Warhammer Online Vs World Of Warcraft

ambera · Post by **ambera** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 1:21 pm

Tolkein is generally credited with having started all that.

<ankh> · Post by **<ankh>** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 1:28 pm

ambera wrote:Tolkein is generally credited with having started all that.

Yeah...but he's ofc not the first fantasy author. Robert E. Howard has his novels published in the 30's...but ofc, there are no elfs or dwarfs in his novels. Fritz Leiber got his first ones published round the 40's or something..but no dwarfs or elves I think...can't really remember.

/Ankh

<ankh> · Post by **<ankh>** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 1:36 pm

If im not all wrong, Tolkien took inspiration from various mythologies...where the elfs came from the nordic one - and the ring might be from the nordic one too as there was a ring who turned into 9 rings in the nordic mythology.

/Ankh

<ankh> · Post by **<ankh>** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 1:37 pm

From Wikipedia..thought I might check

Tolkien was strongly influenced by Anglo-Saxon literature, Germanic and Norse mythologies, Finnish mythology, the Bible, and Greek mythology.[39] The works most often cited as sources for Tolkien's stories include Beowulf, the Kalevala, the Poetic Edda, the Volsunga saga and the Hervarar saga.[40] Tolkien himself acknowledged Homer, Sophocles, and the Kalevala as influences or sources for some of his stories and ideas.[41] His borrowings also came from numerous Middle English works and poems. A major philosophical influence on his writing is King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy known as the Lays of Boethius.[42] Characters in The Lord of the Rings such as Frodo, Treebeard, and Elrond make noticeably Boethian remarks.

Cernos · Post by **Cernos** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:15 pm

Clearly WoW artwork is influenced by the original Warhammer artwork. I remember the pen & ink artwork in the original Warhammer first edition in the early 80s and the orcs especially were very similar to what we now see in Warhammer Online and WoW.

However, Warhammer itself was directly influenced by (and intended to boost the sales of) tabletop miniatures made by Citadel (Games Workshop) and Ral Partha. These were launched in the late 70s and gained popularity in the early 80s as D&D took off. If you look at the figures from this period (do a web search) the style of orcs, dwarves, elves, goblins and trolls portrayed in those miniatures have a direct lineage to the artwork that appeared in Warhammer and beyond. The original style wasn't quite as caricatured as it now is, but the influences were clearly there.

White Dwarf magazine (produced by Games Workshop) also started carrying artwork much along these lines in the late 70s early 80s, obviously as tie ins to the miniatures and D&D modules.

Obviously the original inspirations for D&D and all these figures is LoTR and norse & celtic mythologies etc, but I think Peter Jackson's LoTR films draws as much from these tabletop miniatures as from the books themselves.

I think the irony is that whilst WoW was influenced by Warhammer and GW miniatures, Warhammer Online will inevitably be influenced by WoW. Personally I like the cartoon style of WoW, it suits the game, but the darker grittier style of Warhammer looks great and is perfect for that game.

<ankh> · Post by **<ankh>** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:20 pm

Cernos wrote:Personally I like the cartoon style of WoW, it suits the game, but the darker grittier style of Warhammer looks great and is perfect for that game.

Warhammer wont be warhammer unless they manage to catch that dark feeling it has. And judging from the screenshots it looks like they've done a pretty good job.

/Ankh

Shi · Post by **Shi** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:23 pm

so if ya never dealt with warhammer, what would you start with?

to get the feeling of the lore, world etc
some particular edition, stuff ?

<ankh> · Post by **<ankh>** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:25 pm

Imo check the army books and the 2:nd edition of the core rules.

/Ankh

Gandelf · Post by **Gandelf** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:59 pm

Banana wrote:IT

Most of the people I know who work in Information Technology are clowns, so I'm not surprised really. IT technicians are like council workers... it takes only one of them to fix something, whilst the other 5 stand around and watch. Funnily enough, you can actually make the word, "clown" out of the letters in "council workers".

Trez · Post by **Trez** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 3:45 pm

so if ya never dealt with warhammer, what would you start with?
to get the feeling of the lore, world etc
some particular edition, stuff ?

Maybe read the Gotrek and Felix novelles by Bill King, they give a nice view of some parts of the Warhammer world (mainly The Empire).