Most blatant rip offs you've ever seen.

[Grey_Focks]

Ever look at W40K Space Marines beside... well... space marines?

What was actually 1st? Cause Starcraft was released in 1998 dunno about 40k though.

1987.

And to point out the tyranid/zerg comparison with pictures...

Not defending blizz, but the reasoning why they are ripoffs is because "Warcraft" and "starcraft" were originally going to be Warhammer and W40K games, respectively. Not sure what happened, but eh, I'm not complaining, as I'm quite happy with SC2 and Dawn of War, separately, thank you very much.

 

[Vykrel]

I saw dis movie at blockbuster called "Paranormal Entity". I lol'd.

that movie, and many other ripoff were made by a studio called "The Asylum"

so yeah, all their stuff

and all Gameloft titles

and those knockoff game consoles like the Chintendo Vii or the Polystation.

Edit: and speaking of the polystation, i remember that New Zealand TV3 ad that ripped off one of Sony's Kevin Butler PS3 ads. (montage)

 

[teh_Canape]

Somehow, yes:

Spoiler: More pictures comparing it and Oblivion

And yes, that's just the Oblivion rip-offs...

Spoiler: Unreal Tournament

Just Google around for threads made on the likes of NeoGaf [http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310683] when it was released.

no bro, you got it all wrong

this is genius, you see, it implies that Unreal Tournament and Oblivion take place in the same universe, so that game is in charge of making the connections and giving sense to it

 

[ZtH]

Digimon...

*Looks both ways and runs!*

Actually Digimon came out first so Pokemon is the ripoff in that pair. Either way once you get beyond the surface level they're pretty different.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Spoiler

Ever look at W40K Space Marines beside... well... space marines?

What was actually 1st? Cause Starcraft was released in 1998 dunno about 40k though.

1987.

And to point out the tyranid/zerg comparison with pictures...

Not defending blizz, but the reasoning why they are ripoffs is because "Warcraft" and "starcraft" were originally going to be Warhammer and W40K games, respectively. Not sure what happened, but eh, I'm not complaining, as I'm quite happy with SC2 and Dawn of War, separately, thank you very much.

As far as I can tell, only Warcraft was a direct copy of Warhammer.

Do you have any links or sources that StarCraft was supposed to be W40K? I mean... StarCraft was based on the Warcraft II engine, not the original, which makes in unlikely that Games Workshop had anything to do with it.

Not trying to be mean spirited, just wondering.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Everything is a rip-off of something else. Nothing is ever original.

Eragon isn't ripping of Star Wars or whatever else people claim it to. It's just using a very well-used series of tropes. Just like everything else. There are very few things that haven't already been done in stories before.

Um...using the exact same tropes in the exact same way in the exact same order...that's ripping off.

Sure, nothing is totally original, but the trick is to take old stuff and do something new with them. Or, alternatively, to take from more than one old thing, and jumble the parts together differently...if you take form one, it's plagiarism, if you take from many, it's research.

[/quote]

As I understand it, that particular nid didn't come out until alot later than most of them,
Starcraft was already around by then.

Of course, nids are Aliens mixed with dinosaurs anyway.

 

[Comrade_Beric]

Starcraft = Warhammer

Yep, Zerg = Tyranids

Yes, but let's not forget where GW got the Tyranids in the first place. I dare say that Blizzard didn't rip off 40k so much as they just ripped off the same source 40k did.

I said right from the beginning that Starcraft was nothing more than AvP: the RTS.

Battletech/Robotech.
Oh, FASA, you thieving bastards.

Shorthand recap: FASA got permission to use the images from the Japanese creators of the Macross series, but when they made toys, Harmony Gold (the guys who make Robotech from those same images) sued, claiming they had exclusive rights to the images within the US. FASA and Harmony Gold settled out of court basically agreeing that FASA would stop using any and all Macross images, and Harmony Gold agreed to not sue anymore. Come to find out, FASA probably would have won in court, but it doesn't matter anymore, the settlement is final and binding and no matter how many times Battletech changes hands, that settlement is carried over with it.

 

[D_987]

this is genius, you see, it implies that Unreal Tournament and Oblivion take place in the same universe, so that game is in charge of making the connections and giving sense to it

Really? Wow, I'm amazed a game was able to combine the lore and universes of:

Morrowind.
Oblivion.
Unreal Tournament 2004 and 2003.
Diablo II
Thief: The Dark Project.
Thief: Deadly Shadows.
A CryENGINE2 Tech Demo.
Silent Hill 4: The Room.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
Painkiller.
Painkiller: Battle out of Hell.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth.
Hexen.
World of Warcraft.

