Blatant WOW theft

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I trying to figure out how this game was made without anyone from Blizzard sending their lawyers.

http://alganon.com/screenshots

I've seen a lot of WOW clones but this is the first I've seen that is seriously stealing.

It's probably got lots of different mechanics and stuff to WOW.

Like Aion, that looks like a ripoff of WOW, but Blizzard hasn't been suing them for it.

Because Blizzard are smart and used to this, they won't go suing over and over spending a huge amount of cash on lawsuits and losing time and causing bad rep. This pressure just makes them better at what they do and when something becomes all so similar all those hired art directors and illustrators and game testers will come up with new and more fun interactive ways of making WoW stand out instead of bearing their fangs at every ripoff that shows up. It's the way of our century to copy and duplicate, everyone is doing it.

Just by looking like WoW won't make the true WoW players leave for another game, it is what the game has to offer that draws you in.

I'd guess it's because Blizzard's afraid that if they started suing over infringement of World of Warcraft, the lawyers from the Gygax and Arneson estates might start looking in Blizzard's direction and licking their chops...

(For those not up on their role-playing history, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson created the first role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, back in 1974, when they were playing the minatures fantasy wargame Chainmail and decided to figure out what kind of people were in their armies - and then started coming up with individual adventures for them. Not dissimilar, really to WoW's origin in the real-time-strategy game Warcraft.)

I think it's more of a testament to how generic 9/10 mmorpgs are...

I guess the estate of JRR Tolkien could have a case, he was the first to combine many different cultures mythology in a Novel.. maybe the descendants of some of the Irish clans that told stories of Elfs around bonfires could even have a case.

Varant/SoE would have a better case against WoW.. Everquest was the first MMO to use a 3d environment. But then AOL had the first Fantasy based graphic MMO with Neverwinter Nights back when it was QLink.

Maybe Richard Garriott, the mind behind Ultima series, should send in his lawyers.. after all he wants to take a rocket into outer space again.

I think you guys are missing the point. I'm not referring to recycled concepts and ideas. What I am referring to is blatant, verbatim copying of existing material. I've seen other games used WOW's user interface for their game, but they always create a unique look. Alganon not only copied the look of WOW they also copied the interface and icons. Of course I have no proof that they actually copied WOW's materials -- maybe they recreated them in Photoshop from WOW screenshots -- but the visual evidence is pretty compelling.

Why, you might ask, am I making a big deal out of this? It's because I hate people and companies who steal other people's work and claim it as their own. I see this all the time in the music business, in the web design business (it's shocking how many sites are ripped off from other sites, often without the client knowing), and artwork. DeviantArt is rife with examples of people who steal other people's artwork and try and pass it off as their own. I absolutely HATE that!

Well, its mainly direct copyright that cant be sued over (would be worthy of lawsuit if someone else just took WoW and sold it under their name rather than Blizzard's). Second, i doubt words like Elf, Troll, Orc, Human, Gnome, Dwarf, etc can be sued over because everyone uses them to some degree. Because of that, calling a race a, DOOM ELF, would be within someone's rights even though the concept could be SIMILAR to a Dark Elf/Drow (the latter names are copyrighted, the former isnt . . . yet). Its a technicality that dances of the edge of a sword. Chances are, someone from Blizzard noticed this, and they either take it as an homage, or theyre gonna laugh over how lame an attempt at their game it really is. As long as artwork/art style differ, names differ, etc . . . they can get away with it. Looks the same but isnt, so no harm . . . in theory.

BTW: The default UI for WoW stinks. I use CT-Bar mod (http://www.ctmod.net/) & Titan panel (http://wow.curse.com)

I did just fine without those. Read the quests to know where to go, I did use MRP for a while until later patches made it useless and aggravating.

WoW practically recycled everything for there game in the first place. There are few things in the game that Blizzard can game sole, if any credit for. I can't stand when people who get introduced to these type of fantasy games start ranting on when they then see similar things. Many of these games like D&D and Warhammer and thousands of others were around long before WoW was even thought of.

So maybe you should be less worryed about things copying WoW and look more into how WoW copyed everything else