And you thought Steam was the only digital download service that had Christmas specials. Once again, these prices are in USD.

Direct 2 Drive

• Crimecraft $39.99 $29.99
• Warhammer Online $29.99 $19.99
• Star Wars Galaxies $19.95 $9.95
• Final Fantasy XI $19.95 $9.95

Impulse

• Eve Online: Dominion $19.95 $9.95
• Alganon $39.95 $19.95
• Fallen Earth $49.99 $24.99

The sales aren’t as big as Steam’s, which is why I stuck them on the same article. Direct 2 Drive does have two things Steam doesn’t (That I mentioned in the Steam sales page): Warhammer Online and Crimecraft. Impulse has Alganon, however neither Direct 2 Drive nor Steam carry the title.

Other than that the prices are pretty close. With the shared sales, it all depends on which service you prefer.

Because apparently I've been using the gold icon too much.

Recently, several titles have thrown in the proverbial towel and have installed endless trial periods: Champions Online opened up the tutorial area (and first 15 levels) for free, forever. Warhammer Online opened up the Tier 1 (up to level 10) for free forever. Age of Conan is running a special to play the original game, sans trade and chat, for free forever. So, needless to say, more titles are jumping on the “unique trial system” method.

Alganon, noted World of Warcraft clone that launched December 1st, has a special offer for players. You can play the game, for free, for 30 days. Level up as much as possible. There are restrictions on chat and trade, as well as skill level caps (3) among other restrictions, and your character is deleted after 30 days unless you buy the game. A full free month? Usually you have to buy the game first to get that kind of deal!

Alganon is worth looking at if you are on the edge of buying the title, or if you just want something free to play for 30 days. Either way, check it out. Just remember it’s barely a month out the door: Don’t expect a 100% finished product.

Alganon guides can help you skill up your Alganon Crafting in the new MMOG Alganon. Learn how to increase your skill with the least amount of materials and/or with materials not made by other professions.

Alganon guides can help you skill up your Alganon Crafting in the new MMOG Alganon. Learn how to increase your skill with the least amount of materials and/or with materials not made by other professions.

I’ve been putting this off.

Mostly because I just don’t have a whole lot to say.

I played the beta, talked about my errors with other players, found they had already been reported.  I tried all the classes – all four of them.  I tried all the races – all two of them.  I, like many before me, noted that there is nothing original in the game.

And that seems to be the debate – in liberally sampling from the genre to create a kinda of “MMO – Alganon Remix” – did the creators do something good, or something bad?

From the business side of things – we just don’t know yet.  Clearly the strategy is obvious – to be successful yourself, imitate others as closely as possible.  Pepsi is like Coke.  Of course there is differences, but – they are still much alike.  Same with Pibb and Dr. Pepper.  Sprite and Sierra Mist.  Chaos Mage and Dwarf Engineer.  Blood Elves and Sephiroth.  You get the point.  So, the Alganon people might be on to something.

But MMO’s are complex creatures, and there is more to the game than the business side.  Was Alganon fun?  Not even remotely.  The highest I leveled anywhere was 5.  With a human ranger type.  The only thing original about the class was that I got access to an HoT early on.  And the weapon graphics looked cool.   Crafting was point, click, and wait.  And there were very few recipes.  On the bright side, I actually wore some crafted armor early on because the quest rewards overlapped badly – I got new weapon after new weapon – but no helm or cloak or anything.

That said – there was nothing really *bad* about the game either.  It didn’t crash, the quests were plentiful and the mobs were of good density and respawn rate and challenge.  The starter areas were laid out well.  About the only thing I can complain about was combat and mob distance.  Often my ranger would shoot once and then move over to her sword/axe combo immediately, hitting even while the mob was still far off.  And I could still use my ranged abilities inside combat with no penalty, muss, or fuss – the melee/missile switch is automatic and consumes no time.

Good and bad, the overwhelming sense of deja vu gets to you very quickly.  Alganon may have done tooo good of a job of imitating other MMO’s (and not just WoW btw).  They may have been shooting for Pepsi, but I think what they got was New Coke.  The lack of classes and races reinforces this – you get the bare bones vanilla of tank, ranged dps, melee dps, and healer.  And the races as well - human and night elf….err, whatever they are.

Ultimately its just sad – because the innovations Alganon does bring to the table – the study system, the idea of player “families” (with their own sets of quests and targeted rewards) – are pretty nifty.  Here’s to hoping that somebody (a good, strong dev perhaps?) takes those parts of Alganon that are good and elevates them into the spotlight. 

Otherwise, when people want vanilla MMO – back to WoW they will go.

