Champions borrows WAR's public quests

By Oli Welsh Published 1 April, 2009

"We did what every good developer does."

In an interview with Ten Ton Hammer, Cryptic Studios' Bill Roper has admitted that its superhero MMO Champions Online has lifted the public quest system from Mythic's Warhammer Online.

Asked if Champions' "open mission" system - missions which can be completed by any players in the vicinity working together - was similar to WAR's Public Quests, Roper said, "It absolutely is!"

"We did what every good developer does, saw something and went 'We should use that in our game!'" Roper said. "That is always the key, to look at other games and say 'How do we make this work? What worked in the past?' This is perfect for the superhero theme."

Roper also shrugged off the recent controversy over recruitment of beta testers from Champions' rival, City of Heroes.

"Every game tries to get the people that will play it. When I was at Blizzard, World of Warcraft did exactly that. 'Hey EverQuest 2 and Dark Age of Camelot players, you should check out our beta test!'," Roper said.

"It's less about stealing people and more about getting feedback from experienced players."

Champions Online launches in June for PC. We expect to be on the beta before too long, so look forward to our impressions; in the meantime, find more, including our own interview with Roper, at the Champions Online gamepage.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ZuluHero #1 3 years ago

    i like their honesty - and i loved the PQ system (when you had enough players).

    Im quite looking forward to this for some reason.

  • DoctorZoidberg #2 3 years ago

    Another MMO?

    Are there even enough people to play them all, they seem ten a penny.

  • patch #3 3 years ago

    So, they're "lifting" ideas from other games and trying to steal players for their beta testing? I was looking forward to this game, but the developers are putting me off.

  • DFawkes #4 3 years ago

    Having experienced one, it is close but not identical. Close enough to see it's the same idea, but the way heroes all congregate around uber monsters and start unleashing all manor of powers is a sight to behold, even more so than in WAR (which I also enjoy).

  • ZuluHero #5 3 years ago

    @flyingsupernerds

    Yet millions play wow... Oh wait, blizzard kept it all cloak-and-daggers didn't it? So that's alright then? ;)

  • Monkey_Puncher #6 3 years ago

    OMG CALL TEH INTERNETZ POLICE!1!

  • sneetch #7 3 years ago

    Meh, this is fine and expected (I've been waiting for a PQ-like system to appear in WoW for some time now).

    "Stealing" players for your beta using their forums or in-game communication on the other hand is shitty and underhanded.

  • Eraysor #8 3 years ago

    Presumably they have emulated the crushing lack of players too?

  • AOFanboi #9 3 years ago

    What little I played WAR the PQs were quickly ground until you maxed the related bar, then you moved on. So in "tier 2" zones with 3 PQs everyone played only the first you got to, and the two others were barren. Hopefully Champions will limit the number so that people actually play them all, or make them interesting for other things than WAR did (the bar plus a too random lottery for loot).

  • Liam64 #10 3 years ago

    "Does openly admitting that you copied ideas from another game make the blatant fact that you copied ideas in the first place any better? Not to me. Inspiration is never a bad thing but when you have a game that consists of the best ideas from the best games out there, it is no longer your game."

    The alternative being what, exactly? Actively ignoring an excellent idea and purposefully going in another direction, knowing it will damage the quality of the game? There isn't a developer out there that doesn't use other people's ideas, in the same way that all film-makers have sought outside influence, and all novelists and poets and artists and musicians.

    “Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.”
    Picasso.

  • Silvervein #11 3 years ago

    @Liam64
    I might agree with you if we talk about end result. That is, whoever makes the game, gets paid. (Although I really hate that attitude shown by many game makers, that it is all about money and *only* money. But oh well, as long as you can find indies too...)
    But at the same time stealing ideas of others is no different than using torrents to get your games for free. In both cases you steal someone's intellectual property. In his case he's using the fact that those game mechanics are not being patented yet. I wonder what will happen when patenting those things becomes standard.

    P.S.
    An honest thief might be more appealing than your regular, shady kind, but he's a thief all the same.
    Edited by 1 at 01/04/09 @ 21:56

  • Spekingur #12 3 years ago

    Stop complaining. All of your next-gen favourite games are nothing but copies of older ideas put in a new form. If you don't get that then you don't get the gaming world. I also don't see any of you complain about how almost every MMO has the same kind of interface. OMG COPYING IDEAS WTFBBQ!!!
    WoW is not innovative. At all. Within WoW there are a bunch of tried and tested ideas from previous MMO and non-MMO games. So, yeah, at least this one says it is natural to do this. Which it is.

    And for Pete's sake stop saying "omg another mmo, it is all going to teh failz!" - there'll never be enough MMOs. We need them to be churned out. Just so the accidental gem can be found.

  • Stoatboy #13 3 years ago

    re: "I'm not disputing the fact that he "borrowed" ideas from another game. It's the fact that he's so open about it. Is it supposed to impress?"

    No. It's supposed to attribute credit where it's due. Almost every game borrows massively from all those that have come before it.

    Somebody openly admitting that it's not their own genius idea and instead pointing at the responsible party is much rarer. Honesty and respect ftw!

  • stepneg #14 3 years ago

    I forgot I have a beta invite for this, anyone else tried it and is it any good?

  • AOFanboi #15 3 years ago

    <em>But at the same time stealing ideas of others is no different than using torrents to get your games for free. In both cases you steal someone's intellectual property.</em>

    YOU CANNOT COPYRIGHT OR PATENT OR TRADEMARK IDEAS! DAMMIT! You can

    1) copyright one particular expression of an idea,
    2) patent a concrete process,
    3) trademark a particular term for a particular purpose.

    Do you have a fourth mystical form of intellectual property we haven't heard of yet?