And that's not including the films they stole footage from too...truly genius...

 

[teh_Canape]

this is genius, you see, it implies that Unreal Tournament and Oblivion take place in the same universe, so that game is in charge of making the connections and giving sense to it

Really? Wow, I'm amazed a game was able to combine the lore and universes of:

Morrowind.
Oblivion.
Unreal Tournament 2004 and 2003.
Diablo II
Thief: The Dark Project.
Thief: Deadly Shadows.
A CryENGINE2 Tech Demo.
Silent Hill 4: The Room.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
Painkiller.
Painkiller: Battle out of Hell Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth.
Hexen.
World of Warcraft.

And that's not including the films they stole footage from too...truly genius...

indeed, that's the work of a god

almost brings a tear to my eye

 

[foryth]

Im surprised noone has mentioned Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby and that ripping off Bowie/Queen Under Pressure.

 

[k-ossuburb]

I love Star Wars, a lot, but I also love fantasy book as well so a few years ago I picked up a certain fantasy book that people had been saying was super duper good and was the best thing ever (this was back in middle school I think). This book as Eragon. So I read it, and I somewhat enjoyed it although I couldn't shake the feeling that I had already read this story before, that's when I realized that I had, it was Star Wars... with dragons.

It had everything, princess is attacked by bad guy, send away something for old wise master to retrieve, fresh faced farmboy finds it, finds old wise master, gets his family killed as a result, runs away to train with old master, finds rougeish man who helps them...

I could go on and on but I'd rather know your thoughts on the matter of not just how crappy the Inheritance books are but also what other things have you seen or read that was an obvious rip off of another, better book/movie/anything else you can think of.

Ever read Joseph Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces? Every "hero" story will have those elements in them in some form or another, it's a concept that's been around long before the written word was ever invented. George Lucas himself has acknowledged Campbell and the mythological influences cited in his book.

So, no, what you're describing isn't a rip-off in the slightest as I could regress back to stories of Osiris, Prometheus, the Buddha, Moses, and Christ; and there will always be similarities between them. I could just as easily tell you that Star Wars is a "rip-off" of ancient Japanese hero stories since in most Japanese stories, a young man would train to be a samurai by studying under a master. The master would be an old hermit. He might not even be recognized as a master at first. The training was different than we would expect. The student was taught to be a samurai through everyday activities. The movie the Karate Kid is also based on this tradition. In it, the kid learns basic moves by waxing a car and painting a fence.

Lucas made the old hermit into a shrunken muppet. In keeping with the Japanese tradition, we see Luke running through the swamp with Yoda on his back and doing other physical activities but we never see him taught to use the lightsaber, much the same as with Japanese tradition.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Zinda. It's an Indian movie.

If you've been watching a certain Korean movie, tell me if these scenes seem familiar:

Spoiler

 

[Sovvolf]

Anyone remember the Heroes of Victory game? Its was a Midway game which came out around the time of COD3 I think... It was pretty much a shameless rip off.

Anyway regarding Earagon and Star Wars... First off... I haven't read Earagon so I don't know the story however it seems like its shared quite a lot of influence from what influenced Star Wars . The fact is, its just a basic story structure that had been out way before Star Wars. Probably follwing the whole "Heroes with a thousand faces" routine. Star Wars it self was an homage to quite a lot of films. Ranging from films like Metropolis and Flash Gordon to Japanese films of which I can't remember the names.

This is true to most of Lucas's films, Indiana Jones had a few Zorro influences in it among other things. A lot of films do it.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Spoiler

Ever look at W40K Space Marines beside... well... space marines?

What was actually 1st? Cause Starcraft was released in 1998 dunno about 40k though.

1987.

And to point out the tyranid/zerg comparison with pictures...

Not defending blizz, but the reasoning why they are ripoffs is because "Warcraft" and "starcraft" were originally going to be Warhammer and W40K games, respectively. Not sure what happened, but eh, I'm not complaining, as I'm quite happy with SC2 and Dawn of War, separately, thank you very much.

As far as I can tell, only Warcraft was a direct copy of Warhammer.

Do you have any links or sources that StarCraft was supposed to be W40K? I mean... StarCraft was based on the Warcraft II engine, not the original, which makes in unlikely that Games Workshop had anything to do with it.

Not trying to be mean spirited, just wondering.

