To each there own it sounds to me maybe you liked it better when it was more of a small group playing it and you felt you had a say so in the direction of the game sorry your not a game dev no more than I am or anyone else just because QL or Derek won't take your advice on how they run there game shouldn't be a issue or anything for you to take offense about.
Actually my opinion hasn't changed about the game. It's still raw, derivative, buggy, uninspired and dated. DS's short tenure hasn't changed much since December. Just minor incremental changes and possibly more focus. I followed Alagnon because they wanted testers and feedback and I'm am happy to try and help a small independent game developer, but I think it was pretty obvious to most of the testers that the developers were swamped just trying to get a product out the door that most the feedback was ignored. My voice was just one of hundreds and I wouldn't expect them to listen unless lots of people were saying the thing, but even when lot's of people said the same thing there wasn't much they could do. Shipping too early is a classic problem is game development.
BTW: I wouldn't want to be a professional game developer nor would I want to work for a pc or console game company. In general, the hours are awful, the pay is bad, way too many inflated egos to deal with and contrary to popular belief it's not all that fun. So there's no need to feel sorry for me. If you want to feel sorry for someone, feel sorry for the employees at QoL that lost their jobs. Or possibly the ones that will loose their jobs soon because it doesn't look good for Alganon.
Before I forget again, Tim, did you receive a refund on the money you paid upfront?
Nope not yet.
Received an email from Billy Foster (QOL Develeper) on April 26th saying refunds will be going out first week of May (this coming week). Still waiting to see if it's true. $700.00. I need a new refridgerator and that'll about do it.
Just Me,
Tim
If rainbows only come out in the rain then I would like it to rain at least once a day.
Actually he did take offence, I will post what I can of the reply before it was deleted.
My one line comment had nothing to do with anything other than an attempt at dry humor (life's too short).
Someone posts a lengthy missive. Most of which was unfounded. Then says he's going to leave (but keeps posting nonetheless - shocker), wait for 3.0 etc.
And you wanted us to say what? "Please don't go". Seriously?
I stand by what I originally posted.
Also, anyone who doesn't read the forum rules and starts flamewars here will not only get their posts/threads deleted but they run the risk of being banned outright.
That thread on their forums was so beyond pathetic. Not the original post, but the responses from the President and the "community".
It seems like the only people left are hard-core tush-kissers. Making fun of him because he doesn't use keyboard shortcuts? I prefer clicking when I play computer games too. I guess I'm not hardcore enough to give this game enough of a go again.
But Herr Komandant's "ktnxbai" was the clearest illustration of why this game will never come back. What a complete and utter douche, and the community takes it's lead from his hostility. If that was all he had to say in response, the professional way to go would have been to ignore the post. Yet he can't, and chooses to insult the OP.
I went from being hopeful pre-beta, to desperate in-beta, to sad but hopeful at some point after the first "release", to finally hoping it fails so completely that Herr Komandant can't ever find a job with an MMO ever again. I only read these forums now so I can relish the news of their closure, and then get to read the President's message about how it's STILL all David Allen's fault.
I tried this game, my only problem are their classes, they seem boring and have no neat or exciting looking abilities/spell effects at all
Not to mention once you start getting into the 30's you REALLY notice a huge grind due to lack of quests/content
I hope they continue to work on the game as i do like their study system.
Wait until you get into the mid 40's. Then the grind REALLY kicks in. My level 50 soldier had to grind from about 44 up to 50. I did it on those level 50 wrath beasts outside of the swamp town. The one with the Wrath Queen in the area. One of the main problems is that they never dropped anything higher than a level 45 green item. I must have killed hundreds and hundreds of them(at the least). Not to mention that now, they have some really nasty spell abilities that makes farming them much less effective for melee classes.
One of the main problems the game has is that so many of its elements seem rushed, and/or half to not done. A GOOD QA process is VITAL to this type of project. I understand all too well that given limited staff, with a limited talent base, that only so much can be done per time unit. Thats also one of the problems with a project of this scale. Professional talent costs quite a bit, but usually(if managed well) pays off in decreased time spent dealing with mistakes, and can also work more effectively (because they totally understand the language and systems involved).
