Tag: Quest Online

Week In Review: Too Much Ravioli Edition


I hope Bioware can survive its community, and I mean this with the sincerest of honesty. I’ve had a full month of experience playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and although I sent a good amount of feedback to Bioware via their surveys included with the demonstration copy, I want to issue one of my famous ultimatums: Your community is labeling the game the next WoW killer, and that needs to be stomped out faster than the people who expected this game to be Pre-CU Galaxies Part 2. Now, The Old Republic is going to be the biggest release of the year (assuming it isn’t pushed back until January), no doubt about that. Bioware has relatively high expectations for box purchases, and more importantly expectations for subscription retention following month numero uno.

And forget the discussion about the price of the collector’s edition, that is completely irrelevant. The only thing that can cause Bioware to collapse upon itself is when the game launches and all of those fun launch day issues come to light. Lag, server queues, game-breaking bugs, content that isn’t in at launch, etc. Content aside, The Old Republic will have lag, it will have game-breaking bugs that aren’t apparent until launch because they only come to light with said encumbering lag, and it will have server queues. That’s the rope you walk buying early into a game that everyone is buying into early.

1. Yea, I Get It, Expensive Statue…How About Two Free Months?

If I’m going to pay $150 for the collector’s edition of Star Wars: The Old Republic, with a twenty dollar “fee” just to preorder the thing, I think Bioware should bite the bullet and give an extra two months of free game time to Collector’s Edition buyers. A hundred and fifty dollars is an insane price for something that, much like Halo Reach’s massive monster edition, will likely be on the 50% clearance rack at my local Target a few months after launch. Given the high price of the collector’s edition, Bioware should include an extra month or two of subscription.

Think about it this way, someone who pays that much money is likely more susceptible to buyer’s remorse in that first month than someone who paid less. Given a couple extra months to play might be just what that person needs to embrace what the game has to offer, and in the long run that extra time could keep him involved and keep that subscription going when the time comes to renew.

Any good drug dealer knows you give just enough for free to get them hooked, then you open your wallet and let the cash fly in.

2. You People Set Your Expectations Too High When You See Me In-Game

Being the creative soul I am, I name almost all of my characters “Omali.” As a result, and as MMO Fallout has gained popularity over the last two years, I’ve had people recognize my username in various games as being the “Omali from that website” as one person put it. It’s interesting being recognized as the celebrity I am not, and not only because half the people want to know if I can get them free stuff from the developers.

People tend to assume I’m some industry insider and that I keep this website small because I have all these secrets, when the truth is I don’t. MMO Fallout is small because I’m still expanding upon it, and I have limited funds to do so. I’m not even a blip on the radar of most of these companies, that’s why the only guy stupid enough to think I carried the influence to “ruin his reputation” with my opinion articles, and warrant sending me a note through his lawyer was David Allen, the guy who managed to get fired and then publicly humiliated by his own company.

Overall, I know maybe a handful of industry people. At the moment I’m under three nondisclosure agreements. For what I cannot disclose.

3. The Alganon Comic Review Was Real

And to prove it, here is a small image from a page not found in the previews. Remember, the Alganon comic was distributed at Comic Con, so it is publicly available in a print fashion. I, on the other hand, was supplied a digital copy by Quest Online for the purposes of the article, which I noted in the article itself. What I should have noted in that article is that Quest Online didn’t approach me, I asked for it. I contacted Smart initially with a request to purchase the comic (at this point I was unaware of a digital version coming) for the purpose of writing an article, and was supplied with a digital copy. I have a copy of Crimecraft’s comic (that I purchased when it went on sale four months ago) which I will also be writing a review of.

4. Icarus and GamersFirst Sitting In A Tree

Those of you who play Fallen Earth are already aware that you will have to set up a GamersFirst account starting August 1st in order to have continued access to the game. This is the first phase of the system changes that will bring free to play to Fallen Earth, and players who transition early will have the opportunity to net some free G1 tokens for their prompt response.

What you may not be aware of is that Icarus Studios is working on an upcoming MMO based on the UNITY 3D engine called Hailan Rising, to release this fall. The game is billed as a fantasy title focused on PvP, with players choosing from eight classes to battle it out over territory and resources. The game will be stat-based, which for some reason is still billed as non-conventional and “grind-less.”

5. Stat-based Games Are NOT Grind Free!

Going straight from number four to number five, I want to shout this from my rooftop every time I hear it said in a press release: Having stats over traditional levels does not remove the grind, because in most cases rather than grinding a single experience bar for levels, you find yourself grinding many experience bars for levels. Rather than attacking trolls, for example, and obtaining 100 experience each time, I might fight a troll and simultaneously gain endurance while swinging a heavy sword, sword experience for doing damage, stamina for taking damage, and heavy armor experience for fighting in heavy armor. Same grind, but rather than leveling up and seeing +25 health, +3 strength, +5 stamina, +1 intelligence, I gain those levels over a period of time.

