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All this talk about Clones.
Evelknievel
Member UncommonPosts: 2,964
Definition: One that copies or closely resembles another, as in appearance or function.
Ok, I see all this talk about clones in mmorpg world. I think this phrase (correct me if I am wrong)started coming out when WoW became a success to mmorpg world.
Only then, has this terminology became so popular and hence, its a World of Warcraft clone. If I am not mistaken, WoW has been out to the public not including beta since Nov 2004. Games that were the golden era of mmorpg were like Ultima Online, EQ from Variant, Eve Online, Dark Age of Camelot and amoung others (late 90's to the earlier 2000's)
To me WoW is no different just more simplified game then the golden era mmorpgs and a very popular one at that due to its simplicity. WoW doesnt have a huge learning curve like the other mmorpgs out that and is why its so popular. Blizz did a great job of putting a mmorpg together where even your parents or grandparents could figure out how to play.
This post is no flame to WoW just wanted to point out a few things, I enjoyed WoW when I still played it, however the novelty wore off for now. Clones have been around way before WoW was introduced its just WoW became a MMORPG Giant, so now ppl compare other games to WoW and even thethe mmorpgs that revolutionized the mmorpg market before WoW was a thought.
Comments
"Ultima Online, EQ from Variant, Eve Online, Dark Age of Camelot".
These games do not offer instant gratification.
WoW clones in my view does offer instant gratification and rewarding failure [that is my definition anyway], http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060222/sirlin_01.shtml makes a very good point of saying that Time > skill. You are rewarded for failure in WoW, something the other games do not do in fact they generally do the opposite e.g. expereince debt.
All you say if very true. My first mmorpg that I played was Everquest in 2000, loved it. But EQ was a giant in its day and alot of people did know what it was(err well 35% of people that I mentioned EQ to, knew what i was talking about, I guess thats not a giant though...) anyways.
I personally am happy WoW came out. It opened up this world of mmo's to so many other people who would never have tried these games making them realize why people like us love these games. just my 2 cp.
Hi! My name is paper. Nerf scissors, rock is fine.
MMORPG = Mostly Men Online Roleplaying Girls
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people call WoW an EQ clone all the time, of course those same people will tell you about how great EQ was and how sucky WoW is.
in the MMORPG world calling a game a clone or calling a gamer a carebear is like calling someone a bitch. as in, when you call someone a bitch you dont actually mean female dog, you only mean to be deragatory in some fashion.
Uhm well, at least you have to admit that there's not really that much innovation present in WoW....
Not even /pizza was their idea.
Lets compare to Single Player games: You buy a game, you play it, its fun. 2 Years later a game of identical concept is released. You buy it. What do you want? Right, you want innovation. If you're a simplicist and play shooters all the time this innovation will mostly come in the form of graphics, maybe nice new hitzones or special movement. For others its new races/civilizations added to RTS's or a new continent for RPGs.
Now how does this work with MMOs? An MMO doesnt have to rely on releases for its features, because it has patches and addons. On the other hand MMOs HAVE to supply a CONSTANT stream of new content, because they also get a constant inflow of subscription cash. To drag in people in the first place, and to keep them, you need a base structure that's appealing.
Here's what WoW did: It took everything good from the grand old MMORPGs and weaved it into its base, then it added the special appeal that makes it different from the others by flavoring it with the Warcraft Universe Lore and Characters. Now Blizzard is simply feeding the content-hungry players they caught, and will probably be able to continue for quite some time, since there's a lot of players out there that'll be content with that.
Others will not. Why? Because after playing the same game for over a year, with just more content being added, but without ANY innovation coming into the game (i'm excepting the option of Blizzard adding innovative changes that were made to other games here) they will get bored and angry. WoW will still sustain to be a succesful MMO, yet will not be able to uphold itself if it clings to the same concept it was developed after.
Maybe in one or two years, if it truly happens like this, we'll be grateful for it, because WoW pulled out all the simplicists, gankers, kiddies and whatnot and left other MMOs with a better community.
Look it's very simple...just go to any station that has medical and you can lay down cash to upgrade. As long as you keep your clone upgraded so that it covers all your skill points, you'll be OK when you get podded, though you'll still lose your implants and you have to buy a replacement for your old clone. Jump clones are really advanced stuff, don't worry about them yet.
:-)
Chris Mattern
Well, to me the term "clone" boils down to game play. Almost all these games are level grinds, with a strong dose of item grinding thrown in.
Sure, you have some of this in all games, but when the game play is all about the grinding, and nothing else, that's the clone feel.
In UO you could do lots of things in the game besides build skills. Lots of things. In the more recent games since then, there just isn't hardly anything else to do, just level up and get the items/titles that go with it. That's why it's so boring.
Once upon a time....
I liked it, but then again nobody gets my "humor" either.
For example, in CoV when I see those Arachnos "Crab" mobs, I scream, "Oh no! Olthoi!!!"
The response is usually, "Huh?"
~ Ancient Membership ~