Blizzard and Games Workshop

[saber152]

Honestly... I'm just tired of everything Blizzard has been doing lately. I don't care much for them as a game company at all anymore. The only reason I keep passing glances to what they're doing is because of Diablo III. Once that's out, I won't give a shit about them once again for another 8 or so years.

or at least till they make an expansion right.

THough there are rumours of a FPS in the form of Space Hulk on the way...

There is hope yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000:_Space_Marine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000_Online
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultramarines:The_Movie (written by Dan Abnett, oh I hope its uncensored)

i'm glad that GW seem to be widening their options. but dose it always have to be about the Space Marines, i mean what about chaos marines. on to the main point of this thread, i'm a fan of both games and the companies aside from playing WoW (don't ask long story) i like each companies games and i can spot the similarities and the differences, yet i don't feel that one rips off from the other, they are both original enough for people to tell them apart and enough alike for a fan of one series to play the other and not feel out of place playing it. i started out playing starcraft when my brother noticed how much i wanted to try it he game me his old laptop with the game when i was around 7, around 3 years ago i started warhammer 40k as a hobby and never once felt that GW ripped off blizzard or the other way around.

The story I've heard is that GW had selected BLIZZ to make a RTS based on W40k, but early on in development GW apparently pulled out and took their IP with them - leaving BLIZZ with an early stage game. So instead of wasting all that time and money, they tweaked parts of it and changed parts until it became the StarCraft we know today. In my mind, anything that emulates W40k, especially if it's fun, is pretty cool.

And I'm with you there on the Space Marine point, it does get a bit boring always playing a SM (although, I do like SMs, particularly the Space Wolves) but I have to mention this - [a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000:_Fire_Warrior]Fire Warrior[/a]. The entire time I played this game I wanted to be anything but Kais... and the gameplay generally sucked. The only elements I liked about it were the Bolters, and the Chaos Bolters (because they screamed when you fired them).

And exploded don't forget that, and i see what ur saying about so long as a game is fun and it's worth playing, i'll admit that Fire Warrior never really grasped that concept aside from giving the player a view of the warhammer 40k war from the Tau perspective and a bit of a look into how deranged chaos (and some of their players) can really be. also note that Salamanders rule out of the Space Marine chapters.

 

[Nouw]

uh... no one cares about warhammer..

Otehr than taht inflammatory statement, I got nothing.

That's basically asking for a flaming.

Also, I think we all know this.

Finally, Starship Troopers. Enough fucking said.

 

[Kennian]

Absolutly nothing blizz has done, ever, has been completely original and that is the secret to their success. They did a interview and said they use alot of slightly modified myths and such bEcause it's easer to get people invested in the story... Blizz be trollin yo!

As for the GW connection... Yea that's where blizz got the original ideas from... Terran/empire, Zerg/ tyranids, and Protoss/ eldar... Just look at the heads! Heh...

 

[ecoho]

Gonna play FFXIII now but I see what you guys are getting at. I know you use inspiration but I just feel that the games are too similar. My point is, you could probably take the stories from Starcraft and just use 40k names and it would work in the lore of Warhammer 40k.

Depends on what you do with it. You could argue that D&D's earliest phases were "ripping off of" LoTR, and by extension most every western fantasy RPG in existence with elves, dwarves, and hobbits/halflings/munchkins does too. Sure, they've got some races in common. Sure, its very similar in general. But the devil's in the details, and that's what sets the games and stories apart.

Also, there's a difference between minotaurs and anthropomorphic amerindian cows. A big difference. One's a bunch of marauding beasts with little-to-no grasp of the world apart from killing things and wandering labyrinths. The other are a race of mystic nomads with the ability to bend the very earth to their whim. And tauren look pretti-Err, Cooler. *ahem* Yes, cooler. That's what I was going to say. [sub][sub](Don't judge me)[/sub][/sub]

That's what's fun with Warhammer, it's like D&D, you can make up a story. If you started to play, you could give them a more peaceful background and almost ignore the current lore. Tauren sure are pretty though, lemme tell you... >.> What am I saying?

Ok Lightning, here I come.

ok i agree mostly with what you said mostly conserning the first starcraft and warcraft games but after that they kinda made it up as they went. now i played warhammer 40k as a table top game though it was only breefly(store who sold the figures closed)i got through enoth of the lore to be able to say this starcraft 2 cant be turned into a warhammer game and make since but thats mostly because of the actualy good campain
oh btw good luck with final fantisy 13 i played it for 10 hours and finaly got borde hope you have a better time with it then me

 

[Nomanslander]

This thread treads on an ancient battleground that has been the site of more flames wars than any other. Personally I think blizz simply took a cool idea from games workshop (who charge way the fuck to much for their products) and made it into an even better and more marketable product.