Yea, technically it was just Warcraft that was originally going to be Warhammer, but at some point or another, a few gents left Games Workshop (only name I know off the top of my head is Andy Chambers) and joined Blizzard, and then "Starcraft" happened. Probably just a few of the artists, but I don't have sources for this, and I am just too damn tired to go digging, as I just keep finding random "Starcraft Vs 40K" topics and such.

EDIT- Well, here's Andy's wiki page, atleast. I know, not a whole lot, but it is some fuel for thought. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Chambers

 

[Singularly Datarific]

On a more serious note, I always found the Zerg in Starcraft to be a massive ripoff of the Tyranid from Warhammer 40K

Ever look at W40K Space Marines beside... well... space marines?

Really? Blizzard, come on.

To be fair, Starcraft made Protoss first, I think WH40K stole that one back as Tau to make a point (and have an excuse for RAILGUN TANKS!)
EDIT:
OHRIGHT!
Wowwee made this toy about 5 or 6 years ago:

This is something made a little afterwards:

I don't know how they got away with it. It isn't just stealing an idea, half the parts ARE THE EXACT SAME MOLD. You can see how they recycled the shape for everything except the torso!

 

[DefunctTheory]

Spoiler

Starcraft = Warhammer

Yep, Zerg = Tyranids

Yes, but let's not forget where GW got the Tyranids in the first place. I dare say that Blizzard didn't rip off 40k so much as they just ripped off the same source 40k did.

I said right from the beginning that Starcraft was nothing more than AvP: the RTS.

W40K may have gotten a few visual queues from Alien (The head, and... the head), but Starcraft ripped off virtually entire body models, and a similiar 'purpose.'

W40K: Tyranids are an unstoppable hive mind beast that roam the universe in search of biomass, displaying the ability to absorb and modify DNA.

Starcraft: The Zerg are an unstoppable hive mind roamming the galaxy in search of DNA and biomass, in the hopes of creating a more perfect species.

Seriously, go to Wikipedia and read the entries they have on both species. Virtually the only difference is the Tyranid's more acute goal.

Spoiler

On a more serious note, I always found the Zerg in Starcraft to be a massive ripoff of the Tyranid from Warhammer 40K

Ever look at W40K Space Marines beside... well... space marines?

Really? Blizzard, come on.

To be fair, Starcraft made Protoss first, I think WH40K stole that one back as Tau to make a point (and have an excuse for RAILGUN TANKS!)

The Tau are a race of blue aliens who have no psychic abilities and are unaffected by the warp.

The protoss are a race defined by psychic ability. They are blue.

So, not really.

Just to be clear here, I am NOT saying W40K did not rip off others, only that Starcraft practically lifted an entire race from W40K, as well as armor design of the marines.

 

[Darkauthor81]

Though, technically, everything is a rip off of something. There's only so many ideas and we've used up all of them.

For instance I was watching this movie and my friend said this one character is such a batman rip off. Now, I was really enjoying this movie. So this pissed me off.

So I responded. "And Batman is a rip off of Dirty Harry and Dirty Harry was a rip off of every character John Wayne played who were all rip offs of every bad ass on the side of the angels before them. What's your point!?"

 

[Nooners]

Ever look at W40K Space Marines beside... well... space marines?

What was actually 1st? Cause Starcraft was released in 1998 dunno about 40k though.

1987.

And to point out the tyranid/zerg comparison with pictures...

The Tyranids look a lot like the xenomorphs...which were first created in 1979. Huh.

 

[MikhailGH]

Well I may as well grab the obvious one before someone else does matrix and GITS


But I don't care they are both awesome movies and have their own originality. Neither did either of their directors as GITS then gave a shout out to the matrix in one of their future shows.


I don't think the problem is how much you copy but how many original things you add to it and how good a job you did that determine weather it's a crappy ripoff or not.

I actually never noticed, although I love both franchises. I am confused. What one will learn from the nets.

 

[Sovvolf]

Though, technically, everything is a rip off of something. There's only so many ideas and we've used up all of them.

For instance I was watching this movie and my friend said this one character is such a batman rip off. Now, I was really enjoying this movie. So this pissed me off.

So I responded. "And Batman is a rip off of Dirty Harry and Dirty Harry was a rip off of every character John Wayne played who were all rip offs of every bad ass on the side of the angels before them. What's your point!?"

Batman as been around since the 1930's and he was influenced by Zorro. Dirty Harry as nothing to do with Batman in any way, shape or form. Not even the modern Batman as anything to do with Dirty Harry.