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Thang Online...?
ViolentY
Member Posts: 1,458
The horrible name is what made me click the ad at the top of this page. I was just kinda snooping around and watched the play video here: (http://thang.ongameport.com/data/mov.asp?mainValue=05&subValue=05_01). At first what caught my attention was the Diablo-like graphics... but then after awhile, it was the audio, not the visual, that really caught my attention.
This game uses several of the EXACT same sounds from Lineage: The Bloodpledge (Ogre and Shelob/Ungoliant attack sounds, to name a few).
This got me thinking about another similarity I remember between WoW and EQ2... that the WoW auction house sound effect sounds exactly like the EQ2's mariner bell sound effect.
Is this legal? I can't imagine it being if it is. How much would you pay to use someone else's sound recording for just one thing?
_____________________________________
"Io rido, e rider mio non passa dentro;
Io ardo, e l'arsion mia non par di fore."
-Machiavelli
Comments
There's often a library of generic sounds, music, and other audio thingies that a studio can license for use. I highly doubt either of the two big games (EQ2 - WoW) would be doing anything illegal with their audio. Risky for such a trivial matter for either of them.
Let's see, what caught my eye in their screenshots...?
Asian created, based on the website style and poor translation. My guess (for other reasons) would be China, but there's a few other countries out there who might also be the home.
Uses a relatively new version of the Unreal engine. Wow, very odd, for a free game to be using a $300k engine license, but hey - it could be, right? Coincidentally, the same engine that L2 uses...
Uses the Lineage 2 graphics. I mean, half their GUI is either ripped directly from L2, or is only lightly modified from L2. Their character models are different. But even the ground textures are pulled from L2. Of course, we all remember that the entire source code (server and client) for L2 was "leaked" about a year ago, right?
My guess? This is one of the results of that leak. It's based in a country that does not recognize international copyright law (so they can use the Unreal engine and L2 art illegally with impunity). It's using the L2 server and client code, hacked a little bit, with some new art.
If I'm wrong, I apologize profusely. But that's SURE what it looks like to me.
Owyn
Commander, Defenders of Order
http://www.defendersoforder.com
rofl
thangs = strings
strings = thin underwear
YES THIS GAME IS ASIAN
Err 95% of all software in chine is pirated, if this mmorpg would use copyrighted materiall nothing would come of it (if servers are in china). Google "price drop" , "movie" "company" & "china" , major movie companys had to drop prices on new movie dvd:s to 5$ to combat piracy (pirat-dvd:s are 1-3$).
(In China) Piracy is seen as a mean to compete not something illegal according to some study. (www.idg.com should have both news in archive-link somewhere also).
But most likely ThangOnline creators are "inspiried" by Lineage 2 & nothing else.