Actually there is a reason Warcraft is so much like Warhammer.
Supposedly, back in the day Blizzard was making a Warhammer-based RTS. It turned out that either Games Workshop didn't accept it or that they pulled out. I guess Blizzard didn't want to just give up so they changed a little bit from the Warhammer universe and thus Warcraft was born. So really it's not TOTALLY a ripoff, although it annoys the hell out of me when people say GW ripped off Blizz, an it always has even before the days of WoW.
As far as ripping off Tolkein, I would have to say Warhammer does not. Orcs in Tolkein's stories are very different from the Orcs of Warhammer and WoW. Bretonnians, Skaven, the Empire, Chaos, Tomb Kings, Dark Elves, and Vampire Counts are all almost completely unique to the Wathammer universe. Warhammer's Wood Elves differ from Tolkein's Wood Elves. The main similarities between Tolkein and Warhammer are found in the High Elves and even stronger in the Dwarfs. Besides, what fantasy game doesn't owe at least a part of it's roots to Tolkein. It's the same in sci-fi- most sci-fi novels, games, tv shows, etc. owe a lot to Starship Troopers (the old books, not the movies) or Star Wars.
I don't know if the part about Warcraft and Warhammer has been discussed yet, I'm too lazy to read all of the posts
I don't know about Skaven being unique. IMO, they are from a Fafhrd and the gray mouser story writen by Fritz Lieber.
The idea of the Skaven race may have come from a series of novels by Fritz Leiber, a pulp fiction novelist. The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories involve a race of intelligent rats who live under the cities of men, led by a council of thirteen rat sorcerers who attempt by covert means to take over a large cosmopolitan city that bears a passing resemblance to Altdorf.
hmmm didn't know about that.
Okay, they may not be completely unique but you have to admit, they're much less mainstream and do have a unique air about them that a race such as the orcs does not.
Comments
I don't know about Skaven being unique. IMO, they are from a Fafhrd and the gray mouser story writen by Fritz Lieber.
Here is a bit from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skaven
Inspirations
The idea of the Skaven race may have come from a series of novels by Fritz Leiber, a pulp fiction novelist. The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories involve a race of intelligent rats who live under the cities of men, led by a council of thirteen rat sorcerers who attempt by covert means to take over a large cosmopolitan city that bears a passing resemblance to Altdorf.
hmmm didn't know about that.Okay, they may not be completely unique but you have to admit, they're much less mainstream and do have a unique air about them that a race such as the orcs does not.