I am probably never going to find time to play either of these games, so I will never get to do a post with either of these titles.

First there is Allods.  I have to think that somebody out there is going to go with my favorite:

Against Allods

Sure, not everybody is a fan of the film, but there are lots of references to choose from on that one, including a Hardy Boys novel.  It does not even have to be a negative post.  It could be about success against all odds!

Then there is Alganon. I can’t help but want to use this title for a post:

Flowers for Alganon

Okay, maybe all of you didn’t read the story in school, but I think I could make it work, bending it so the game seems to think it is getting smarter by lifting the WoW UI wholesale (discount wholesale from the look of it) and transplanting it on top of itself.  Hard to spin this as an upside I suppose, but if you don’t like the game, this is a ready made indictment.

Plus, I also think there is a Gary Gannon joke to be made from the game’s name by somehow implying that he has a brother named “Al”  or something.

(Speaking of which, where did Gary Gannon go?  He was doing some great stuff at AGDC, then poof, his site is down.  Game Breakr, Broken.)

Anyway, I just had to get that off my chest.

I’m never going to go there, so feel free to use any joke (intentional or accidental) that I have made here.

I’ll go back to figuring out how I can work “Large Hadron Collider” into a title.

Heh… heh… he said… wait… “hadron?”

“Keep giving us that Crap on a Cracker. I’m beginning to get use to the taste.”

– Cadfael, Alganon Forums

I need more gold!

I often refer to the fact that I play an obscene amount of MMOs, in fact I invest an inappropriate amount of money each month in buying MMOs and resubscribing to those I already own. So I decided to do a rundown of games I have played, started playing, stopped playing, etc, and why.

Started Playing:

1. Aion: For the fact that Aion quickly became one of the most popular subjects of interest on MMO Fallout, I felt I was practically obligated to jump into the game myself and give it a go, especially after I threw away the chance for the open beta I wasn’t willing to preorder for. For more information, see Games I Cancelled.

Beta Tested:

1. Alganon: Noted WoW clone Alganon is a decent game, for the fact. There are differences in atmosphere between Alganon and Warcraft, but other than that I feel I’ve played this game before. Alganon is currently 50% off, so I may buy it for the free month while it is on sale, keep the key unactivated until I have more time to play it, and give it a go. My only fear is that I would inevitably get bored with Alganon for the same reasons I got bored with World of Warcraft so long ago.
2. Star Trek Online: [This note has been removed due to the Non-Disclosure Agreement]
3. Mortal Online: It’s like watching an MMO be built from the ground up. Yes, I preordered Mortal Online, and no I have not issued a chargeback. Playing the closed beta has been something of an interesting take, for the first few days I logged in not knowing what the hell I was doing (not reading the forums does that you know), and eventually I figured out how to do things such as taming animals, fighting, and gathering resources. Still working on building a house, not being pushed around by the local chuckleheads, and murdering my friend’s pet hog.

Still Playing:

1. Champions Online: At level 21, I just recently hit a point where missions are hard to come by, although some searching around found me applicable missions in the Canadian Wilderness. It’s astounding how, for an MMO where I only have three areas (Canadians Wilderness, Millennium city, and Desert) that I have trouble finding certain areas. I am disappointed that I never finished the Halloween event, thanks to a bug that prevented me from gaining several perks. That being said, I’m not being billed until April 2010, thanks to my 6-month preorder package.
2. Runescape: Blah blah, Runescape joke. If I’m willing to sit through the grind of Runescape, it really takes a lot for me to unsubscribe to another game because of its grind. See games I cancelled below…

Resubscribed To:

1. Darkfall: Partially in anticipation for the patch that was ultimately delayed, and for the boost in experience. I re-rolled a new character on the Alfar side, and have been enjoying myself on the North American server. Currently working on gathering quests and making myself armor and weapons.
2. City of Heroes: I received a free four months to City of Heroes, so since I’m not getting billed on it until March 2010, I decided to give it a go. The client downloaded quickly, only 2.2 gigs, and I flew into the game. For a game as aged as City of Heroes, I have to say it is quite engaging. Compared to Champions Online, City of Heroes actually gives you an incentive to group up, not to mention the area appeared to be more populated as opposed to the one person talking on global chat that I find on Champions Online. Although some options such as bloom now exist, the game still looks like it’s running on a slightly more powerful Half Life engine, not that that’s a bad thing. City of Heroes still has it’s old charm, and for once I’m playing the game wondering why I ever unsubscribed to begin with.I did find my old character, although he was useless in giving me information as to the last time I logged in. According to NCsoft, the last time I logged in with my old character was 3,623 days ago which, according to my flawed mathematics, amounts to almost ten years ago. Unless I was actually playing City of Heroes back when I thought I was playing Everquest back in 1999, it seems hard to believe I haven’t logged on to a game since five years before it launched.

