Warcraft Franchise, Spin-off (Rip-Off)

[A Void]

I will list all coincidences, similarities that were presented in Warcraft franchise but were actually ripped from other franchises and games. In the end you might want to decide weather Warcraft franchise is not just another rip-off from "older" franchises. In truth it has many parts mixed, changed and manipulated into it. In the end you might figure it out that Warcraft is just another spin-off that has almost nothing original and nothing special.

Orcs

Since the publication of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, orcs have become a fixture of fantasy fiction and role-playing games, where the orcs and goblins are usually considered to be distinct races of goblinoids. They were once often depicted with pig-like faces, although they were never described as such by Tolkien. In the 1980s, another orc archetype was introduced by the table-top miniature war games Warhammer Fantasy Battle, a heavily muscled, green-skinned barbarian with exaggerated tusks, brow, and lower jaw, whose personality is not so much evil as crudely thuggish, often to a comical degree. This style of orc has since become popular in a vast number of fantasy settings and games, including a signature of the Warcraft series of computer games and spin-offs.

Wiki.

Elves

Azeroth, the fantasy world of the Warcraft computer game series originally featured elves similar to the Warhammer High or Wood Elves. The series introduces the naturalistic purple-skinned Night Elves, who were portrayed more favorably than traditional dark-skinned elves. These elves are the first race to appear in the world of Azeroth; other races of elves descend of them. Starting with Warcraft III, the High-Elves, outcast of the Night Elves, face the destruction of their kingdom, Quel'Thalas, and its capital, Silvermoon. The survivors are thereafter known as Blood Elves and, due to the destruction of the magically-powerful Sunwell, become magic addicts. Night Elves and Blood Elves are playable races in the World of Warcraft MMORPG.

Wiki.

I can continue listing all of the coincidences and ripped content from Warcraft, but there are also coincidences between Blizzard games.

Sylvanas Windrunner for example is a changed and manipulated story of Kerrigan from Starcraft 1. Kerrigan is consumed by the Zerg, as-well as Sylvanas- she too is consumed by "Undead". Then they both are revived to serve those who "enslaved", revived them. Sylvanas Windrunner serves The Lich King until she breaks free from his will, thus forming the Forsaken. Kerrigan gets the control and command of the Zerg after the destruction of the Overmind, thus forming the brood of her own. This is just an example of how the plot and the story is copied between franchises- just that they are presented in the other way. Starcraft 1 was released on March 31, 1998 and Warcraft III was released on July 3, 2002. The fact is that Warcraft III has copied multiple things from Starcraft 1.

For example Blight, it is an identical concept to the zerg creep in Starcraft 1, the game-play style is almost the same- you can't summon buildings without Blight expect for your main building.

Please comment if you have found anything that was ripped by Warcraft or taken from other Blizzard games.
I have not listed all of the similarities, there are too many of them for me to list, the fact is that Warcraft franchise lack the originality.

 

[VeljkoM]

Kinda old news. First Warcraft game was supposed to be Warhammer game till that idea failed (link for better info). That is why orcs were same like Warhammer ones and Warcraft 2 just expanded with new races which were all stereotypical fantasy with few changes. Not like Warhammer wasn't influenced by other sources.

As for story yeah that repeats too a lot. Heck I would say that Arthas also is Kerrigan since he too becomes undead and serves the greater evil, Archimonde who dies, and in next expansion Arthas becomes leader like Kerrigan. Heck in WoW Arthas suddenly has good side like Keriggan in sc2. And undead became more like zerg as they can't not function without an Overmind and become too dangerous without control. Or hey how about Xel'Naga and Titans, dosn't help that titans in wow became sci-fi.

But I would rather point out one more interesting similarity that made Warcraft franchise famous. the Hero mechanic that made Warcraft 3 success and inspired MMo. But thing is Warlords Battlecry (2000) first had rts hero system and what they made was way closer to the promises Blizzard made for Warcraft 3. Same hero that you can use in campaign and melee games with high customization instead of Hero unit with 4 abilities that lasts for one game.

But in the end for me it was never Blizzard non existent originality that made their games good (though I do dislike their modern attempts at creativity) but it was the quality of the gameplay itself. And easy modding for Wc3 that is probably single reason why warcraft franchise is honestly good as it definitively isn't the story.

 

[PurgeandFire]

I usually see people relate Arthas to Kerrigan, as VeljkoM said. But betrayal was never an original idea for anyone, not even starcraft. Hell, not even for shakespeare. It is easy to view it on a broader sense and correlate it to some other storyline. The thing that makes a story so compelling, however, are the details: the relation between Arthas and Uther, Arthas and Mal'Ganis, Arthas and Kel'thuzad, and so forth. You can't simply overlook those and assume it to be a mirror copy. You can feel free to say the overarching idea of Arthas' betrayal or Sylvanas' betrayal isn't original, but that is a lol statement because it applies to everything in existence.

I'm not saying Warcraft is 100% original. I'm aware that the themes are inspired by a lot of previous games, including Warhammer and D&D. But we aren't interested in Warcraft just because it deals with orcs and humans. Those things are more or less trivial. There are so many subtleties in the story to appreciate, and you have to be very short sited to place a blanket statement saying it lacks any originality.

 

[GhostThruster]

All modern fantasy is a ripoff of dnd, which rips off tolkien, which rips of norse mythology. Wc3 lore is probably one of the more unique fantasy worlds, as no other universe copies/parodies to the extent wc does, presentinh this unoriginality almost as an original trait in and of itself.