Gameloft Breaks Out the Clone Machine for WoW-Like Order & Chaos

[ZombieGenesis]

My god... it's just as bland and monotonous as the real WoW... MY EYES.
Silly little jab aside, seriously, I hope nobody who respects Blizzard considers getting this thing- they seem to really like knocking off that companies games.
Reminds me of those movies like, 'Transmorphers' and 'Alien VS Hunter'...

 

[kibayasu]

Kind of more of a Warhammer copy, isn't it? Given that the two sides in Warhammer are Order and Chaos.

 

[Altorin]

my thoughts are, as long as blizzard's not making a mobile game and someone wants to fill that gap in the market with a knockoff, go ahead. If Blizzard ever decides to work on a mobile game, they'll have no problem competing and dominating that knockoff, probably will end up ripping gameplay mechanics back.

I see no problem with companies ripping off ideas from other companies - ideas are REALLY not that valuable by themselves. In order for an idea to be worth anything it has to be both a good idea and properly implemented. So take the ideas, see what you can do. You'll never compete with blizzard in a straight fight though, especially when blizzard will probably take a lot of your iphone dependant gimmicks for themselves if they ever choose to expand onto the iphone. All you're doing is playtesting their games for them on a new platform.

 

[Bobkat1252]

Well then again, since Blizzard copy/pasted its games from others as well, maybe this is just the next step in a vicious cycle?

 

[CommanderKirov]

I love how they have to EXPLICITLY point out that it's an.

M
M
O
RPG.

It's like a person watching it could consider that something this ugly and with a gameplay seeming so dull could honestly be anything else.

 

[scw55]

Blizzard doesn't have rights for mythological races.
However, I'd imagine that the Concept Artists have rights on the actual art style.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

Hey hey hey hey. Let's be fair.

At least they changed around some of the original textures.

 

[Baldr]

I don't think it would be half as bad if they didn't copy Blizzard's artistic style. Then again it may help sales.

 

[Karisse]

Just so you people know, one of the Technical Directors who works at Blizzard has a brother who works in GameLoft.

They currently using GameLoft to dip-and-test the mobile market via a smaller company, and most likely, GameLoft will stay a proxy for such things.

Now as to 'if' the Technical Director plans on defecting Blizzard or they plan on merging the assets of both company under a common publisher behind the scenes is currently unknown. However, in all cases, it doesn't change anything since both companies share many people (either family members or ex-members).

That's a mighty important detail; one that I'd say would have been worth mentioning in the article itself.

 

[AceAngel]

Just so you people know, one of the Technical Directors who works at Blizzard has a brother who works in GameLoft.

They currently using GameLoft to dip-and-test the mobile market via a smaller company, and most likely, GameLoft will stay a proxy for such things.

Now as to 'if' the Technical Director plans on defecting Blizzard or they plan on merging the assets of both company under a common publisher behind the scenes is currently unknown. However, in all cases, it doesn't change anything since both companies share many people (either family members or ex-members).

That's a mighty important detail; one that I'd say would have been worth mentioning in the article itself.

It would be cool (I would get my 15 seconds of fame) but it's unlikely that ANY gaming-medium website would put up that comment of mine willy nilly without some sort of proof. I could also add that GameLoft was privately hiring environment artists who know UDK (which is true) and one guy who came to Canada about week ago skipped out his position for being a teacher, in favor of being a environment artist at GameLoft.

But again, I really doubt anyone would believe me without any proof.

 

[lemby117]

personaly I like gamesloft because they managed to make to make a full 3D world on Iphone. Seriously the Gangstar games are great. also NOVA is amazing.

 

[ThisIsSnake]

Wait a second, a Fantasy MMO that is similar to World of Warcraft! This is an outrage!

I hope this doesn't become a trend.

 

[Soods]

The UI seemed messy, they should've copied that from WoW too...

 

[DaHero]

Honestly, let's just hope Blizzard doesn't get any ideas. Imagine if they made a portable way to play WoW. God help us all...

We would be screwed...WoW zombies would parade the world and cause massive pile-ups on the road, giving Jack Thompson the ammunition he needs to be reinstated and ultimately ending the very idea of gaming as we know it! *cuts off dramatic music*

That or we're just panicking over nothing right? I mean people do have common sense and all...


Wait...

It's like a person watching it could consider that something this ugly and with a gameplay seeming so dull could honestly be anything else.

On that note, it could be confused with FPS games very easily.

HIYOOOO!!

 

[Rogue 9]

I knew Gameloft sounded familiar, but it took me a moment to remember why.
I have, of all things, a Bejeweled clone by them on my old, non-touch screen phone called *wince* Paris Hilton's Diamond Quest.

And since it is actually a fully functional bejeweled clone with multiple gameplay modes, I even paid the unlock fee to get the whole game...

But yeah, I honestly don't know that a WoW clone is the best idea for a handheld market. My experience, at least, has been that WoW isn't a game that you play for a short time in a lunch break or on the bus, but for longer chunks of time. But maybe it'll work... who knows.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

In my opinion it's like if I went and took a picture someone had painted and decided to sell, and I re-touched it in photoshop and sold it as my own...that is totally wrong

 

[Bobbity]

Holy crap. They could at least try to be original

 

[Twilight_guy]

Meh. Western culture puts too much emphasis on the idea of "innovation." If there game is good and Blizzard isn't suing them then whatever.

 

[magma]

Just so you people know, one of the Technical Directors who works at Blizzard has a brother who works in GameLoft.

They currently using GameLoft to dip-and-test the mobile market via a smaller company, and most likely, GameLoft will stay a proxy for such things.

Now as to 'if' the Technical Director plans on defecting Blizzard or they plan on merging the assets of both company under a common publisher behind the scenes is currently unknown. However, in all cases, it doesn't change anything since both companies share many people (either family members or ex-members).

That's a mighty important detail; one that I'd say would have been worth mentioning in the article itself.

It would be cool (I would get my 15 seconds of fame) but it's unlikely that ANY gaming-medium website would put up that comment of mine willy nilly without some sort of proof. I could also add that GameLoft was privately hiring environment artists who know UDK (which is true) and one guy who came to Canada about week ago skipped out his position for being a teacher, in favor of being a environment artist at GameLoft.

But again, I really doubt anyone would believe me without any proof.

If true anyone with authority to prove such probably has NDAs shoved so far up their butts that it would be impossible anyways. This does explain why despite the blatant similarities in Starfront, between their assets and an assortment of things in the Warcraft/Starcraft games, they have not been sued to all hell. Really a lot of the buildings in Starfront look like re-textured Blizzard RTS buildings... not to mention they kept the same type/colour scheme for all factions with similar units which all could be anything.

Anyways back towards the thread topic, I disagree about saying the other games are clones. Shadow Guardian didn't look very unique/inspiring but wasn't a blatant copy of anything and their fantasy MMORPG just looks like any other fantasy MMORPG which with there being so many it is hard for it not to be compared to anything (without fundamentally destroying fantasy tropes). It's just Starfront that has an unsettling close familiarity with with other titles (specifically Blizzard RTSs) that is a problem even if Gameloft and Blizzard are best friends.