Cancelled:

1. Aion: I cancelled Aion before my free month was up, my reason being because the game was actually painful to play. I know that MMOs are essentially a giant can of grind, but Aion is Nyquil minus the sugar, with extra bitter. Aion has a better story than some other MMOs, and the presentation is very well done in the form of cutscenes and other features, and I did not give the game enough time to get me to Player Vs Player combat. The grind to that point was just too painful to play, and my rule is that I cancel when I look at the login in screen and the child inside asks “do I have to?” And no, upgrading my account to collector’s edition for free was not going to keep me. And one last thing, after diving into this game; those testimonials you hear about bots in-game, they are all true.

I have no idea what this has to do with December...

Welcome one and welcome all. Although I realize that for half of the world, December 1st has come and gone, I speak for all when I say: Welcome to December! Festive seasonal holiday deals continue this month in an effort to bring you into that festive cheer, just cheerful enough to reach for your wallet (or memory if you have your card number memorized like I do).

December roundup after the break…

New games! Everyone loves them, and everyone who hates the term “wow killer” hates them, if that makes any sense.

Alganon launches today! Noted World of Warcraft clone Alganon goes live today after a luxurious delay from last month in order to continue optimization of servers. If you’re thinking of buying Alganon, do it quickly; The title is in a soft launch phase and is available for 50% off, only $19.95 as opposed to $39.95. I don’t know why I originally imagined Alganon was free to play, but there you are.

But what about those of us who are already paying for MMOs, Omali, you say. Well, there’s good news for you as well! This month sees the launch of several expansion packs that will tickle the taste buds of new players and veterans alike.

Today Eve Online launches Dominion, a new expansion that looks to revamp the alliance and territory control system, after a delicious nineteen hour downtime and the patching process. As with all Eve Online expansions, Dominion is free.

Also launching today, on the paid side, Lord of the Rings Online launches Siege of Mirkwood. Siege of Mirkwood continues the time honored expansion pack tradition of raising the level cap and opening up new places to explore, as well as continuing the game’s ongoing storyline.

Darkfall players will receive a large expansion in just a couple of days, barring any further delays, in the form of new upgrades to the sea and naval combat portion of the game. Bringing in controllable sea fortresses, housing on the ocean, new skills, a wildlife AI addition, and various other tweaks and balances, this will be Darkfall’s second expansion since launch earlier this year.

Later this month brings the latest addition to the enormous Everquest expansion line: Underfoot. Do you dare face the giants in the sixteenth expansion? Find out on the 15th.

December is also the time of the year when push comes to shove, and release turns to delay. There are only 31 days for MMO developers who have been calling on a 2009 release date for some time now. Games we’re still waiting on include:

• Huxley, the sci-fi shooter.
• Earth Eternal, which is currently in open beta, is set to go live this year.
• Dungeon Fighter Online, a two dimensional beat em up button masher goes live, hopefully this month.
• The oft-delayed Mortal Online is expected to launch this much. Not much to say from the beta frontier, although the NDA has been lifted.
• And more…

Alganon launches today. On launch day, the prices for both the game itself, and the monthly subscription were slashed to $19.99, and $9.99 respectively.

That should go over well with the people that bought the game full price!

Anyone playing the game? First impressions? I am dying to know what the one-month added development cycle did for the game!

Alganon is in open beta. They intend to go live in a week. If you want to try it and don’t want to pay, now is the time.

http://www.myalganon.com/index/beta-notes

I found a funny blog post today while just browsing around on different MMO forums. As you might know there’s a WoW “clone” in the works called Alganon. Eldergoth has written a preview on it after the NDA was lifted.

A few quotes from his preview:

 I’ve heard a lot of excuses about how all fantasy games have various tropes in common, about how all MMOs have similar UIs, and so on. This is not a similar UI. This is outright plagiarism.

That key icon on the far left? It’s only there because WoW has a keyring with that button. Alganon doesn’t have a keyring but they forgot to remove the icon when they copied the UI design.

I recommend you read it and check his pictures. It’s a fun and tragic read The whole article can be found here.

The Alganon beta is very laggy at times. This is no doubt exacerbated by my bad wireless connection. Even though I was getting booted, and had to slow down my progression due to lag, It was a good experience. After 8 levels, I was able to get many quests under my belt, study a few skills, if that’s what they are calling it because there are other skills that you get through leveling, and delved into crafting a bit all while seeing a good sized chunk of the extremely large starting zone.