With so many more skills, obtaining end-game can take even longer than a traditional level game. Runescape, for instance, takes longer to attain 99 in one skill than many traditional games take to hit end-game overall, and each skill in itself is a heavy grind.

Quick Look: Alganon, Fall of the Ourobani Comic

I review Alganon’s comic book: Fall of the Ourobani.


Alganon lore is a topic I am not fully versed in. The game spans two factions divided by race (Humans and Talrok), in an endless battle over territory, power, and resources. Through past updates, Quest Online has expanded the lore through the library and via in-game updates. This winter sees the release of the next Alganon expansion, introducing the Ourobani race. To prepare for the expansion, Quest Online is releasing a comic book titled Fall of the Ourobani, the plot leading into the events that occur when the expansion launches later this year.

The first issue sets the stage for the expansion, introducing some key players to the Ourobani race. Bana’Serit, the future queen of the Ourobani, Tasa’harr, a member of the Ourobi Order, seeking a powerful weapon called the Worldhammer hidden in an ancient temple. The god of the Ourobani, the appropriately named Ouroban, is said to be so powerful (by his followers) that the Asharr and Kujix temporarily set their differences aside to destroy the faction.

Graphically, Fall of the Ourobani fits in with the art style of Alganon itself, and the desperate action of the Ourobani to get through the portal and escape the impending Asharr and Kujix armies almost gives the player a sense of sympathy toward the race. Every character is uniquely detailed, with pulsing muscles and flowing robes, each easily distinguishable from those around them. For instance, Tasa’harr is instantly recognizable as a Magus, even before the narration describes him as such. The dialogue, however, is one of the weakest links of the chain, with a lot of exposition, presumably to compensate for the fact that the story, from start to finish, is only 18 pages.

Overall the comic reveals a good chunk of lore, giving a proper introduction to the barbarian-styled race of the Ourobani as well as setting the stage for why the race is suddenly making its way back into Alganon, what they want, and why players should feel compelled to slaughter them by the thousands. It’s worth a read, even if you’re just slightly interested in the lore surrounding Alganon.

The digital comic will be available in about three weeks, although sadly the print copy will only be available at the two Comic Cons. Fall of the Ourobani was created by DC Comics and hopefully will not be the only issue in the series. If anything, the comic is excellent hype material for the upcoming expansion, and advertisement for Quest Online’s upcoming MMO Line of Defense.

This quick look was completed using the full release copy of Fall of the Ourobani, supplied to MMO Fallout by Quest Online. The images used are from the preview pages available at Alganon’s website.

Alganon Comic Book Coming This Year


I know what you’re thinking, and put your calendars away because we’re talking serious brass tacks here. Not too long ago, Derek Smart announced that Alganon would be receiving a comic book, with the first issue taking place before the upcoming expansion, revealing more about the third race coming to Alganon: The Ourobani. In a press release today, Quest Online revealed that the comic will make its premiere at San Diego Comic-Con at the DC Comics booth.

“Alganon – Fall of the Ourobani”, tells the story of Bana’serit, a young leader of the Ourobani. Under assault from rival factions, Bana’serit seeks out a mythical weapon in a desperate attempt to secure the safety of her people. This limited edition comic reveals the series of events that lead into the upcoming Alganon expansion pack, Rise of the Ourobani.

The comic will only be available at San Diego Comic Con and at New York Comic Con, and will be available in a few weeks as a digital comic via PC, iPad, and iPhone on Comixology and the DC comics store.

Until then, you can read the preview pages here.

Alganon: Free Server Transfers to Europe


Every time I write an article about Alganon, I inevitably get the same question: Omali, why do you bother reporting on this game? My answer is a rather simple one: I believe that Alganon does not receive the attention it should be getting. I’ve never broken the cardinal rule of MMO Fallout (never report just to announce new content) regarding Alganon, so nothing shady is going on according to my book.

In our last installment of Alganon, I talked about the opening of a European server. That server, named Aeon, opened today. The server is located in Amsterdam, and should offer a better experience for European players who otherwise experienced unbearable lag on the United States server.

Today we launched the Aeon Alganon server, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We’re pleased to offer this new server, centrally located in Western Europe for the convenience of our players in the EU. This server can be accessed through the Europe tab on the world list, and players on any continent can choose to play on either the Aeon server (EU) or Matma’el (US).