I've seen this problem WAY too many times. Under funded groups forget that passion for the goal and vision is *great* and is a great asset, but is not a subsitute for professional level talent and experience. Professional personnel management is also a vital part of projects of this scale. Other wise, dead lines and mile stones get missed, features have to be cut because the investors/publisher starts to panic... Then nature takes it course. We've all seen the results, far too many times now.
It might just be me, but the fact that they stated "Buy an XP elixir, it really reduces the grind" really makes me think one of the agendas behind the cash shop was to take care of a lot of things the easy way. I realize this isn't the only reason or anything, but jeeze, something as big as a major lack of content taken care of by cash shop items is just something that makes me issue a big "meh."
I haven't bought anything in the game so far not had a need to they didn't pull things out of the game and force you to buyy them like alot of games based on cash shop model.Of course a xp elixir is gonna make it easier to lvl duh don't mean you HAVE to use them it isn't any harder to lvl there than it was before the shop.They need more content and zones for sure but QL isn't blizzard they don't have a huge team to deal out content hell look how slow blizzard is with content and they make billions.i am sure if they game continues to gain ppl slowly as it has been and people are buying the game and spending some in the shop they will be adding more there main thing was making the game stable and playable for people.No doubt if allen was still there you would have gotten even more content that would be unplayable for 90% of ppl as the game was at release.
Actually I take that back if David Allen was still there the game would have been shut down in december.
Wow, the man really does a good job to destroy the community and goodwill that's still around. I liked his very first post when he announced the status of Alganon, but since then it's been going only downhill.
When do these guys at Quest Online realise that a good project manager doesn't mean that person has good PR skills? I can think of ten ways where you have better goodwill, a healthier forum community and still reach your goals with the control you need for your forum.
A shame, anything he does that aggravates players and potential players will refect upon the game as well.
He's old enough, he should realise that. I guess that ego and an inability to receive criticism are more important than the game though.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I haven't bought anything in the game so far not had a need to they didn't pull things out of the game and force you to buyy them like alot of games based on cash shop model.Of course a xp elixir is gonna make it easier to lvl duh don't mean you HAVE to use them it isn't any harder to lvl there than it was before the shop.They need more content and zones for sure but QL isn't blizzard they don't have a huge team to deal out content hell look how slow blizzard is with content and they make billions.i am sure if they game continues to gain ppl slowly as it has been and people are buying the game and spending some in the shop they will be adding more there main thing was making the game stable and playable for people.No doubt if allen was still there you would have gotten even more content that would be unplayable for 90% of ppl as the game was at release.
Actually I take that back if David Allen was still there the game would have been shut down in december.
You base this speculation upon what? I'd hardly term Mr Smart an improvement, given that he has almost single handedly destroyed Alganons most valuable asset, its community. Having leveled a soldier to max(level 50) I didn't run out of quests until the mid 40's. But once at cap, there isn't much to do. The instances are group based, and the population is so small that finding a group is very difficult. At least when Dave Allen was running things, he didn't treat QoL's customers to a stream of threats, insults and other such antics as Mr Smart has.
Well, I don't know the details, but from what I read wasn't it under Allen's supervision that the game got released in an unfinished state in December, that it was meant to look as close to WoW as possible, and that the game was first launched in a P2P subsciption model? I think those did the game as much harm as Derek Smart's PR nightmare of a kneejerk ranting.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Well, I don't know the details, but from what I read wasn't it under Allen's supervision that the game got released in an unfinished state in December, that it was meant to look as close to WoW as possible, and that the game was first launched in a P2P subsciption model? I think those did the game as much harm as Derek Smart's PR nightmare of a kneejerk ranting.
I think that was up to the investors and not Mr. Allen.. They wanted the game to release and they wanted a monthly cash cow.
However Mr. " Smart " has gone out of his way to destroy the game inside out.
Well, I don't know the details, but from what I read wasn't it under Allen's supervision that the game got released in an unfinished state in December, that it was meant to look as close to WoW as possible, and that the game was first launched in a P2P subsciption model? I think those did the game as much harm as Derek Smart's PR nightmare of a kneejerk ranting.
I think that was up to the investors and not Mr. Allen.. They wanted the game to release and they wanted a monthly cash cow.
However Mr. " Smart " has gone out of his way to destroy the game inside out.
