Massively's pre-launch interview with Alganon
by Shawn Schuster 
Nov 2nd 2009 at 12:00PM
Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, Massively Interviews, Alganon
Quest Online's president and co-founder, David Allen, was kind enough to answer our questions, which include everything from those of PvP content to his thoughts on being compared to World of Warcraft. Keep reading below for the complete interview.
Massively: The MyAlganon community tools seem to reach deeply into social networking. Is this something you hope will evolve and grow itself, or will there be special promotions to get players to focus on MyAlganon?
David Allen: At its core MyAlganon is here to serve as the Social Center for Alganon, so players within the game can easily communicate and share with each other outside of the game. With the Library, Guild and Character listings, MyAlganon is a powerful repository most players haven't even begun to tap into as of yet.
I'm not upset we're being compared to the most successful multi-billion dollar MMOG on the market. However, Alganon is not WoW, but has the "magic" many MMOGs have captured. A player just needs to play it to find this out.
"I'm not upset we're being compared to the most successful multi-billion dollar MMOG on the market." |
It rewards players not just for playing, but subscribing as well. A casual gamer who has been playing Alganon for a year (and managing their studies) will have access to things a hardcore gamer who reaches max level in just a month simply cannot. Those who have been playing Alganon longer will simply have a stronger support basis than those who have not. But it doesn't mean new players can't dive right into studies and planning the growth of their character out beyond class, skills and abilities.
This game seems to be heavily focused on lore and playing as part of the grand story. Will roleplaying be encouraged through special events or perhaps a dedicated RP server?
We haven't decided if we're going to have RP servers or not. It depends on what players ask for during the Open Beta process.
How many servers do you plan to implement at launch?
It all depends on our Beta and Launch load. We have all the core hardware we need right now for what's anticipated. If we need more servers, it's not difficult to get them up and running.
I may just be overlooking it, but I didn't see much info on PvP in Alganon. Will there be PvP?
Absolutely, but not until the first major expansion in 2010. We want to do PvP right, and need a bit more time to ensure this is the case.
It's more psychological than anything else; grouping like-minded people together, but at the same time, players in a family have access to family Heirlooms. As the game grows, so will the families, and we may see families fighting for the highest "X" or control of "Y".
Can players from different Families join together in the same guild?
Yes. The only restriction for a guild is players must be of the same "side" (either Asharr or Kujix). However note we have a nice recruitment system for the guilds, so if the guild master wants to make the guild a "Soldier Only" guild, they can technically do that.
How do you plan to expand the game from here? Yearly paid expansion packs? Free content updates?
We plan on releasing major expansions every 6 months, and all expansions will be free. We currently have more than two years of expansions planned, with the first mini-expansion being that of The Dawning.
Thanks for your time!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
monkeystick said on 12:16PM 11-02-2009
Seems like this game would have a better reception if it were based on a free-to-play model rather than a purchase and subscription.. not that I know anything about launching a successful gaming business.
I'm not trying to be harsh, I'm all for a free WoW clone, but if it doesn't sell they'll probably have to revert to F2P anyway so why not launch it as such?
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Darzin said on 12:31PM 11-02-2009
Wait... what the hell kind of interview was this? Hi, you mind if we fluff up your really terrible game and make it seem like it's okay? You didn't ask why the UI was an exact copy of the WoW UI, including the achievement pane which Alganon doesn't even use? Or why the Families System is nothing more than an extra chat channel? Or what his actual reasoning was for offering pre-orders for the game under the NDA only to take that money and push the beta back a month? Or even how a company with limited resources plans to push out an expansion once every 6 months?
"It rewards players not just for playing, but subscribing as well. A casual gamer who has been playing Alganon for a year (and managing their studies) will have access to things a hardcore gamer who reaches max level in just a month simply cannot."
Except for the fact that the system is very anti-casual to begin with. You have to rigidly log into your character, and only 1 character can study at a time, a click on the study system, then you can either play the character or log out and wait x hours/days/weeks. And since the last patch, low rank skills now take a day+ of real time just to learn, and the advantage is no minimal.
Also, you never asked why they thought that they would be able to push the game out in December without ever testing all the talents/skills in the game. Only one class has all their "final talents" and no one knows if they all work yet. Also, what happens when the expansion comes out, you have been playing one class/race and now you want to start a new one, you have to abandon that entire characters effort at the study system and start new?
