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Is WarCraft 3 Really That Original?

Blogs > [UoN]Sentinel
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[UoN]Sentinel
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States11320 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-01-11 17:28:27
January 11 2010 17:24 GMT
#1
EDIT: The reasons are in spoilers because they might give away campaign

WarCraft III and its expansion are both very popular games. I play both, well mostly for DotA but I do campaign and 1v1's as well. My point being, the campaign and some units and special abilities are a bit to StarCrafty, IMO. I mean, yeah, they're similar games, and SC was partially ripping off WC2, but when you put all 34 of the reasons together...

+ Show Spoiler +
1. The first campaign is human.
2. The second campaign is the evil side.
3. The third campaign is the race with the strongest people.
4. The last vanilla campaign ends with a large sacrifice involving lots of power (Tassadar’s channeling of Dark Templar energies, Night Elf spirits joining to kill Archimonde and losing their immortality)
5. The first campaign of the expansion is the same race as the last vanilla campaign (Protoss, Night Elf)
6. The first expansion campaign also begins by saying “The nasty evil dude is beaten, but the new bad dude is still threatening and the Protoss/Elves still have a bunch of problems to deal with”
7. Arthas and Kerrigan both start as human and then fall to the Zerg/Scourge, similar in many respects, and both play approximately the same role.
8. Both of the two win in the end of the expansion.
9. Both have a trace of royalty in their names (Lich King, Queen of Blades)
10. The second campaign of the expansion goes back to the humans, but not the same ones, instead a new force introduced in the expansion (Blood Elves, UED)
11. The third and final campaign of the expansion features our evil race that relies on massing units, and wins.
12. In the last campaign of the expansion, you start in a strong position (Dominion, Raynor and the Protoss are helping Kerrigan/Level 10 Arthas with allied Sylvanas) and finish in a much weaker position (UED, Dominion and Protoss team up against Kerrigan/Level 2 Arthas)
13. The humans start out mostly fighting the Scourge/Zerg in the first vanilla campaign.
14. The Culling.
15. WC3 has Zerglings, Marines, and Hydralisks in it.
16. The fifth mission of the last expansion of both games has a certain time limit before the other team (which in both cases consists of 2 players) wakes up, so to speak.
17. There is a mission in both expansions where you have one central base, and several outlying bases, and Zerg/Scourge spawn and overrun the outer bases and it is impossible to stop them unless you use godmode.
18. The last mission in vanilla involves having a base for each non-Zerg/Scourge race (Humans, Orcs, Elves, Terrans, and Protoss) and pitted against a large force of Zerg/Scourge. The object of interest (Overmind, World Tree) is in the center.
19. In the very first campaign there is a holdout mission somewhere against Zerg/Scourge.
20. The second campaign in vanilla ends with the main antagonist coming to his destination (Archimonde into Azeroth, Overmind onto Aiur)
21. The middle expansion campaign ends with the protagonists’ hard-earned victory and great accomplishments (Illidan has a foothold and about to assault the Frozen Throne, UED has the new Overmind under their control and a Psi Disrupter) and the final campaign negates those accomplishments.
22. Archimonde and the Overmind die in the end of vanilla, and then Arthas and Kerrigan see their chance and take it.
23. The last campaign in expansion always has a lot of betrayal.
24. The first mission of the middle campaign in the expansion has the forces starting with a lack of certain resources, and only gets a proper base in the middle of the mission.
25. The first mission of both expansions has no friendly base.
26. Somewhere in the first expansion campaign the evil dude and the good dudes are allied.
27. The eighth mission of the third vanilla campaigns resolves a conflict between the Orc/Protoss, similar in many respects.
28. The fourth mission of the middle expansion campaign involves first arrival on a tileset, Outlands/Korhal, which are similar in color and texture.
29. Both the Outlands and Korhal have a troubled event with a cataclysmic event leading to their current state.
30. The Orc/Protoss both move to a desert place (Kalimdor/Shakuras) after their home is destroyed by the Zerg/Undead.
31. The Burning Legion is the Overmind and its Cerebrates.
32. The Burning Legion could also be the Xel’Naga because they created Orcs/Protoss but considered them a failure so made the Zerg/Scourge.
33. Feedback, Recall, Consume, Cloak, Scanner and other spells have been mostly cosmetically changed and still work the same way in WC3.
34. Shade is Observer.


Convinced?

*
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Chill
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
Calgary25986 Posts
January 11 2010 17:26 GMT
#2
I'm sure you can find 34 glancing similarities between anything.
Moderator
CrimsonLotus
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Colombia1123 Posts
January 11 2010 17:29 GMT
#3
So, are you implying that two games from the same genre made by the same company share many similarities?

Madness!

To be honest, i really liked WarCraft III, mostly for the campaing, but i have no idea how could you even be concerned about originality in a game filled from the start with every fantasy cliche you could posibly imagine.
444 444 444 444
Ingenol
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States1328 Posts
January 11 2010 17:29 GMT
#4
You're aware that the entire Warcraft series has basically nothing that wasn't written in the fantasy genre decades earlier?
[UoN]Sentinel
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States11320 Posts
January 11 2010 17:30 GMT
#5
On January 12 2010 02:29 Ingenol wrote:
You're aware that the entire Warcraft series has basically nothing that wasn't written in the fantasy genre decades earlier?


