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Alganon forums
Just a word of warning to those considering posting on the Alganon forums. The current regime under Mr Smart is deleting posts that are not full of sunshine and rainbows regarding Alganon and the current regime. Its too bad, as it had one of the best communities I've seen in years. Even constructive suggestions and insights are being deleted. Its their forums, they can do as they wish(shrug). As some of you are no doubt aware, I've been one of the defenders of QoL and Alganon for more than a year now. Unless things change drastically, the games potential will remain unrealized, and the investors Smart represents will at best have a tax write off on their hands. Its too bad, as this could have gone so much better, if Dave Allens succesor didn't have such an off putting in your face attitude, that is driving away the games supporters. Oh well, life is filled with missed opportunities. I still wish the remaining QoL technical staff the best of luck.
Comments
It was really upsetting seeing what transpired yesterday. I caught the posts before they were deleted and it just made no sense to delete posts that were more than respectful. My husband and I both stopped playing as of yesterday. I was really hoping to see the game turn around, but don't think anyone will be left to see it happen.
For any interested, more information here: http://aspendawn.blogspot.com/
Being one of those who had posts deleted, I can only shrug and wonder if the man has any idea how much damage his in your face attitude is doing to what is left of the community. I shudder at the thought of what the remaining QoL technical staff must tolerate to keep their jobs. This type of person obviously thinks that constant threats(directed at customers) and fear(for their jobs in the techincal staff) is the way to operate an MMO. He is going to discover that he is sadly mistaken.
Yes I'm seeing posts there, only minor neg. things to say about the game, then poof there gone. If there not praising him and bowing down to him your posts will be deleted. Oh well, I uninstalled game yesterday. Be curious to see if more than 20 people ever play again.
Are the Alganon forums offline for anyone else?
Actually a couple of really good reasons I can think of:
1) People quit before Derek Smart has to issue refunds -- thus he has the excuse of saying since you no longer play you got your money out of the game and no refund will be issued.
2) He plans to gut the system, he has no clue what he is really doing or what kind of severe imbalance issues it will cause. I know all of classes at level 50 require high study and maxed talent trees to even solo effectively. Gutting those aspects will cause major issues.
3) He doesn't want people who sympathize with David Allen's vision around when he destroys it. As he said, he is going to use whatever lore is left and then throw in garbage.
By getting rid of the current players he can really just "Relaunch" the game. Of course, and no offense to people who enjoyed the game, but no one cared about the game before, no on will care now. The models will still be terrible, the game play will still be standard MMO fantasy fare and until he guts everything it will still play like a subpar WoW. I can't see how he was planning on turning the game around with -- "Sub-free!"
And I thought Derek would bring some change to QoL, but I guess I was wrong.
Shame on you for being such a baby Derek...
"I went to the store to buy a candle holder. They were out, so I bought a cake." -Mitch Hedberg
he's not the most intelligent guy, even in the link above http://aspendawn.blogspot.com/ where he actually misquoted a member of the community who had paid for what 8, one year subs.
i mean derek said "any kind of fun"....
whereas the person originally said "any kind of fun factor BACK INTO IT"
derek just went off in a tangent, read what he wanted... then reworded the quotes to suit his own interests, the man clearly has issues and is in need of therapy!
he is essentially the anti-Peter Molyneux .... i reckon Peter would beat the shit out of derek... there i said it.. Molyneux may be a bit of a crazy man but at least he's passionate about his games and his customers.
derek is just a ****..
"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
I'll tell ya folks I was there for the initial $39.00 package and $14.99 per month fee - about 24 hours later right at launch it went to 50% that cost. Now, that upset me quite a bit especially when I spent the next two weeks in heck dealing with mobs rubberbanding so badly I couldn't even play - but they did let me play indefinitely. Literally 3 months went by and I got to play without being charged. I hope that worked for everyone.
In regards to what Mr. Smart inherited, it's akin to what the President of the United States stepped into - and it's not pretty. Mr. Allen's videos (David Allen is the creative mind behind Istaria's Horizons and Quest Online's Alganon) on youtube just vanished the other day (he pulled them) - but it was those videos where he preached "finish what you started" that really made me put down Warhammer and buy the game. Mr. Smart is there to pick up the pieces and finish what Mr. Allen started.
I see why a lot of folks feel rubbed the wrong way when Mr. Smart posts - he is more of a military man and believes a strong voice is how one directs. I can understand the Mr. Smart method of communique' coming from a militaristic background myself. However, that being said - don't judge the soup until it's cooled.
Give the game a chance and let's see how it goes - yes he felt the need to delete but after what a few friends of mine went through on the Allod's forums - Mr. Smart's style is bunny rabbit soft in comparison.
Finally, I've been guilty myself of mega bashing on Alganon. I felt I had every right since I was there the second it went live...and through beta of course. However, I have also spent a lot of my own personal time posting lengthy threads hoping to assist in the direction of the game.
Let's spend our energy giving ideas - instead of beating the proverbial dead horse into further decay. ANyone can be Socrates, few can be Michaelangelo...let's help build this thing. In the end if it really does fail post relaunch - then we tried - gave our 2 cents and we move on.