For the next week until July 19th, players will be allowed to transfer their characters to the Aeon server for free. After the time is up, the server transfers are going back up to 1363 tribute (between $8-9 USD). I’ve marked the dates on the MMO Fallout calendar.

Derek Smart Talks: Alganon, Free To Play


I know what you’re thinking: “Omali, you clearly don’t have a punchline ready for this segment,” and you would be one hundred percent correct, but I have good news. In my continuing efforts to branch MMO Fallout from the normalcy of sarcastic comments, random videos, rants, sales, and “I told you so” moments, I’ve decided to start trying to get interviews with various developers, starting with my first phase: “How Free Can You Be?” I’ll be trying to get interviews with various free to play developers, about their outlook and particular take on the business model.

So with fresh taser burns from my daily trash looting at the Bioware offices, I chatted with Derek Smart about Quest Online and Alganon.

First off, I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy day to talk about Alganon and Quest Online. For those reading this who might not play Alganon, tell us a bit about Alganon and Quest Online and yourself.

I have been a game developer for over twenty years mostly focusing on hardcore space games developed at a company which I founded and own, 3000AD, Inc.

Quest Online was founded and seed funded in 2006 by Greg Wexler and some other dude who used to work for him at one of his other companies, Mortgage Coach. The company developed the Alganon MMO game which was released back in 2009 prematurely by that very dude (later terminated) and to well publicized disastrous results. So I was brought in by the majority investors to head the company, rescue and finish Alganon etc. I’ve been heading the company and leading the team since then.

The holy grail of free to play developers is to strike a center where the player is not so encumbered by the cash shop that he feels forced to spend, but at the same time has an incentive to throw money down on items/equipment. What is Quest Online’s aim for the cash shop’s presence in-game?

To be perfectly honest, we were lucky in some regard. You see, the game was not developed to be a F2P game supported by a cash shop. So when we literally cobbled that in, the game’s original design gave players all this content for free because there was only so far that we could go in order to monetize the game without doing a major amount of work. So the end result is that when we made the switch from a subscription model, we didn’t get much push back from the gamers because they could play the game without having to buy a single thing.

In the past year we have added numerous items to the cash shop, some essential and some vanity and we’re continuing to do that periodically. For example when we started implementing PvP we took the opportunity to added more cash shop items without making it so that the player with the most money wins. Though that can in fact happen at some point; but that’s the nature of the beast. 🙂

The level boost (about $10 total for the last twenty levels) is really the only “essential” buy to experience all the content available in Alganon. Can you give us an idea about what the big nonessential sellers are? Vanity pets, dyes, potions, boons, gear, temporary/permanent mounts?

That is correct. I don’t have the metrics on hand, so I really don’t know what the big sellers are.

Do you believe in the 85-10-5 rule for cash shop games (85% pay nothing, 10% pay a small amount, 5% pay substantially)?

Absolutely because that is pretty much the sort of metrics that I am seeing in our weekly reports. For Alganon, since you can play for such a long time without having to spend a single dime, our metrics – while improving in leaps and bounds – tend to be all over the map. That comes with the territory.

Alganon offers scaling PvP armor (the armor stats level with the player) on the tribute market. How is the tribute armor balanced so Alganon doesn’t become a buy to win game?

I don’t really have the answer to that because I don’t know. What I do know is that the guys try to make sure that the game doesn’t end up being “pay to win” like so many other F2P games out there.

The manner in which Quest Online has set up the tribute market is rather non-intrusive (barring perhaps the last twenty levels). How do you go about attracting a player’s attention to the tribute market’s existence, or is that a secondary function of the level cap?

We try to be as discreet as possible because as I mentioned earlier we don’t want to give gamers the wrong impression. While we do want to make money, we want to ensure that gamers stick around long enough to like the game and thus spend money on it so that we can continue to improve on it. We periodically have promos and such but we don’t go out of our way to make them intrusive.

How did Alganon’s advertising campaign in PC Gamer perform? From my personal experience playing, there seems to be a small but noticeable increase in concurrent users on Alganon compared to just six months ago.

It quite well actually. But it wasn’t just PC Gamer; we had campaigns on various online sites as well as other print media such as Beckett’s MMOG and others. All that in addition to our on-going Google and Facebook promos. I tend to spend money wisely, so I don’t believe in just throwing money at a marketing wall. For me, timing is everything and it has to make sense.The game’s population is growing, which is precisely why I am expanding the game as well as branching the IP out to other games.

What do you think the largest barrier is to more people picking up Alganon? Quite a few free to play games have noted a significant (30% in Dungeon Runners) percentage of players never fully download the client after they register an account.

