Ripoff?

Namron · February 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">Regarding WarCraft III</div>In <b>Warcraft III: Frozen Throne</b> there are a new unit called Warden with uses an ability called "blink", which let them teleport for a short distance. From were is this familiar? Natural Selection? Yes?

Is this Blizzard's way of saying "thanks for stealing the "devour" ability"?

Hmm, or do "blink" just mean something I'm not aware of?

coil · February 2003

This has been brought up before...

"Blink" is actually a pretty common term for any short-range teleport-like ability. I think one of the first uses (according to another forum-goer) was in D&D tabletop RPGs, where it was a low-level magic spell that teleported you a short distance.

p4Samwise · February 2003

"Blink" is what you do when you close your eyes and open them again rapidly. It's a pre-existing word. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'>

It's not that much of a stretch to label a short range insta-teleport as a "blink", since the thing you're looking at changes positions in the time it takes to blink.

In fact, the use of the term "blink" dates at least back to D&D (which of course is what ended up inspiring Warcraft), which featured a creature called a "blink dog", an intelligent pack hunting canine that was innately able to teleport over short distances, using this ability to flank its prey, and escape if outmatched. I think there was also a spell called "Blink" that had a similar effect.

If anything NS "ripped it off" from D&D, but like I said, it's such an obvious use of the word that I don't think it counts as a ripoff by any stretch. Hey, it's not like the concept of space aliens is that original either. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'>

BOZO · February 2003

How long do you think a computer game or mod takes? To do it right, you have to plan it out a head of time, and considering that NS took more than 2 years to come out and WC3 took 3 years to come out and they are both well done so they must have thought out the disign before they started there work. I dont think Flayra is stealing game ideas from Blizard or visa versa, it's just that if you think about nothing in computer games is orginal anymore. Teleportation and Deviour have been in dozens of games! AvP , you got to eat the Mariens, OF, you got a personal teleporter, etc....

Namron · February 2003

I rarely use english and it's hard to know all the slang and such...but now I know, even the background of it. Big thanks! ;-)

NumbersNotFound · February 2003

You can't "rip off" a verb.

p4Samwise · February 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (404NotFound @ Feb 28 2003, 05:21 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> You can't "rip off" a verb.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
The man's blunt, but he has a point.

NumbersNotFound · February 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> ([p4]Samwise @ Feb 28 2003, 09:09 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (404NotFound @ Feb 28 2003, 05:21 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> You can't "rip off" a verb. </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
The man's blunt, but he has a point.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
It's judicially precidented, too.

Sandy · February 2003

Basically, Natural Selection (a ripoff) is based on Halflife (a poor ripoff) which is based on Quake (a great game).
Bling?

Halflife is so '10' years ago <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

Sandy · February 2003

I guess merging the good ideas from lots of other games into one game isnt all that bad.

JediYoshi · February 2003

You're missing the point <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'>

Sandy · February 2003

(hopes someone takes the bait)

Sandy · February 2003

Right enough disruption for one day. This is so childish "you shat on my forum so ill **** on yours". I wont post again unless its a direct response.

ShuflY · February 2003

If anything, it sounds like that would be a homage to NS, not some twisted revenge scheme. I wouldn't be suprised if the people at Blizzard think NS is a hell of a game.

realityisdead · February 2003

<i>(Sorry to wander from the main topic and hand here, as usual. But... this needs dealing with.)</i>

Heya Sandy.

I've been looking around, seeing a lot of people who are apparently from the DesertCombat forums making insulting posts around here, and have quite frankly been pretty confused about it. But, I think I now see what's going on.

Am I right to assume that someone from the NS community here ventured over to your forums and made the first insulting comments (probably over the Gamespy poll thing, or whatever)? There's a fairly large number of people around here these days, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear of a bad apple from the group going off and doing something like that. (A link to any such activity would be appreciated)

If so, while I'm hardly in any sort of authoritive position around here, I'd like to hand out an earnest apology on behalf of the core community following and contributing to this mod. I can assure you that the main lot of us around here would never even fathom doing something like that. It's really unfortunate, and I hope any event that happened in your camp over there to provoke you guys into this can be forgiven and forgotten.

Assuming that there was some sort of incident from an NS member on your own forums first, if you guys could kindly accept this apology and discontinue the insulting posts here, that'd be wonderful. Thanks <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

SoulSkorpion · March 2003

*shrug* War 3 rips of Blink, NS rips of Devour. Everyone's happy <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

Shadow_Hunter · March 2003

Sometimes coincidences happen. The orcs get a new hero called a Shadow Hunter in the WCIII expansion, but I'm gonna guess they didn't steal it from me, even though I've been using it for a while.

Ego · March 2003

what the heck is desert comabat anyays.. some kind of, afterdinner battle? sounds interesting?

link?

Ego

[FACT] - eh?

Akalamanaia · March 2003

Warcraft III:Frozen Throne hasnt ripped enything,they may have got the idea from NS but is it 100% as NS blink?well heck no,even the graphics are diffrent,also range is alot shorter,so next time think before you post one of these topics,some moderator plz close this because this got no point.

Shockeh · March 2003

And it's all the Blinkdog's fault from D&D.

Namron · March 2003

Argh, I posted this as an question. Some moderator, please close this topic down, there are people that can't handle it.

DizzyOne · March 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Destroyder121 @ Mar 1 2003, 03:52 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Warcraft III:Frozen Throne hasnt ripped enything,they may have got the idea from NS but is it 100% as NS blink?well heck no,even the graphics are diffrent,also range is alot shorter,so next time think before you post one of these topics,some moderator plz close this because this got no point.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
So ur saying they may have got the idea from ns...
Plz tell me what u see in the word ripoff...

Amped1 · March 2003

Everybody. The first 2 to 3 posts ended the discussion. You don't all have to have a go at his comment to make it null and void. If they ignore my post I suggest a mod locks this before it gets out of control.

Ollj · March 2003

Time to claim the copyright on </span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'>";)"</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Sephiroth2k · March 2003

you started this thread as a question? then no. your answer is no. happy now?

Namron · March 2003

Nice try, Sephiroth2k. I already got several really good answers that explained it all into detail. Now there is nothing more to discuss about this subject. Please lock the topic.

Dunsby · March 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> ([p4]Samwise @ Mar 1 2003, 05:52 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> "Blink" is what you do when you close your eyes and open them again rapidly. It's a pre-existing word. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'>

It's not that much of a stretch to label a short range insta-teleport as a "blink", since the thing you're looking at changes positions in the time it takes to blink.

In fact, the use of the term "blink" dates at least back to D&D (which of course is what ended up inspiring Warcraft), which featured a creature called a "blink dog", an intelligent pack hunting canine that was innately able to teleport over short distances, using this ability to flank its prey, and escape if outmatched. I think there was also a spell called "Blink" that had a similar effect.

If anything NS "ripped it off" from D&D, but like I said, it's such an obvious use of the word that I don't think it counts as a ripoff by any stretch. Hey, it's not like the concept of space aliens is that original either. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'>  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
If you blink while running, you can teleport!

pulsedsn · March 2003

blink should be from d&d but i saw it in ultima 1 too...

masterswordman · March 2003

The only reason to post this is because the poster thinks that NS will sue Blizzard and give some money to him, or he's a hyper duck that just want's his ideas heard.

In either case lame.

flame sheild por favor.

Ripoff?

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