http://blog.eldergoth.com/2009/10/alganon-nda-lifted-here-are-my-thoughts.html

Read it and laugh or cry.

If i had of known Aion only had 2 races i never would have tried that game either.I am sorry but when you see a lack lustre effort like 2 races,you know the game is pushed out the door with very little effort.

I will not even give games like that a 2 second look,so they have zero chance with me.

Originally posted by Wizardry

If i had of known Aion only had 2 races i never would have tried that game either.I am sorry but when you see a lack lustre effort like 2 races,you know the game is pushed out the door with very little effort.

I will not even give games like that a 2 second look,so they have zero chance with me.

Who cares how many races there are to play. And when you shy away from traditional fantasy (orcs, trolls, elves) like Aion, or Ryzom, or Asheron's Call, the race selection is usually a bit more limited. But that's when the rest of the game comes into play. Race is purely cosmetic.

The problem is when there's two factions and the game is intended for more than 4+ races and you're only presented with 2.

Edit: That review is spot-on, tho.

OMG...

So it looks like they totally stole everything they could from WoW, and have yet to develop anything of their own to layer on top of it to make it "special".  this sounds familiar:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/new_rap_song_samples_billie

14.95 a month please...

Quoted from that review:

That key icon on the far left? It's only there because WoW has a keyring with that button. Alganon doesn't have a keyring but they forgot to remove the icon when they copied the UI design.

Yet there are still people jumping to the defense, saying that WoW also copied from other games, so it doesn't matter that Alganon cloned WoW.

Taking ideas from other games is one thing, but just copying it is something quite different.

Alganon isn't finished. They've said that. Just because a key ring doesn't work right now, doesn't mean it's not going to be implemented eventually.

It's a valid criticism to say that it shouldn't be released or charge as much as they plan to until it's "fully baked", or until they have implemented something truly special that differentiates the game from others on the market.

But to say that the game is a total copy and won't ultimately be very different from WoW just seems petty and childish.

Alganon certainly has it's faults and shortcomings, but it does PLAN on being different.

Originally posted by PhelimReagh

Alganon certainly has it's faults and shortcomings, but it does PLAN on being different.

 

Key word: Plan

Right now it's a straight up rip off and a fairly bad one if i may add, when the game actually does its thing thats when people would stop calling it a wow clone.

Originally posted by Gabby-air

Originally posted by PhelimReagh

Alganon certainly has it's faults and shortcomings, but it does PLAN on being different.

 

 

Key word: Plan

Right now it's a straight up rip off and a fairly bad one if i may add, when the game actually does its thing thats when people would stop calling it a wow clone.

That's also why I said:

"It's a valid criticism to say that it shouldn't be released or charge as much as they plan to until it's "fully baked", or until they have implemented something truly special that differentiates the game from others on the market."

I would prefer if they waited to release until they had some of the cool stuff in there. But they're an idie developer and in all likelihood they need some cash sometime soon. That's why I posted that they should explore alternative payment models until the game IS ready. I personally would join up if they realized that they probably weren't offering much more in terms of value than any existing F2P or Runescape. Something like $10 to download the game and $5/month for early subscribers, and then add $10-20 expansions as they go, and up the subscription by $5 until you get to $15.

But they shouldn't be charging $15/month until they have all the features, races and classes ready. Even then, I would argue they stick with the LotRO $10/month.

But sadly, they're not going to. They seem to have made promises to certain parties (investors, distributors, publishers, etc.), and they're going to stick with it, no matter if it kills what could be an interesting game in about 6-12 months.

Really, would people be getting so upset with QOL if they were only charging $5/month to start, but clearly stating that the subscription fee would increase as the planned content was added? I 'd think they'd got a lot of fans if they were so bold.

After playing beta myself I cannot even pretend to make up something nice to say about the game. Like stated in many MANY other threads on this forum, it's a direct copy paste in the worst way.

I wouldn't be surprised if mmorpg.com just takes this game off it's list....sorry but the game is just that bad. I tried giving the beta one more shot about 5 days before launch and was killed by a mob 20 yards away from me, rubberbanding all over the place.

