Stop Bellyaching! The Combine Soldiers ARE NOT original

lord dubu

lord dubu

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I don't make posts like this often... but seriously, I'm so sick of hearing people say "Such and such game/movie/comicbook ripped off the combine soldiers".

Look, the visual style of the combine soldier hasn't been original since WORLD WAR FREAKIN II! The gasmask-armor motif has been repeated in every medium possible over the past 60 years, generally used as a mechanism to convey a facist occupying force.

I am not complaining about the character designs, in fact they are a nice spin on a time-honored motif. But seriously if you really think that anything out there is ripping them off, then you've lived a life completely sheltered from science fiction.

Here's some examples for you:

Jin Roh, Meta-Barone, Fog-squad in "Rock and Rule", the baddies in Ralp Bakshi's "Wizards"... there's plenty more, especially if you peruse European comics.
 
wow, i agree with u, and just 1 word,


OWNED
 
Not in the part of the world I'm from. It means complaining about everything, like a child whining about how his stomach hurts at even the slightest discomfort.
 
I hate people that accuse things of ripping off other things.


For example, the person on Amazon.com who said that Lord of the Rings: Return of the King movie ripped off star wars.
I want to rip out his spinal cord and beat him to death with it.

Anyway, that's my rant for today.
 
MiccyNarc said:
I hate people that accuse things of ripping off other things.


For example, the person on Amazon.com who said that Lord of the Rings: Return of the King movie ripped off star wars.
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Ya damn right they did. And Star Wars ripped it off Star Trek and they rippid it off Star Gate and they ripped it off the Stars. Those bastards.

Most of these ideas are from inspiration. Its really hard to create ideas that are not original.
 
I don't make posts like this often... but seriously, I'm so sick of hearing people say "Such and such game/movie/comicbook ripped off the combine soldiers".
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Never heard anyone do that, ever. :|

BTW, it's pretty obvious the soldier's faces are based off Russian gasmasks.
 
I remenber another enemys in others game that were was humanoids whit gasmask

but I am not "angry" that the combine soldiers are not original,anyway gasmaks are cool
 
PvtRyan said:
Never heard anyone do that, ever. :|

BTW, it's pretty obvious the soldier's faces are based off Russian gasmasks.
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Really? Since joining this list I've heard it several times, two I can think of, were the Vampire sun-suits in Blade:Trinity and the Hellghast in Killzone, both accused by Halflife2 junkies as ripping off HL2
 
lord dubu said:
Really? Since joining this list I've heard it several times, two I can think of, were the Vampire sun-suits in Blade:Trinity and the Hellghast in Killzone, both accused by Halflife2 junkies as ripping off HL2
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fanboys will always complain tho.
like someone mentioned in an earlier post, these things come from inspiration.. and it is tough to come up with something totally original without it having some similarities with something else.
 
The inspiration for the Combine Soldiers was drawn from Nazi Germany SS Soldiers, early versions even had the long flowing trenchcoats.

And that's straight from the horses mouth. (Well, it's in 'Raising The Bar'). The idea was to re-enforce the 'military rule' that the Combine had inplace in the cities.
 
lord dubu said:
Really? Since joining this list I've heard it several times, two I can think of, were the Vampire sun-suits in Blade:Trinity and the Hellghast in Killzone, both accused by Halflife2 junkies as ripping off HL2
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the hellgast of Killzone dont hav a gasmak,they hav some breathing device thats looks more like a oxigen mask that a gas mask so I dont see similiarity
 
Any enemy in a game where the face is covered (Helmet/gasmask) makes the enemy unpersonalble. A generic badguy which has no feelings. And like said, its also good for conveying the oppressive nature of the combine, because gasmasks are so cool and oppressive-like.
 
Ugh the ignorance of some people. In raising the bar, and I'm sure it was in some other public interview, they cleary stated that the combine solders ARE inspired by WWII gasmasks, something like that, so stop acting as if everyone things they were something completely never thought of.
 
MiccyNarc said:
I hate people that accuse things of ripping off other things.
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Agreed -- there is a difference between "ripping off" and being inspired by. Something that is "ripping off" would be taking the ENTIRE idea, and using it without credit. For example, if someone created a game where you play a woman cyborg bounty hunter hunting for planet killing, energy stealing jellyfish, and called it Megatroid -- that would be a ripoff of Metroid. However, if someone came up with an idea for a game that used a female cyborg bounty hunter, but in other contect, then that could be something inspired by Metriod. Usually the dividing line between ripoff and inspiration can be determined by looking to see if any original thought went into the newer material -- if the storyline has hardly changed at all, then it probably is a ripoff. It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who cry ripoff (OMG, HL ripped off Doom!! -- Bah, I would not want to play any game that ripped off DOOM!!!).

MiccyNarc said:
For example, the person on Amazon.com who said that Lord of the Rings: Return of the King movie ripped off star wars.
I want to rip out his spinal cord and beat him to death with it.
Click to expand...
Jesus. What a waste of space that person was. They obviously did not realize that much of today's fantasy/sci fi was inspired by Tolkein's work, and that he started writing these in the early 1900's!!!! TV was not even invented when he wrote the Hobbit for Christ's sake!! I wish people would take the time to research things just a little before forming a rant, and spewing it on the boards. Of course, I live in a nation where the favorite store is Wal-Mart, so we cater to the lowest common denominator here (the reason that my wife and I will home school our son).
 
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