Thats been my impression as well. It also follows a typical pattern within the industry. At a certain point the investors/publisher panic and demand release... So its go or shut down. The same thing happened to Age of Conan, Vanguard and Warhammer. For all his faults, Dave Allen at least knew that players are customers. For some odd reason, Mr Smart never seems to have understood that.
I also get the impression that the investors backing Mr Smart(the ones that demanded he be made president), are playing fast and loose with the other investors. What their motivations are remains unknown at this point. But if Mr Smarts antics drive the game into closing down, they might be able to bring in a team, change the art assets and have a ready to launch MMO in a fraction of the time and cost that it might normally take.
I haven't bought anything in the game so far not had a need to they didn't pull things out of the game and force you to buyy them like alot of games based on cash shop model.Of course a xp elixir is gonna make it easier to lvl duh don't mean you HAVE to use them it isn't any harder to lvl there than it was before the shop.They need more content and zones for sure but QL isn't blizzard they don't have a huge team to deal out content hell look how slow blizzard is with content and they make billions.i am sure if they game continues to gain ppl slowly as it has been and people are buying the game and spending some in the shop they will be adding more there main thing was making the game stable and playable for people.No doubt if allen was still there you would have gotten even more content that would be unplayable for 90% of ppl as the game was at release.
Actually I take that back if David Allen was still there the game would have been shut down in december.
You base this speculation upon what? I'd hardly term Mr Smart an improvement, given that he has almost single handedly destroyed Alganons most valuable asset, its community. Having leveled a soldier to max(level 50) I didn't run out of quests until the mid 40's. But once at cap, there isn't much to do. The instances are group based, and the population is so small that finding a group is very difficult. At least when Dave Allen was running things, he didn't treat QoL's customers to a stream of threats, insults and other such antics as Mr Smart has.
I don't think he has destroyed it pi**ed some off for sure.The game I have seen more people online(though not my tons) Than it had in the david allen days. i can see why you and alot of others preferred David over Derek but fact still remains when David was in charge things weren't getting done.I watched the lag and stuff not improve any during david's time though they kept claiming in patch notes they were imprioving it same with combat lag.
It's easy to be like David has been in all mmogs he has ever been associated with sit and make promises and spew out all these great idea and visions then proceed to either never implement them or do it so poorly it is a mess.Go back and read through if you haven't all his great idea's for Horrizons then find out why he got shoved out of the game.it was because he couldn't get things done.
I haven't bought anything in the game so far not had a need to they didn't pull things out of the game and force you to buyy them like alot of games based on cash shop model.Of course a xp elixir is gonna make it easier to lvl duh don't mean you HAVE to use them it isn't any harder to lvl there than it was before the shop.They need more content and zones for sure but QL isn't blizzard they don't have a huge team to deal out content hell look how slow blizzard is with content and they make billions.i am sure if they game continues to gain ppl slowly as it has been and people are buying the game and spending some in the shop they will be adding more there main thing was making the game stable and playable for people.No doubt if allen was still there you would have gotten even more content that would be unplayable for 90% of ppl as the game was at release.
Actually I take that back if David Allen was still there the game would have been shut down in december.
You base this speculation upon what? I'd hardly term Mr Smart an improvement, given that he has almost single handedly destroyed Alganons most valuable asset, its community. Having leveled a soldier to max(level 50) I didn't run out of quests until the mid 40's. But once at cap, there isn't much to do. The instances are group based, and the population is so small that finding a group is very difficult. At least when Dave Allen was running things, he didn't treat QoL's customers to a stream of threats, insults and other such antics as Mr Smart has.
I don't think he has destroyed it pi**ed some off for sure.The game I have seen more people online(though not my tons) Than it had in the david allen days. i can see why you and alot of others preferred David over Derek but fact still remains when David was in charge things weren't getting done.I watched the lag and stuff not improve any during david's time though they kept claiming in patch notes they were imprioving it same with combat lag.
It's easy to be like David has been in all mmogs he has ever been associated with sit and make promises and spew out all these great idea and visions then proceed to either never implement them or do it so poorly it is a mess.Go back and read through if you haven't all his great idea's for Horrizons then find out why he got shoved out of the game.it was because he couldn't get things done.
