I’m not going in more circles. Blizz got it from DnD.
This is not exactly stop the presses news. The fact that this game draws heavily from D+D is not exactly a big secret. And of late editions. D+D has been drawing from video games like this one.
It’s more in the “So What?” category.
I made this thread to discuss ripoffs, not to say it was bad or good. You and your friends trolled it.
Ripoffs is a pretty prejorative term, implying the theft of someone’s original work when its more accurate that it’s drawing from a common source or trope.
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No it doesn’t mean any form of legal theft. I just find it lame. Now we’re done, bye.
Seems most people disagree on the definition of, ‘Rip-Off.’
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Yeah, I’m not sure there is anything that rises to the level of rip-off, but nearly everything is directly inspired by something else.
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While I know I’m late to the party here (pun intended; had lots of social and work stuff), there’s a lot in Warcraft that was inspired by or is practically copy-pasted from other settings or real-life. Here’s a list of some that I’m aware of;
- The Titans minus Sargeras and Argus are… The Titans plus the Greek Gods
** Sargeras is Surtur (Marvel’s version of Norse Mythology’s Surt) + Satan + Sargonnas (god of wrath from Dragonlance).
** Argus was inspired by Galactus. - The Keepers are the Norse Gods. Their leader is even named Odyn and Warcraft Odyn’s ravens have the same names as Norse Mythology Odin’s ravens.
- The Naaru are angels + Vorlons (with the name of a Babylonian river god)
- Elune is Selune + Shar without the evil + Lolth without the evil or spider fetish
- The Void is darkness plus the Shadows from Babylon 5
** The Old Gods are Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones
** Xal’atath is Xel’otath + Nyarlathotep - The Burning Legion is demons + Surtur’s fiery legions from Muspelheim
** Archimonde and Kil’jaeden both draw from elements of Satan.
** The Dreadlords of Warcraft are vampires + demons + the Dreadlords from The Wheel of Time.
** Lothraxion as a Lightforged Dreadlord with sheared off horns was clearly inspired by Hellboy. - Arthas is King Arthur + Elric + Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader
** Frostmourne is Excalibur but evil + Stormbringer, and named after Stormbringer’s twin Mournblade. Mourneblades are also a type of weapon in WoW Shadowlands. - Kel’thuzad is Merlin but evil
- Uther is named after King Arthur’s father
- Jaina is Morgana (Arthur’s sister) + Guinevere (Arthur’s wife)
- Calia is Morgana but good
- Brann Bronzebeard is Indiana Jones (so is Harrison Jones)
- Maiev is Inspector Javert and a bit of Judge Dredd
- Thrall is Moses + Spartacus + Thor (and a bit of Superman as of Cata)
** Doomhammer is pretty much Mjolnir - Grommash Hellscream is partly inspired by Gruumsh, the creator god of Orcs in DnD. So is Garrosh to a lesser degree.
- Illidan is a 90’s comic anti-hero in video game form.
- The Lich King as an entity is the Witch King and the King of the Dead from The Lord of the Rings.
- Yrel is Joan of Arc (with a later villainous twist)
- Zandalar borrows from Black Panther’s Wakanda
- Bwonsamdi is the Lwa Baron Samedi from the religion Voodu + Ryuk from Death Note.
- The Scarlet Crusade are Children of the Light/Whitecloaks from The Wheel of Time
- Kalimdor has major Lothlorien vibes.
- World Trees are inspired by World Trees from Norse Mythology
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Titans/Worldsouls are also Marvel Comics Celestials.
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Rexxar is pretty much visually identical to the character Darkwolf from the Ralph Baski fantasy movie “Fire & Ice”. Which is something a guy like Metzen 9000% would’ve watched a bunch of times.
But fantasy is a derivative genre. Everyone is still suckling off Papa Tolkien’s teet in one way or another and he got all his stuff from folklore. So who cares?
WoW has a lot of original stuff. The Forsaken are my favorite undead faction in the genre because it’s an army of vampoid zombie Frankensteins where everyone’s just some guy. Usually they’re mindless monstrosities being controlled by a big Skeletor mfer like the Scourge but here they have like undead farmers, blacksmiths and clerks.
The Trolls also stand out as pretty unique. Trolls are usually just monsters in other settings they’re rarely humanoids. And here they’re tusked breakdancing voodoo dinoriders.
And what isn’t new is done well. The Kaldorei don’t score any points for originality, they’re wood elves. But they’re blurple Amazonian wood elves that ride Sabre tooth tigers and fight with glaives which is certainly visually distinct.
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No he isn’t. Alongside Tyrael, the following angels also have ‘el’ to close off their name
Auriel
Itherael
Malthael
The only archangel that doesn’t is Imperius. Which I think was by design as he was the only one who voted to wipe out humanity following the Sin war.
Tyrael, Auriel and Itherael all voted to spare humanity. Malthael didn’t give a damn either way, so he abstained. Of course his opinion would change following the Worldstones destruction somewhat. But his motive wasn’t “humanity’s existence is a sin and thus must be purged” it was “humanity is part demon, and are therefore demons. So the only way to truly win the Eternal Conflict now that Diablo, the Prime Evil is sealed away, is to kill all of humanity”.
Excluding Ra-den of course.
Whom is based off the Japanese god Raijin. The God of Lightning, thunder and storms.
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also excluding the keepers of uldum who are based on egyptian gods
To be fair to Thadeus, they are not keepers, merely watchers.
All Keepers are technically Watchers (just with a higher status) but not all watchers are keepers.
I should’ve added in Archaedas alongside Ra-den. Given that the whole norse thing existed in Wrath and Archaedas did exist in Vanilla. Although he did not get Keeper status until Chronicles vol 1.
Given the Greece-roman theming on Ulduman, I wonder what exactly Archaedas was based on. Or if it was just a name Blizzard liked and it fitted the theme.
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Probably just a play on Arcadia.
He couldn’t have been the only one, since Tyrael is noted for breaking the tie on the vote on the matter.
Ahh…Christopher Lambert. 
I think the real failure of World of Warcraft is just how much it has become a reference to other, better content. I think before, in the RTS games, Warcraft took inspiration from other media, but I think what they did with it was artistically transformative.
Warcraft was a unique fantasy setting with compelling story and characters, touching on themes that other fantasy genres lacked.
Can we still say that? Is Warcraft doing anything today that other fantasy franchises aren’t doing better? So much of the content in WoW is “Haha, (Other franchise) reference” to the point where it has essentially become a knock-off.
That isn’t what it used to be.
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Like Paizo’s Galarion it always has been a pastiche of multiple settings combined into one.
It does better in community building than any other franchise that I can think of. And part of that reason is that it doesn’t try to appeal to one rigid style.
As the saying goes c’est le vie.
I would argue that. The community building has nothing to do with the franchise itself and more to do with the art medium it inhabits. World of Warcraft could have been anything, an MMO of it’s style coming out at the time that it did would have built a large community.
It is more of a blue ocean strategy.
And the community it built is not the kindest or most united. It has been years of bickering, complaining and faction rivalry.
Dungeons and Dragons is a better community builder. Primarily irl communities united in collaborative story telling.
I find that to be rather pathetic, defeatist language that I avoid using.
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I’ve been part of network play for D+D/Pathfinder and others since the 1990’s. It has it’s share of drama, outright misogyny, and then sone. With Trekkies, it’s even worse. All communities have people issues.
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