On the website of Rock Paper Shotgun, Alec Meer put up a thoughtful piece on why it is that WoW has become a dirty word, both in and out of the industry, and why people are so quick to leap to vociferous defense of their games.

The details are as below:

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The reason we don't explicitly state that Everquest did it first and Blizzard borrowed from Games Workshop and yadayadayada every we talk about Warhammer Online is not because we don't know it - of course we know it - but because it doesn't alter the simple truth that EA's interest in making and funding WAR is, I have no doubt, because they want a piece of Warcraft's pie. WAR does a lot of stuff better (and some stuff not as well), and in being so PvP focused does ultimately head to a slightly different place, but WoW's landmark success is why Warhammer Online looks as it does, why major elements of it play as they do, and most of all why it's being released now.

I think it's going to work out, too - I'm expecting an awful lot of dispossessed WoW players to head WAR's way. It bundles in some new ideas at the same time as evolving and streamlining certain core WoW/Everquest concepts that had, over time, proven themselves a little tired, and that's enough to make the game seem newer and fresher than it perhaps fundamentally is. There is nothing wrong with that; MMO players have every reason to hope WAR will be a rewarding place to spend their online time.

More details on next page.

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