I'm painfully aware of the details of the Horizon disaster. I followed the game from well before launch(and was fascinated by Dave Allens vision for the original game), all the way through him being backstabbed by David Bowman, and the horrors of the launch, and then months and months of endless "issues". The game that launched had very little to do with the original game that attracted so many of us.
It looks like yet again, that Dave Allen was a poor judge of character, and picked a partner that back stabbed him. The in fighting among the investors didn't help matters. One has to wonder about the agenda of the ones who demanded that Mr Smart be appointed preisdent. What ever else his skills may be, he has NO business being allowed to interact directly with the companies customers, since he doesn't seem to have learned any diplomacy or tact. That should be left to a CM like Tork. Its too bad that he left, as it was his efforts that helped to shape and support the original community. He was really one of the best CM's I've interacted with in many years.
But thats all water under the bridge at this point. MMO's are very complex operations. The technical side is only part of the entire operation, with internal personnel skills and external marketing and community relations skills also vital. If any of those are lacking, it has serious impacts on the reception of the finished product.
I personally am enjoying the game, I downloaded the trial and liked it enough that I didn't want to stop in 7 days so I bought it.
It's $19 bucks...for that I'm not expecting a AAA game or ground breaking new features, I'm expecting some lite entertainment and something that keeps be interested. So far this game is doing that.
I'm not a power gamer and have no desire to rush to lvl 50 or 40...I play the game casually and for fun.
I know the game isn't perfect and I take that with a grain of salt.
That said, the whole "Derek Smart is too abrasive and mean" ...I find silly.
He's abrupt at times and he can fire back the dripping sarcasm as good or better then anyone. Some of you need to have thicker skin imo and realize that "some" comments are just being sarcastic ...the kind of comment to say to a friend with a "twinkle" in your eye, it come out a bit harsh but you know you're not trying to really hurt anyone.
Mr. Smart has a huge job of trying to get the game turned around and to be as fun and profitable as possible. It's not going to be easy...but the game imo has a lot of promise and I'm happy to support it in my own small way.
The in-game community has been fun and helpful. I was having a hard time with some mobs and a guy PM me and asked if I'd like a crafted sword he's made! I was having a hard time with a quest boss, asked in Regional chat if anyone else needed him and got a reply, made a party and cleaned house.
The game IS working and is fun.
Maybe if you've rushed to lvl cap there's not much atm but hell you only payed $19 bucks (unless you're waiting for one of the re-funds) move on to something else for a bit or play an alt "casually" till more content is released. It's not a now or nothing thing imo
You basically pay to play the game forever...so give them time to optimize and release more content and areas.
Identify areas that need adjusting and looked at but BE polite and supportive.
The games developer posts too much, he is anatagonizing and is keeping players away based on his behavior.
He represents the game and he is doing his investors a disservice by getting trolled so much.
Just my 2c as a lurker and real world professional.
The folks at QOL actually love him. They've said that they like the "attention" that Mr. Smart is bringing to the game. They fail to realize, of course, that he may bring in a few similarly rotten apples who love forum flaming, but the long-term brand of that game has been run through a meat-grinder... the little that was left when he got on board.
I personally am enjoying the game, I downloaded the trial and liked it enough that I didn't want to stop in 7 days so I bought it.
It's $19 bucks...for that I'm not expecting a AAA game or ground breaking new features, I'm expecting some lite entertainment and something that keeps be interested. So far this game is doing that.
I'm not a power gamer and have no desire to rush to lvl 50 or 40...I play the game casually and for fun.
I know the game isn't perfect and I take that with a grain of salt.
That said, the whole "Derek Smart is too abrasive and mean" ...I find silly.
He's abrupt at times and he can fire back the dripping sarcasm as good or better then anyone. Some of you need to have thicker skin imo and realize that "some" comments are just being sarcastic ...the kind of comment to say to a friend with a "twinkle" in your eye, it come out a bit harsh but you know you're not trying to really hurt anyone.
Mr. Smart has a huge job of trying to get the game turned around and to be as fun and profitable as possible. It's not going to be easy...but the game imo has a lot of promise and I'm happy to support it in my own small way.
The in-game community has been fun and helpful. I was having a hard time with some mobs and a guy PM me and asked if I'd like a crafted sword he's made! I was having a hard time with a quest boss, asked in Regional chat if anyone else needed him and got a reply, made a party and cleaned house.
