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Alganon: David Allen Responds
MikeB
Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
Former Quest Online President David Allen is finally weighing in on the Alganon brouhaha that has surrounded his departure from the company, including comments made by his successor Derek Smart.
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View David's response below:
For the past two months, there have been changes taking place at Quest Online, L.L.C. (“QOL”) and, unfortunately, a great deal of false information has been publicized.
In an effort to enhance Alganon’s® market visibility and following the direction of certain investors, QOL hired Derek Smart as a consultant on December 3, 2009 to assist in the area of sales and marketing. Soon thereafter, and for reasons unbeknownst to me, Mr. Smart began a smear campaign attacking my credibility, first privately among the investors, and then publicly. As many have read on various Internet websites, Mr. Smart has made disparaging remarks concerning my professional work and comments that could lead others to question my loyalty, honesty, and ability to successfully create, build, run, and manage a multi-million dollar MMOG development company; something I have been doing successfully for over four years. Please be aware that Mr. Smart’s comments are false and that I have filed a civil action against him in Maricopa County Superior Court for his defamatory conduct, among other things. I have been advised by my legal counsel to offer no further comment at this time on this matter during the pendency of the litigation.
Alganon® is an amazing MMOG that my team and I were able to develop for a fraction of the cost when compared to similar MMOG’s. This was due in part to a highly talented team of developers and their relentless efforts. Alganon® has the foundation of a great MMOG with state-of-the-art and custom-built wholly-owned technology, and exclusive intellectual property.
I stand by my efforts in creating Alganon® and building QOL, and believe operating with honesty, integrity, and honor is the only way to conduct proper business. I am confident that during the process of resolving this conflict, the truth will prevail and the factual account of the activities associated with the development of Alganon® will become known.
For those who can't be bothered, the TL;DR version is that David Allen disputes the claims Derek Smart has made since he departed from Quest Online, going as far as referring to them as a "smear campaign." As a result, Mr. Allen has filed a civil action against Mr. Smart.
View the original response here.
Comments
I grew up watching basketball at a time when Jordan, Bird, Barkley and others were coming up. A great time to be a kid who loved basketball. Now that I'm older, I've learned of all the things that went on behind the scenes with these guys and I think to myself, "I'm glad I was a kid when these guys were playing. I was innocent and had no knowledge of what was really going on to tarnish the enjoyment I had." Maybe a bad analogy, but this is how I'm starting to feel with MMO''s. I don't want to know anymore about who is getting fired from where and who is saying this about who. I just want to play a fun game and not worry about it.
Heh, Allen should of stayed in hiding. If he thinks that about a game that is clearly in trouble, and thinks that his staff was talented when he hired junior programmers and payed them an unusually high salary then ok. I mean don't get me wrong, I would of took the job. But the people he hired were not some rare breed of super human developers. Either or, cival suits are useless for the most part. Part your ways, move on and be done with it. If he thinks his name is tarnished, he should of quit a long time ago. I'll do him justice though, he pay's his employee's which means alot in this day and time. But he has never had any good business sense. I mean seriously, he was trying to make a replica WoW .... just um .... yeah.
I don't think it's a bad analogy. As a matter of opinion I think it probably goes farther into other aspects of our ever day life.
Over the years I've learned that there are always 2 (or more) sides to every story. And in the end there are a lot of things to weigh before one can make a solid opinion.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
always more to this world than we'll ever know, i quite like ignorance to be honest... people make a big deal about wanting to know everything... i'd rather know very little, it really is bliss.
remember the days when you thought "bugs" were features in games, and no one really cared about "patches" and any new game your mum bought in a cassette tape was godlike...
looking back most of those games were probably crap... short circuit for the c64 for example.. but that week... it's all i played... ahh to be young again, i think we enjoyed life and games far better.
without the bitchslapping going on in the corner, although you have to admitt..... you're surprised Fox hasn't made a reality show about this yet
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
My uncle (was in the Mass State Police for like 40 years) always used to say "There are 3 sides to every story; Yours, Thiers and the Truth..."
In situations like this its pretty spot on, because all we are seeing is mostly Smart's version of things with a little bit of Allen's version to counteract.
We may never know all the facts, but in a way it does provide some fun reading material :P
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
And to rub it into DA face...
Smart goes and does this
http://www.myalganon.com/library/items/details/item_id/403345
Mr Smart acting in an untruthful and disparaging manner? No, I don't believe that. That's impossible...
Ok that was fun. Anyway, DA is definitely the lesser of two evils. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad captain cookie cutter and his cloning vats have been shelved, but at least most of his egotism stems from pride in his game, where as DS is simply a douche.
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
You had to know this was coming. The things that Smart was saying, if he is unable to substantiate the claims that he made against Allen, really have to be libelous (or would internet message board comments be considered slanderous?).