My first 4 levels were filled with acquainting myself with the game and world. Creating a character seems average to any other MMORPG. Not super in-depth, but not shallow either. You can pick hair, face, all that jazz. Unique is the family names you choose from. Each race has 5 families to choose from. These are an attempt to help group players to other like-minded players. Each family is related largely to one field of combat or study. There’s an adventuring family, a crafting family, and so on.

I took a human soldier which starts me in Asheran Forest. It’s a gigantic zone, and has the most pleasantly diverse terrain I’ve ever seen. The layout for all the terrain seems natural, full, varied, and never gives a feeling of repetition(Hey I saw that exact shape and size boulder 2 kilometers back).  There are some nice animations with swarms of bugs, tree tops gently swaying in the breeze, and other little incidental novelties that actually felt like it brought the world more to life.  This zone is also immense. I could only hazard a guess that it may be like taking the zone Stormwind, from WoW, and quadrupling it in size. It’s a colorful world. It has a cartoon-ish look, but high texture and water details make it look sharper, more focused, and a bit less cartoon-y than WoW.

Quests are standard, nothing new here. fetch, kill, find are the norm. Tutorial based quests will get you accustomed to the controls, and your surroundings. There’s a built in quest tracker, to find where you need to go. Some may think this takes away immersion or is too easy. For a first time player I found it very helpful, as the zone is huge and easy to get lost in.

I clicked my study icon to get started with what I could. It’s a time based skills system that lets you select from about 3 studies after character creation, and as you study, more will open up. I found it fine. I started with bladesmanship, then went to crafting related studies. I was only level 5 when I did the novice craftsmen which completed within one play session. It opened up specific craft related studies such as natural oils, alloy, etc… I chose alloy, and suddenly it’s taking 24 hours to get that study. I felt that it was a huge jump from the first level of studies I took. I am not at all familiar with EVE and its time-based skills, so I will have to have some more…uh, time with this part of Alganon.

My first 5 levels kept me pretty close to the starting area, and then the quests lowly moved me further down a road to the town of Greenvale. At level 6 I found out I could have already been crafting at level 1. So I jumped in, asked developer chat a few questions and got started. There’s honestly not much I can say beyond “If you’ve played WoW, you know everything you need to know about Alganon crafting”. It doesn’t just look the same, you’ll feel like you’re playing WoW at times, if not for the graphical differences, with all the similar movements you’ll be going through.

Crafting is the same system used in WoW. It looks like they ripped it out of WoW, put it in Alganon, and just renamed items, recipes, and ingredients. That’s not saying it’s bad, I think it speaks more volume to say “It’s familiar” and I’ll get to that more in a bit. I found a blacksmith, purchased mining, and blacksmithing. I then went out mining which was a pleasurable experience. This is a one-click gathering system. You get a tracker. In my case I could locate ore, but there was a small extra perceived sense of hunting on my part. Even when you near a node, it can take some looking for. It may be behind a tree or rock, or just hiding down in a depression in the ground. It also could be nicely placed amongst some mobs requiring some skill to reach if you are equal or even above the mobs level. Some clicks landed me copper, limestone, and sometimes a jewel along with the others. The most I ever received from one node was 2 copper, 1 limestone, and 1 jewel.

There’s a vendor in town selling some reagents that you’ll need to go along with the ore when crafting. I also found, with the beginning recipes, you’ll quite often also need to refine the ore and get some drops from mobs to create the item(s).

From level 7-8 I went on more quests which sent me further along the zone. I was done crafting for the time being, after feeling used to it, and I wanted to see more of the great graphics in the zone. There are plenty of hubs with lots of NPC’s. Many of them just stand there, but they all have voiced greetings for you. The houses are nice. I always love many buildings you can go into. Just like the terrain, the buildings are varied in size and shape. Asheran Forest lends itself to log cabins and small wooden houses. There’s a few 2-story houses that I explored. This is where the camera flaws really showed up.

I found myself constantly zooming in and out, whether in the forest or in town. The trees are so lush with wide tops, and the camera doesn’t snap below them, so any trees in your way will have to be avoided by zooming in. Same goes for inside a building. There seems to be an attempt at camera snapping, as you enter a buildings doorway then turn right or left it snaps to the characters back just fine, and you can easily rotate around to get the interiors layout. But many times, especially in the multi-storied buildings you have to zoom in to avoid staring at the floor above you.

The most unique and exciting feature in the game, to me, is the Library. It’s simply defined as an in-game repository of information on everything in the game. It’s not simple though, as it has everything. If WoW had this, it would be like taking Thottbot, and WoW Armory, smashing them together, and then letting you access that info all without alt+tab’ing out. There’s also a slew of Alganon world lore to look up. It’s a very nice interface.