Having to wait 6 months+ for the first expansion pretty much means you are paying for the Beta version of the product, because the game will have 2 races out of 8, and 4 of the 7 classes. No instances! They say they will open after "The Dawning" but read what they said about their in game event. Something like the person who completes it will help the Devs come up with the items and mobs in the instances. Say what? How will the instances be available if you don't have the mobs and the items in there?
So many questions you should have asked, but instead you took the time to make the interview a fluff piece.
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Clockwork said on 3:27PM 11-02-2009
This right here. Complete and utter truth. Really, Massively, come on... Stop throwing easy balls at devs. Give them some hard questions, the ones we really want answers to.
Phil said on 12:47PM 11-02-2009
I pre-ordered this game because I thought it looked really neat, the process to set up my subscription was really painful and required actually getting in contact with their head customer support person. From there I downloaded the game, went through the patching process, rolled a Mage and I found out in the first 5 minutes that this game was complete and utter crap. The way the character moved and looked felt incredibly awkward, the animations looked like something a 5 year old put together, etc etc. My personal suspension of disbelief did not exist at all, therefor I was not able to enjoy this game at all. I will be canceling my subscription before the game is even released completely.
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Flolah said on 12:55PM 11-02-2009
I was fortunate to receive a beta invite in their "last" round of beta testing, a week before their release had been pushed back. I experienced numerous CTD issues right from the get-go, after an hour of manually installing what had to have been 6 or so patches. Manually meaning I could not walk away from the machine and come back an hour later like you could with other games. Even Runes of Magic has a more automated system than this, and a better launcher altogether, and that costs me nothing (yet).
If you are looking for a solid WoW-clone, skip this one, or wait a year for them to get it to a truly playable state. At least people seem to not mind the fact that RoM has only two races.
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Iggy said on 1:42PM 11-02-2009
I was in some kind of closed beta phase a while back. I don't remember when exactly. This game is basically a subpar, clunky, ugly WoW clone with none of the polish or charm. I'm amazed that they haven't been sued by Blizzard; maybe it's *just* different enough to avoid a lawsuit.
I remember reading on the forums that one of the continents used to be called "Asheroth", and when called out on it, David Allen defended it by saying that he had the idea for Asheroth before WoW came out, nevermind the fact that, as far as I can remember, Warcraft's world has been called Azeroth since the beginning, almost 20 years ago.
I then notice that the continent is no longer called "Asheroth".
Honestly, this game is nothing more than a crappy, amateurish WoW clone. But then again, what more can you expect from the guy behind Horizons, the game that promised the moon and stars and sun and ended up delivering pretty much none if its promised features except an admittedly decent crafting system. But about a quarter of the races made it in, there was absolutely no political system as promised, no family system as promised, no underwater city as promised (in fact, you can't even swim in Horizons), and the game is one of the biggest failures to ever hit the market. I feel bad for whoever Allen scammed to get the money for this piece of rubbish.
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breezer said on 1:44PM 11-02-2009
The real question is:
What the hell were you guys thinking?
"I'm not upset we're being compared to the most successful multi-billion dollar MMOG on the market. "
Oh... THAT'S what they were thinking.
Blatant rip off is blatant.
Yeah I guess it makes sense to pay more money for an incomplete rip off of one of the highest quality, most successful games in history
Good planning. Alganon producers should be proud of their foresight.
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Itoao said on 6:14PM 11-02-2009
I really will never understand why people take so much time out to bash a game. I have not played this game or WoW for that matter but the game has not even come out and its all doom and gloom. Sad place we are in, sad.
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Wonderwyrm said on 2:57PM 11-02-2009
I still cant believe why this awesome site, is covering such a subpar blatant ripoff of WoW, and not even asking hard questions.
Thats not to say you need to be a douche when your interviewing, but it just seems like no one this site staff has even played the game, looks like its just being fluffed up by this site.
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Neurotic said on 3:23PM 11-02-2009
It's their job to be diplomatic, even though it's probably as obvious to them (the Massively journos) what the problems are there. A little diplomacy and *choke* politeness *choke* allows them to keep covering the game into its future, whether that coverage is more probing or not, or whether that future is as short as we all suspect it to be or not. Leave the vitriolic anger to us. Which we do so well.
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Shawn Schuster said on 3:32PM 11-02-2009
For the most part, you're right on the money. It's not so much to ensure our coverage of a particular game in the future, but we try to stay away from polarizing opinions one way or another. This is for the sake of the readerbase, not so much the developers. There are plenty of people who love this game, and plenty who hate it. This happens with everything, everywhere, ever. But as you said, the comments are where the real action happens :)
breezer said on 3:33PM 11-02-2009
Well said. They have to diplomatic.