IMO a text based rpg is a step forward then this is.

People throw the "wow clone" crap around like it's nothing but this game truly takes that phrase and crowns it king.  Never, never have I played a game even mildly close a copy as this game.  I thought Runes of Magic was a pretty big copy.  Hell, ROM seems like the most original MMO ever created compared to this game.  I played in closed beta for a few weeks and can only say wow.  Literally.

Originally posted by Wizardry

If i had of known Aion only had 2 races i never would have tried that game either.I am sorry but when you see a lack lustre effort like 2 races,you know the game is pushed out the door with very little effort.

I will not even give games like that a 2 second look,so they have zero chance with me.

thats a pretty sorry reason to not like a game. 2 races mean nothing in aion when you can literally customize your character to the point your the only one that looks like that.

I'll be the first to admit that I wanted to give this game a fair shot when I read the list of features. And for me it didn't matter what the graphics looked like as long as the game play was unique.......then came my beta invite a week before the official launch and boy was I wrong.

From the first time I logged in and created a ranger I was subjected to one of the most blatant displays of plagiarism that I've ever witnessed. I was so shocked that I thought that Chinese investors were actually funding this project....and you know they are the MASTERS of bootlegging -Disneyland move over- But I stuck with it until about level 15. The game is NOT ready even for it's debut as the King of Clones. So the release date was pushed back. And when and if it does release it will burn like toilet paper dipped in gasoline.

This just goes to show you.....if ANYONE tells me that WoW is a crap game that doesn't deserve the accolades that it has received I will swiftly point them in the direction of Alganon  followed by a boot square in the ass and let them see for themselves how things could have went wrong IF Blizzard didn't truly care about quality in it's games.

Plagiarism...I will have to agree with this statement, although only about 150%...everything I witnessed on my Alganon sojourn was like an Alice in Wonderland...scratch that, Alice in Azeroth bad trippe.

i agree wow coulda been as bad as alganon see back when mmo's were starting didnt matter as much about graphics and gameplay style since it was in its infancy now though we expect a game that's a little more polished i hope the other devs see this game and learn to think more before they pass games off like this especially since they attempted to sell preorders to a game still in beta

I hope Blizzard sue these guys, they deserve to die quickly for such a pathetic attemps at a MMO.

Originally posted by Wizardry

If i had of known Aion only had 2 races i never would have tried that game either.I am sorry but when you see a lack lustre effort like 2 races,you know the game is pushed out the door with very little effort.

I will not even give games like that a 2 second look,so they have zero chance with me.

i have to LOL at this..... most games only have 2 "sides" .... plus, you can make your character look like pretty much whatever you like...i have seen people that look like everything from Trolls to halflings to elfs to dwarves to wtfisthat ....did you even play the game?

Originally posted by Wizardry

If i had of known Aion only had 2 races i never would have tried that game either.I am sorry but when you see a lack lustre effort like 2 races,you know the game is pushed out the door with very little effort.

I will not even give games like that a 2 second look,so they have zero chance with me.

What?

Really?

So any game worth its salt, regardless of setting or story, should just have races thrown in, in order to legitimize it?

So a game based upon, say, the war of the roses, really could never be good unless you throw in a race that is based on, er, Rats. Like Rat people.

Give the Duke of York a real enemy to fight!

Meh, some people feel strongly about things like that. Couldn't give a damn, myself, of all the things that have led me to criticize Alganon, only having two races is not one of them.

Only having four classes in a class-based game is a problem. I'm not saying you need to go nuts and have huge numbers like WAR with its 24 classes, but four is not enough. Might as well not make the game class-based with that few, just have skills and talent trees.

But only having two races is not an issue, for me.

Originally posted by PhelimReagh

Alganon isn't finished. They've said that. Just because a key ring doesn't work right now, doesn't mean it's not going to be implemented eventually.

 

It's a valid criticism to say that it shouldn't be released or charge as much as they plan to until it's "fully baked", or until they have implemented something truly special that differentiates the game from others on the market.

 

But to say that the game is a total copy and won't ultimately be very different from WoW just seems petty and childish.