First game to have the hero system though, right?
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spinesheath
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany8679 Posts
January 11 2010 17:30 GMT
#6
Story similarities aren't surpring at all. The guy who does most of that stuff for Blizzard (whatever his name is) once confessed that he is a one trick pony.
If you have a good reason to disagree with the above, please tell me. Thank you.
[UoN]Sentinel
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States11320 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-01-11 17:35:23
January 11 2010 17:31 GMT
#7
On January 12 2010 02:30 spinesheath wrote:
Story similarities aren't surpring at all. The guy who does most of that stuff for Blizzard (whatever his name is) once confessed that he is a one trick pony.


So the Diablo II story is like that too?
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Draconizard
Profile Joined October 2008
628 Posts
January 11 2010 17:33 GMT
#8
...

Really, you are just now realizing this? Also, since when has the WC series (or Blizzard as a whole) ever been concerned about originality?
[UoN]Sentinel
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States11320 Posts
January 11 2010 17:34 GMT
#9
On January 12 2010 02:33 Draconizard wrote:

...since when has the WC series (or Blizzard as a whole) ever been concerned about originality?


1. When they made races with different capabilities in 1998.

2. When they made the hero system in 2003.
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Kaniol
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Poland5551 Posts
January 11 2010 17:36 GMT
#10
No game is made 100% by new, fresh ideas. Same goes for movies/books.

Why? That's how our imagination works, even if you "invent" something new it still contains scratches of other ideas in it. It just happens unwillingly. That's why there's nothing outrageous in something sharing some things, unless it's total ripoff
[UoN]Sentinel
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States11320 Posts
January 11 2010 17:40 GMT
#11
On January 12 2010 02:36 Kaniol wrote:
No game is made 100% by new, fresh ideas. Same goes for movies/books.

Why? That's how our imagination works, even if you "invent" something new it still contains scratches of other ideas in it. It just happens unwillingly. That's why there's nothing outrageous in something sharing some things, unless it's total ripoff


Halo + SC only had 23. Other links had even less. I've seen ripoffs of different things (the movies Surrogate and Avatar), but never like 34.

Yes, they're both Blizz games, but:

Let's take Bungie. How many ways has Halo ripped off Marathon unintentionally (not those Marathon symbols everywhere or the Terminals)?
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789
Profile Joined October 2009
United States959 Posts
January 11 2010 17:41 GMT
#12
I noticed most of your reasons are campaign related. A lot of companies have similar story lines in their games. Look at Bioware games, if you strip all the stories down to a basic level they have the same structure.
Member of Hyuk Hyuk Hyuk Cafe! He's the next Jaedong, baby!
[UoN]Sentinel
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States11320 Posts
January 11 2010 17:42 GMT
#13
Another question...

If Scourge ripped off of Zerg, and Zerg off of Alien, then what did Alien rip off of?
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Ota Solgryn
Profile Blog Joined January 2008
Denmark2011 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-01-11 17:50:32
January 11 2010 17:50 GMT
#14
Heh. TL is so harsh. Obviously you put alot of effort into this and you are right, there are many similarities, but the reality is, it is quite obvious the games are similar. Also, blizzard has made war1 war2 war 3 sc bw tft all with campaigns, they can't keep reinventing themselves.
ihasaKAROT: "Wish people would stop wasting their lives on finding flaws in others"
mucker
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States1120 Posts
January 11 2010 17:54 GMT
#15
On January 12 2010 02:42 [UoN]Sentinel wrote:
Another question...

If Scourge ripped off of Zerg, and Zerg off of Alien, then what did Alien rip off of?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(film)#Origins
It's supposed to be automatic but actually you have to press this button.
Aim Here
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Scotland672 Posts
January 11 2010 17:54 GMT
#16

If Scourge ripped off of Zerg, and Zerg off of Alien, then what did Alien rip off of?


The inflatable alien scene from Dark Star (1974, John Carpenter directed, low-budget cult stoner space comedy.). Both films have the same writer (Dan o' Bannon, who died recently, and played Sgt Pinback in Dark Star), so it might not technically be a rip-off, but then again, you can say much the same about Warcraft 3 and Starcraft.



Kaniol
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Poland5551 Posts
January 11 2010 17:55 GMT
#17
No, it's not about ripoffs, it's about you imagination working in a way that makes everything you think of inspired by previous experiences or ideas.

People in the past thought of submarines because they were inspired by fishes, about flying because of the birds, of Alien because they heard stories about some terrifying beast that only lives with killer instinct and relies on it's senses (other than sight) very heavily.
789
Profile Joined October 2009
United States959 Posts
January 11 2010 17:57 GMT
#18
On January 12 2010 02:42 [UoN]Sentinel wrote:
Another question...

If Scourge ripped off of Zerg, and Zerg off of Alien, then what did Alien rip off of?


Any other movie/book ever that had killer aliens in it previous to it coming out. At this point in history there will hardly ever be an original plot. Your analysis of the similarities? I bet you all the money in the world someone has done this exact same thing before.
Member of Hyuk Hyuk Hyuk Cafe! He's the next Jaedong, baby!
[UoN]Sentinel
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States11320 Posts
January 11 2010 18:01 GMT
#19
Note this was done in about the time it took me to type the reasons +30 seconds for thinking. If I tried I could do 50, 60, or maybe even 100.
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789
Profile Joined October 2009
United States959 Posts
January 11 2010 18:08 GMT
#20
On January 12 2010 03:01 [UoN]Sentinel wrote:
Note this was done in about the time it took me to type the reasons +30 seconds for thinking. If I tried I could do 50, 60, or maybe even 100.

And what would that prove? What are you trying to prove besides the storyline and race design for wc3 is unoriginal. It is almost a pointless criticism for anything unless the presentation is bland. Almost everything has already been done. Why can't it just be "did I find the game fun or not?"
Member of Hyuk Hyuk Hyuk Cafe! He's the next Jaedong, baby!
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