Epiphone is not fake, it's the exact same guitar made from the exact same pieces, just put together elsewhere and that makes it cheaper.
False. Cheaper wood, cheaper components, cheaper craftsmanship.
1) Gibson bodies are 1 piece. Epiphones are 2 or 3 pieces of wood glued together.
2) Gibson necks are 1 solid piece (obviously disregarding fingerboard, etc). Epiphones range from 2-3 pieces glued together depending on the model.
3) Epiphone hardware is much cheaper. That means cheap, crappy tuning heads, lower quality electronics, much lower quality pickups (on most models, I understand Epi had a Zakk Wylde LP with EMG 81/85s at one point), lower quality / less durable frets.
4) Fingerboard quality is a day and night difference. Most Epiphones have coarser, more porous wood, whereas Gibsons have higher quality, smoother, harder and durable fingerboards.
5) Fingerboard decals - Gibson uses Mother of Pearl inlays whereas Epiphone uses much cheaper inlay material.
6) Body binding and neck binding, also much lower quality on Epiphones.
This is all off of the top of my head, there's a lot of other differences that don't come to mind right now.
You can feel the difference just by picking up both guitars and playing for a few minutes. The Gibson will be heavier due to the higher quality wood, sound clearer due to higher quality pickups, play better with a better fingerboard and frets.
Anyway, here's a pic of my desk at work today. This isn't my office, I'm consulting here for a few months. In any case, game industry = FREE BEER FRIDAY WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!