Nope, this isn't about cartoonish style

You're welcome to show scans of it.

You seem to be operating under the misapprehension that when people speak of elves in Warcraft that they are speaking of the "original" World of Warcraft elves: the Night Elves. This is not the case, a more credible comparison is this photograph to that of Falconwing Square:

http://www.wowwiki.com/Image:Falconwing_square.jpg

If you have a copy of the game I would suggest you start a Blood Elf character and look at the starting zone, specifically Falconwing Square and the surrounding area.

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).

For the purpose of what Alabieno is saying the specific game they are copying doesn't matter.

To the contrary, because Abalieno's point is worded very precisely:

If the artist(s) who produced that say that they went for an original style that wasn't trying to replicate *precisely* WoW's style... Well, they would be some of the bigger and shameless liars in the world.

And this isn't just about artists "taking inspiration". This is a blatant CORPORATE MANDATE. To make Warhammer look AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE to WoW in the hope to overlap the market and try to reach exactly that target.

in short, Abalieno appears to be saying they're making Warhammer look as close as possible to WoW and the "shameless lie" is their unwilingless to admit it.

My counter-point to it is simply, the screenshot presented as 'evidence' doesn't actually feel much like WoW. That very WoW which, again according to Abalieno, is to have its very own visual style to the point where "you can see at a glance if a screenshot comes from WoW."

This opinion about WoW having distinct visual style is something i actually agree with. Where we differ is rather, this new game that is supposed to blatantly copy that style... imo doesn't. The feel is different, to the point where in my eyes it resembles more a completely different game if anything at all.

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

The lighting and shading is bound to be very similar because both games rely on the same lighting and shading equations/concepts that are shared and utilized by dozens of thousand of games by now. (and which were devised some 10 years before 8-bit computers made it to people households) If this is some sort of sign of "copying WoW" then... well, mind boggles tbh. It's not unlike claim a MMO with autoattack is copying WoW because it was given autoattack too... and hundreds of other games also having this exact same mechanics and utilizing it long before WoW was twinkle in its makers' eye are to be ignored.

Seriously, if a game is required to have HDR rendering and who knows what else just to avoid accusation it's ripping off WoW... then it's getting just tad bit too absurd.

There are two aspects that jump to the eye.

One is the way the terrain is textured and modeled. This is something peculiar of WoW, with that "rounded" style everywhere. And the hill on that screenshot shows how they went for the exact same look. Not just about the roundness, but also in the way the textures blend (and this isn't just an artist choice, as that kind of terrain needs a technical implementation that must be in the editor they use. And that the engine they use didn't have yet, as DAoC and Oblivion are similar and don't share at all the round look).

The second element are the decorations, that look and feel very similar to the blood elf zone in WoW. The fountain, those smaller trees, and the towers in the background, a combo used in the exact same way in WoW.

Add in the oddly colored trees (that in WoW are red, and in Warhammer blue), and you can see how that screenshot seems a direct parody of WoW.

There isn't anything else in the screenshot, and all the elements present have parallels to WoW.

About the "evidence" I made a test on a forum, and I assure a lot of people were confused.