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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe9 prepping WoW-clone World of Fight
by Lesley Smith 
May 3rd 2009 at 4:00PM
The teaser site went up earlier in the week and reeks of WoW in a way that only Chinese knock-offs can. At the moment we know next to nothing about the game but we can certainly guess. The domain name (www.wofchina.com) is suspiciously similar to the one for World of Warcraft (www.wowchina.com) but with one letter changed. Just look at that font, remind you of anything?
It's not a stretch to bet that The9 are hoping to attract people who associated them with WoW, but I'm pretty sure Blizzard won't be too happy to see their former publisher in Asia trying to promote a game so similar. We'll certainly keep you updated as I'm quite keen to see what World of Fight looks like.
Filed under: Odds and ends, News items
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
Aeolos May 3rd 2009 9:43PM
Kaki..... you're obviously a relatively smart guy, so please do yourself a favour and stop over egging your posts so much in an attempt to look intellectual. It makes me cringe every time I see it.
'But wordsofivory, that brand of In Group Bias you display is truly off putting, let us have less of this "Us" and "Them" talk so reminiscent of the very ethnocentrism so, shall we say, central, to many of the more troubling events of that portion of history both in our life time and in the recorded past.'
For starters, that whole thing is one gigantic sentence, when in fact it would be more readable if you broke it down a bit. Indeed, there should be a full stop after 'offputting' (which is one word btw, not two). The last part is a clunky read to say the least. There is absolutely no need for all that babble you put at the end, you could quite easily have just said 'many of the more troubling events of the past' and it would have read ten times better. I'll gloss over the other numerous grammatical errors in your post and just give you some friendly advice instead.
Good writers can get their point across clearly and concisely in a way that anyone can easily understand. Intelligent people rarely have to go out of their way to prove it.
Kakistocracy May 3rd 2009 11:12PM
Fair enough, Aeolos, but regarding "off putting" versus "offputting" (which I think ought to be hyphenated by the way), I like the sound of "off putting" more. It feels more natural, and sure, I wrote it, so does sound really enter in, you may ask. But to me, The spoken word comes first, and the written word simply symbolizes it (aren't you proud of me? I didn't say anything about the isomorphic representation). If you stress the end of each "word", you get an effect completely different than that the rushed, hurried, harried one word variant.
But really, it's not my goal to be a good writer on this comment board. Yes, I can be a bit pretentious, and yes I take idiomatic to an extreme, but I get from these postings everything (that is to say next to nothing) that I aim to get out of them.
Consider it a sort of stream of consciousness style of "writing" (not to say I'm in the company of Joyce or Mozart...), and keep very low expectations when reading my clearly not compositions.
gogocons May 4th 2009 1:11AM
:D are you 2 brothers or friends? either way these comments have made my evening
wordsofivory May 3rd 2009 5:45PM
So the site is heavily stylised after WoW and shows a screenshot from Warhammer Online, correct?
And Warhammer is a game made by an American company, yes? We also know that E.A. owns a large number of shares in The9, right?
Maybe if this turns out to be WAR for China, it'll shut up all those xenophobic retards with their uneducated assumptions and derogatory remarks towards a country they know nothing about when they realise it's an American game...
Kakistocracy May 3rd 2009 5:49PM
Or they will have more fun doing things their way, and go on believing much as they have to the point that they are what you classify them as being.
Dude May 3rd 2009 5:52PM
Looks awesome. Blizzard shouldn't be allowed to monopolize anyway. All's fair in love and war(craft).
slimj091 May 3rd 2009 9:20PM
when it come's to their IP.. yes they can, and are allowed to. same as you can't steal a case of 20 oz. pepsi's, replace the label, and sell it as your own brand.
however all we have seen so far like other's have said is a font, and one screenshot that could be from anything (most likely warhammer). the only thing that makes this fishy is the announcement so soon after losing their license to distribute WoW in china. meaning..
1. it's a knock off of WoW (doubtful)
2. The9 have been working for some time to release warhammer in china. which would have been kind of awkward to have two rival MMO's in the same house.
Radiophonic May 3rd 2009 6:01PM
Haha...
No wait...lemme read it again...
...hahha!
theholyevil May 3rd 2009 6:12PM
Just going to throw this out there.
Though I believe that this game isn't even going to make it past the lawsuit, a WOW copy might do the WOW community some GOOD. Why? Blizz will not have to compete against their own game in china. the9 is going to do everything in their power to rake in the costumers, meaning blizz might soon have to change it's "policy". meaning nicer devs and no more money hording.
Again going to say this probably isn't even going to make it past the lawsuit. :\
Though if it does, we may have a new competitor on our hands.
P.S Irony: competing for the rights to your own game!
Dude May 3rd 2009 6:30PM
I'd love to see Blizz navigate Chinese law in their favour..
Americans picking on a Chinese company, telling Chinese people what they can and can't do... Blizz probably won't even try.
Nintendwarf May 3rd 2009 6:49PM
So its like Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Bros., Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Soul Caliber, Street Fighter, Punch Out, and World of Warcraft all rolled into one?
miko May 3rd 2009 9:35PM
if anyone ever shoehorns the mechanics of the likes of Soul Caliber into an MMO and makes a decent job of it Blizzard won't see me for dust...
uncaringbear May 3rd 2009 6:56PM
Your comment was unpredictably racist. How unexpected!
uncaringbear May 3rd 2009 6:59PM
Why is it that everytime there's an article which has even the smallest thing to do with China, the ignorant idiots come out of the wood work with their usual racist comments? Seriously, it got old years ago.
Keyra May 3rd 2009 9:55PM
^^ THIS!!!
Cynthx May 3rd 2009 8:03PM
wtf..... LOL
Mordii May 3rd 2009 8:58PM
Haha, thats not racist. What a moron.
Thick May 3rd 2009 8:40PM
WHERE CAN I SIGN UP FOR THE BETA!?!?!!
Must be prepared for Ulfudar, Magic Dungeon!
automator May 3rd 2009 9:01PM
Totally awesome.
Teresa May 3rd 2009 9:17PM
Yanked out from under them for no reason?
The players were complaining of extreme server instability. If they can't be bothered to fix things to make their players happy, they don't deserve to have the license for wow.
Letting The9 keep their license would have been a huge mistake for Blizzard.