/************************************** Designer: ALS URL: http://pagesofadiary.blogspot.com/ Date: 23 March 2009 ***************************************/
Monday, August 20, 2012
Hi,

Just had a slight rage on a comment by a classmate saying "Other MMOs are WoW clones."

Whoa whoa whoa, just a moment there. You can't just say that. They definitely have the same mechanics, but that doesn't make them a WoW clone. My god, if you say that, you have probably missed out on a lot of great MMOs.

Let's take Gala Lab's Fly for Fun. A MMORPG that i have enjoyed during my younger years.


Fly for Fun has the mechanics as a standard MMORPG. You get quests, storyline, guilds. But is it a clone? NO. 

Fly for Fun has really unique classes, take the Jester for example. It's a class whose main weapon is the Yo-yo. Seriously, PM me if you've seen another MMO use Yo-yos for main weapons. That's called a feature.

Features are what make a game unique. If all games didn't have that extra oomph, then it can be safely called a "clone". If all games just had quests, the same classes, the same mechanics, that's called a "clone".
~~~

If it's still too murky to understand. Let's do my favourite proving method, usage of analogies.

Let's say you bought a certain t-shirt made out of cotton from a certain shop. Then your friend also buys another t-shirt made out of cotton. But are they clones? No, of course not, they have different prints, different cuttings, those are unique.



Get it right peeps.

PS: What pains me more is that we're in a game development course. If you're continuing this mindset, it'll just come and bite you back in the ass. I understand that you love to play MOBA(Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas). If you develop one next time which has unique features and people say its a "clone", im sure you'll be hurt. Months and YEARS of production time and it ended up being called a mere "clone" of DotA.
posted at 9:49 PM by Unknown