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David Allen leaves Alganon
Or says Massively. Can't see any actual announcement on either the QOL or Alganon sites yet.
http://www.massively.com/2010/03/10/david-allen-leaves-alganon/
Replacing him? Derek Smart. Is it April 1st already?
Comments
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"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004
Derek. Derek Smart. I have a renewed interest in Alganon and for all the wrong reasons. One of the most unpopular gaming figures teamed up with one of the least popular mmos ...what could possibly go wrong?
Derek Smart? To players who are actually playing this game, you are going to be lucky if you actually get this guy to listen to what you guys have to say. Good luck Alganon, was hoping to see this game go somewhere but with this guy coming in, it's just like beating a dead horse.
Wikipedia has this to say about Derek Smart: Derek Smart has become known in the gaming community for making aggressive and lengthy online replies to criticism of his work, leading to heated and protracted discussions on Usenet and game forums.[6] In an interview which was featured on the cover page of Computer Gaming World, Smart said of his online persona: "Sometimes when I get online, and it's quiet, and I see something that attracts my attention, I'll post just to piss these guys off. That's why I do it. Because I'm in a good mood that day, I go in there and I start trouble."[2] A case history about the troubles and problems Mr. Smart encountered during the development of his flagship game, BattleCruiser 3000AD, commented that "... almost everyone would agree that he is probably the best known, most divisive personality ever to participate in an online gaming community."[7]
Why would ANY company bring on a guy that ADMITS to trying to piss people off??? Yeah, that's smart business, and good customer service... RIP Alganon.
What were they thinking... oh well, sometimes it's better to just not understand.
Derek Smart? Really? I've belonged to message boards that banned him for his shenanigans. Abrasive guy.
I wonder who David Allen will blame for this botched up game... I wonder if he can still pin some blame on Bowman... or maybe he will blame all the forum goers for telling people that his game suuuucked. I hope he mentions me as one of the people who brought this game to be a failure.
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lol
Never heard about the guy, but seems like a good move, will create some controversy and get them some attention.
Thats the first thing I thought when I read the news :P
The HILARIOUS thing is I was thinking yesterday about that old post by David Allen (Written in third person)http://webz.us/hz/htm/wrh.htm where he laments about how David Bowman and James Jones skrewed him and his game over.
I specifically wondered about the quote from that artice where he said the Board of Directors forced him to defend the "Family's System" in horisons and how none of them seemed to understand that they wern't just Guilds.
The hilarious thing is if the HORIZONS families were going to be anything like the ones in Alganon they are exactly the WORST kind of guild. The kind where anyone can join and no one has any control to kick or discpline out of line players. The kind that effectively just exist as a Chat Channel and a Taberd with no real goal or purpose of any kind.
I think Alganon has proved a point. David Allen may have designed some good games over a decade ago but that was his peak. David Bowman might be a total ass, he might have treated David Allen cruely and unfairly, but he had one thing dead on.
David Allen is completely incompetent when it comes to designing practical, working mmo's.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
You know this may be the end of David Allen as a game developer. With Horizons he had the whole Bowman thing to hide behind. With Alganon he has no such luck. He designed it, developed it, hyped it and defended it.
He claimed it was a next generation title and so many other things. Now he really has no fig leaf to hide behind.
I guess he could make a few weak claims about how trolls and haters kept people away from the game if he really wanted to. But honestly there is no real excuse this time.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
You know this may be the end of David Allen as a game developer. With Horizons he had the whole Bowman thing to hide behind. With Alganon he has no such luck. He designed it, developed it, hyped it and defended it.
He claimed it was a next generation title and so many other things. Now he really has no fig leaf to hide behind.
