We do appreciate the concern from you and warmhearted gamers.
IGG Team
Edited, Dec 3rd 2008 1:30pm by Tamat
Players on the Ragnarok Online forums are calling out Aurora Blade, a web-based game entering closed beta this week, for ripping off aspects of other games, including World of Warcraft, Ragnarok Online, Maple Story and LaTale.
Kotaku has some more information, as well as some comparative screenshots. Also, Shacknews has some more comparison screenshots, including ones that compare Ragnarok and Aurora Blade creatures, and others that show the similarities between World of Warcraft and Aurora Blade class icons.
IGG has posted in the Aurora Blade forums to explain they only host the game, and another company developed it and reserves all copyrights to the designs and artwork. IGG further states that any discussion of this matter on the forums is against forum rules and could lead to bans for repeat offenders. The full post is after the jump.
Aurora Blade will be entering closed beta on Friday. You can receive an activation code here.
Warning - Aurora Blade Similarity
Many forum members have posted threads regarding similarity between Aurora Blade, and other third party games.
Note:
We would like to explain that SkyUnion (IGG) is NOT responsible for the developing of the game, that is any character, artwork, monster design, quest and graphics is developed by another company which reserves all copyrights and this game is HOSTED by IGG.
Any thread or post containing information about other games that including screenshots, game info or any other information will be deleted, as its against the forum rules. We will also take actions against members that will repeat breaking the forum rules. Therefore we have to ban members according to the severity. This may lead to a permanent ban from the forum.
Please take note of the warning!
IGG is a North American MMORPG publisher. Aurora Blade is a browser-based game we take an agency for. As a game publisher, IGG only possesses the operating rights and will not take any copyright responsibility about the game design. However, anti-plagiarisim is one of IGG's principles. IGG has contacted the Aurora Blade developer to start an investigation on this issue as soon as we heard from you and we will stay tuned for the progress.
We do appreciate the concern from you and warmhearted gamers.
IGG Team