Sheepherder (not verified) on March 28, 2008 - 14:32.
More than anything it just felt like generic_fantasy_game_753 and for that matter my first impression on seeing it was, it resembled LotRO rather than WoW.
For the purpose of what Alabieno is saying the specific game they are copying doesn't matter.
Compared to both these games WoW appears visibly more bulky, stylized and rough, and one could argue the pictured designs are derived from Warhammer's own high elves style rather than WoW's rendition of it.
True, to an extent. WoW's roughness is somewhat derived from age, were it to get an overhaul you would likely see a lot more similarities, as both games seem to use the same combo of low-quality models and high-quality textures for the scenery. Don't look at the screenshots expecting to find a carbon copy, look through them again and try to discern methods in addition to artistic style and the end result.
Also, due to the fact that we are dealing with computer rendered 3D worlds you should also be looking for similarities in shading and lighting, which are largely a result of runtime game engine effects. The games are likely to have similarities, as they likely use the same standard DirectX or Shader Model x.x libraries with slightly modified variables (or arguements, for the programmer types), but you can see fairly plainly that the lighting and shading are very similar, despite the fact that other more recent shaders could easily be implemented without too much processing overhead being added for a modern PC. For example, HDR Lighting has proven to be extremely popular, and depending on the card might not have much overhead at all (my Radeon X1900 GT experiences no noticable hit with HDR enabled in Oblivion), could easily be toggled off for older computers, and doesn't even require a whole lot in order to implement (I have HDR mod for Morrowind, it's not great, but the modder himself admitted to not knowing much about writing shaders).
Btw, designs for PnP board game would unsurprisingly pre-date both WAR *and* WoW so it's hard to claim WoW was first just because they were first to turn them into 3d virtual files.
Relevant quote from Alabeino:
I'm not saying this is a bad or unacceptable move. I'm saying they are COWARDS who won't admit what they are doing. And it is under everyone's eyes.
They claim they have invented the wheel and so have rights to it. They didn't invent the wheel, they didn't invent this new, steel belted rubber with inflatable inner-tube wheel. Neither did Blizzard for that matter, but Blizzard has never to my recollection made a huge fuss about inventing anything; MMO, strategy game, or otherwise (they claim to be re-inventing all the time though, which is both true and remarkably humble for a company that has delivered enough hits that their ego should be inflated to monstrous proportions). If you admit that something has been copied by Warhammer then you've already conceded the point to Alabieno (that the War devs are full of ____), it's merely a matter of specifics (they copied LoTRO, not WoW, or whatever else you might come up with as an example).
Re: Nope, this isn't about cartoonish style
For the purpose of what Alabieno is saying the specific game they are copying doesn't matter.
True, to an extent. WoW's roughness is somewhat derived from age, were it to get an overhaul you would likely see a lot more similarities, as both games seem to use the same combo of low-quality models and high-quality textures for the scenery. Don't look at the screenshots expecting to find a carbon copy, look through them again and try to discern methods in addition to artistic style and the end result.
Also, due to the fact that we are dealing with computer rendered 3D worlds you should also be looking for similarities in shading and lighting, which are largely a result of runtime game engine effects. The games are likely to have similarities, as they likely use the same standard DirectX or Shader Model x.x libraries with slightly modified variables (or arguements, for the programmer types), but you can see fairly plainly that the lighting and shading are very similar, despite the fact that other more recent shaders could easily be implemented without too much processing overhead being added for a modern PC. For example, HDR Lighting has proven to be extremely popular, and depending on the card might not have much overhead at all (my Radeon X1900 GT experiences no noticable hit with HDR enabled in Oblivion), could easily be toggled off for older computers, and doesn't even require a whole lot in order to implement (I have HDR mod for Morrowind, it's not great, but the modder himself admitted to not knowing much about writing shaders).
Relevant quote from Alabeino:
They claim they have invented the wheel and so have rights to it. They didn't invent the wheel, they didn't invent this new, steel belted rubber with inflatable inner-tube wheel. Neither did Blizzard for that matter, but Blizzard has never to my recollection made a huge fuss about inventing anything; MMO, strategy game, or otherwise (they claim to be re-inventing all the time though, which is both true and remarkably humble for a company that has delivered enough hits that their ego should be inflated to monstrous proportions). If you admit that something has been copied by Warhammer then you've already conceded the point to Alabieno (that the War devs are full of ____), it's merely a matter of specifics (they copied LoTRO, not WoW, or whatever else you might come up with as an example).