Spurned Chinese Publisher May Create WoW Knockoff 111
Earlier this year, Chinese game publisher The9 lost the rights to operate World of Warcraft in China. Now, it appears they are trying to solve their financial troubles by making World of Fight, which bears a suspicious resemblance to World of Warcraft. Others have noted similarities between World of Fight and Warhammer Online. Quoting Eurogamer: "According to the China Journal report, Chinese industry observers 'wonder whether The9 is launching a "shanzhai," or knock-off, World of Warcraft in hopes of keeping WOW players,' with iResearch analyst Zhao Xufeng noting that 'with the topic staying in the centre of attention, The9 can easily attract attention by doing this.'"
Poor ripoffs are nothing new (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, come on. We all know the fact that that most MMORPGs are practically clones of each other anyway...
Re:Dethroning WoW (Score:3, Insightful)
Where'd you get the idea they have the WoW server source code?
Re:A terrible idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Remember that Chinese programmers can be hired for less than $400/month. The labor-hours part of your argument becomes worth a lot less after this factor is added in. And it doesn't have to be 100% as good as the real thing to steal a significant part of the customer base if priced accordingly.
Re:A terrible idea (Score:3, Insightful)
What you're saying is true. But do keep in mind that if everyone always did the reasonable, rational thing, we'd not get a lot of the progress we've made over time. For example, I could take what you wrote above, and substitute, say, OS/360 [wikipedia.org] in there:
It may be that it's a bad idea or a waste of resources. But just because there's something big and established doesn't automatically make it a bad idea to try to challenge it. There's an ebb and flow to everything, especially computer games. But there's even an ebb and flow to the power of nations. India, China, Russia, other places, are going to see a lot more time in the limelight in the future of technology. They're already having an impact [wikipedia.org] in all kinds of areas that the US dominated exclusively just a decade ago and it seemed hard to imagine they'd be stepping out of the shadow of the US any time in our lifetimes. It's not so hard to imagine, now.
WoW is big and established, but one day it will, it must be, dethroned. It hasn't been that long since it seemed unthinkable that EQ could lose its throne..
Re:A terrible idea (Score:5, Insightful)
I doubt that WoW is particularly huge based on lined of code. The quests basically all come from 1 template, the AI is non-existent and the whole thing is based on repetition. When playing, I get the feeling they're aiming at creating as much content as possible with as little coding as possible. Keeps the bugs down and speeds up content creation.
Same goes for the art too, actually. They're using plenty of color swaps and similar recycling methods.
Re:Dethroning WoW (Score:5, Insightful)
they did chinese language localization for WoW
Localization that requires source code is bad localization.
they censored some parts of the story for WoW
Censors don't need to see the source.
they sent chinese programmers to the usa to custom fit parts of the story to chinese audiences
Story design that requires source code is bad story design.
Every US corporation that isn't led by total idiots has figured out that if you make your widget in China, six months from now you're going to be competing against the factories you outsourced to. So if you don't want to be shot with your own pistol, you'd best keep your trade secrets out of China.
Either that, or make a product with a 6-month lifetime. Blizzard, as it happens, does both. Paranoid control over IP, *plus* new expansions which render stolen IP obsolete.
Re:Dethroning WoW (Score:1, Insightful)
This all assumes that the coders:
1. Knew what good design was.
2. Weren't told to ship ASAP and screw 'design'.
Re:Poor ripoffs are nothing new (Score:2, Insightful)
I bet they have some kind of actual code from Blizzard,
I bet you don't have any proof of your accusations.
You'r no better than SCO....
Re:Dethroning WoW (Score:4, Insightful)
This all assumes that the coders:
1. Knew what good design was.
2. Weren't told to ship ASAP and screw 'design'.
We are talking about Blizzard here, not a random software house.
they are famous for shipping late because they weren't happy enough with it yet.