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Is Rift a Clone of WoW or a Brother?
God forgive me for I'm about to sin....
Ok so you all know the argument that Rift is a WoW clone. I really don't think I need to go into detail about that... What I do want to talk about has to relate to this article...
http://www.riftcore.com/?p=304
Read it? Cool. I want to talk about whether the word clone is really the right word to describe Rift. We all know there are similarities, and why wouldn't there be. Obviously WoW has done something right, and as the saying goes "you don't need to reinvent the wheel"... Maybe, Rift is just the next step in the formula, the next plateau on a mountain, the next landing in a staircase to heaven... an enhancement of an already successful MMO.
What do you guys think?
Oh and for the love of god do not turn this thread into another Rift>WoW, Rift sucks, or Rift isn't unique thread... Please!!!
Comments
A child of many fathers.
It is more like a Cousin.
WoW is a descendant of many of the first generation commercial MMORPG's. It is truly a 2nd Generation MMORPG.
Rifts is related to both these first generation games, and WoW and some other 2nd Generation games. It is evelutionary, not revelutionary, and as such it draws on many sources.
Well said.
/Agree, Cousin does seem to fit the analogy much better than Brother. Perhaps Rift could even be a Nephew of WoW.
Na to newphew. I like cousin based on the analogy.
Rift maybe a brother of wow with an identity crisis. He doesnt know if his really a brother or a sister.
http://alex-the-informer.blogspot.com/
I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but from what I've been reading I'll go with the cousin analogy as appropriate.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Its just another FAD MMO like Aion and AoC were. Expect less than 100k players in 6 months.
The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
... None of that please...
Does it really matter? Games should be judged based off the quality of their content.. not the label generated by the MMO community.
it is not about similatirites or differences per say,it is all about HOW you play the game.I mean,yes it is obvious there will always be similarities in everygame,but what you do from minute 1 to the end of the night,is what determines a clone.Rift actually tries to mimmick ideas from otehr games,but it is still imo anyhow designed to be a questing treadmill.
This is why Rift is a clone of Eq2 is a clone of Wow is a clone of so many other games,because it's design is the exact same.It has you step into the world,run for the quest marker over a npc's head and start the questing treadmill.This is bascially Rift's game design and yes it is a clone.
When talking about other stuff to do,that "IS" what is called content,example a RIFT in Rift.Content usually means it is something you take part in once in a while,but the core design of the game is what you do 90% of the time,to which Rift is a questing treadmill.If you don't understand how there can be an alterantive,then go play FFXI,you will learn a LOT about different game design,inlcuding the way questing/XP/loot is done,ALL done differenly.
This does NOT define,nor am i emplying that it does,which is a better design,that is left to each his own,but when talking clones or not,i hope i cleared that up.
Of course killing could be considered a clone,that is why we acknowledge some things are always going to be similar,but how you do it,is the difference.That is the same as quests,EVERY single game will have quests,but how you do it ,is the key to being creative or not,that is why i used the FFXI example,because it does it differently.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Because someone has to do it....
Rift is Wow's father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
I agree, but the community seems hellbent on calling it the WoW clone I'm suggesting that this stigma could be changed to WoW's cousin, because it would seem to be a better analogy and more appropriately describe the game.
Now I know some people don't care about stigma, and that's fine. However, as a studier of linguistic importance, I know there is a very important role that language plays in how we relate to things... Every descriptive word has an emotional connection, and the word clone is predominately negative... So not only is the description incorrect, but it's portraying a negative stigma.
Do I hope to try and change this, nope. I would just like everyone to consider that the word Clone doesn't do the game credit, not on a logical level and is used as trying to portray a negative image of the game...
So as a piece of advice, whenever you meet someone who says it's a WoW clone, you can correct them and say it's WoW cousin... It's such a minor correction that most of the time people won't argue over it, but it gives you a foundation to start talking about the relation of WoW and Rift.
Hmm....
HMMM........
Well...
Good thought, but in the end the King declares this spin. If anything it's a slightly less appealing twin, therefore a deformed clone of WoW.
and that's why it will fail miserably. The only thing worse than a wow-clone is "slightly less appealing" wow-clone. Honestly, who needs that? I'd rather play something different, because there is one wow already.
