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Spurned Chinese Publisher May Create WoW Knockoff

Posted by Soulskill on from the poor-losers dept.

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.'"

4 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Poor ripoffs are nothing new by andyn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh, come on. We all know the fact that that most MMORPGs are practically clones of each other anyway...

  2. Dethroning WoW by DreamsAreOkToo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A lot of people have made the observation that it's basically impossible to raise the capital and perform the beta testing required to dethrone WoW. But all these factors aren't valid in China. Especially with their copyright laws. And the source code of WoW's servers...

    1. Re:Dethroning WoW by goodmanj · · 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.

  3. Re:A terrible idea by Anonymous Coward · · 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.