Guild Wars 2 dropped a new cosmetic sword in the cash shop this week that’s caused a ripple of fuss on the forums and subreddit.
The Lightbinder Blade Sword Skin, with its recessed falchion shape and winged seraph-like critter on the guard, looks a bit like the Avenger’s Longsword from Gamigo’s MMORPG, RIFT. While they’re not identical by any means, players argue that the similarities are enough to raise a stink.
Here’s the side-by-side, courtesy of Reddit. GW2’s is on the left; RIFT’s is on the right.
Now, it’s true that plagiarism does happen in our industry, even in the most respectable of AAA MMORPG titles, but before you leap to that conclusion, it’s worth remembering that a lot of game studios work from the same inspirations and sources – and even purchase the same commercially available models to tweak. Our assumption is that’s what’s going on here; I feel like I’ve seen this sword a million times in mods myself, although I admit I spent a bit of time looking this morning and came up with nothing specific.
We reached out to ArenaNet yet for clarification yesterday, but the studio said it had no comment on the issue, which is… well not that odd for ArenaNet, really, but decidedly unsatisfying.