The game IS working and is fun.
Maybe if you've rushed to lvl cap there's not much atm but hell you only payed $19 bucks (unless you're waiting for one of the re-funds) move on to something else for a bit or play an alt "casually" till more content is released. It's not a now or nothing thing imo
You basically pay to play the game forever...so give them time to optimize and release more content and areas.
Identify areas that need adjusting and looked at but BE polite and supportive.
It's not that hard people! (was that too harsh?)
Regards
"Silly"? When you have someone heading an MMO company (which lives and dies by its community) who issues a constant stream of threats, insults and other antics, directed at the companies CUSTOMERS, you term objections to that "silly"? Interesting...
Such behavior is not only counter productive, its un necessary and unwarranted. Its totally un professional, and reflects badly on the games management, and should be viewed by the investors as a threat to their investment. Those who claim that any attention is good attention, just feed the circus like mentality that follows people like Mr Smart around like a swarm of buzzing flies.
Having been one of those in the original community who has supported the game, and defended it in various forums LONG before the advent of Mr Smart, I find his behavior embarrasing to say the least. Alganon was never going to be more than a niche game at best. But many of us supported it because of the community that grew up around it (a good part of that was done by Tork, many of us will long remember his good efforts). I hope some major MMO company snaps Tork up and makes him head CM for their forums, they would certainly see how good he is first hand.
I haven't bought anything in the game so far not had a need to they didn't pull things out of the game and force you to buyy them like alot of games based on cash shop model.Of course a xp elixir is gonna make it easier to lvl duh don't mean you HAVE to use them it isn't any harder to lvl there than it was before the shop.They need more content and zones for sure but QL isn't blizzard they don't have a huge team to deal out content hell look how slow blizzard is with content and they make billions.i am sure if they game continues to gain ppl slowly as it has been and people are buying the game and spending some in the shop they will be adding more there main thing was making the game stable and playable for people.No doubt if allen was still there you would have gotten even more content that would be unplayable for 90% of ppl as the game was at release.
Actually I take that back if David Allen was still there the game would have been shut down in december.
You base this speculation upon what? I'd hardly term Mr Smart an improvement, given that he has almost single handedly destroyed Alganons most valuable asset, its community. Having leveled a soldier to max(level 50) I didn't run out of quests until the mid 40's. But once at cap, there isn't much to do. The instances are group based, and the population is so small that finding a group is very difficult. At least when Dave Allen was running things, he didn't treat QoL's customers to a stream of threats, insults and other such antics as Mr Smart has.
I don't think he has destroyed it pi**ed some off for sure.The game I have seen more people online(though not my tons) Than it had in the david allen days. i can see why you and alot of others preferred David over Derek but fact still remains when David was in charge things weren't getting done.I watched the lag and stuff not improve any during david's time though they kept claiming in patch notes they were imprioving it same with combat lag.
It's easy to be like David has been in all mmogs he has ever been associated with sit and make promises and spew out all these great idea and visions then proceed to either never implement them or do it so poorly it is a mess.Go back and read through if you haven't all his great idea's for Horrizons then find out why he got shoved out of the game.it was because he couldn't get things done.
I'm painfully aware of the details of the Horizon disaster. I followed the game from well before launch(and was fascinated by Dave Allens vision for the original game), all the way through him being backstabbed by David Bowman, and the horrors of the launch, and then months and months of endless "issues". The game that launched had very little to do with the original game that attracted so many of us.
It looks like yet again, that Dave Allen was a poor judge of character, and picked a partner that back stabbed him. The in fighting among the investors didn't help matters. One has to wonder about the agenda of the ones who demanded that Mr Smart be appointed preisdent. What ever else his skills may be, he has NO business being allowed to interact directly with the companies customers, since he doesn't seem to have learned any diplomacy or tact. That should be left to a CM like Tork. Its too bad that he left, as it was his efforts that helped to shape and support the original community. He was really one of the best CM's I've interacted with in many years.
But thats all water under the bridge at this point. MMO's are very complex operations. The technical side is only part of the entire operation, with internal personnel skills and external marketing and community relations skills also vital. If any of those are lacking, it has serious impacts on the reception of the finished product.