Who stole from who is irrelevant at the end of the day, what matters is which company has cashed in the most on their respective products.

Better? Don't you mean more shiny and watered down for a mass audience?

Because there is a difference if you didn't know.

Personally I've enjoyed my time with both Blizzard's Star/Warcraft games, and I will say they do know how to make addictive gameplay. But when it comes to the worlds they've created, diving in has only gotten me wet from the waste down and wanting more.

Try diving into War and War40K and you'll be seeing submarines and sunken pirate ships...=P

 

[jamesworkshop]

the links are fairly tenuious starcraft and 40K really don't share the same atmosphere The idea of "space marines" isn't new but how many made theirs a Holy crusading force of warrior monks that owe their genetic enhancements to a direct lineage to a living but now practically dead God.

40K's biggest influence is Dune

 

[AcacianLeaves]

Really? There are still people out there who don't know that Blizzard directly plagiarized Games Workshop? It's not even a question, Warcraft is a dumbed down Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

I feel I must provide this threat to those who never played tabletop games...

 

[Wedlock49]

I have come to realize how much of a hack Blizzard is in the last few days. Now don't get me wrong, the Warcraft and Starcraft games are done very well and are both rightfully successful but their universes are far from original.

I am sure you have heard of the Warhammer games on PC. There is Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War and Warhammer Online. Dawn of War has been super successful because of people who played Starcraft and wanted a new experience without giving up the setting. Warhammer online is quoted as being a WoW clone and substitute. This is where my issue is.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle was a fantasy tabletop game that started in England in 1983. Warhammer 40k came out in 1988 which was a futuristic take on the tabletop game they started in '83. See where this is going?

In 1991 Warcraft: Orcs and Humans comes out. The name, obvious take on Warhammer and the two most prominent races in the tabletop game were used, Humans and Orcs. 1995 the sequel comes out, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. The game did sell well and warranted a sequel and then their second rip off happened, Starcraft. Blatant copy of Warhammer 40k. You have Humans (the Terran), Protoss (an alien race), and the Zerg (another alien race bent on consuming the universe). The Terran look like Space Marines. The Protoss look and act like Eldar and the Zerg basically are the Tyranids.

Now I can see Warcraft being an original game made by accident that was similar to Warhammer. I will even say that the names could have been coincidence but the very existence of Starcraft shows me they used these games and their universes to create their own. Agree or disagree, the games are great but just spread some appreciation for their roots, the Warhammer games. I just don't want to hear Warhammer games being called clones of Blizzard games.

Hey, remember DnD? Do you know how Warhammer started? Warhammer ripped off DnD as well as Hero Quest.

Blizzard do have some parrelles but they bring a lot of origionality to the high fantasy and dystopic sci-fi setting, It's good to see Trolls that aren't hulking monsters that are stupid, it's really cool to see minotaurs that are in love with nature.

When it comes to high fantasy all people tend to do is rip off Tolkien which gets very annoying so before you complain about Blizzard ripping off warhammer and warhammer ripping off DnD you should look at the father of moddern high fantasy, pretty much everything is ripping off his work or ripping off a rip off.

 

[Wedlock49]

This thread treads on an ancient battleground that has been the site of more flames wars than any other. Personally I think blizz simply took a cool idea from games workshop (who charge way the fuck to much for their products) and made it into an even better and more marketable product.

Who stole from who is irrelevant at the end of the day, what matters is which company has cashed in the most on their respective products.

Better? Don't you mean more shiny and watered down for a mass audience?

Because there is a difference if you didn't know.

Personally I've enjoyed my time with both Blizzard's Star/Warcraft games, and I will say they do know how to make addictive gameplay. But when it comes to the worlds they've created, diving in has only gotten me wet from the waste down and wanting more.

Try diving into War and War40K and you'll be seeing submarines and sunken pirate ships...=P

I'm not sure where you've been looking but Blizzard has a large amount of novels describing the background of Azeroth as well as the Burning Legion and what-not. Remember at the moment WoW is in a time lock, not moving forwards or backwards in the storyline, eith cataclysm I hope that they retcon the killing of Arthas, he's too much of an iconic character and a tragic victim of his own loyalty and arrogance, the new fella I really don't care about, he's some dude that looks too much like Illidan.

 

[Cody211282]

Who cares if they are alike, they both kick ass.

 

[Battenbergcake]

Eldar do not have to construct additional pylons

Well acttualy they tend to build stuff about webway gates 8B

 

[Slaanax]

Eldar do not have to construct additional pylons

Well acttualy they tend to build stuff about webway gates 8B

I don't even remember writing that seems like an unfinished thought.