A Perfect (and perfectly copied) World
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 23rd 2007 at 2:42PM
The game itself even looks pretty close (ok, well, not that close), although stealing WoW's look and feel are a little more common than stealing its actual website design. As for what will happen to these guys, EU CM Aeus doesn't have specifics (or maybe just doesn't know), but my guess is that Blizzard might drop them a C&D, and then either hire someone in Malaysia to see the case through, or just forget about the whole thing. As he says, we'll have to watch the website-- if it goes down or changes, then we'll know Blizzard was successful.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Humor
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Minnow Aug 23rd 2007 2:53PM
Kinda weird that they say a word like Newbie instead of Beginner xD
Morrigän Aug 23rd 2007 2:54PM
Sadly, by the screenshots, it looks better than WoW.
(It's not hard to achieve, but anyway...)
Coherent Aug 23rd 2007 2:57PM
Blizzard hasn't got a case against them. Perfect World plagiarizes WoW's website about as much as WoW plagiarizes every other three-column bloglike layout in the whole world.
The window frames? Decorative. The background? Feminine. The menus? Hierarchial. This is just regular for, oh, about a billion other game (and non game) sites out there.
There is a resemblance, but only in that WoW's website resembles every OTHER blog-format website in existence.
grifhame Aug 23rd 2007 3:01PM
So let me get this straight... you can be on your mount while on the gryphon/hippogryph/bat/chimera equivalent. Wow...
Balasan Aug 23rd 2007 3:03PM
Oh wow, a Malaysia tag. I probably should be proud (I'm Malaysian).
But then again, if the game sucks, you didn't hear anything from me.
dekulink Aug 23rd 2007 3:10PM
I saw a "Knights and Dragons" action figure set once. It had the WoW logo, but had Knights and Dragons written on it instead. It even had the Dark Portal in the background.
Freehugz Aug 23rd 2007 3:14PM
Hmmmm... 2 website with a similar genre and purpose looking alike... imagine that
Brendan Aug 23rd 2007 3:18PM
"Sadly, by the screenshots, it looks better than WoW.
(It's not hard to achieve, but anyway...)"
Funny, the same thing was said about Vanguard, until people actually saw the game in motion. Still shots preselected by your PR people to show things to maximum effect are not an indication of how good the game looks when playing it.
Nails Aug 23rd 2007 3:21PM
maybe they both bought their website template from the same company :D
Byron Aug 23rd 2007 3:22PM
Doesn't look like they stole any graphics from the WoW site, just the layout. As a web developer I get pissed if I see original graphics from one site being used on somebody else's site, or blatantly copied custom code (exact same comments in the code, for example). But there doesn't appear to be any of that here (though I'm not about to sift through source code of the two sites to prove that).
jshtan77 Aug 23rd 2007 3:23PM
The page lags like www.worldofwarcraft.com too!!
Kirkburn Aug 23rd 2007 3:23PM
For those trying to convince themselves it's not copied - look at the content borders - they use identical elements!
I wouldn't be surprised if they built it off similar source code to WoW.com
Byron Aug 23rd 2007 3:24PM
http://perfectworld.com.my/downloads/screenshots/ss08.jpg
lol...
PDKM Aug 23rd 2007 3:25PM
Anyone tried the game yet?
G Aug 23rd 2007 3:29PM
The only thing better than WoW in that screenshot is the water surface. The obvious texture tiles on WoW water bugs me a little. And that's about it. Gonna go log in now..
Byron Aug 23rd 2007 3:29PM
@12: yeah that's about the only place you could argue the graphics were copied, but there are slight differences in the frayed parchment edges of the two sites. The only parts that look identical are the thin vertical lines on the outside with the faint dots between them, but the ones on the left side at least have narrower dot spacing on PW than WoW...
InsaneAssault Aug 23rd 2007 3:38PM
You guys realize by posting their link on this site, you're about to give them a ton more traffic and are probably going to overload their crummy web server right? Haha
CVJ Aug 23rd 2007 3:44PM
@13 So it makes more sense in WoW where your pet jumps in your back pack or something lol.
hjungle Aug 23rd 2007 3:45PM
Characters and environments looks a bit weak (you can't fool me, bloom lighting!) but I do really like that subtle change in how female characters ride their mounts; side-saddle! It would be nice to see an option like this in WoW...the parachute pants effect on robed characters when mounted leaves something to be desired.
I'm certainly one to criticize Blizzard's WoW team, but I still can't believe people jump all over the actual graphics. If they've proven anything it's how important art design is over polygon count. Not saying there isn't room for improvement, but for what it is WoW is a fine looking game.
Amusing find, though.
sam Aug 23rd 2007 3:49PM
I do have to say that i like the amount of custimization they allow at character creation. It would be kinda cool if every face in wow was custom.
anyway
back to wow