/salute
Military man? Every friend and family I know that spent time in the military treats others with much respect. The posts in question weren't deleted because they bashed the game. Posts were deleted because they questioned his rudeness to another member.
Being from such a background myself, I'm quite familiar with it. Such an in your face attitude has NO place in this setting. Alganon needs every player it can get these days, especially those who have been supportive during its darkest days. People sometimes mistake having strong opinions and perspectives with having a lack of dipomacy and tact. One is not the other.
As for your above, few can be either of those historical figures. Both had their role to play in history, just as do Mr Allen and Mr Smart, in the flawed history of Alganon. The game has so much potential and could have gone a lot further, given the community that it had. Its tragic that things have turned out the way that they have.
I really feel sorry for whats left of the community and especially the remaining QoL technical staff. Things didn't have to be this way, and could have been handled in a much different fashion. One of the main assets that Alganon had was its commited community. Much of that is gone now. I feel especially sorry for Kama, as she is still trying to reason with Mr Smart. People like him have far too much ego to even recognize their mistakes, let alone admit them. Oh well, as I said life is filled with missed opportunities, time to move on.
of course its just like any bos or even the president he gets rid of all the old staff and brings in his own especially if the last boss was a moron
at this point it almost seems he will build a game for himself and if noone plays then fuck em definetly seems to have a ego problem to say the least but either way at this point scrapping the game and starting over would be more cost effective then at first glance
which is also what i said he should do when they first announced the change
ok when the guy comes to this measly little website to defend himself from accusations he clearly has too much time on his hands and should be spending it on fixing or remaking this crap of a game military and straight up dick are two different things
Way too much time on his hands from all indications. Not to mention he posted my original post here(see first one on top), on the Alganon forums without permission. Whats tragic is that such behavior is ultimately self defeating. Given Mr Smarts obvious intelligence, and talent he could have been the head of one of the major game studios by this point in his life, if he had learned not to alienate those who are his natural allies.
That's really unfortunate.
I wonder if a small-community MMO like Alganon can work under the banner of a jerk CEO that actually feels like going on trashing people. Heck, I wonder if *any* can work, it would be a lot simpler to just ignore posts from your customers if you're going to be a jerk, there is a community manager function in the industry exactly to deal with your customers - act as the bridge from the company to the customers in forums and even in-game and on real world events.
In a lot of areas one can function while being a jerk - why did he have to choose exactly a game developer CEO? Oh wait... there's Kotick, and it apparently works.
i've been watching developments on the alganon forums with increasing amazement and dismay ... not having encountered censorship of this kind before, i'm actually surprised at how distateful i find it.
frankly, the removal of respectful posts strikes me as a violation of this part of the tos:
"We at Quest Online want to create and foster a community where everyone may contribute without fear of being ridiculed, insulted, or otherwise feel like the rest of the community does not want them to participate"
in any case, these events have certainly reduced my likliehood of continuing in the game ... i'll see how the launch goes, and if the game is still a mess and Derek still overly heavy handed then i'll be done with alganon.
I'm sorry to hear this. I never liked the game in itself, but from the few things I saw, Alganon had one thing, a mature and kind community. Now, that community seems to be getting destroyed. As I said, don't know much about the game, but from Mr Smart's attitude here on the mmorpg forum, I will never touch any game he is in charge of.
he isn't military, come on maybe as a 2 week old.. what do yanks call them "jarheads"...
officer material - laughable.
i can say that, i'm the only generation through my father who hasn't joined the military dating back as far as 1300 (it gets sketchy before that). Military... most amusing.
he's paranoid, delusional, self obsessed, superficial, manipulative, callous..even irresponsible.
in short - a sociopath
"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
I've noticed that as well. But keep in mind that the TOS only applies to we players, and also means only what the current regime in power says that it means(in the same fashion that our much battered Constitution means only what those in power say that it means, as another example). There is a MAJOR difference between single player game development, and MMO development in terms of community. MMO's live(or die...) in terms of their community.
Alganon had one of the best communities I've seen in years. Much of it is gone now, and a good portion of the responsibility for that can honestly be laid at Mr Smarts doorstep. In doing so, he is doing a grave dis service to the interests of the investors he represents, and is pretty much ensuring that they will not see the best ROI possible at this point in time. But thats all water under the bridge at this point.
I still wish the remaining QoL technical staff all the best, and hope the experience and knowledge that they've gained over the last four plus years turns out useful to them.
lol, well he's locked that thread over there now. Funny watching a man bully people around on Forums and get so upset when you say anything against him that he deletes everything you say and then locks threads, just not sure what to say about that without getting really nasty!
I never was nuts about that game, but I did really like the people there. Was a great bunch. I hate to see it fall apart like that.
It is truly sad to see what was one of the most amazing communites go down the tubes. I am not surprised that Mr Smart has not learned anything about gamers and how they can make or break a game. But you would think that would be common sense.
I have followed your posts Wraith from day one along with all the rest of the amazing community members. Sure you could say some might have been negative. But the posts brought up concerns that we as gamers have with the game. If we as gamers did not voice our concerns with the games. Where would the game industry be?. Back to the days of so called games like ET? Where companies would put out shite thinking that us gamers will buy anything.
