How different is different?

A lot of people are saying that Rift is nothing more than a wow clone. Well that's a valid opinion, but if it's a clone where are my orcs? Why can't I play a wolf? And why isn't my mage able to spec arcane? I know you're probably thinking "well that's still the same thing, just with different names." If that's your reasoning for believing that Rift isn't an entirely different game than wow, allow me to counter that logic with your own logic.

First lets play a little guessing game. The rules are simple: I show you two images of two different things and you tell me their name in one word. After you check them all out I'll let you know what they are. There's a total of only 4 pairs so I'm sure you'll do just fine!


Set 1


Set 2


Set 3


Set 4



Ok got it figured all out now? Good now here's the answers.

Set 1: first is a branch, second is a twig.
Set 2: first is a boulder, second is a rock.
Set 3: both are chairs
Set 4: I don't know about you, but I see a stool and a table

Sooooo how many did you get right? Get one or two wrong? Well that "stick" up there, at what point does it become a branch? If you say when it's attached to a tree, what of when it breaks? It's still there in the tree, it's still a part of the tree. And what of that boulder, just how big does a rock have to be so that it is considered a boulder? What about a rock being called a pebble and so forth?

A chair is a chair is a chair. Some might call ti a recliner or a sofa. The short hand version of all of this is the exact same logic saying that rift is identical to wow: "they're all the same, just with different names."

Clearly they're not.


Meanwhile I can (and obviously will) argue that TBC, wrath, and cata are the exact same game. Yes I'm saying that three entire expansions are the same game...just with different names. Here let me quote a few items for you along with noting what "expansion" they were introduced with.

TBC.
Arcane dust
Lesser planar essence
Greater planar essence
Small prismatic shard
Large prismatic shard


WotLK.
Infinite dust
Lesser cosmic essence
Greater cosmic essence
Small dream shard
Dream shard


Cata.
Hypnotic dust
Lesser celestial essence
Greater celestial essence
Small heavenly shard
Heavenly shard


Ok so those are just items, big deal. I mean they don't REALLY count right? What about the REAL game huh? The dungeons! The raids! Wow certainly has a few gems of boss encounters. Ones like lady vashj or sinestra or yogg saron. Very cool indeed, but let me sum up the boss fights that 80% of the raiding population saw.

Kill adds
Pew pew boss
Interrupt shit
Don't be in fire


Get the idea here? You can break it down even more, a fury warrior is just a rogue in plate with a red energy bar that goes up instead of down. Baseball is just some dudes hitting a ball with a stick. But I used to do that all of the time, why am I not being paid millions for it? I think you get the point.

Even though rift is very similar to wow in the same way that a rogue is close to a fury warrior they're in all reality entirely different. They just have different flavors. This is all going back to what I've said a dozen plus times so far: at what point is something no longer worth it? If 60 minutes per day is far too long to make 5k in glyphs, would 30 minutes be fast enough? What about 40? 50?

Just where do you draw that line is what you really need to figure out. What it all boils down to is where you and you alone make the distinction that something is different in enough ways to noticeably be it's own entity. So naturally I believe that rift is different enough from wow to capture and maintain my interest for a long enough time that I picked it up.

Why did I decide to raid as a DK instead of my pally with 3567847 acheesements? I like the DK flavor. Why? Absolutely no other reason that "zomg it looks so kewl!" Why do I like Rift more than wow? Same reason. Why do I like the enchanting market more than gems even though they're "the same thing with different names?" I just do.


What's your reason?