WoW Clone...Do you notice recently players talked about nothing but WoW Clone? It's becoming a King Charles's head! This syndrome has been widely discussed on MMOsite. What, when, where and why? MMOsite Write Club's member Andaleon write this "WoW Clone" article and tell you what happened on earth. Enjoy it!
This article is in connection with: "The Art and Science of Trolling."
The phrase "WoW clone" has been a rampant comment or reply to numerous articles from gaming websites, like MMOsite.com. It has been a running discussion in many BBS / forum sites ever since World of Warcraft went online a few years ago. Despite the numerous rebuttals from WoW fans, newbies and veteran gamers alike, people trolling the "WoW clone" meme does not show any signs of dying down. Thus, this article is to answer, or scratch the surface, of the popular meme known as "WoW clone." We might not be able to completely stop it, but we can at least shed some light into this topic.
This article shall discuss the meme by answering the following questions:
What, When, Where, Why, Who, and How.
What are the terms concerned with this article?
First of all, let us define the following concerned words.
Troll: According to Dictionary.com, a troll is "to utter a posting [on Usenet] designed to attract predictable responses or flames." See the article on trolling in conjunction with this article.
Meme: Wikipedia defines a meme as "a neologism used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an inside joke."
Clone: Dictionary.com defines a clone as "one that copies or closely resembles another, as in appearance or function."
What is World of Warcraft?
World of Warcraft is a massively-multiplayer online RPG created by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released last November 2004 and currently having 2 expansions: Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King.
What are other variants of this meme?
In many other discussions, other well-known MMORPGs have also been used with this meme. Such examples are: "Ultima clone," "EverQuest clone," "Runescape clone," and "Final Fantasy clone." Other games such as Diablo and Baldur's Gate were also used in conjuction with the clone meme.
When did the WoW clone meme appear?
No exact date can be specified. But, there is justifiable reason that the WoW clone meme appeared when the influx of new MMORPGs came to the market, circa 2005 onwards. Many of the MMORPGs "in development" during this time were automatically being compared to World of Warcraft as well. It has also been revealed that World of Warcraft was accused of being an EverQuest / Ultima clone during its development and release days.
Where did the WoW clone meme appear?
This is an easy question. Any and all memes originate from discussion boards, forums, imageboards, anonymous comments like those found in MMOsite. Search for a discussion about console or online games and you'll find this meme or its other similar variants in the replies.
It's discussions like these that makes a troll happy