Alganon has lost so many good people that is not even funny and I do wonder how the great staff that are left at QoL manage to come into work every day. I guess a paycheck is a paycheck. At least the remaning staff can hold their heads up high and be proud of the things they have learned.
Good or bad posts about your game should not be censored. If they are just nothing but F-that and F-that. With little to no respect along with no input into what is in the gamers mind might be a problem with the game. Then yes delete them.
He has said many times that he does not care what us gamers think or do. But is it not us gamers that fork over the money to buy the games?. Hmm.....
When Mr Smart took over I had some respect for him. But seeing that he likes to troll the boards of every website that talks about MMO's and do his usually wall of text. Instead of makng sure Alganon is a success for the investors and that us gamers will have a game to play that will put money into the investors pockets. I have as much respect for him as a human being now as I have a small penis and seeing as I am female. You can guess how much respect that is now.
Quote from Mr Smart
"ps: Do you know how I picked out my forum name (BVRBandit)? It is a combo of Beyond Visual Range and Bandit. Both are terminologies used in aerial combat engagement. In the case of my forum name, I'm the bandit who is BVR and thus you'll never see coming. So go ahead, try and disrupt my forums. "
"So go ahead, try to disrupt my forums." Really is that the kind of thing you want someone to say that is supposed to be building a gaming community and a game that wil make money for the investors. So those investors might invest more money into the game. So us as gamers want to keep playing and put that money back into the game. Funny how that works.....
Bows to Wraithblade, Kalsydor, Allisyia, Whyspir, Hakim, Kondor and all the rest of amazing community that is still left.
Take care all and have fun.
Wall of text ends..
When Derek Smart first landed on the Alganon forums bragging about firing Dave Allen, I took exception with his post and politely (extremely politely) said that it made me feel uncomfortable to see management discuss their actions against a former employer in this way. Mr Smart's reply was sarcastic and rude. I decided not to engage any further, but have popped into the forums from time to time because I still miss the community Alganon had. Having been there from closed beta, I considered some of the players friends (I'm Allisyia, btw ^^) and the forum atmosphere, although at times heated, was overall much more polite than most gaming forums (still is, actually, apart from the odd flamer and Mr Smart's increasingly angry posts).
New players and old alike are now having their posts deleted despite the content of the post being polite and carefully worded. In a post today where Mr Smart defended his right to delete posts and indeed ban the posters, his final words were
"So go ahead, try and disrupt my forums."
http://www.alganon.com/forums/index.php?/topic/3731-my-humble-words-of-opinionadvice-on-alganon/page__pid__40670__st__60&#entry40670
It surprises me that Mr Smart thinks the forums are now "his" and that his behviour is anything other than reprehensible, but I guess that says something about my naïvety (you'd think I would know better at my age ^^).
edited for spelling and typos
Huh, i see you know who just deleted a few more posts, and put up some disjointed ramblings of his own .. does give the impression of someone cracking under pressure
Really, its like watching a train wreck in slow motion
more interestingly, i see official launch date is now "mid to late april"
Now it seems that the game could be launched with golden rabbits coming out of the screen a lot of really great people have left the game or are going to because of Mr Smarts lack of common sense. So the small community that was amazing is now being slowly depleated. Never mind what the gamers that will not touch the game cause of the way Derek has acted.
Derek has done more damage to the game then David ever could. I really feel sorry for the investors if they only knew the damage that Derek is doing to the game and the possible gamers that would invest their money into their product. Instead those gamers are being bullied off the forums and game.
Oh well. Atleast the whole Derek, David Alganon will make for some new youtube videos..
Take care and have fun.
Yes, its tragic. This is WAY beyond what one would expect from a professional. His behavior reflects badly on the investors he represents. I suspect they either do not know about his past and current actions, or they do not understand the implications for their current investments in QoL. His behavior is destroying the once fine Alganon community, and thus further endangering the major investments involved in the creation of the game.
Alganon has its short comings as a game. It would take further extensive investments of time, talent and money to correct some of them, and any potential profits to be had from that, are made much less likely by his unprofessional behavior that damages or destroys the games community. He should stick to what ever it is that he does best, and leave community relations to people who understand the importance of diplomacy and tact in dealing with a community. A constant stream of threats, insults and over the top behavior is not how one normally deals with ones *customers*.
I actually offered to come on as a writer for lore (I've done it for other games), to keep people interested and (quietly) to maybe keep him from posting is rather aggressive stuff on the forums. The lore of Alganon is rich, there's so much potential and yet all I'm seeing is talk about mechanics and instances. The lore is THERE, it exists, but the response was they just didn't have the time to be bothered and none of the lore was actually implemented in any way into the game. I even offered to do so for free until the game started producing some turnover but....no.
In short, I think this game is pretty sunk. I'm amazed that he believes his acerbic attitude will actually help the game. It may work behind the scenes but not to customers. He's not even dealing with the typical "Blizzardcrowd" type of punters, but middle-aged adults who have already sunk hundreds into the game and have still stuck round, hoping things would work out.
In any event...I've had enough, personally. It's one game in a sea of others, and I'll make my way on.