With the official launch of Aion: Tower of Eternity coming within a matter of weeks, and the fact that it will be the largest launch in 2009 (and quite possibly the most successful in the last 5 years) we get to see loads of new WoW comparisons that, unlike Warhammer, is unjustified.  It's funny to see all of the forum chatter and articles that either compare every new game to WoW, or try to say that the latest games are just a copy of World of Warcraft.  This begs the discussion of just exactly how influential WoW has been on game developers and we point out the game that actually deserves credit for game developer inspiration over the last several years.

Lineage 2 dropped a bomb on the game community when it opened servers back in 2003, prior to World of Warcraft, that set a new standard for graphics, character movement, and overall gameplay.  Now, there is no doubt that game executives all want what WoW has done in terms of numbers, but you can see for yourself in these images of some of the most popular MMORPGs whether or not WoW is as inspirational to the game developer community as people think it is.

For those EverQuest fanatics, yes I know that EQ was unmeasurably responsibly for the growth of MMORPGs in general, but the overall art direction of the game has not been as adopted as with L2.  It is important to mention that Age of Conan does incorporate some of the EQ style, just far more advanced.

Have a look at some of these images and decide which of these two games actually brings in more similarities.  We will address more game play related content in other articles, but graphically there is no mistaking that Lineage 2 set the bar for game development.  If you don't like these examples, just google image "MMORPG Screenshots" then google "Lineage 2" and you will get a feel for what we are talking about.  These are just a few of the games.

WoW                                        WoW

Lineage 2                                              Rappelz

Lineage 2                                     Rohan

Aika

Lineage 2

Tantra Global

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