I will say I enjoy reading your posts and can definetly see some of your points and it is nice to be able to disagree with someone without it turning into a kiddy fuss debating and disagreeing is always okay so long as it is handled well and you always do.I don't really think David got back stabbed at Horrizons of Quest Online honestly for a few reasons.
I like you followed Horrizons from the beginning,And I will agree with you David Bowman should never ever ever been put in any type of management roll over anything guy was a con and a crook.But did you know David Allen scrapped the graphics engine on Horrizons 3 diff times ? This was over a period of 2 years this was investors money,Nothing was getting done much like Alganon and like Derek or not I think he was brutally honest when he wrote why David was fired.David Allen has always had great ideas I wil agree with that but when you get outside investors and are hired to create/manage a game for them you HAVE to deliver what you promise he just doesn't have the skills for some reason to get that done.
Comments
Actually my opinion hasn't changed about the game. It's still raw, derivative, buggy, uninspired and dated. DS's short tenure hasn't changed much since December. Just minor incremental changes and possibly more focus. I followed Alagnon because they wanted testers and feedback and I'm am happy to try and help a small independent game developer, but I think it was pretty obvious to most of the testers that the developers were swamped just trying to get a product out the door that most the feedback was ignored. My voice was just one of hundreds and I wouldn't expect them to listen unless lots of people were saying the thing, but even when lot's of people said the same thing there wasn't much they could do. Shipping too early is a classic problem is game development.
BTW: I wouldn't want to be a professional game developer nor would I want to work for a pc or console game company. In general, the hours are awful, the pay is bad, way too many inflated egos to deal with and contrary to popular belief it's not all that fun. So there's no need to feel sorry for me. If you want to feel sorry for someone, feel sorry for the employees at QoL that lost their jobs. Or possibly the ones that will loose their jobs soon because it doesn't look good for Alganon.
Nope not yet.
Received an email from Billy Foster (QOL Develeper) on April 26th saying refunds will be going out first week of May (this coming week). Still waiting to see if it's true. $700.00. I need a new refridgerator and that'll about do it.
Just Me,
Tim
If rainbows only come out in the rain then I would like it to rain at least once a day.
I've actually wondered this myself.....
NEWS FLASH! PAYING THE SUB IN F2P = NO DIFFERENCE THAN P2P GAMES!
Why the hell can't the whiners comprehend this?
That thread on their forums was so beyond pathetic. Not the original post, but the responses from the President and the "community".
It seems like the only people left are hard-core tush-kissers. Making fun of him because he doesn't use keyboard shortcuts? I prefer clicking when I play computer games too. I guess I'm not hardcore enough to give this game enough of a go again.
But Herr Komandant's "ktnxbai" was the clearest illustration of why this game will never come back. What a complete and utter douche, and the community takes it's lead from his hostility. If that was all he had to say in response, the professional way to go would have been to ignore the post. Yet he can't, and chooses to insult the OP.
I went from being hopeful pre-beta, to desperate in-beta, to sad but hopeful at some point after the first "release", to finally hoping it fails so completely that Herr Komandant can't ever find a job with an MMO ever again. I only read these forums now so I can relish the news of their closure, and then get to read the President's message about how it's STILL all David Allen's fault.
Downloaded the client.
Created a character
Accepted first quest "Answering the Call"
Found High Scholar Holak
Clicked on High Scholar Holak
Tried to turn in the quest
Spammed the complete button
spammed the complete button again.
Logged off
uninstalled
(Peace!)
Wait until you get into the mid 40's. Then the grind REALLY kicks in. My level 50 soldier had to grind from about 44 up to 50. I did it on those level 50 wrath beasts outside of the swamp town. The one with the Wrath Queen in the area. One of the main problems is that they never dropped anything higher than a level 45 green item. I must have killed hundreds and hundreds of them(at the least). Not to mention that now, they have some really nasty spell abilities that makes farming them much less effective for melee classes.
One of the main problems the game has is that so many of its elements seem rushed, and/or half to not done. A GOOD QA process is VITAL to this type of project. I understand all too well that given limited staff, with a limited talent base, that only so much can be done per time unit. Thats also one of the problems with a project of this scale. Professional talent costs quite a bit, but usually(if managed well) pays off in decreased time spent dealing with mistakes, and can also work more effectively (because they totally understand the language and systems involved).