Apart from crafting being identical to WoW, the difference for Alganon is how they plan to get items into players hands. They’ve said that they plan on balancing the really good weapons and armor between crafting and drops. You’ll be able to get that Uber Green Glowing Demon Sword+1 from a series of challenging crafting tasks, or from a challenging raid. It sounds like they are trying to create a dichotomy of equality. That is to say, it seems they’re trying to create equal feelings of work and time invested for both the crafter and raider after the same item. I’m very curious to see how this plays out. Unfortunately no instances are available in the beta. Any real world testing will have to wait until after the game’s launch.

To sum up, I felt the game was very polished visually.  The server snags and lags quite a bit right now, but that’s to be expected in beta this young.  It plays very much like WoW in many respects.  I felt torn whether I should dislike this or not.  You could almost disassociate yourself from the graphics and you could simply believe you found some brand new zones in WoW.  I never used the term WoW clone before so I do not use it lightly now.  The interfaces from crafting looked ripped directly from WoW, as does a few other interfaces, and also the way you interact within those interfaces.  Ultimately it doesn’t make me dislike the game in the least.  It’s not a bad thing to be a clone.  And it really has it’s own look graphically.  At the end of reaching level 8, I find that apart from the knowledge base called the Library, there isn’t much in the way of innovation.  I don’t need innovation when a game uses many approved standards of play that agree with me.  I find myself wanting to play more to see how beautiful the rest of the world is, if nothing else, and to see how the crafting implementation will affect the player base and my enjoyment level of crafting.

Apparently the alganon nda is lifted.

I was in the closed beta and logged in a few times. Its dull and not worth trying.

If you want a more interesting wow clone, try runes of magic. Runes of magic has the duel class thing that makes it more interesting.

Alganon is buggy. The races (human and evil human) are dull. The story is dull. The classes are dull.

There is nothing new to do. The scenery is meh.

The skill queue is pointless and a rip off of eve.

The link above goes through how much its a wow clone.

Avoid
Avoid
Avoid

Micheal Denny heads Sony’s Worldwide Studios Europe (yes, a Worldwide studio for Europe). Speaking at Develop Liverpool yesterday, he says new intellectual properties (IPs) are necessary for the gaming business to thrive and to counter stagnation. He talked about a ot of other things as well, and you can read the full article here. But we will work with just the statement above.

Novelty

It sounds like a fairly generic, obvious statement. Novelty and innovation go hand-in-hand with memorable experiences and awe-inspiring moments that challenge the very norms that define us as gamers.

But the truth of the matter goes deeper than that.

There are several new IPs in the last few years that have redefined genres, challenged existing modus operandi, and experimented with pre-existing formulas that both surprised and entertained. Mirror’s Edge and Assassin’s Creed are two examples that capitalized on the parkour phenomenon and introduced it, albiet with varying degrees of success, into the gaming arena. Assassin’s Creed’s repetitiveness aside, no other game allowed you to race parkour-style across rooftops, weaving, dodging, jumping, climbing through densely populated cityscapes with the same satisfying fluidity.

Another example is Left 4 Dead. It capitalized on America’s necrotic (necro-erotic?) fascination with the undead, and elevated it to breathtaking heights. (Literally. Remember ‘No Mercy’?) At the most basic level, you find weapons, you shoot things, you heal, you get from point A to point B. But the whole experience was moulded in a way that fed our most primal instincts when faced with near-impossible odds, and structured to reward teamwork rather than the ever-present lone-wolf gameplay. In short, it was the first memorable and lasting IP to explore the zombie genre, and it did so with elegance and style.

Then there are games which mix and match pre-defined and functionally distinct elements of the the gaming macrocosm, and produce something that is simultaneously fresh, yet oddly familiar. Borderlands, a first person role playing shooter game, is a great such example. Although I have some reservations with the game, it has challenged industry norms and brought to life interesting, deviating ways of combining age-old gameplay elements to create a fresh, unique experience.

Innovation even applies to taking the same old concept and applying a fresh twist to it, be it story, gameplay, control or any other aspect that defines the game for what it is. Dragon Age: Origins released three days ago in the U.S. It unlocks for me today (about bloody time). Although I have not played the game yet myself (not that it stops me from shamelessly singing praises about the it), I rest assured because industry veterans, reviewers, bloggers and players are awash with praise. Although BioWare is weaving a tale that the fantasy RPG genre is over-saturated with, Dragon Age: Origins’ “story is rich and engaging, the characters are memorable, and the journey is one that pulls you in, captivates you and compels you to move forward toward the conclusion.” In other words, despite utilizing a familiar setting, the game is designed to surprise fanss of the genre and throw elements into the mix that are both unexpected and against the grain.

