WoW, Ripoff of LotR, beast wise

the_rebel_medic

the_rebel_medic

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Ok well i was watching LotR and i noticed that all warcraft monsters had an equivilent. night elves = elves, orcs = orcs. humans = humans. gnolls = goblins. dwarfes = dwarfes. Tauren... i supose like the uruks. goblins = hobbits.
Input your oppinions here
 
Everything with even a hint of medieval fantasy in it has ripped off Tolkien, depending on the amount of fantasy contained therein. Nothing particularly surprising from where I'm standing.
 
And so has everything else after the 50's that contains any mention of elves, orcs, and wizards. :E
 
KagePrototype said:
Everything with even a hint of medieval fantasy in it has ripped off Tolkien, depending on the amount of fantasy contained therein. Nothing particularly surprising from where I'm standing.
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Which was ripped off of thousands of years of culture. :-P
 
Our medieval culture didnt contain, orcs, wizards or elves though :p I'm pretty sure those are made up.
 
sure it did but they where extinguished !
elves slowly lost their immortality cuz they female elves had sechs with human men!
and dragons where hunted down just like buffalos until they where gone
there are still orcs thoe they live in russia in the mountains
 
Lemonking said:
sure it did but they where extinguished !
elves slowly lost their immortality cuz they female elves had sechs with human men!
and dragons where hunted down just like buffalos until they where gone
there are still orcs thoe they live in russia in the mountains
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'Tis the truth muhlord!
 
Orcs, Elves, goblins, trolls, and dwarfes were all terms coined by Tolkein when he wrote LOTR in 1954. Supposedly he based them off of Norse mythology, which is why you sometimes see dwarfes wearing horny Norseman (Viking) hats. Pretty much every single fantasy based game has ripped of Tolkien in one way or another. :)
 
Yeah, the entire modern fantasy genre was seeded by Tolkein and Lord of the Rings. I actually think WoW is somewhat more creative than many other fantasy works which are essentially just a different Middle Earth.
 
Conclusion:

Thousands of years of culture -> Tolkien (+ makes up terms) -> The Rest.
 
Tolkien created modern fantasy and it has been a template ever since LOTR. If you want to rag on WoW for not being 100% original, then you might as well do the same for anything else that's similar.

Alternatively, you focus on Blizzard's input on the theme and see the brilliance of their work.

(Edited: because of a stupid mistake)
 
oldagerocker said:
Our medieval culture didnt contain, orcs, wizards or elves though :p I'm pretty sure those are made up.
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Of course they're made up. Orcs, Elves, Goblins, Gremlins, ogres, trolls, you name it... are all from history. They are mythological, and have been written about in stories for a very long time. Long before the 1950's <snickers>

However... I guess you could say he might have modernized some of them. This, I do not care about.

Besides... modern fantasy culture didn't come from Tolkien for me. Never read any of his stuff... it came from AD&D. Second Edition... That's where its at!
 
zomg im contacting tolkien right now to let him know....and yes im contacting him from teh dead :O
 
My god I can't believe you just said that. Orcs Elves etc... have been a basic concept for mythes for thousands of years. You didn't actually believe thet LOTR was the first film/book to think up of a Orc or dragon did you? lol.
 
Yeah wtf...IchI is right, Tolkien didn't invent these creatures, he merely popularized them in fantasy. Orcs, elves, trolls, dragons, ect, all an explanation of something weird people saw a long time ago.
 
no. i am aware that it is not the first. for example i bet you didn't know that the hobbit 1st edition is actually different to todays version. for example golum had no idea about the ring and bilbo and smeagol left as friends. but before that there were mythical things aswell. take the bibal for example. most of that stuff aint real.
 
I know that fairies and pixies came from irish myths :p dont know about the others though.
 
the_rebel_medic said:
take the bibal for example. most of that stuff aint real.
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A large majority of christians know that. Adults and children alike.
 
Tolkien didn't make up dwarves, they're people with a condition similar (but not the same as) midgets.