At this point all of this drama is just pure entertainment for almost everyone watching. David Allen was unable to properly monetize Alganon, that's a fact. However, he did lead the develpment and oversaw the release an MMO, buggy and underwhelming as it may have been, for what was he claims was a paltry sum by conventional MMO standards. While it's QOL's prerogative to fire the man for whatever reason they choose, I'm pretty sure they were on thin legal ice going ahead and making some of the public claims about Allen's competence, ethics, etc.
Allen's reputation was already fairly well-tarnished by the time he left QOL. Had Smart just let sleeping dogs lie and did a bit of work on Alganon, folks probably would have seen the change as a fresh start for Alganon. Instead, Smart's nefarious accusations, forum trolling and flame warring turned him and QOL into the villains, turned Allen into a sympathetic character, and put the final nails into the Alganon coffin.
Someone post a link to where Smart responds, if he does. This lawsuit could very well be what it takes for Smart to finally quit his message board antics and find something to do at QOL related to Alganon, the game. But if it isn't, it sure will be entertaining seeing him dig himself in deeper.
Does this guy get less mature by the day?
He actually spent money (i.e., artist's time) developing this? And he questioned Allen's competence, lol.
EDIT: Screenie for when QOL's lawyers get them to remove it
Honestly, I wish they would just throw both the idiots out, let them squabble amongst themselves, and hire essentially ANYONE else before doing this relaunch. I mean, I've wanted to give it a try just for kicks, but I won't get anywhere near it with Smart involved.
Additionally, this whole back and forth school yard bullshit is just slowly killing an already troubled game. Amusing though it may be.
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
For those who missed it here's Matthew "Hue" Henry chiming in:
http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=18916.msg780088#msg780088
Given "dr" Smart's many conflicting and defamatory statements I hope he's sued for every penny he has. No wonder the MMO industry puts out such shoddy products given the "drama" we see. How many other industries see stuff like the Alganon and Vanguard drama?
Its a sad day in the MMO industry when the drama surrounding a game is more entertaining (imo) and more news worthy than the game itself. This just might turn out to be the funnest game I'll never play.
David Allen destroys another game....
Cool information. @OP thanks for the post.
the drama between these 2 belongs in kindergardern haha.
Allen's lawsuit from his website: http://www.requnix.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Complaint-3.25.10.pdf
mmorpg.com gets mentioned in the lawsuit (as a republisher of the press releases and such). Nothing about me though. How could they overlook my pithy comments on the issues?
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Actually for the record this was a relatively low lvl (kill) quest drop dating back from beta... well before the tea party drama...
/damn now I admited to playing it...
What are your other Hobbies?
Gaming is Dirt Cheap compared to this...
With Smart defaming Allen & co publically and telling people not to hire them in the future they would be fools not to sue. There are *laws* against that sort of libel. Unless Smart has iron-clad proof of illegalities this should be an open and shut case. And if he had such proof it would be a matter for law enforcement and not press releases...
This is hardly a case of two "kids" equally at fault in a public quarrel. It's been Smart attacking and defaming Allen & co all along.
I remember when David Allen got booted from Horizons and he talked about the fact that if he ever was in the same situation again he would be much more prepared. I honestly think Derek Smart, and rightfully so, is about to get beotch slapped hard. David Allen's game design decisions, graphics direction, etc may have produced a subpar product, but if everything in the court documents is true, in terms of contracts and David Allen being a manager and the only way he can be removed, then Derek Smart is going to be very disappointed as he burns through his millions he brags about having.
splat
They should both hire me to mediate.
Case closed.
Wow, Allen has quite a list of solid points to bring up in court. Very specific and if there's any falsehood to them they would easily ruin his case. That kind of hints that either Allen is about to whoop some serious Smart ass in court or Allen's lawyer is going to just try and blow smoke up some judge's hiney.
If all those points hold true in court Derek Smart might want to find the cave that Osama Bin Laden hid in.
It definitely paints a picture to make Smart seem like quite the weasel.
Both of them (DA and DS) are buttholes and the game itself is a disaster. Why do you guys even bother with them ?:) Who cares anyway?
My brain has 2 sides;Left and right. My left side has nothing right and my right side has nothing left...
Yeah, Davin Allen's head has been in the game for a long time, even before Smart was brought on to QOL.
Like the SWG fiasco, I expect we won't know the full truth until years later when the court dust has settled.
David Allen did create a pretty good MMO engine, a solid game world and some nice game features. He didn't really break the mold, but when you look at his previous attempts, it appears he's gone from one extreme to the other (completely different to everything else to exactly the same as everything else).
Though Alganon is suffering from a severe lack of players, it is the smallest subscription MMO I've ever seen. I'm not sure Smart is the right person to turn it around, he is undeniably an ass, but Allen clearly didn't know how to make Alganon work.
Anyways, you shouldnt air your dirty laundry in public, this is just bad for the genre and the industry.