Then there are games that innovate and surprise you in ways you never thought possible. Because prior to these games, the genre to which they belong simply didn’t exist. I am talking about Braid. There were moments where I just stopped, and stared at the screen in awe at how much love and energy and effort they had put into something so elementary and simple. A straight-forward platformer was transformed into a cerebral masterpiece that enthralled, amazed, and made you stop dead in your tracks.

And for any fan of Valve, the cake always was, and always will be, a lie. Can you think of any other game that made you fall in love with an inanimate cube?

There are countless other examples, but the bottom line is that innovation is what drives the industry forward, gives us novel, unexpected, at times mind-bending IPs to play, and justifies Micheal Denny’s statement. Mr. Denny may be striving for the Captain Obvious title, but he certainly drives the point home. However, that is only part of the story.

Nostalgia

On the contrary, nostalgia plays a big factor in attracting an already dedicated fan base to a new iteration of an old IP. Warcraft, Command and Conquer, Metal Gear Solid, Diablo, Splinter Cell, Max Payne, Grand Theft Auto, Halo (and many, many more) are all examples of great games that relied on nostalgia and the success of the inaugural titles to attract additional revenue.

Click to enlarge. Courtesy of Bad Pie Bakery.

World of Warcraft is a global phenomenon. With the entire population of Earth, Vulcan, Tattoine and Caprica (that hurt your head?) acquired as the player base of the ever-popular MMO, Blizzard has created a behemoth that is practically impossible to dethrone. ‘The next WoW’ has been applied to countless MMOs released since, and none have achieved the success (at least in numbers and subscriptions) that WoW enjoys to this very day. I can’t help but wonder if the game would have been this successful if prior Warcraft titles had not existed. Would it be laughed upon? Would it be degraded as a shameless clone (I am looking at you Alganon!)? Would it never take off the ground? Or would everything remain the same? Regardless of the level of success WoW would enjoy in this alternate reality, my patented sixth sense tells me it would be nowhere near the level of success WoW is today, had it not been for the millions of avid followers of the IP.

The Call of Duty series is an interesting case study because it applies to both the novelty and the nostalgia sides of the argument. On the one hand, the series has capitalized on a massive base of rabid followers ever since the first Call of Duty hit the market. On the other hand, the series was redefined with Modern Warfare, a title that needs little introduction and speaks volumes about the level of innovation and effort that went into redefining this classic series on a whole new level.

The third rendition Max Payne, for the lack of a better word, looks weird. Max is fat, balding, in South America, and a mercenary for hire. It is almost as if someone designed a new game, and someone else stamped it with the Max Payne IP and course-corrected everything accordingly. But as a fan of the original Max Payne and it’s fantastic sequel, I know for a fact I will buy and play this game. I will not care what the reviews say, or what the screenshots look like, or how far removed Max will be from the familiar New-York-world-weary-cop setting. I will play this game with all the enthusiasm and wonder that I played the first two games with. I will remain loyal to this IP regardless of the vicissitudes of passing years or changing studios.

But the nostalgia factor isn’t limited to rehashing old game IPs in a new light. It also applies to leveraging a tried and true formula, rather than an IP. Consider Knights of the Old Republic. The game took the RPG formula BioWare has essentially and effectively perfected, and combined it with the nostalgic fan base of the Star Wars universe. Yes it was a pre-existing IP, but one that was not leveraged in the RPG gaming industry as such. The result was a product that won grand slam titles, scored high in every category, provided a fresh setting and gameplay, and secured its place as a classic for some time to come.

The most recent of these examples is Torchlight. The graphics looks cartoonish and severely dated. There are only three classes. And it ends too quickly. But it is an incredible experience, offers smooth gameplay and feeds on the far-reaching and widespread Diablo nostalgia that the gaming media has made no effort to hide.

Conclusion

One step forward, two steps back. Two steps forward, one step back.

What started as a ‘Thought of the Day’ post has turned into a 1,500 word piece juxtaposing novelty against nostalgia in contemporary gaming. In the end, I suppose I agree with Mr. Denny, but only in that his statement paints just part of the picture. Nostalgic experiences and revisited IPs are just as important to the genre as novelty and innovation. And in select cases, they can work hand-in-hand to create an unforgettable masterpiece.

Do you guys agree? Which side of the fence are you on? Can you think of some other examples that apply to the two dismetric opposites above?

