Alganon

[Morreion]

Alganon is a Microsoft Windows fantasy-based massively multiplayer online role-player game (MMORPG) designed by David Allen currently in development by Arizona-based Quest Online. "Crusade" is the previous name for Alganon. Alganon is subscriber-based, requiring an active Internet connection. A closed beta is currently in progress. The game is scheduled for release on October 31, 2009.

Observations: looks WoWish, they have an offline learning system similar to EVE, there are 7 classes with a dual role system that can sub-specialize into a semi-dual-class-like setup. David Allen is the developer- he was the brains behind the initial ideas for Horizons.

Alganon official site

Alganon Ten Ton Hammer Portal

Alganon MMORPG.com Portal

Alganon: Hands-On Preview

They wanted to let each person make the class their own, and so they’ve allowed each of the seven classes to sub-specialize in a second field and those are not always what people might expect. The idea is that no matter what they do in this second category, they will always be perfectly effective in their core role. This means people don’t need to worry that the Soldier that just joined the group cannot tank. He can. The question becomes, what else can he do?

They’ve broken it down into three sub-specialties per class. Players can choose to mix and match, but ideally, they would go 100% into a specific category, which essentially just provides a second full skillset without any sacrifice to the first.

Alganon: Behind The Scenes At Quest Online

It takes a special kind of person to have the discipline to work at home, but for a small company trying to compete in a very expensive field, the sacrifice makes sense. According to Allen, if they ran the company in a more traditional manner, he estimates they could easily spend two to three times as much as they do.

The other big difference between QOL and most every MMO I’ve ever seen is that they do everything themselves, and I do mean everything.

They didn’t license Unreal, buy HeroEngine or any of these other third party solutions. Every single thing in Alganon is developed 100% in-house by their team. This is very rare. Some MMOs license everything from the graphics engine, to the billing system, all the way to the trees in the world. The only possible exception to this, according to Allen, will be integrated VOIP. They do intend to eventually adopt it, and will almost assuredly turn to a third party for that out of pure practicality.

Alganon: QOL President David Allen

MMORPG.com:

Tell us about MyAlganon. How does this tool work with the game?
David Allen:

MyAlganon is the core community system for the game that supports subscriptions, sharing of media, blogs, groups, streams, and more. It also serves as the portal to the Alganon Library, which is a real-time repository of all game data (items, creatures, skills, abilities, resources, spawns, and more). Players can also access the Guilds and Characters repositories via MyAlganon as well. Essentially all Alganon data and details are at the fingertips of the players through MyAlganon. This is also where players will register their subscriptions and core accounts.

[Morreion]

Massively's Alganon launch day roundup

Lots of info on the game here.

[Rakul]

So Morreion... in the closed Beta yet?

[Morreion]

No! I'm here to inform you, Kul! That's all!

[Morreion]

First Impressions: Alganon (Massively)

Summary:

Similar to WoW

Studies system of learning skills over time, similar to EVE

Emphasis on player factions and community tools

Fairly buggy at release *sighs*

[Oatik]

I played the free trial for a few hours, it was like I was magically transported back to 2002 and not really in a good way. I think the reviews are too kind, if you read the comments it's mostly "OMG this sux!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!q!!!!!"

I don't recommend it.

[Morreion]

Alganon Review (MMORPG.com)

Final Score
5.8
Poor

Pros
Helpful community

Cons
Extremely small community
Limited group content

Overall Impressions

Is Alganon simply a copy and paste of other MMOs? There are certainly some arguments to be had about it, from the lore of the gods granting Titans custody over their world, to evidence that the UI once had a non-functioning keyring in beta that some argued was copied directly from World of Warcraft's interface. Alganon plays to be more than a mere copy of its predecessors; it also hasn't tried to reinvent the wheel. There is little new or different about Alganon that veterans haven't seen before.

Alganon is marginally playable: a patchwork game sewn together with thin threads that keep breaking. Although MMO players have come to expect releases to be buggy to some degree, Alganon was clearly released before it had truly gone through enough development to be rid of bugs that players should expect to be handled, such as environmental and server stability, as well as a lack of content, namely instances and multi-player content.

However, I will dare to say it: Alganon deserves more players than it has. It is possible that, if players give Alganon the opportunity to grow, and its developers spend honest work improving the game, it may become a small classic of its own. Alganon certainly has a flavor of its own, even with gameplay that feels too familiar to be fun at this point in time. As Alganon stands currently, however, it needs a great deal of improvement to be worth a purchase, much less a subscription.

[Morreion]

Alganon moves to a "subscription free" model (Massively)

Similar to Dungeons and Dragons Online, the game will be converted to using an item shop complete with various items, as well as the option to speed up the game's Study system substantially. Customers who have already pre-paid for subscriptions will be given a certain amount of currency for the item shop as a payback, as well as having their accounts given a special "Citizen" status as a show of good faith.

[Morreion]

Derek Smart: big changes in store for Alganon (Massively)

"Dave Allen didn't 'depart'. I fired him back in February for insubordination and for acting against the best interests of the company, the LLC investors (who I represent), the game and the team."

Well, there you go. Wednesday night we brought you the news that David Allen was gone from Alganon. Shortly after that, Derek Smart spoke out in a big way regarding the event. He has a lot to say and the full post is a great read. He pulls no punches and he seems to have a lot of plans, but you can follow along after the jump for the highlights.

The December first launch of the game "should never have happened," and Smart is working to fix this. Among other things, he says the "WoW lookalike rubbish" is gone. The design team is throwing it out and working in a completely different direction to give the game its own unique look and feel. "You don't go competing with WoW when you don't have a WoW sized budget or the manpower to match."

Hand in hand with that decision is the one to pull a large amount of current content from the game: "EVERYTHING that was added to the game - when it should have been about fixing the game, tweaking it etc - has been disabled/removed on my orders. The team is focused on fixing game bugs, tweaking things etc and a new patch is out either today or later in the week. "

The big news is this: monthly subs are gone for good. They are currently only suspended, but their removal is in the works, and all subscription fees will be refunded 100%. (A few players expressed concern that this would entail a character wipe, and were quickly assured that this was not the case.) Smart has personally approved the budget for this and it is a sure thing.

[Morreion]

Copying WoW - Flowers for Alganon (MMORPG.com)

Be that as it may, it’s not the function of its UI that players are calling Alganon out on. It’s the appearance. Most MMO user interfaces share a multitude of similarities. But most games also do their best to differentiate their looks from one another. In the case of Alganon I don’t think I’m being too critical when I say it does everything it can to appear every bit as similar to World of Warcraft, both in the UI and in the general art direction. I understand the logic behind aping one of gaming’s most profound success stories, but in doing so you’d better accomplish something extraordinary yourself or you’re going to face backlash. Hell, even if you do it well, you’re likely to face backlash. Such is the reaction a game with millions of fans and just as many detractors creates.

Some might say that simply copying World of Warcraft is a surefire way to ensure failure. But there have been a few titles released in recent years that do carry a great deal of WoW’s influence and have still managed to carve a decent niche in the industry for themselves, even if they can’t boast similar subscriber rates. No, I don’t think simply aping WoW is a tactic akin to developer-suicide. Instead what should be labeled a cardinal sin is replicating the look and the feel of the titan, and doing so poorly.