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Alganon Expansion Pack Update
Alganon April Newsletter
Alganon Expansion Pack UpdateGreetings from the QOL dev team.
Due to unforeseen circumstances and the massive amount of work that our small team had to do on the expansion, after evaluation of the project, it was decided that more time was needed in order to do some critical bug fixes as well as to spend more time on certain areas and features of the expansion in order to do the best work possible. For this reason, the expansion has been delayed to Q4 2012.
Rise of the Ourobani
The world of Alganon is a battleground for the gods. The deities of the Kujix embrace change, conflict and knowledge, while the gods of the Asharr represent creation, fire and life. For centuries, the Kujix and Asharr have fought each other for dominance of Alganon, each side trying to outmaneuver each other in what has become known as the War of Conversion. But the balance of power, that has resulted in a stalemate for so long, has been broken.
Ouroban, a god believed lost to the void, has returned and brought with him secret knowledge about the portal system that enables the people of Alganon to travel freely about their world. With this knowledge, Ouroban has the power to transform, or even destroy, Alganon. The Temple and The Spindle, monuments built in Ouroban's name on the volcanic mount Ateis'Tepi, are the key to his secret. But before Ouroban could harness their power, one of his followers revealed what he knew to both the Kujix and Asharr.
Now, these bitter rivals have united to seize The Spindle, destroy Ouroban's followers, the Ourobani, and, if they can, take the power for themselves!
Expansion Pack Screen Shots
Very soon the world of Alganon will be expanding and with it will come major change. As the Ourobani stake their claim to the continent of Aeon, the Asharr and Kujix have a new threat to contend with. Will they be friend or foe? Only time will tell, the gods themselves cannot say.
Expansion Pack Videos
Alganon: Rise of the Ourobani will have these features and lot's, lot's more!
A brand new playable race, the Ourobani
A new, unique leveling experience in the new continent of Aeon
A new combat companion class playable by all races... The Warden
Flying mounts in Alganon: See the lands as never before as you ride your mount through the skies!
A new PvP Battleground system with battles which will affect the greater game world
Hundreds of new quests and new types of quests
Alganon: Rise of the Ourobani coming soon!
Video link
Comments
There is also a new dev blog explaining where we are, what partiially led to this delay etc.
Game developers are just human beings who happen to make games for a living.
If you want to hold us up to higher standards of conduct, then go ahead
...but don't be surprised if we don't uphold them.
Oh. That is some sad news I read. Hope you guys are gonna be allright and I look forward to the exp pack
Are those animations some kind of joke? Because I'm loling hard right now
"EVE is likely the best MMORPG that you've never really understood or played" - Kyleran
Is the population any better? If not, that queue for dungeon option was a waste of time.
I am playing at the eu server and its quite lonly. But its fun at the same time
I think I have played this before, If I remember correctly, I saw 1 other person running around the newbie area with me. 1 person. One.
Was that running? I thought he was iceskating:)
Movement of this game looks terrible...
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
Edgar Allan Poe
You ever watch the special features on your DVD or Blu-Ray, and they show you the conceptualizing steps of the movie through "animatics", or animated storyboards?
It's usually some cartoon-like graphics or really bad CGI run at low-res to get the point across... you know the ones.
Doesn't this remind you of an animatic for World of Warcraft?
Sure, the games looks old and the animations are quirky. Its a game and the game you like will also have some old textures and strange animations. So dont be shy, try Alganon
[Mod Edit]
Yeah, around here - we just ignore them.
Game developers are just human beings who happen to make games for a living.
If you want to hold us up to higher standards of conduct, then go ahead
...but don't be surprised if we don't uphold them.
You just logged in to state that you ignore the posts that you're obviously aware of, because you're not actually ignoring them.
Some strange logic, Mr. Smart.
I like the art direction in this game. I'd play it if others did as well.
As you should.
I always check in on this game, and think about retrying it every so often.... What is shown in the OP looks good, when I get some time I might just check it out.
Keep doing what you do.
I think that is the real problem with this game...
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true...
Yes - that it is. We ended up in a Catch-22 situation once the game hit in 2009 and people realized the mess that it was in.
Some people would come to check it out, play for a bit - not see a large pop - then leave.
Some would come to check it out - not see a large pop - then leave.
That is the same story with all MMO games.
However, what most people fail to realize is that the fun in an MMO game is not how many people are playing it, but how many quality people you can find to play with. In the case of Alganon, those who stay (or come and go so every often) are quality players who really like the game, have helped us a great deal to fine tune, tweak it etc.
My approach with Alganon has always been the same approach that I take when making my games. You either like my games or you don't. You can read more about this in two recent interviews over here and here.
My approach has not changed because I believe that if you don't get greedy and try to win everyone, but instead focus on the those who are buying and playing your game, you will end up building a core audience that eventually leads to profitability. You can't win everybody. If you can get by with 100 gamers, there is no point in killing yourself trying to get 200 because the end result is you will neglect the 100 who are your core audience. This is even how all monetization works. You give out something for free and charge a little for something. In the end, you will have 2 people buying and 8 other freeloaders.
Game developers are just human beings who happen to make games for a living.
If you want to hold us up to higher standards of conduct, then go ahead
...but don't be surprised if we don't uphold them.
1) You make it sound like a majority of people played the game and liked it, but left due to population issues. That couldn't be further from the truth.
2) While I sympathize with your legal issues to an extent, you will not hold on to your existing customers unless you regularly give them new content.
3) QoL has horrible communication skills. They first announced the expac to release in Winter 2011 which most people associate with Q4 2011. It wasn't until Spring 2012 or Q2 2012 that they were told it would be delayed until Q4 2012.
