Which Genre Has the Worst Clones?

magerette · January 12, 2008

It's a new year, and time for a new poll. This extends narpet's concept of the Bottom Ten but is a little more off the beaten track.

Which genre has produced the worst examples of games cashing in on a successful example in the field? That is, which one has the most bad games inspired by the rightful founding fathers of the genre? Is it the dreaded attack of the diablo clones or the dreary nine millionth WWII shooter? Those annoying MMO WoW wannabes or the poorly designed and brutal RTS games that wipe you out in the first hour?

(Note this is not about which is the worst genre--but about which genre has the worst clones of it's games.)

Feel free to give the reasons for your choice, or to add any annoying examples I've overlooked.

Edit: @Mike--Sorry about no 'all of the above' choice--I hate it when polls do that--no excuse except it was really late at night

txa1265 · January 12, 2008

That is a really tough choice. Given that I have played some *really* crappy games this past year in the FPS, RTS, a-RPG and adventure genres, I would opt for a different choice:

"If there is a genre, you can be sure they will make crappy clones"

skavenhorde · January 12, 2008

I went with action RPG. My gut tells me that there are more Diablo clones out there. Some of them good but most of them bad, awful and stinky clones. I was tempted to go with MMO but since I've never played a MMO, I can't really judge that genre.

Jaz · January 12, 2008

I voted for FPS. It was my favorite genre back in the early to mid-nineties, and I vividly remember the bunch of... um, z-class trash jumping out of the pie after Doom. Needless to say I played them all back then. Since I never was as rabidly interested in any of the other genres back then, I didn't care about bad clones. Nowadays the danger of falling prey to a bad clone is minimal because I don't play as much as I used to.

Alrik Fassbauer · January 12, 2008

Tough one for me. I decided for Action-RPGs, although the absolute mass of WW II games begins to bother me.

JDR13 · January 12, 2008

It would have to be either FPS's or RTS's.

There really weren't enough RPG's (action or otherwise) released lately to compete for that dubious award imo.

Usually RTS games suffer the worst effects of the "cloning" syndrome from my experience. Mainly because even the good ones are too similar in gameplay to begin with.

Alrik Fassbauer · January 12, 2008

In RTS, they seem to run out of proper names recently.

Or so I thought when I heard the name "Theatre of War".

Ionstormsucks · January 12, 2008

Voted Action RPGs... it's really a personal thing: I found most of these games boring straight from the beginning and I can't see that they have become better over time.

xSamhainx · January 12, 2008

FPS
A genre which I've become so bored with (and subsequently bad at), that it has to be something so stupidly outrageous like a Postal game to even get me kinda interested.

Squeek · January 12, 2008

I voted FPS (and I was glad to learn the war's over).

Gallifrey · January 12, 2008

Had to go with RTS on this one. While all genres have dreadful clones, at least the games of those genres generally have titles that appeal to those that play them. FPS, MMORPGs, sims, action RPGs, they all have highly derivative games but many that still have merit for the genre.
The RTS genre, on the other hand, is filled with pointless, derivative games that often only imitate (poorly) more successful titles. There's no point to many RTS games - the genre has it's core mainstays which are almost always the better choice, and legions of thin copies. Why bother making a sub-par clone of a successful game?
RTS gameplay hasn't changed that much either, most follow the usual build base, raise army, mob, repeat formula, and there's so much more that can be done in the real-time space.

If any genre needs a serious kick in the arse and a good purging of shoddy clones, it's the RTS genre.

Alrik Fassbauer · January 12, 2008

Honestly, I don't even know anymore which RTS game I should buy if I wanted to.

I hardly see any difference there anymore.

So I rather stick with the Settlers.

Pladio · January 12, 2008

I'd say either FPS, RTS or aRPG, but since I've played many clones of many different games. I have to say RTS first. Every new game seems to be in the image of AoE.
Very few games manage to innovate anymore except if they're several years old :
-The Settlers up until IV, Anno series, and maybe a few more have different sorts of gameplay, but otherwise it's exactly the same as AoE for me. Maybe AoE cloned from some other game, but I'm not aware of that. Most games resemble it terribly though.

FPS are mostly the same because it's not easy to change the gameplay so much in a FPS. The whole goal is to kill people. It's hard not to get repetitive with that. So I forgive FPS games.

aRPGs, I've played DII as my first aRPG and I've seen so many clones it's not normal, but it's still an efficient and addictive way to make games.

So I don't know what to vote for.

zakhal · January 12, 2008

I cant stand any RTS game anymore. So I guess thats the worst cloned genre for me.

KazikluBey · January 13, 2008

Pladio said:
I'd say either FPS, RTS or aRPG, but since I've played many clones of many different games. I have to say RTS first. Every new game seems to be in the image of AoE.

The RTS concept hasn't changed since Dune II, the progenitor of the genre, from 1992. Gather resources, build base to produce military units, fight battles on the same map as the base building takes place and destroy the enemy base, all in real time.

purpleblob · January 13, 2008

I voted for MMORPG... most of them just seems like WoW clones... pretty graphics and random good items drops and way you go! Spend hours and hours trying to get something better than your friends has...

JDR13 · January 13, 2008

Alrik Fassbauer said:
Honestly, I don't even know anymore which RTS game I should buy if I wanted to.

I hardly see any difference there anymore.

So I rather stick with the Settlers.

I could definitely recommend Supreme Commander or Command and Conquer 3, both are recent great games in that genre, and are quite different from each other as far as gameplay is concerned.

JDR13 · January 13, 2008

Gallifrey said:
The RTS genre, on the other hand, is filled with pointless, derivative games that often only imitate (poorly) more successful titles.

If any genre needs a serious kick in the arse and a good purging of shoddy clones, it's the RTS genre.

I couldn't have said it better myself. :thumbsup:

Arma · January 13, 2008

It's definately a close tie b/n FPS, aRPGs and RTS, with my bad side going for the last one as I rarely play FPS, I am glad to see even action RPGs these days and RTS going ever more steadily from mediocre to worse. As far as I see there are less than a dozen titles that fall straight into the RTS genre that are worth noting - among them the first two Age of Empires, the first StarCraft, the second and third Warcrafts, the C&C series before C&C Generals and Warlords Battlecry series.

txa1265 · January 13, 2008

Apparently none of you have been privy to the stream of small-shop adventure games coming out of Dreamcatcher ...

Which Genre Has the Worst Clones?

Which Genre Has the Worst Clones?

Action RPG - Please, not another one...

FPS - Hello, WWII is Over

MMORPG - Some things are Not addictive.

RTS - 3 cans of Red Bull just isn't enough

Sims & Builders - Too much realism is unrealistic

Adventure/Platformers - Just not adventurous enough

Hedgewitch

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purpleblob

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