The one that used to annoy me the most was the labelling of every RTS as a "Command & Conquer clone", especially since Command & Conquer was itself a clone of Dune II ;-)

I have seen countless over-generalizations for similarities of games of the same genre or the same franchise. Many people only see the similarities and just disregard a game as a clone or "rehash." It's like when I see comments claiming that some companies literally release the same game over and over again even when there are new gameplay mechanics or modes for that franchise introduced by the latest entry. If an entry is part of the same genre or franchise, then it will have big similarities to the other entries.

I've seen this happen with movies and TV as well. For example: I really enjoyed a vampire movie called Let Me In which was very well done and was loosely based off of a Swedish vampire book. Two years prior to the release of the movie, there was a Swedish film adaptation of the same book that got released called Let the Right One In which was also well done and because the two movies were loosely based off the same book and naturally had similarities, people accused Let Me In of being a ripoff, a remake in a negative sense, or a carbon copy despite the difference of character depictions and background stories between the two film adaptations and the fact that they were both loosely based off of the same book. I'd go into details but that might risk a couple of spoilers.

I also remember complaints people made about video game franchise installations being too different especially when it comes to the Final Fantasy franchise. Going back to the movie example, there were people who complained about Let Me In being different from both the book and the Swedish film adaptation.

In the end, there's nothing a video game developer, movie developer, or song writer can do to please everyone and the accusations of being a clone or a ripoff are just one of the ways people will complain. The only times the word "clone" isn't used for criticisms is when a proper genre title hasn't been established like the term Doom Clone before the term first person shooter.

I guess what it comes down to is that kids need to read more books.

Man I remember playing Dune 2... it always came across as a great idea but wasn't well done. Then C&C came along and well, I'm still playing that haha. Dune 2 is very much forgotten I think, It deserves more than what it got. It's sort of like Wolfenstein when it comes to shooters, it was first but Doom stole it's thunder.

heresy! TV and internet is a substitute for parenting!

Exactly. Dune II was a fantastic game that was marred by awful controls. In essence, Command & Conquer took all the elements that worked (everything but the controls), and improved on the ones that didn't (the controls), and ended up with what was arguably a better game. Kudos to them for that of course, but no original thoughts went into the making of it. That doesn't mean the game shouldn't get any credit for what it was, but it seems most people consider it the very first base-building RTS, which I always thought was a pity. Credit where credit is due, and all that.

Credit where it's due but C&C is still the best lmao.

Well, as I said ;-)

Talking of Dune 2, is there anywhere you can aquire a copy? Itd be nice to see it again.

I said nothing about parenting.

true ... still heresy :)

of course on a book forum, we might get kids arguing over whether something was a Hamlet-clone. Though actually I guess I'd actually feel a lot better about that. Alright, more likely they would argue if something was a Twilight clone. :/

And that's pissing me off, just like "MOBA". I mean, when you hear "Action Role Playing Game" for the first time, what do you think of? I think of the likes of Deus Ex, Gothic, Stalker and even Outcast but heck, isometric clicking games with simple experience mechanics? Really? Just as "Multiplayer Online Battle Arena" sounds more like a shooter game with massive battles, maybe Battlefield, Planetside or even Quake or UT but really? DoTA? Terms like "First Person Shooter" or "Real Time Strategy" are at least almost perfectly tied to their basic features, but today developers and critics even seem too stupid to name genres properly. No wonder that the industry has such serious problems making progress...

Something like The Elder Scrolls, where I have almost complete control over the creation of my character. My 'role', if you will. Diablo and its ilk are more like action games that reward you for killing lots of things by making your character stronger, and giving you the option to spend points on special abilities. That's no different than a space sim that lets you spend points on 'specialty training', like buying better piloting skills. Kinda like in Faxanadu, where you get to walk into a 'school', pay your gold, and train a specific stat.

Similarities do not make a clone
Scientists make clones!

very true

I am handsome like Brad Pitt,
I am suave like brad Pitt,
if I was a clone, I would be ******* rich like Brad Pitt :)