The Culture: The Endless Clone Complex Is Not Just A Tabletop Thing

You all know World of Warcraft even if you never played any version of it.

It is the D&D of the MMORPG marketplace. Therefore it would not be surprising that, just as later D&D editions aped WOW to varying degrees, so would WOW somehow ape what's going on in D&D.

"Clones?"

Yes, like all the B/X clones that the OSR still publishes. That's been a thing in the WOWsphere for several years, called "private servers", and like the B/X Clones all of them are different takes on the same idea: "Do (X) but 'better'." For WOW, the latest Classic Plus server (going live this weekend) is Project Epoch.

The two others of note are Turtle WOW and Project Ascension. Yes, there are more; yes, you can waste time on a subreddit about them; no, most of them are not worth your time unless you're out to scratch a specific itch.

"But why all the clones?"

For the same reason B/X clones clog off so much shelfspace: it's what gamers will buy and (sometimes) play, save that the three aforementioned are all Free To Play.

And, as with Tabletop, most WOW players suck harder than a 12 volt Hoover on overdrive; the Hardcore clip videos (where there is no ressurection spells, so if your man dies he stays dead) show this daily. The Soup Aisle is real, and not just a Tabletop problem.

20 year old game, more extensively documented than World War 2, and people still can't be bothered to Git Gud- especially the Muh 20 Year vets. Sound familiar?

So cheer up, folks, we're not the only gaming sector plagued with these problems.