[nekcihc]

Without cloning there would not be anything what we have today and no indie developers as well.

DOOM clones was a thing of past. There were many of them. Then Diablo clones - Sacred was one of them I liked. Torchlight or Path of Exile should not exist by the logic of article and OP.

If a clone is better and is outperforming original, then clone makers are doing right thing. In the big view on future, patents or any other restrictions on knowledge are only limiting overall progress.

[bluedino]

> DOOM clones was a thing of past.

Very few of them were any good, though. Does anyone remember any of them other than Dark Forces, Marathon, and Duke 3D?

[nekcihc]

Yes. The same is about these mobile game clones - the ones that will be better than original(on something), will last longer. The bigger issue is that mobile market is way faster and attention span of newer generation is also shorter, so everything is not as dramatic picture, as this article is painting. Also, I can only see this article as free advertisment to Wordle - on top of the mobile ads, that they have spammed and they much better than the "useful idiots" understand, that their time for Wordle is limited.

[michaelmrose]

I absolutely loved Duke 3D. The tools to make levels were ridiculously good for the time and the multiplayer death match was fantastic. Come on who doesn't love shrinking down their opponent to mouse size then chasing them down and stepping on them.

[int_19h]

It really depends on how you define "clone" in this context. But let's say Heretic/Hexen, Strife, Blood, Shadow Warrior...

[HWR_14]

What did Zynga do better when they cloned FarmVille?