聽聽聽 First off, yes, another article about the same issue. Sorry for the similar articles, but you'll understand why later on. Think of it this way, it's another example of cloning since we all have the same topic. ;)
Clones.
聽聽聽 To start things off, what exactly do I mean when I speak of a clone in the sense of online gaming? I am talking about a game which is so eerily similar to another, you begin to think that the game was a concept stolen from the other online game. Such examples in the online gaming genre would be a very popular one; Maplestory, Ghost Online & Windslayer. People have the sense that Ghost Online and Windslayer, which will be mentioned as GO and WS from here on, are a stolen concept of Maplestory. To me, which one came first is not a concern. Why? I encourage the cloning of online games, because it gives one developer the opportunity to take an already successful concept, and correct the places where the previous game went wrong. Let's begin with MS and GO.
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聽聽聽 聽聽 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 What Maplestory Did Right:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 What Ghost Online Took:
聽聽聽聽 - A new visual style as well as online game style. (2D Sidescroller)聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 - The unique visual style. (2D Sidescroller)
聽聽聽聽聽 聽 聽 聽 - Attempted to make the game community-oriented.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 - An attempt to make it community-oriented.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 - Tons of room for customization.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 - Lots of content. Numerous maps and monsters.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 - Lots of content, from monsters to maps.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 - Fighting controls/style.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽聽 聽聽聽聽 - Semi-fun fighting controls/style.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 What Maplestory Did Wrong:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 What Ghost Online Added:
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 - Nothing to do except for fight, no work skills or anything.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 - The ability to fish when you get bored of combat.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 - No crafting except for a terrible upgrade system.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 - A unique crafting system with the soul collection
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽 聽 聽聽 - No player vs. player combat.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 - Player vs. player combat.
聽聽聽 As you can see, while in many ways such as the number of updates and community size, MS is superior to GO, Ghost still had a good attempt at creating a game of similar style, also referred to as a clone, but with more features that players desired, mainly the player vs. player. This is why I feel that clones are a good thing. They allow one company to feed off of the things a game did right, according to the players, and fix mistakes that the game had, once again according to the players. Imagine a game that takes Runescape's general idea, a medieval game with a innovative player vs. player system, tons of places to explores, numerous end-game content areas, a small membership fee to get rid of some hackers and botters, tons of stuff to do when you get bored for thievery to cooking, and a lot more. But instead, they made the graphics the style of another game, such as 2Moons, or perhaps 2D such as Secret of the Solstice or Ragnarok Online. (Another example of cloning) How amazing could that game potentially be?
聽聽聽 Cloning a game is risky business, but can usually be made for the better. If you keep the essentials, and bring in new innovative features, you can create a hit game. I'm sure we could find out that all the World of Warcraft is would be a composition of online games, or any games, before it. We could find a game with similar graphics, with similar quests, with a similar plot, etc. But let's not start pointing fingers at games saying they're a clone or a thief, my main point is that the cloning of games is not always a bad thing. Why is it such a big deal if you have two or three games like Maplestory? Sure, it may thin out the population of MS and spread it across the three games, but it also means you've got a choice. Do you want a game with the biggest community and the most stuff as well as a good company with constant updates and events, which would be Maplestory, or a game where you can upgrade items as you fight through the collection of souls or just relax and go fishing, which would be Ghost Online?
聽聽聽 Since when is having a choice a bad thing? I say that cloning is for better, because it allows room for innovation with old material that we love to be included. Only if nothing new is added is it a true clone, which in this case is a terrible thing since all it does it lower the population and cause disputes between gamers.
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