"Why does WAR look like WoW!?"
Games Workshop, who designed the World of Warhammer back in 1983, took many ideas and impression from the work of Tolkien, as well as other European influence. The game Warhammer, while it has a dark under tone, has always had a little sense of humor. The art from the 80s was cartoonish, yet dark.
Mythic, in keeping with the basic art concept establish by Games Workshop, began to use their model and art that is nearly 25 years old to make the model for the MMOG. While the color texture may appear similar to WoW, the model design of the Dwarf and Orc is within the traditional style of Games Workshop's creation that has been around since 1983. The only similarity of the 2 games is truly that it shares the same level of color texture. The only game Mythic is copying is the work that has been in place by the artist that had worked for Games Workshop.
It is said that Blizzard tried to license Warhammer from Games Workshop back during the development of the original Warcraft. For whatever reason, the deal fell through. Instead of scratching the project, Blizzard made some modifications to the graphics and art, created their own backstory, and called it Warcraft, their own new IP. Hence, the two look extremely similar because one was actually based off of the other.