This isn’t a good week to be associated with Alganon, developed by Quest Online. After some tough love from the blogger community and some hard-hitting feedback, president and co-founder of Quest Online, David Allen, delayed launch by a month to work out some of the kinks, and decided to give Massively an interview.

Maybe the game is cursed because even the folks over at Massively came under fire for throwing what readers of the blog describe as ‘curve balls’ at Mr. Allen. You can read the full interview here.

The following are some interesting, albeit harsh and painfully blunt comments from readers on the interview and about Alganon in general. I tried to include some positive or neutral comments, but they were… hard to come by.

“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?”
- Darzin

“Stop throwing easy balls at devs. Give them some hard questions, the ones we really want answers to.”
- Clockwork

“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.”
- Phil

“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.”
- Iggy

“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”
- Iggy

“Blatant rip off is blatant.”
- breezer

“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.”
- Itoao

“I still cant believe why this awesome site, is covering such a subpar blatant ripoff of WoW, and not even asking hard questions.”
- Wonderwyrm

“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.”
- Neurotic

“I must say that after beta testing this game it needs months and months of more fine tuning.”
- Raven7680

“It’s hard for me to say a game sucks… but this game is absolutely NOT worth paying a subscription for.”
- Rawry

Massively is a solid website, and has been my favorite source for MMO news for some time. So it was no surprise when they took the readers’ comments to heart, approached Quest Online with a new plan, and announced that they would ask David Allen the hard hitting questions.. asked by the readers themselves.

You can find the details of this upcoming interview here. If you’d like to ask a question (I believe the limit is one question per person), send an email to shawn AT massively DOT com by Friday, Nov. 6, by 8 am East Coast time with the subject line “Alganon questions.”

Let’s see Mr. Allen dodge this (hail of) bullet(s).

Some quick updates:

Fallen Earth: I have about a week left on my trial key, and I’ll have a write up ready to shoot to you all with my take on the game.

Alganon: I’m not sure what kind of NDA I’m under for this game (not alot of good communication thus far, as you may have noticed). I believe the game releases Dec. 1, but whenever the NDA is lifted, I’ll have a write up on this one as well.

EVE Online: Coming Soon ™ a new post: Battleships…I was doin’ it wrong.

Alganon, developed by Quest Online, has announced its open beta event launching on November 11, 2009. This is the final stage of testing before the game launches on December 1, 2009.

President and co-founder of Quest Online, David Allen had this to say:

“Alganon is what players have been waiting for. All one needs to do is play during the Open Beta to find out.”

Head over to Aglanon’s announcement page for additional details, and how to download the test client.

Quest Online, the developers of the upcoming (and now delayed) Alganon have come under some fire recently from the blogger community. They recently had a chat with the folks over at Massively. President and Co-Founder David Allen answered (dodged) a bunch of questions regarding the MMO. One statement in particular stood out to me.

“I’m not upset we’re being compared to the most successful multi-billion dollar MMOG [WoW] on the market.”
- David Allen, President and Co-Founder, Quest Online

See anything familiar? (Click to enlarge)

Oh really? Maybe that is because everything in your game, including graphics and the smallest UI elements, are shamelessly copied from WoW. Hey-oh!

You can read the full interview here, if you are so inclined.

Alganon is a name I came across occasionally in the last few weeks. It is a new MMO being developed by Quest Online, originally slated for a release on October 31, 2009.

The game was previewed by the guys over at That’s a Terrible Idea, as well as Tobold and Eldergoth. And the verdict was resoundingly unanimous: Alganon simply sucks.

Evizaer on That’s a Terrible Idea says: “Alganon is a great example of how to make an MMO that has no chance of success: it copies without perfecting, it adds without improving.” Tobold words are not much different. He sums up the game in the simplest terms: “Alganon is just plain bad.” You can also read Eldergoth’s detailed and painfully honest (p)review here if you are looking for a much more in-depth look.

I haven’t played the game myself, but the overwhelmingly negative feedback prompted me to look up the MMO, and see what all the fuss was about. In that regard, I suppose their FAQ turned out to be a gold mine. Here are a few nuggets:

“With all of the features, technology and design going into ALGANON, the only thing that will pull you to our game is what it ultimately becomes.”

All aboard the fail train. (Note: we will simply ignore the million graphics and UI issues brought about by ‘all the technology’ for the sake of keeping this about 7,000 words shorter). If the ‘only thing’ serving as a selling point for your game is what the game will eventually become, you have failed in just about every category that judges your abilities as an MMO developer. In addition, Alganon charges nearly the same amount as any high-end, mainstream MMO, and requires a monthly fee. Given the sheer lack of polish, and the unabashedly scathing previews from bloggers and industry veterans alike, it is surprising to see Alganon move the release date from October 31 to December 1st. As if an added month of development will magically fix the plethora of issues identified.