We, on the other hand, do not.
Clockwork said on 4:00PM 11-02-2009
Diplomacy is one thing, and I understand it's a necessary evil, but that doesn't mean you can't ask some tougher questions. It just means you have to be careful how you word them. For instance, "Some people have stated that they believe...[Insert Question Here]." That clears you of liability and makes it clear that you're only asking the question because there are people out there who want to know, and not because you necessarily believe it yourself. It also gives developers the opportunity to defend themselves and their games whereas not asking the question at all just lets the naysayers talk down on the game with no chance of defense. Just saying, it would be nice to see some tougher or more relevant questions that don't just, as one other commenter said, fluff up the game.
Sean said on 12:50AM 11-03-2009
There is a difference between being diplomatic and letting a PR representative turn an interview into a press release. That is after all their job, to represent the game in the best light possible. Your job as journalists is not to be combative but to ask illuminating questions. This interview reads as if you generated the questions off of a press release bullet point list and conducted the interview via email. Neither makes for interesting content and as a reader I will take my views and clicks elsewhere if these sorts of interviews continue.
Utakata said on 2:38PM 11-03-2009
I think you guys need to lay off of Massively on this. They are treating this MMO release like any other MMO release, whether it's Aion or Crimecraft. That is, always with a smile no matter how dubious the game is.
Though I do suspect the games that catch more their attention is directly proportional to how much they'll cover it. But that doesn't always guarantee it's a quality game either and certainly not the next big thing.
Raven7680 said on 7:04PM 11-02-2009
I agree with most of the comments here. I must say that after beta testing this game it needs months and months of more fine tuning etc, it is NOWHERE near ready to be released. Movement is weird, combat is awkward, mounts (the ones in the beta) small to the point that your characters feet drag(LOL WTF????) there are not enough quests, no end game, no pvp, the studies system is for the hardcore only...I could go on for hours. There is some good though the music is nice and having a vanity pet on my toon was pretty nice but sadly those were the only good things I could think of. Im gonna stick to Warhammer and Jade Dynasty instead I would rather give my money to companies who know how to make a MMO with polish. =D
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Darzin said on 2:09AM 11-03-2009
"There are plenty of people who love this game, and plenty who hate it."
There is like a handful of people who love this game, and a bunch who paid for it and now feel like they have to support it. I have seen very few positive comments about this game outside of the 10 people on the Alganon forums talking it up.
There really is nothing to love about this game, and no one should love the idea of paying for a beta of a game.
Outside of that, you can ask questions without polarizing opinions either way. In fact, you did provide an opinion about one the games features -- "We think the Families feature is brilliant." That's an opinion, and I am sorry you think an extra chat channel is brilliant? How is it at all brilliant? Most people are going to choose a family based on randomly hitting it, or ignore it all together as it does NOTHING as far as game play goes.
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Proto said on 12:46PM 11-03-2009
I'm a fairly recent convert to Massively (just started reading it often in the last couple of weeks). usually the standard is high but yes, this reads like you're a fluffer to Alganon's Dirk Diggler, getting it ready for the shoot. Poor. Oh, and I am completely non-plussed by the game too. Where's the innovation?
I did enjoy Horizons though. Playable dragons ftw.
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Utakata said on 2:27PM 11-03-2009
From the quality of graphics, I thought this game was another of those F2P with MT WoW knockoffs. I am now flabbergasted to realize this is actually sub based. It looks like it was released a year before WoW using a primative version of their graphics engine. Even if this MMO is sound in every other aspect, I'm not sure I could I play with something visual wise so brutally ugly.
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Rawry said on 2:37PM 11-03-2009
I was pretty excited to beta test this game, actually. I didn't join the beta with any negative predisposition.. I had heard no negativity about Alganon, everything was fine and dandy.. Anyways, I downloaded the client and made an account no problem. As soon as I got in the game world, I almost instantly disliked the game. The character animations are *very* bad. Very bad. That in itself can make the game appeal to far less people. The movement was awkward, and the interface was cluttered and unpolished. I really was hoping for it to be good, but this game is a train heading straight for a brick wall. I have no idea what the people behind this game were thinking.. It's hard for me to say a game sucks.. but this game is absolutely NOT worth paying a subscription for.
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