I've seen this problem WAY too many times. Under funded groups forget that passion for the goal and vision is *great* and is a great asset, but is not a subsitute for professional level talent and experience. Professional personnel management is also a vital part of projects of this scale. Other wise, dead lines and mile stones get missed, features have to be cut because the investors/publisher starts to panic... Then nature takes it course. We've all seen the results, far too many times now.
If rainbows only come out in the rain then I would like it to rain at least once a day.
It might just be me, but the fact that they stated "Buy an XP elixir, it really reduces the grind" really makes me think one of the agendas behind the cash shop was to take care of a lot of things the easy way. I realize this isn't the only reason or anything, but jeeze, something as big as a major lack of content taken care of by cash shop items is just something that makes me issue a big "meh."
I haven't bought anything in the game so far not had a need to they didn't pull things out of the game and force you to buyy them like alot of games based on cash shop model.Of course a xp elixir is gonna make it easier to lvl duh don't mean you HAVE to use them it isn't any harder to lvl there than it was before the shop.They need more content and zones for sure but QL isn't blizzard they don't have a huge team to deal out content hell look how slow blizzard is with content and they make billions.i am sure if they game continues to gain ppl slowly as it has been and people are buying the game and spending some in the shop they will be adding more there main thing was making the game stable and playable for people.No doubt if allen was still there you would have gotten even more content that would be unplayable for 90% of ppl as the game was at release.
Actually I take that back if David Allen was still there the game would have been shut down in december.
Wow, the man really does a good job to destroy the community and goodwill that's still around. I liked his very first post when he announced the status of Alganon, but since then it's been going only downhill.
When do these guys at Quest Online realise that a good project manager doesn't mean that person has good PR skills? I can think of ten ways where you have better goodwill, a healthier forum community and still reach your goals with the control you need for your forum.
A shame, anything he does that aggravates players and potential players will refect upon the game as well.
He's old enough, he should realise that. I guess that ego and an inability to receive criticism are more important than the game though.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
You base this speculation upon what? I'd hardly term Mr Smart an improvement, given that he has almost single handedly destroyed Alganons most valuable asset, its community. Having leveled a soldier to max(level 50) I didn't run out of quests until the mid 40's. But once at cap, there isn't much to do. The instances are group based, and the population is so small that finding a group is very difficult. At least when Dave Allen was running things, he didn't treat QoL's customers to a stream of threats, insults and other such antics as Mr Smart has.
Well, I don't know the details, but from what I read wasn't it under Allen's supervision that the game got released in an unfinished state in December, that it was meant to look as close to WoW as possible, and that the game was first launched in a P2P subsciption model? I think those did the game as much harm as Derek Smart's PR nightmare of a kneejerk ranting.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I think that was up to the investors and not Mr. Allen.. They wanted the game to release and they wanted a monthly cash cow.
However Mr. " Smart " has gone out of his way to destroy the game inside out.
Thats been my impression as well. It also follows a typical pattern within the industry. At a certain point the investors/publisher panic and demand release... So its go or shut down. The same thing happened to Age of Conan, Vanguard and Warhammer. For all his faults, Dave Allen at least knew that players are customers. For some odd reason, Mr Smart never seems to have understood that.
I also get the impression that the investors backing Mr Smart(the ones that demanded he be made president), are playing fast and loose with the other investors. What their motivations are remains unknown at this point. But if Mr Smarts antics drive the game into closing down, they might be able to bring in a team, change the art assets and have a ready to launch MMO in a fraction of the time and cost that it might normally take.
I don't think he has destroyed it pi**ed some off for sure.The game I have seen more people online(though not my tons) Than it had in the david allen days. i can see why you and alot of others preferred David over Derek but fact still remains when David was in charge things weren't getting done.I watched the lag and stuff not improve any during david's time though they kept claiming in patch notes they were imprioving it same with combat lag.
It's easy to be like David has been in all mmogs he has ever been associated with sit and make promises and spew out all these great idea and visions then proceed to either never implement them or do it so poorly it is a mess.Go back and read through if you haven't all his great idea's for Horrizons then find out why he got shoved out of the game.it was because he couldn't get things done.
