Copying on copying

I had just a brief run on WoW yesterday, only to notice that I really hate when I have to wait for the battleground to start. The thought occured to me already last night, but it condensed while I was driving for work: if you can queue for scenarios from anywhere in WAR, why can't that feature be copied to WoW?

And how on the spot I was. Seems that the great minds think alike. But then again, I had commented on copying from WAR already in another fine blog.

But not to delve into the issue Syp so nicely pointed out any more than to say that from merging the best ideas and most working concepts of the former generations something beautifull will emerge. There will not be any leaps in MMO's until the technology moves on to new ways to play or poses new ways to interact within the game or UI. The generic concept will be the same: player creates -or is given- a character, alter ego if you please, to venture in a make belief world of fantasy/science fiction/fable and progress through the content. What could change except the outlook and perhaps the way this concept is presented? Majority of the whole 'new game' would be copied from the former ones anyhow.

It's not the copying I would be worried about, but the quality of the copying. If some crucial element is copied fully, but executed more poorly than the original, then it's something to worry about, as then the original idea of the concept must have been lost by the copier.

The only way to 'copy right' in MMO's, movies, tv-series, programming etc. is to copy the concept and make it work better. With the 800lb mammoth gorilla as the benchmark, how could you not copy the most renown parts of it?

Enough.

I just noticed that I don't know how to play Warlock. And I'm not sure I want to know how to play one, either. I have never been too keen on the pet classes anyhow, and to me this is just one of those. I'm willing to stand at the back seat, keeping people alive, or at the front row getting up close and personal. But not inbetween, like pet classes seem to be.

I'm out for the day.