Massively's Alganon launch day roundup
by Shawn Schuster 
Dec 1st 2009 at 5:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, Launches, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Alganon
With Alganon's launch today, fans -- or potential fans -- of the game may be looking for more information on the fantasy MMO from Quest Online. To help you out, we've compiled this comprehensive roundup of our best Alganon coverage. Plus, look for a letter from Quest Online's David Allen on the state of the game's launch and a look into the future. Check out the interviews and galleries below, and be sure to let us know how you're enjoying the game so far.
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Alganon community interview: Your questions answered Last week, we reached out to the Massively readers for questions to ask the team at Quest Online regarding the upcoming Alganon MMO. David Allen, president and co-founder of the studio, stepped up to answer the ten questions chosen for him by us. |
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Alganon's State of the Game address The first piece of information is good news: they are set for the December 1st launch with no delays in sight. The Alganon team has been working hard lately, taking the servers down more frequently to patch and update, which should help to minimize problems at launch. The address did mention the postponement of the original launch date, citing a desire for the most polished game possible -- reasoning that we can certainly support. |
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Massively's pre-launch interview with Alganon After a newly-announced launch delay, we now have just under a month before Quest Online's Alganon releases to the public. Now in its beta stage, Alganon has enjoyed mixed reviews since the NDA was lifted two weeks ago. We thought we'd take this opportunity to ask some of the questions floating around about this new fantasy MMO, and how it sets itself apart from existing fantasy MMOs. |
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Alganon to be exclusively distributed through Direct2Drive Alganon fans, you're going to want to make sure you're keeping an eye on Direct2Drive, as Quest Online has announced an exclusive partnership to sell the game solely through the online digital distribution service. |
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Alganon devs field questions on the studies system, crafting, and high level content Chances are you still have some questions about the game, seeing as we really only started noticing it a few months ago. Recently the game's developers Quest Online gave members of the community a chance to send in some queries for a Developer Roundtable. The results of that Q&A session are now in, with the team tackling four questions: |
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Alganon screenshot gallery A collection of screenshots from Quest Online's Alganon, including many exclusives just for Massively. |
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Felnor said on 6:03PM 12-01-2009
Funny thing, they still having fixed the issue with jumping in the game as of last night. They may have in this last patch but to me it doesn't look like they did.
I'm calling this MMO, DOA.
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Felnor said on 6:13PM 12-01-2009
Oh and by the way, I'm looking forward to Allods. Looks like those cats have a winner on their hands. Better looking than Runes of Magic.
devilsei said on 6:49PM 12-01-2009
Okay, I'm taking bets on when this game will "decide" to switch to F2P, pots at 50$ US for it going under the F2P banner in three months!
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Felnor said on 8:01PM 12-01-2009
I doubt they go F2P but it will be interesting to see what happens. I give them 6 months before the Investors come pounding on the door asking, where's my return. Rule of Advice, if you can't develop an original MMO that doesn't "borrow" anything from the competing games, get out and stay out.
x(wai)x said on 6:27AM 12-02-2009
@felnor: Almost no MMOs are made up entirely of original ideas. The only one that comes to mind off the top of my head is EVE, and that's probably just because I haven't bothered to think of any of the ways it's similar to other MMOs. Most online games borrow from each other left and right.
That's not to say Alganon didn't cross the border between "borrowing ideas" and outright plagiarism, but demanding 100% originality from every new MMO might be asking a bit much. ;-)
vista said on 7:34PM 12-01-2009
Dont see why any one would ant to pay to play this game.
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ethereal.wolf said on 8:04PM 12-01-2009
its funny cause the president of the company was bashing f2p in an earlier interview. there's alot of decent f2p titles out there. and if he goes f2p i'mma laugh in his face.
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BubblePriest said on 6:01AM 12-02-2009
There may be good F2P games, but there's plenty of people (myself included) who flat out won't play F2P games. It's nothing against the games themselves, it's the entire cash shop model that's a turnoff.
The interview I read him talking about F2P indicated his problems were with the model, not some assumption that F2P games are lower quality.
I am not personally playing Alganon (thought about it, but friends were playing other games), but I'm happy to see that some developers don't accept the notion that F2P is the way of the future. It gives me hope that in ten years I won't be forced out of MMOs entirely for refusing to play F2P.
Nollind Whachell said on 11:53AM 12-03-2009
BubblePriest has a good point. Even though I'm loving the Allods Online beta right now, the key crux of it will be how the F2P Store within it is implemented. If done right, it could really attract a big audience. If don't wrong, it could turn off a lot of people who are enjoying it at the moment.
Alz said on 10:48PM 12-01-2009
How much does this game cost to play, anyways?
I was somewhat interested in the game until I heard it cost money, which is not something I would consider when there's kind of a... better alternative.
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Darzin said on 11:20PM 12-01-2009
$40 for the game, $15 a month sub, just like all AAA MMOs, but it isn't one!
Kaamos said on 1:56AM 12-02-2009
I hope they have something to offer in the game mechanics that let it bring something to the table versus the other fantasy mmo titles or they will be forced to go F2p like the rest. End of story.
I wouldnt play it at first glance even if it was F2p, I dont like games that look the same as games ive played before.
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Dread said on 2:04AM 12-02-2009
F2P by Christmas ;)
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derella said on 4:45AM 12-02-2009
It's already on sale at D2D for $20. I wouldn't pay that much for it though.
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TenForward said on 6:43AM 12-02-2009
I blew $20 to buy the retail release after reading some of the more pleasant forum goers on Alganon. (It'd be so nice to find a mature community in ANY MMO anymore.) Sadly, the game is not worth even the $20 I spent, and certainly not worth an ongoing fee. The graphics are horrible. The game is buggy. The sounds are grating (you almost want to turn it off). The quests are boring. And even the game's layout is nonsensical.
Frankly, I'm amazed that any company would release such a poor quality game and hope to compete. WAR and AOC had vastly superior game engines, and have failed to make a significant dent in the MMO marketplace. How could the creators of Alganon possibly justify releasing this as it is?
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Holgar said on 9:29AM 12-02-2009
Because like Darkfall before them they are an indie dev who ran out of money and are selling a hyped up shoddy product to raise funds I'm thinking.
Rawry said on 3:25PM 12-05-2009
This game is not, under any circumstances, worth $40 and a subscription fee. Alganon was set up for failure.
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