I think it boils down to the MMO version of a perfect storm. We had the disastrous 2009 launch by my predecessor followed by the well publicized drama of his inevitable exit. And to make things worse, the game wasn’t even finished, it was buggy, had missing features etc. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it was a game you had to buy and pay a monthly subscription to play. Yeah, crazy stuff indeed. So there’s all that.

With so many choices out there, getting gamers to come back and take a second look, takes a tremendous amount of work, resources and marketing. So we have been taking it one step at a time. So our biggest barrier is getting gamers to come back; in addition to those who didn’t even bother to even check it out.

Launching off of the previous question, are there any plans for similar promotions in the future? Would Quest Online consider bringing back referral bonuses?

Yes we are considering that and several other promotions which will be announced in the coming weeks. In fact we have a promotion going on this weekend.

Alganon’s saving grace from its launch has been Quest Online’s dedication to fixing up the title, whereas a lot of other companies might have cut their losses, given the figurative finger to the early adopters, and moved on to another project. I think this is why the active Alganon community, although relatively small, are very adamant defenders of the game. Since your arrival, you seemed to have really rallied the development team, improving the game a lot since its relaunch back in 2010. Your thoughts?

Well my first course of action was to see the game completed. Then we had to address the bugs, performance issues, touted but either missing or incomplete features etc. We had to get all that out of the way first in order to assess whether or not Alganon was worth saving in the long term. Of course the business model was rubbish to begin with and simply could not be sustained, so I got rid of that as well and took the game F2P. In the end, it came down to my deciding whether or not there was anything worth saving. So once all those obstacles were out of the way, I made that determination and so I rallied the troops who then hunkered down and just got on with it. It really boils down to focus. We came up with a plan and executed that plan in various steps and phases leading to where we are now: the expansion of Alganon.

On a completely unrelated note, I heard through a very reliable source that you will be present at E3. Will there be any news on Line of Defense?

Yes, we are unveiling the first Alganon expansion, along with a bunch of other good stuff. The PR which should be out on June 7th, contains all the information.

There really isn’t anything new on the Line Of Defense front, other than it is coming along nicely and is looking awesome. We are going to be releasing some new shots once the E3 noise dies down next week. In the mean time, this is the art for the posters and postcards available at the show. http://www.3000ad.com/lod/media/shots/lod_poster.jpg

I want to thank Derek Smart again for taking time away before heading off to E3 to talk to me.

Alganon Expansion Coming


Those of you on Alganon’s mailing list will be well aware by now of the announcement of Rise of the Ourobani. The expansion, releasing at some point between now and the next rapture, features a new race (the Ourobani) as well as a new class (The Warden), new quests, flying mounts, and player/guild housing. For those of you who don’t play Alganon, the races represent the factions you’d find in any other MMO, meaning the Ourobani are likely a third faction.

Next on the list of updates comes the Realm v Realm style updates I talked about last year. Keeps will be introduced across the land, protected by three towers that must be taken in order to take down the keep. Players will use siege weapons to take down the keeps, and will be able to transfer control of the area over to their faction. Taking down all of the keeps in succession opens the ability to sack the enemy city, bringing with it pvp rewards.

More importantly, however, comes the talks of servers. In June the Europeans will have a much easier time playing Alganon with the introduction of Aeon. Existing players will be able to transfer over to the new server. Speaking of servers…

In order to concentrate our U.S. player base and provide our players the best playing experience we’re pleased to announce that on Wednesday, June 8th 2011 we’ll be merging the populations of the Adrios and Hokk servers into a brand new realm named Matma’el.

HEY!

Luckily, everything is being transferred with your characters, but Quest Online suggests that you log in to make sure you don’t have to change your name when the merge comes tomorrow.

Check out Alganon here: http://www.myalganon.com/

Alganon: Making Our Players Look Good.


I’ve always maintained that Alganon, graphically, is not a WoW-clone. Yes, the initial interface may have been nearly copy and paste, but the way the creatures and inhabitants were presented was in a style all of its own. One major issue I have always had with the graphics however, is not that the player models look bad, but rather that the combat animations were about two inches above abysmal. Somewhere between a jittery spastic, and a four year old who has had too much caffeine. The animations didn’t match the damage output, and most of the moves did not offer much more than a quick jerk, if the character decided to display any movement at all.

The 2.5.100.2444 patch for Alganon launched yesterday, bringing with it better models for player characters, with higher quality textures and more polygons (and more internets, presumably), and I have to admit: Either my eyesight has gone bad or the animations look at lot smoother. Animations now play out their full motion, rather than a jerky swing, and swinging my mallet actually looks like swinging my mallet.

