I find it very funny, considering all the the internet allows us to do and achieve, that the copyright logo carries very little legal weight. It can be slapped on just about anything, dates falsified, or you could even go so far as to copyright the copyright logo itself! Ryon and I had a discussion much like this months ago, about trademarking the little trademark logo. We hypothesized that, every time the logo would be used, and endless string of trademarks would spew forth, eventually destroying the very fabric of reality.
In fact I found it very interesting to find out that basically everything you create, even on the internet, is subject to an automatic copyright, along the lines of Intellectual Properties. It may take a good deal of legal hassle and effort, but you can defend your creations if they truly have been copied verbatim through another person’s lethargy, incompetance, and utter lack of creativity.
On the topic of Intellectual Property, there was a discussion recently on Scott Jenning’s blog about World of Warcraft, some commentors there argued that the game would still be the number one MMO no matter what the IP it were based around.
The concept is rather purist, assuming that the game is entirely successful solely because of the gameplay mechanics. If the game were stripped of all Warcraft / Blizzard related content and replaced with, say, a Hungry Hungry Hippos theme, would it be as popular? Would it be more popular? I’d most likely be leveling my 55 pink hippo-lord in the hopes of one day facing Honkyxia, the mongoose queen. My opinion is that World of Warcraft is so successful at least half because of the intellectual property it is based on. The Warcraft franchise has been around for over a decade now, every game in the series has been wildly popular, and in general it is a wonderful mix of cartoon tongue-in-cheek comedy and Tolkein. Not to mention the fact that Blizzard incorporated all of their experience from every single game into WoW, the delicate balancing of very different races (and classes) from Starcraft, the classic RP advancement and talent-trees from Diablo, and practically everything from Warcraft 3!
This discussion also ties into the Austion Games Conference, where a lot of coverage focused around the amount of polish that Blizzard places on their games, specifically on WoW and how this contrasts with the genre trend to release games under-refined and un-finished. I found this particularly joyous considering the amount of crap Blizzard heard from people in the first two months of World of Warcraft’s launch about server down-time and bugs.
Now people are all concerned about whether or not Mythic’s new game based on the fantastic Warhammer universe will do so well, or if it will be such a blatant rip-off (at least in gameplay / mechanics) that people will just stick with what they already know. I think Warhammer Online has a ton of potential, even just within the realm of the Orcs being so primally and insanely different from those found in Warcraft. If Mythic can emphasize the differences, make them a subtle but primary focus of the game’s content, then I think it will very easily grab those who love World of Warcraft but have become disenfranchised with the whole thing and want a fresh, new game to waste their rainy days away with. Only time will tell at this point!
I haven’t read the article you refer to, but if the point is that the Warcraft IP isn’t important to success- like if it had some other D&D/Tolkienesque fantasy theme- then I’d agree. Having played Warcraft 1 and 2 extensively and a little of 3, it doesn’t correlate to my mind to the stuff in WoW. It’s like a different universe that shares some of the same stuff, so I think they would have been just as successful with other fantasy races, classes, and places.
In regards to the Warhammer MMO emphasizing its differences… it doesn’t. I played it briefly at Origins, and it looks and plays like WoW. It’s a shame, because as you point out, there’s a killer IP. But expect a game that is like WoW but worse, and you can play a Skaven instead of a Tauren (or something.)
I don’t think Blizzard has ever done an original thing in their entire time. They’ve made a practice of perfecting already established genres. Their fantasy world is the same as pretty much any other when it comes down to it.
I’m not sure that I agree with you completely, but there are too many examples of their lack of originality to really get into a good discussion about. They’re good at what they do, is what I’ll leave it at.