I finally started playing DAO just so I can comment on it, and I am in the camp of head-scratchers who wonder why an "original IP" in such long production looks so completely Tolkienesque. I mean, even the visuals just remind me so hard of everything that's come before.
Yes, a fantasy world can be original, and no, DAO's is not. Think of the FF series, and how it completely invents a new look and lore with every iteration. I don't want to play them, but those games (which aren't even labelled as original IPs) seem have WAY more differences between them than DAO's world and either Tolkien or whatever the heck the DnD world is called.
I mean, jeez. You don't HAVE to have elves and dwarves and werewolves and dragons and ogres etc. And even f you do, they don't have to all hew SO closely to the archetypes: Dwarves don't HAVE to live underground and be smiths, Elves don't HAVE to be expert archers and live a brillion years.
I mean, it's fine, we all like that stuff but ORIGINAL it's not. Explain how it could be any LESS original and not actually be IN Middle Earth or (wikipedia go!) Forgotten Realms/Faerun?
Maybe their next original IP will be a post-apocalyptic wasteland version of America with lots of guns and black humor. That would be cool.