Actual WoW Clones
Despite the term "WoW Clone" being tossed around regularly, not every MMORPG is a clone of Blizzard's World of Warcraft. There are however, numerous titles out there that are unusually similar to World of Warcraft; so much so that it's definitely not a coincidence. Given WoW's enormous success, it shouldn't be too surprising to see developers try and capture some of the game's success by imitating its look and feel. Below are a list of games that were heavily inspired by Blizzard's World of Warcraft
WoW Clones
Runewaker Entertainment's Runes of Magic originally launched in 2009 and quickly became one of the most successful free to play MMORPGs for its time. Much of the game's success can be attributed to its striking similarities to World of Warcraft. The graphics were clearly more than just inspired by WoW and many players were quick to point out the remarkable similarities. Despite being widely considered a WoW clone, Runes of Magic had a unique dual classing system that helped differentiate it from other MMORPGs. The game's popularity eventually waned and the game's developer, Runewaker, later released Dragon's Prophet, which is now available through Daybreak Game Company.
4Story from Zemi Interactive, also called Gates of Andaron, is another free to play MMORPG from Korea that heavily borrows the art style from World of Warcraft. 4Story launched in Western markets in 2008 and like Runes of Magic, was quickly labeled as a WoW clone. It wasn't nearly as successful as Runes of Magic, but it's still in service today, so it clearly did something right.
Developed by the Russian studio Allods Team, Allods Online launched in Western markets in 2010. The game had a fairly high budget of $12 million and launched with quite a bit of initial success. It was originally available through gPotato, but is now available worldwide through My.com. Allods Online is still in service as of 2015, but the Allods Team is more focused now on their sci-fi / fantasy MMORPG mix Skyforge.
Alganon Online
Unlike the other games on this list, Alganon originally launched as a subscription based MMORPG, which proved to be a terrible idea as the game was extremely similar to World of Warcraft. Why pay for a WoW clone when you can just play the real thing? Alganon later went free to play, but the playerbase declined very quickly since its initial release in 2009.
This one is likely the least popular MMORPG on this list but everything from the game's visuals to sounds and icons are very much copied from World of Warcraft. In fact, the PvP battlegrounds in the game are also direct clones of popular WoW battlegrounds like Arathi Basin. The core gameplay feels fairly polished and there's a lot of content. The game is developed by Duoyi Network, a Chinese game developer.
Forsaken World is a free to play fantasy MMORPG from Arc Games with visuals that look similar to World of Warcraft. It's the least like World of Warcraft on this list though and it may not be fair to call it a clone.
There are numerous other games that look and feel a bit like World of Warcraft, but aren't nearly as similar to WoW as the games listed above. Games like Rift and Forsaken World share some similarities, but aren't clones. I've personally played every game on this list and Runes of Magic was actually a really solid game when it first launched. A free alternative to WoW was a great deal and the dual classing system was great. Allods Online was also quite fun, but the game's "fear of death" debuff at launch (it has since been removed) killed any hope of it being a huge game. Are there any other WoW clones out there that I missed?
Been playing MMOs since I first got my hands on Ultima Online when I was 12 years old. Played so many games from Star Wars Galaxies to MapleStory to DAoC to World of Warcraft. Long time League of Legends player too! I'm also Known as "ReMo" and "Remotay"