I guess he could make a few weak claims about how trolls and haters kept people away from the game if he really wanted to. But honestly there is no real excuse this time.
too true i want to say they made a damn near exact replica of wow only crappier even went so far as to say it was similar and its really no suprise the game bottomed out as it did asking for full cash price for a game before its even in cbt and asking for subs during beta really didnt help if anything it made it seem even more like a scam
so luck be with you david allen maybe youll wake up and actually make a game worth a damn or just do us all a favor and dont bother
Derek Smart. Wow. Only thing sillier would be to bring in Smedly from SOE.
If this game survives its going to take a miracle.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I'll pop the popcorn, do you want cola or root beer?
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
I was thinking the exact same thing, what excuses will he come up with this time?
I'd bet my bottom dollar that he cites "personal problems" as the reason for him packing up and leaving, he will more than likely deny that his departure had anything to do with the state of Alganon itself.
Gotta admit, I've never really been a big sim fan so I have no idea who Derek Smart is... looks like he made a couple of decent games and then one that was not so good, and then likes to be argumentative and rude on the internet, so a lot of people hate him. So the most hated guy in gaming next to Smed or John Romero is going to be in charge of one of the most unbearably mediocre, maligned WoW clones to ever exist. This will be excellent.
I'm still laughing at David Allen; all his fine words and grand assurances, his belief that Alganon would be the first real alternative to WoW, his insistence that Alganon would be exactly what gamers have wanted, his unbelievable ego and inability to understand that most of his ideas are not that revolutionary or original, and his inability to accept that the Horizons he envisioned was a technological impossibility at the time...
I can't wait to see what he has to say about the news. Part of me hopes this is the last we'll hear from him, and that he's finally realized what a failure he is, but part of me hopes he tries again and provides us all with more entertainment.
Either way, I still predict Alganon will be no more in three or so months, unless Derek Smart, through some miraculous witchcraft, turns Alganon into a good game (which would just be more salt in Allen's wounds, IMO).
"I am the weapon that strikes/In the hearts of men I thrive/Feeding their fear with lies/I will devour/I will divide/I am the god of hellfire/inside every man there lives a liar/before their gods they cower/I will divide/I will devour" - "Divide Devour" by Iced Earth
Agreed with every word. I should not be this excited about this, but I am. I think David Allen is FINALLY getting his comeupance. You read the guy's interviews even as far back as 2000 and you can see what a concieted egotist he is.
I would LOVE to be able to interview the guy or better yet get him drunk in a bar.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
You guys should check out Derek Smart's initial post in this thread:
http://www.alganon.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4607-quest-online-announces-leadership-change/
Fascinating reading actually. Enjoy. :-)
LOL
I cant wait to hear a third person viewpoint of all this.
although I am not sure if everything said in his initial post is true...nevertheless it was a great read..especially the part where he tells how the departure of David Allen really went
Sounds like Derek needs a publicist, cause some of the things he said should never be said or said differently. Sheesh!
From what I've read about Horizons, everything Derek Smart said sounds completely true. I appreciate his directness and honesty, and it sounds like he's got a decent plan for Alganon. I don't know if the game will ever be worth playing, but I'll be keeping my eye on it, and I wish Smart the best.
"I am the weapon that strikes/In the hearts of men I thrive/Feeding their fear with lies/I will devour/I will divide/I am the god of hellfire/inside every man there lives a liar/before their gods they cower/I will divide/I will devour" - "Divide Devour" by Iced Earth
Not sure what to say about this, but I can comment on the list. The promises on the list seem pretty generic for a MMORPG. I wonder what this means for the future of Alganon?
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
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Reading his first post, either we had a fool on leadership or they had a good sacrifice to make in order to use as a scapegoat like it was used. People with the pulse shown on that post can and would do that if necessary to bring profit. We will probably know more as time passes though, even if based on future actions and never knowing the past actions.
Unfortunately Alganon now is going in a direction out of my interest when gaming - the F2P cash shop route, apparently this is some kind of miracle formula for dying/unprofitable games. "It is not a traditional F2P game, but if thats what we have to do in the long run, then so be it. For now, we're taking baby steps."