Chinese MMO accused of stealing art from World of Warcraft, others

by Mike Schramm Dec 2nd 2008 at 4:20PM

A Chinese browser-based MMO named Aurora Blade has been accused of lifting art and design work from a few other MMOs, including Ragnarok Online, Maple Story, and yes, even World of Warcraft. You can judge for yourself in the comparison above (the little Rogue is Aurora Blade, obviously), put together by ShackNews, but that definitely looks alike to us. The game is hosted in the West by a company called IGG, and they've responded by saying that they only host the game and aren't responsible for the game's artwork.

They give no indication, however, who is responsible for the artwork of the game, and there's nothing on the page or in the FAQ that gives a company name out either. Granted, Aurora Blade is hardly competition for World of Warcraft, but at this point it appears to be up to Blizzard whether they'll bother taking further action to get to the bottom of this.

Of course, there is a flaw in their plan. If they really wanted to rip off some cool Rogue armor, wouldn't it be Bloodfang? Why bother with Shadowcraft?

Tags: art, artwork, aurora-blade, breaking, copy, icons, ripoff, shacknews, world-of-warcraft, wow

Filed under: Rogue, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

Pat Dec 2nd 2008 4:24PM

Because a chibi-Forsaken in Shadowcraft is *adorable*.

Sirg Dec 2nd 2008 4:57PM

actually it's called Darkmantle, and I think it's still awsome, even if it's not fully epic

Dylboy Dec 2nd 2008 5:36PM

Tell me this isn't a copy of a murloc..

http://ab.igg.com/upload/200811/20081103180434115.gif

Image taken from 'aurora blade's official site.
Found on the Monster page, Level 1 - 10.

Many others look alike.

Luke Dec 2nd 2008 6:48PM

Indeed. I saw several creatures on their site that looked stolen. I saw some Pokemon on there too, heh.

BladeeR Dec 2nd 2008 4:29PM

Stealing huh?

WoW stole not only Warhammer idea about siege weapons, and engines (Comon, if they "planned it for long, why they didnt release it before WAR), but also quite a few armor design such as that warlock tier 8, the helm is 100% look alike Zealots armor.

Games often take ideas from other's, and WoW is not at the bottom of the Saint list.

Reinard Dec 2nd 2008 4:40PM

Um.

The siege weapon bit, I'm pretty sure, is in the *original* World of Warcraft manual. Not implemented then, but neither was a lot of stuff in that little book. At any rate, that's not the point.

PimpyMicPimp Dec 2nd 2008 4:49PM

Different between implementing good ideas to advance the genre and plagerism.

BladeeR Dec 2nd 2008 4:49PM

Yeah, I guess Blizz made alot of "back ups", so they can say:
We copy?- Hey, look in the manual, it was tehre for three years ago.

But the fact is that they didnt bother to even think about it before WAR. WoW players are like dogs, whom Blizz throw a new bone to keep em with their side as something new shows up.

Blizz ripped off Siege weapons idea too, so I just think its pathetic bringing up when some Chinese game have few similar skill buttons.

It's more of "Oh, look, other people think that WoW is something important and try to copy it"

sephirah Dec 2nd 2008 4:50PM

Do you know the difference between stealing ideas and intellectual properties, don't you?

BladeeR Dec 2nd 2008 4:56PM

sephirah , I sure do.

But face the fact: Blizzard had whining about world PvP for years, and they yet didn't bother to do anything till War came out. They are biggest slackers I seen, and only do new contest in order to keep players at the game, not to actually make a good game.

The Siege combat in Wintergasp and the new BG is a answer to WAR, and if WAR have not been in development, I bet we would not seen the siege combat. So yes, Blizz got deffinately inpiration from WAR. Not to mention their warlock tier 8.

What ever you ask for, they come up with "We are happy with how it works". Ffs, it is players who should be happy, not Blizz.

Ærynn Lómëhtar Dec 2nd 2008 5:03PM

Um, so during those few weeks after WAR came out, Blizzard hurriedly developed the siege engine idea and put it into the game?

Funny. I could've sworn they already had the concepts of destructible buildings in WarCraft: Orcs and Humans.

I also could've sworn that WoW as an MMO came out years before WAR came out as an MMO... are we accusing WAR of copying the MMO idea? AoC too? Heck! Maybe we should all just go back to Everquest, because we all know they were first.

There is a difference between lifting artwork sloppily (like Aurora Blade obviously did) and developing from common ideas (like taking the idea of virtually every class in WoW from D&D and developing it further).

In short, bad artists copy... great artists steal.