 

Alganon certainly has it's faults and shortcomings, but it does PLAN on being different.

 

 

Wow I didn't even know about the keyring thing but that's pretty bad.  It's not just graphics and UI though.  Some icon and ability names are the exact same thing.  It almost makes you wonder if the devs got a hold of some emulated source code from WoW and went from there.  If they go live and Blizzard finds that there are legitimate parts of their assests (hacked or otherwise) in this game, they will issue a cease and desist faster than you can blink.  Nothing has happened yet because the game isn't live.

I wouldn't mind defending RoM against people calling that a WoW clone but this? This can't possibly be defended, because they aren't even trying here. I mean I was going to overlook the fact the UI is so similar if not outright copied until I experienced combat. It is so sluggish and laggy I couldn't stand it for more than 5 minutes. People can scream all they want how this is only a beta but they are releasing this on December 1st apparently, and compared to what they've done so far there's no way it will change in any meaningful way at all in just a month. Charging for this game should be a crime against humanity.

Originally posted by PhelimReagh

Alganon isn't finished. They've said that. Just because a key ring doesn't work right now, doesn't mean it's not going to be implemented eventually.

Then the icon shouldn't be there. Simple.

 

It's a valid criticism to say that it shouldn't be released or charge as much as they plan to until it's "fully baked", or until they have implemented something truly special that differentiates the game from others on the market.

 

But to say that the game is a total copy and won't ultimately be very different from WoW just seems petty and childish.

Thing is, they're marketing and selling the game for what it is *right now*. You don't sell something based on what it's intended to be, eventually... down the road.... when we get around to it. You sell it for what it is now... and as the reviewer states, there are a number of features still listed on their website that are not in game; they are not denoted as "upcoming feature" or "not yet implemented". Sounds an awful lot like what AV pulled with DF as well... failing to update their website to reflect the actual state of the game.

Alganon certainly has it's faults and shortcomings, but it does PLAN on being different.

Again... it's fine to market a product on what it plans to be when you're looking for investor money to get its production underway. It's something else entirely to promote a product to consumers as having features that aren't currently in-game. 

 

Originally posted by Frostbite05

Originally posted by Wizardry

If i had of known Aion only had 2 races i never would have tried that game either.I am sorry but when you see a lack lustre effort like 2 races,you know the game is pushed out the door with very little effort.

I will not even give games like that a 2 second look,so they have zero chance with me.

 

thats a pretty sorry reason to not like a game. 2 races mean nothing in aion when you can literally customize your character to the point your the only one that looks like that.

Whether you realize it or not, you pretty much owned yourself in that post.

To clarify...
2 races is fine when there's ample customization to make yourself look different enough from everyone else. Alganon doesn't have that.... hence the problem with only 2 races - or at least one of them.

Further, who are you to deem someone else's personal point-of-view as "sorry" because you don't agree with it? Pretty closed-minded, no?

Pretty accurate review, but it's even more bland.

My favourite part was threatening to ban people from beta for trolling by stating the obvious in /4.Development. Not to mention the 3-4 sycophants defending the game as if their lifes depend on it.

Originally posted by 43%burnt

My favourite part was threatening to ban people from beta for trolling by stating the obvious in /4.Development. Not to mention the 3-4 sycophants defending the game as if their lifes depend on it.

Truth.

This review is pretty accurate. I will be really surprised if Blizzard doesn't sue the crap out of them. I know most MMO's copy a lot of things from other games, but it is so blatant that Alganon copied WoW directly it is hard to ignore for many of us. If it was just one or two things I would keep my mouth shut, but the UI the art style, the zones climates and looks, combat and character mechanics are all so similair - and I could name more.

I also find having only four classes and two races vbery limiting and lazy. Firts of, the two raaces theyd o have look pretty damned similair. That might not matter to some of you but it does matter to some of us. I don't need 20 some races like Vanguard but more than two would be nice. Four classes is weak too, and while I know you can specialize it doesn't make up for the lack of variety.

I never had issues with the performance but I have a nice custome built computer that most people won't have. The graphics still looked like crap however.

Overall I think this game makes WoW look even better.