If it's how you play the game, then what about all the other details... Characters, lore, npc's, abilities, visuals, music, and community.... Those are pieces of an MMO as well and can't be ignored...
The problem I have with you use of the word clone, in describing the "questiong treadmill," is that it doesn't give justice to all these other aspects... It is focusing on just one thing it's too much of a blanket term for the game. I really don't think that you are doing any game justice by giving it such a term based solely on their style of progression.
If we bypass the general crap that seems to arise about wow when any other game launchs (i listened to an argument about wow in COD black op's when that launched - god knows why, but ti shows its not just an mmorpg thing).
WoW has proven to be an increadible fantsay mmo, it does what it aims to better than any other (that's not to say its the best game - just you can't deny the fact it has been very very successful). As such any game that follows in the genre is going to have some similarities (hell, just the fact its fantasy will generate some similarities).
But that doesn't mean its a clone - Related sure (Cousin is good, brother possibly abit too close...?).
At the end ofthe day WoW is 6 years old, there is only so much it can do within that system (and god it feels like it has done everything about 10 times now...) From my first impressions of rift it has taken what an be learnt from wow, and updated, added its own twists and in some areas completely changed elements - which is great. Obviously there are similarities, but anyone who has played both games (with some objectivity) will know they feel/play/ are different games. - thats not to say one is better than the other (there are other threads for that debate) but rift does feel like the next step, there are still many stubbling blocks to overcome, but wow did what it set out to do very well, so far it would appear that Rift is also doing what it aims to well - whilst it perhaps not the giant leap some people felt is needed/expected it is progression in the right direction .
I asked nicely for this post to not turn into another rift sucks thread.... Please address the point of the post.
it runs in the familiy!
/agree well said Phortex
This whole WoW clone thing is getting entirely too out of hand.
First of all, WoW is a clone of MANY other predecessors.
Second of all, the majority of the people claiming anything to be a WoW clone is what we old schoolers refer to as the "WoW generation" a.k.a. the "asshat generation".
Is RIFT a WoW clone? Absolutely not. Are there similarities? Absolutely.
Trion simply took successful aspects of other games, as well as not so successful aspects of other games and improved on them. I suppose in that respect, they are similar.
To say that RIFT is a "WoW Clone" is simply a lame little fanboy comment.
Even if it WAS a clone, wouldn't you rather play WoW with far superior graphics?
RIFT is a surprisingly great game, and it's the smoothest, and cleanest beta I've seen in 20 years of gaming.
Anyone who was around for the WoW beta will agree, it was nowhere near as well done. That fact, in itself, is enough to negate any "clone" claims.
(Yes, 20 years, I'm that old. My first MMO was on a college campus mainframe, and it was text based)
The first thing people have to do to truly appreciate, AND enjoy an MMO is enter the game with an open mind.
If you enter a game with a pre-disposed attitude, you can pick apart any game out there. There is only so much that can be "different" when it comes to MMO's. There are several variables to this, a big one being mainstream technology.
Do yourself a favor. Take advantage of the next beta (starts Friday at 10am PST) and see for yourself if you enjoy the game or not. Will it seem familiar? Yes. Will you recognize some features? Yes. Thanks to some familiar mechanics the learning curve is minimal, as far as basics go, but if you're going to excel at any given class, it will take some effort on your part. Is it something totally new and innovative? Not entirely, no, but what they've done with some other games ideas is very refreshing, and entertaining.
"It's a Brother from another mother!"
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Are you serious? I just was reading through all the non sense going on here in this thread about rift and relationship it has with wow... then came across the words "Slightly less appealing than WoW"
lmao.. Ok.... I'll bite here, What if it is a slightly , if not, mostly more appealing than WoW? How about that one?
I played wow before, and I played Rift. There is no denying at early stages of the game Rift has way more appeal to it than wow early stages. All I can talk about is the early levels 1-25 of the game, because that is all I know. I do know that it was a blast, compared to WoW lvl 1-20 was a snooze fest.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
You realize I didn't say that Rift was a "WoW clone"... In fact I don't think that stigma is a very accurate description at all... I think we should try and substitute "WoW cousin" every time someone says "WoW clone"...
How is that related to the "WoW clone" stigma?