It’s a sure shot recipe for disaster, and Quest Online is hell-bent on drowning in the misery of their own creation, the sooner the better!

“Who is your target audience?”
“Any gamer who wishes to be immersed in a large-scale fantasy world where they will have fun, build customized powerful avatars, interact with a virtual community, and explore a vast world of creatures, companions, interesting secret locations, and much more.”

And grandmothers with arachnophobia and a secret fetish for oatmeal raisin cookies. Oh and dead people.

“How large is the world?”
“The continents of Ardonya and Harraja are huge! The domain of Asheran Forest, for example, is larger than the entire playable space of some other games. Many of these areas will be opened up sometime after release, allowing a progression for your character’s exploration long after you begin your journeys.”

Are they *this* huge or *THIS* huge? Asheran Forest being larger than the entire playable space of some other games is a dubious statement since ‘other games’ is as broad a definition as it can get. Incidentally these boast-worthy areas will be open ’sometime after release’, implying that any sado-masochist willing to fork over $39.99 is buying an incomplete, gimped game where even content you paid for will be kept locked till the developers feel like releasing it to you.

Here is another stellar example of marvelously generalized statements that are about as vague as… something. (Get it?)

“What kind of environments and creatures will I encounter in my journeys through the world?”
“There is a huge amount of variety in the terrains offered in Alganon.”

But at the end of the day, the one thing that baffled me is as follows:

“The core game is designed for single players to have a rich and fulfilling experience on their own if they choose….”

This is in the FAQ’s of an MMO. Enough said.

Edit: As reader Leto pointed out, this could simply imply that the game does not force you to group. But there is a clear and present difference between forcing you not to group and encouraging you to stay solo. Champions Online is one great example. The game at no point blatantly tells you to go at it solo, but it is designed in a way that encourages solo play and subtly takes away the choice of grouping. If the same is the case with Alganon, in their pursuit to provide single players a ‘rich and fulfilling’ experience, then once again they have failed to meet basic objectives.

It really says something about the game when you can conclusively and concretely establish that it will not be worth your time, effort, energy or money, despite having invested nay a single second of playtime in it. Perhaps this will serve as a deterrent case study for Quest Online, and budding MMO development studios.

Follow, if you will, the sequence of events here, especially those highlighted in RED:

SilverElf4,You have been added as part of the last wave of Alganon beta testers before its launch on October 31, 2009. Your MyAlganon account “SilverElf4″ has been upgraded to have immediate beta access. You don’t even need a beta key! Simply login to your MyAlganon.com account and click the “Beta” button to get instructions on how to download the client. Once you are finished downloading, installing and patching the beta client use your MyAlganon login account name and password to login and play the Alganon beta.

Greetings,

 

I received my invitation to the last round of Beta testing before launch and was very excited.  I have downloaded the client from http://www.myalganon.com but when I run the client and put in my account name and password, it tells me that the information is invalid and will not download the installer.

 

I’m not sure what to do.  I used the same account name and password as I used to access the page with the beta client as supplied in the email.

Just a quick note. I’m doing Fallen Earth now, which while its technically not beta…it basically still is. And I got an invite on Saturday to participate in the last round of Alganon Betas before its launch.

And I’m sad to say, despite having had the FE client for 4 days, I’ve yet to be able to play the game. But kudos to theirs support team for their timely responses and aid, even if there is no end in sight to the bugs I’ve encountered.

Alganon on the other hand, needs to get its stuff together. As of this morning, I still can’t even download the client. And I haven’t heard back from their support team *at all*.

More on EVE and the ultimately bizarre and yet awesome conclusion of our first war dec later on.

Alganon, Mmorpg fantasy in sviluppo da ben 4 anni e attualmente in fase di closed beta sarà distribuito esclusivamente tramite Direct2Drive. I giocatori che effettueranno il  pre-ordine prima del 31 ottobre 2009 avranno accesso a dei bonus aggiuntivi (study bonuses, mounts, character enhancement items, and family heirlooms) non disponibili successivamente al lancio. Oltre ai diritti di lancio IGN/Fileplanet detengono l’esclusiva distribuzione delle chiavi beta, a tal proposito David Allen cofondatore di Quest Online Entertainment LLC (QOL) svluppatore del gioco dice:

E ‘molto importante per noi per avere dei beta tester di qualità che hanno un interesse reale nel gioco, e tramite il sistema di pre-ordine e la collaborazione con FilePlanet è il modo migliore per raggiungere questo obiettivo.