accounts, hard drives whatever) with “Build your castle discreetly my Lord(craft)”
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Anybody ever heard about the porn series Whorecraft? :-D
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The video guy deserves an award for voice acting.
Also, is the majority of that artwork actual straight up Warcraft stuff? Or have they pretty much just carbon copied the style?
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Actually he needs to do a lot worse to pick up the award – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulbotKa5LnM
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I was seriously hoping for a browser based Warcraft 3 remake or something.
But I did lol when I saw that it wasn’t trying to be a “ripoff” of the Warcraft universe.
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wot?
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WoW. Just WoW.
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Aaaaaaaaaaaah, I see what you did there! :p
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I heard about this a couple months ago. Didn’t know about the video though; it’s really quite amazing. Can’t wait to build my UNPRECEDENTED epic castle.
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As a web game,world of lordcraft mainly player with mouse,you can spent just a few minutes to play world of lordcraft everyday!
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Hello I am WoW represent. Your accouunt has been compromise. Please visit lordcraft dot com to correct.
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Bah, looks like my new game, ‘World of wor Kraft’, an epic interactive tale of invasion set inside Newcastle’s old Cadbury factory, has some serious competition!
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If you go to the FAQ:
“Sorry,the page you’re visiting is under construction.
Please do this later.”
What exactly am I to do? And why do I have to do it?
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What the fuck?
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mmo homm is an anagram, or hommo maybe even homo?
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I hope to god the release date is April 1st.
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Shutdown imminent in threee… two… one…
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What really baffles me is that Activision shut down completely that King’s Quest fangame without thinking twice, and this Lordcraft thing has been on the news for a bit now, and Blizzard hasn’t shown any signs of legal action.
Maybe ActiBlizzard has a judicial queue: “okay, we do fan games, then games that make us billions, then we go back to server modders and Lordcraft”.
Or hell, maybe that’s a secret Kotick move, and when Blizz complains about it, he’ll be firing their heads for “insubordination”!
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If you won’t offer comment, I will.
What a bunch of gimps.
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I found this, following the link about the “incoming open beta”:
In your real life everyone keeps telling you that you’re re a simple guy! You’re re a simple guy! And today you should just stop and say, “What if I can achieve more? What if I can be a hero or a lord? Yeah, just play World of Lordcraft, and all your dreams will come true. You can make rules for your life now!
I can make rules for my life now! Yes [insert obscene number of exclamation marks here]
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Heh.
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It seems that it’s a successor for Evony. I guess their froud scheme is expanding. :-|
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Also, I submit this for everyone’s consideration: http://www.worldoflordcraft.com/player/forum_topic.aspx?001001-20100207202228406
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Seems there’s a few people there who need to look up sarcasm in the dictionary.
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oh WOW
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I’m a little disappointed that World of Hovercraft doesn’t exist.
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Waterworld: The MMO
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I am endlessly amused by the animated gif on the main page that just pulses “FORMAL OPERATION”
Its not even a link! They just want it made clear this isn’t some kind of casual operation, in case we doubted.
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” World of Lordcraft should be regarded as a fan game of WoW. All the creators and staff members of this game love WoW and we thank Blizzard for such a brilliant work. WoL is not a replica of WOW. WoW is a MMORPG while World of Lordcraft is only a browser game of building, strategy and simulation. They are totally not the same kind. All the artworks in World of Lordcraft are the original creations of our art team. However, some elements were similar to WoW and some other games. Likewise, WoW also borrowed some elements from Tolkien’s novel. We hope that WoL can provide an interesting alternative for those players lacking time for WoW raids and arenas. Or you may also insert a few clicks between raids or wipes in WoW.”
says the admin.
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This is just a Browser Based Strategy game that uses Warcraft lore. It is not a Wow ripoff lol. There are many games today that share the same lore. Most of the creatures from World of Warcraft were taken from other lore such as D&D. I like the idea that they made a BBS game with Warcraft lore. WoW players seem have a “Holier Than Thou” attitude. Every game I have played since WoW released has WoW players in it claiming they have been wronged somehow. Get over yourselves and go back to Barrens chat.
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I think it is more that the character models used in the battle scenes are clearly lifted straight out of the WoW game.
You can say that you drew the characters yourself as much as you want – if I draw a picture of Kieron gillen, it is still Kieron Gillen no matter how much I think I am a fantastic artist*.
* You should see my Mona Lisa. It looks just like the original, but is my own creation even if it does look a teensy bit like the one that hack Leonardo drew. The HACK.
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There’s an HoMM MMO in production, actually, so they’re ripping off that, too. The hits just keep on coming.
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As the old song goes:
“We’re reeeeally quite similar…. but legally distinct!”
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The Western culture values individuality and innovation. Chinese culture values conformity. Which is why there is so much copying and imitation.
The current glut of Chinese browser games are obviously based on Civilisation. This was made into a persistent world to create a MMORTS, which is a strange idea as to play it properly you need to be online 24/7!!
The game that started it was in the Chinese language and is called ReXueSanGuo, sometimes abbreviated to RXSG. All the others are direct copies using either the same code or reverse engineering. RXSG was a great success in China but made it to the west after its imitators. Here it is called Kingory. In China there is no real understanding of the concept of copyright.
On the Chinese hacker websites you can buy the RXSG code for just a few hundred dollars. Then all you need is a theme, new graphics (often copied), a small change in the game mechanic and you are in business. Things like terms and conditions are also copied.
Because of the success of Evony we are into imitation again with many Chinese companies copying the Evony business model of tit advertising on Google. The real investment is in this advertising, the game costs very little to make and support.
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This year’s Limbo of the Lost?
I hope the end cutscene is as good as Limbo’s.
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It looks like a right rip off. They’ve even stolen the hot babe pics for their web ads.
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