I'm painfully aware of the details of the Horizon disaster. I followed the game from well before launch(and was fascinated by Dave Allens vision for the original game), all the way through him being backstabbed by David Bowman, and the horrors of the launch, and then months and months of endless "issues". The game that launched had very little to do with the original game that attracted so many of us.
It looks like yet again, that Dave Allen was a poor judge of character, and picked a partner that back stabbed him. The in fighting among the investors didn't help matters. One has to wonder about the agenda of the ones who demanded that Mr Smart be appointed preisdent. What ever else his skills may be, he has NO business being allowed to interact directly with the companies customers, since he doesn't seem to have learned any diplomacy or tact. That should be left to a CM like Tork. Its too bad that he left, as it was his efforts that helped to shape and support the original community. He was really one of the best CM's I've interacted with in many years.
But thats all water under the bridge at this point. MMO's are very complex operations. The technical side is only part of the entire operation, with internal personnel skills and external marketing and community relations skills also vital. If any of those are lacking, it has serious impacts on the reception of the finished product.
Regardless of anything.
The games developer posts too much, he is anatagonizing and is keeping players away based on his behavior.
He represents the game and he is doing his investors a disservice by getting trolled so much.
Just my 2c as a lurker and real world professional.
I personally am enjoying the game, I downloaded the trial and liked it enough that I didn't want to stop in 7 days so I bought it.
It's $19 bucks...for that I'm not expecting a AAA game or ground breaking new features, I'm expecting some lite entertainment and something that keeps be interested. So far this game is doing that.
I'm not a power gamer and have no desire to rush to lvl 50 or 40...I play the game casually and for fun.
I know the game isn't perfect and I take that with a grain of salt.
That said, the whole "Derek Smart is too abrasive and mean" ...I find silly.
He's abrupt at times and he can fire back the dripping sarcasm as good or better then anyone. Some of you need to have thicker skin imo and realize that "some" comments are just being sarcastic ...the kind of comment to say to a friend with a "twinkle" in your eye, it come out a bit harsh but you know you're not trying to really hurt anyone.
Mr. Smart has a huge job of trying to get the game turned around and to be as fun and profitable as possible. It's not going to be easy...but the game imo has a lot of promise and I'm happy to support it in my own small way.
The in-game community has been fun and helpful. I was having a hard time with some mobs and a guy PM me and asked if I'd like a crafted sword he's made! I was having a hard time with a quest boss, asked in Regional chat if anyone else needed him and got a reply, made a party and cleaned house.
The game IS working and is fun.
Maybe if you've rushed to lvl cap there's not much atm but hell you only payed $19 bucks (unless you're waiting for one of the re-funds) move on to something else for a bit or play an alt "casually" till more content is released. It's not a now or nothing thing imo
You basically pay to play the game forever...so give them time to optimize and release more content and areas.
Identify areas that need adjusting and looked at but BE polite and supportive.
It's not that hard people! (was that too harsh?)
Regards
"It'll be dark soon."
"Aye...that it will."
The folks at QOL actually love him. They've said that they like the "attention" that Mr. Smart is bringing to the game. They fail to realize, of course, that he may bring in a few similarly rotten apples who love forum flaming, but the long-term brand of that game has been run through a meat-grinder... the little that was left when he got on board.
I will say I enjoy reading your posts and can definetly see some of your points and it is nice to be able to disagree with someone without it turning into a kiddy fuss debating and disagreeing is always okay so long as it is handled well and you always do.I don't really think David got back stabbed at Horrizons of Quest Online honestly for a few reasons.
I like you followed Horrizons from the beginning,And I will agree with you David Bowman should never ever ever been put in any type of management roll over anything guy was a con and a crook.But did you know David Allen scrapped the graphics engine on Horrizons 3 diff times ? This was over a period of 2 years this was investors money,Nothing was getting done much like Alganon and like Derek or not I think he was brutally honest when he wrote why David was fired.David Allen has always had great ideas I wil agree with that but when you get outside investors and are hired to create/manage a game for them you HAVE to deliver what you promise he just doesn't have the skills for some reason to get that done.
The "comedy train" keeps getting better:
http://www.massively.com/2010/05/08/alganon-steals-press-release-format-from-bioware/
Hahahaha.. That is hilarious.
I like how one of the comments mentioned that on the Alganon website that it actually had " Derek Smart continues " in the middle of the quotes.