They aren't extremely cultured in mining or mountains and have their own community or anything though ;p. So I guess he applied that to them.
 
the_rebel_medic said:
fixed the spelling mr Ricera10/mr perfect
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It still says "bibal". What's a "bibal"? Is that a secret cult thing?

On the topic, lots of fantasy seems to copy some elements from Tolkien. You'd be hard pressed not to copy at least one element from his books...
 
if anything gnomes are hobbits.

So I have this idea for a great movie. It's about two gnomes, who find a
bracelet of power and they have to take it to the burning steppes and cast it
into the cauldron. They form the brother hood of the bracelet, along the way
they're trailed by a murloc named gollum who is obsessed with the breacelet
and nine bracelet boogie men. It could be a 3 parter called "Ruler of The
Bracelet." The first part would be called "The Brotherhood of The Bracelet",
followed by "A Couple of Towers" with a climatic ending called "Hey! The Kings
Back!"
 
RakuraiTenjin said:
They aren't extremely cultured in mining or mountains and have their own community or anything though ;p. So I guess he applied that to them.
Click to expand...

They are indeed cultured in mining and mountains. I'm telling you, right from what I said at my first post... just about all the Tolkien stuff is from ancient mythologies of different countries. Elves, dwarves, orcs, you name it.

if anything gnomes are hobbits.
Click to expand...

No. Hobbits are halflings. A jovial race of people, especially known for their happy go lucky lifestyles, and hairy feet.
 
i ment as compairing wow characters to lotr. gnomes suit it alot more than goblins
 
Actually, Blizzard was the first to make up orcs and humans and dragons and stuff, and in order to make sure that they were and remained so FOREVER, they built a time machine with what they raised from WoW and went back in time and spread all the myths and stuff and a side effect was Tolkein's LOTR.

So there.
 
Blizzard have been a company for coming on 11years and there ideas have always been the same. Its pritty much a fact that all LOTR and Blizzard are doing is simple copying and adapting such an expansive concept. Who cares who copied who when everyone just copy's each other anyway. For me its the opinion that LOTR sucks balls and WOW is the best game I have ever played. Simple...
 
In Celtic history often their equivalent of priests are what we would call Shamans. They however called them what is now translated as Wizards. Today they are known also known as Druids.

Elves were more like fairies in Norse mythology, they differed greatly in what they were as sometimes they were known as forces of good and sometimes evil. They were usually highly magical beings that flew around with bows and arrows. Often it was said that being shot by an Elven arrow would bring about disease.

Dwarves were known as magical beings as well (also Norse mythology) who lived deep underground and worked with massive hammers and forges to create magical weapons. They actually built the "chain" that was used to ensure the great wolf Fenris wouldn't break from his bonds. However it is said that Fenris will one day break free and in his rage destroy the universe.

There was never any clearly defined version of mythology for either the Celts or the Norse, they were an oral people spready out accross thousands of miles in Northern Europe which meant they could never have a true reference to their stories like what Christianity has with the Bible.

Like what everyone has already said Tolkien used this ancient mythology to create Middle Earth. The mythology itself is actually surprisingly interesting and there are surprising links to it in modern religions and literature. Much of the show Star Gate is based on these mythologies having been based on real events and races (real in the show).

This can be surprisingly interesting to a lot of people:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_mythology

EDIT: I thought these words and names which were from Norse mythology were rather interesting:

Gandalf - Gandalf is a dwarf in Norse mythology, he appears in the poem Völuspá in the Edda. The name Gandalf means "wizardry knowledgeable elf"

Hel - Hel is the goddess of the underworlds, Helheim and Niflheim, in Norse mythology.

Gimli - Gimli, alternately spelled 'Gimlé', the "heaven" in Norse mythology.

Midgard - Midgard, (The common English transliteration), Miðgarðr (Old Norse), Midjungards (Gothic), and Middangeard (Old English) is an old Germanic name for our world, the world of men, with the literal meaning "middle enclosure". In Middle English, the name became Middel-erde and resulted in the modern name Middle-earth.

Mirkwood - appears in other works from Norse mythology and in German folklore and it has been speculated that the Black Forest of Germany derived its name from this title.
 
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