4) The engine was dated when the game released, it looks like a browser game now. You can't fix that and get new content out in a timely fashion.
5) The art direction and character animations are still laughable. That is one of the main reasons people don't stay very long.
6) If Alganon was released in its current state as F2P it still would be a struggling game because there just isn't anything there that isn't implemented better elesewhere as F2P.
7) You've never once given me the impression that you understand the MMO market or even played them. That was a big part of David Allen's mistakes. "Finishing" a poorly designed game didn't fix that. It was a nice reward for the people that bought into David Allen's hype but it didn't and couldn't address the core issues with the game.
8) You haven't shown anything to demonstrate why people should want to play Alganon. You seem very good at telling people to not play, but make little effort to hype the game and the expansion. You really need to find someone to fill that roll as your baggage and defensiveness in interviews really tarnishes the message.
I may not be a fan of the game or agree with mr Smart's style but props for this. I couldn't agree more! The bland copy-and-paste state of the genre can be attributed to developers trying to appeal and win over the masses. The end result is you end up with bland water-downed games you play for a few months and get bored with quickly. Kudos for sticking to your guns (regardless of how it turned out this time around).
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true...
Um, MMO stands for Massively Multiplayer Online, with the emphasis on Massively. If few people are playign the game, then it is not going to stay afloat for long. It is a miracle Alganon has lasted as long as it did.
Also, while I will admit that the people who play Alganon are dedicated, they are far from quality players. They turn on everyone who doesn't like the game quicker than a Klingon whose honor was insulted (and yes, this did happen to me).
In order for a game to have quality players, it needs to be able to attract players. Sadly, from what I have seen, Alganon is incapable of doing this, given its rocky start with all the WoW plagiarism accusations, and especially given that numerous MMOs are either coming out or turning F2P nowadays, many of which were subscription games with player bases 10x that Alganon had at its peak.
Since when is Tuesday a direction?
As a player whom knew nothing about this game except from this site I can tell you why I left since a dev reads up. With games releasing every day that are quality I found Alganon lacking. Like a poster mentioned the graphics are just not up to date and little things like animations are quirky. I can solo and have fun or group but the game was just not up to the times in terms of graphics and concept. There are a lot of games you guys have to compete with now , some free others paid so at least in my opinion you gotta step up the art department . I honestly just watched the flight vids and didnt even allow it to finish I just turned it off because it didnt look good to me (imo) Im sure your guys work hard on it and there is a passion for what you do but honestly to me I just cant get past the outdated sloppy graphics, animation, and 3d models.
So what if only a handful enjoy the game , if it scratches the itch for them & the company running it can afford to do so the it's a service, a small, niche one is all.
Derek is correct about focusing on the players they have though, this game would require far too much time & money to be mass-market, but if they have resouces enough to continue to develop it that;'s a good thing, there is plenty of room for a game like Alganon in the market, but I do get the sense that many commenters would rather the game was closed down just because it doesn't jive with their own personal agendas.
Leave the little guys alone to tinker with their game, it doesn't hurt you.
I love reading Alganon news because soon comes the hate, then the truth, and then Derek Smart trying to stop the former by not delivering the latter...
Reason me this, if MMO is about quality of players over quantity, how do you find quality players when you have no quantity...
It's like looking in a cookie jar for Oreos and all you find is crumbs...
I feel a bit sorry for the developers of the game. Imagine beeing an artist or programmer for that game. You have such a small team, that you can't do anything to really improve the game, such as improving the graphics engine or adding new classes or anything.
All you can do is using the existing system to try your best to trickle in more content. And no matter how hard you try, with that dated engine and such a small team, it will never look really good. Especially compared to most other titles you can play these days.
It must be very frustrating for the devs.
I can see the game beeing fun for some people. At the same time, I don't see a single reason why you should play exactly that game. Tera got it's combat, SWTOR is Star Wars, Rift got it's rifts, and so on.
Poor developers.
I still hope the game lives for a bit longer, so they don't have to find a new job soon.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
I thought this game died off ages ago, and yet it's apparently thriving enough to warrant an expansion even now. People around here may not be the biggest fan of Derek Smart, but goddamn, he seems to be able to keep a sinking ship afloat better than anyone.
Anyone with cash can keep paying developers even after the players have all gone. That's just throwing money out the window. That's not really keeping the boat afloat. That's keeping a game alive to try to use it as a selling point on your resume. That will only work if people don't ask for financial records.
I do feel bad for the investors that got hoodwinked by David Allen. I don't feel so bad for those still pumping money into the game though as the writing was on the wall a long time ago. There is 0% chance of investors actually recouping their losses on this game.
So i was looking through the official forums.
You know just to see whats up and whats going on and what kind of life the game has.
from the guy everyone loves:
"Also, if you haven't been keeping up, I am planning on giving all those who purchase the expansion, early Beta access to the Line Of Defense game being developed at another company I own and which is being released at the end of June 2012. If you don't know anything about, check out the game's website and Facebook page (which has a lot more recent shots due to the website undergoing a revamp)"
http://www.alganon.com/forums/index.php?/topic/5586-souhabout-the-expansion/
Really was sad to see the guy selling another game made by another company on the forum of a near-dead game whos trying to stay alive with an expansion.
Glad to see that there was some form of life in the game...not exactly sure how they are staying above water and even able to develop the game further, much credit given to the actual developers for sticking with the game. So sad to see a game in this state though...i almost feel the humane thing would be to put it out of its misery and use those developers time for something thats going to get appreciated.