As many of you know, WoW (Or World of Warcraft to the five people who never heard of it) is considered the most popular MMO on the market. I am aware, though, many people dislike the game for a variety of reasons (Only a few make sense and aren't full of hyperbole). I am also aware many people would like to see it die. While I know most people could careless about what happens to Blizzard and/or WoW, I doubt you can tolerate it being ripped off and blatantly copied.
For those who havent visited the WoW GD forums this past weekend, there is this new MMO called Alganon. It is a fantasy based MMO with two factions and the usual fantasy gimmicks. Except there are only two races and four classes. I know some will say "but it's still in beta!" It's not. It officially went live yesterday. Here's another thing, it's also being accused of copying WoW.
Now, I don't mean as in they take a general concept, let's say a UI, and twist it a bit, add a new feature, toy with it a bit, add their own artistic deal to it, make it more functional to the general feel to the game and implement it. That's called borrowing, all of the MMo's generally do it. That is fine. What is not fine is merely copy-pasting the UI into your own game. SS or it didn't happen?
The SS
Take a good long loook at it. Enjoy it? Good. Oh, that's not Westfall your looking at either. That's the Fallen Farms or somesuch. Might I add it's effectively the second zone you quest in? Right after the Asheran Forest? However, that's not what bugs me. It was common for farmlands to be right to wooded areas in the Medieval times. Look intently at the UI. Yes, it is almost hte same as WoW's. The only true difference? The bags were on the left. Hell, the entire menu and options were the same as WoW, minus a few features. But you know what? Let's over look that. It's the art that matters right?
Even then...
The Neru...I mean Skitter.
I know, it's at a bad angle. It's hard to truly see the entire body. However, from the side veiw, I swore it was the WC3 Nerubian, or a more modern one. Need an example?
A nerubian, circa WC3
Pretty similar eh? However, similarities in art occur often. Even with the same horde like structures appearing in their version of the Barrens.
But, that's not what really got me.
It was the classes, namely the Soldier. Now, as shown in the "skitter" picture, you can see what I was playing looked like a warrior. You weren't all that wrong. Now, note this, I understand generic. I understand WoW got alot of it's influences from D&D, the Tabletop Warhammer, UO and EQ. While their spells are from D&D, they are considered generic. Fireball? Generic. Power Word: WTFPWNBBQ? Generic. They even have spells unique to them. Not so much with Alganon and the Soldier class. You'll know when it truly got to me. They both use a red bar that fills up as they fight (Wow is Rage, Alganon is Anger). They both use heavy armor and shields and BFS (Generic, standard warrior crap). However, their spells, that's when it shines. In Alganon, you start with just Attack and Shield Slam, both generic. Then you get Rugged Yell, a spell that increases the Attack power of you and fellow partymembers for 2 minutes. Wait a second. That's what battle shout does... Then you get focused strike, an attack that deals extra dmg, it occurs on your next attack. It has the same effect as Heric strike, but they can be seen as generic. Then you get mangle, an ability that deals 30 dmg over 15 seconds, a bleed effect. Then you get slam. You will see a few unique spells (If they really are) in the ability list. However, one thing is evident, the thing that tied it all together, the general point at which you get the abilities. Also, you get a spell that gives more anger at the cost of some health, 10 anger at first and 1 every sec for 10 secs. Then you get the ability stances, Tactical, Weaponry and Defender.
Really? REALLY? REALLY?!
The people at Quest Online (The Devs) pretty much just copy-pasted an entire class. I can understand generics, I can understand similar art, I can understand some similar class mechanics, but there are too many similarities, with the entire rip-off of the warrior class being eveident.
Then a guildie told me that the Magus, Healer and Ranger classes were very much similar to those of WoW.

/facedesk

A small note: Blizzard might be aware of QOL's copyright infrigements as well. Look up the boss Algalon the Observer*.

*Thanks to Keric for pointing out how hard I failed.