Now that the graphical upgrade is out of the way, hopefully Quest Online will continue working on other glaring issues with Alganon, such as the heavy lag on servers despite low population. The team has done a great job of putting in content in the form of new quests, PvP mechanics, and more, and hopefully this slow upward trend from the “launch” over a year ago will continue.

More on Alganon as it appears. The photos included were from my own Alganon character, as I’m sure many of you are aware of my status as biting the hand that feeds me (and occasionally pissing off its President).

Alganon Special Pack On Sale


Player Vs Price

Alganon has no subscription, and technically doesn’t even have a client price. You can download the game and play it for free, although doing so will incur some penalties on your account. For instance, you won’t be able to create a guild, access chat channels past say/tell/group/guild, get the last 20 levels, and you will have a decreased quest log capacity, not to mention additional character slots. Now you can buy all of these separately, which can get expensive (Over eight thousand Tribute, or about $40) or you can buy the super pack, which costs 3,627 tribute (You’ll need to invest $20 worth of tribute to buy it).

Quest Online regularly has sales on the Super Pack, and it is currently discounted to 3627 tribute, about twenty dollars USD. If you don’t care about most of the perks with the pack, you can always ditch guild creation and buy the communications and level cap for $10. In fact, you might want to ditch the communications perk, as Derek Smart posted on the forums:

I already asked for chat channel restrictions to be removed. In fact, I asked for that months ago once I heard about it; but the team gave a compelling reason for having it that way. Just last week, I overruled that and asked for it to be changed. Once the spam starts flying (now that they can do it with impunity just by downloading a free copy of the game), I hope nobody complains about it. There is a reason (stated many times) why it was done this way.

Check out Alganon: http://www.alganon.com

Type MMO Fallout in the reference box, and enjoy a 0% discount. Just don’t use me as collateral, because then your transaction is guaranteed to be declined.

Note: I don’t think there’s a reference box, but if there is MMO Fallout is not affiliated with Alganon or Quest Online, nor is this a solicited advertisement. But if there is a reference box, type MMO Fallout in for poops and giggles.

It Takes Two To PvP: Alganon Edition


Player Vs ____

Quest Online has been talking for a few months now about bringing player vs player combat to Alganon, and has recently laid out their plans for the next few months on how exactly this will work. Starting foremost, Alganon will see the addition of open world PvP, allowing flagged players from opposite factions to fight one another anywhere. Additionally, consensual PvP has been added in the form of dueling, non lethal. The next phase will introduce towers and keeps, ala Warhammer Online, into the world for the two factions to fight over. Finally, Alganon is looking to bring in instanced battlegrounds, ala a whole lot of MMOs.

Suffice to say, Player Vs Player, especially that on the keep/tower/instance level, requires players which Alganon, also suffice to say, does not have. As much as I love Alganon and praise it here on MMO Fallout, I fully acknowledge that given how difficult it is to get a conversation going on Alganon, getting a duel or a war going will be next to impossible. I hear Quest Online is going to have some sort of marketing campaign (Not that there’s much better marketing than an article on the MMO Fallouts, right?), but right now the game is for all intent and purpose…single player.

Also, is Alganon trying to be more like Warhammer Online? In the November newsletter, not only have they announced a keep system (capturing towers and keeps, to rush in and kill the keep leader). I brushed this off until I saw the plans to introduce a renown points system that gives access to more powerful PvP weapons and armor. Renown? Keeps? You cunning devils, Quest Online, you had them thinking the whole time that Alganon was pulling from WoW, when in fact it was pulling from WAR!

Of course Alganon does have one up on WAR, for starters it’s free to play, no subscription required.

More on Alganon as it appears. Until then, make sure you’ve paid your tithes to Tzeentch…

It’s Finally Over! QOL Vs Allen Ends In Settlement.


OBJECTION!

File this one under “oh thank God!” Yesterday brought wonderful news from Derek Smart of Quest Online. The ongoing back and forth lawsuit between Quest Online and David Allen has ended. In a press statement, Quest Online announced:

Quest Online, LLC, today announced that the lawsuit filed in the Maricopa County Superior Court (Case # CV2010-010391) in June 2010 against previous LLC Manager and Alganon creator, David Allen, has been settled with the purchase of Mr. Allen’s equity in the LLC; and that Mr. Allen is no longer associated with Quest Online, LLC.

There isn’t much to be said about the terms of the settlement, other than that Quest Online apparently purchased the rest of Allen’s equity in the company, and that Allen no longer had any association with Quest Online. Now we can finally get back to Alganon, and speaking of Alganon, did you know that the game no longer has a client price?

More on Alganon as it appears.