Originally posted by bbbmmmlll

I wish they would have copied WoW's polish.

I've been in the beta since August 3rd. Played several characters to level 15, reported lots of bugs and posted suggestions on their forums.  I haven't played in a couple weeks because I think the game is doomed. In it's current state it's an uninspired, buggy and unpolished product. The developers have chosen a questionable business plan(copy WoW), not adapted to a changing market(F2P & competition) and failed to execute. They've painted themselves into a corner.

I joined the Allods closed beta last weekend and it's completely opposite. It's packed with excited players, polished, stable, has an interesting setting and F2P. There's no comparison.

I don't want Alganon to fail, but I think they already have. It's just a waiting game at this point.

I logged into Allods twice and even though I liked the setting, overall, I think the game is just lacking a soul.   Alganon, IMHO, even if it uses mechanics, UI ideas, art styles similiar to WoW it has a ton of soul to it. After getting past the "this is just a WoW clone" first impression, I found that Alganon has alot to it that feels different than WoW. It has it's own personality but to bad bugs do get in the way alot of times.  But, of course, people with no patience and wanting it NOW NOW NOW won't get past the initial impressions.

But, you know what, I'm willing to bet that some of you never even played it and those that did, played it for 10 mins and at the most 30 mins and decided that was enough.  It's a shame, the beta isn't a free trial, it's for testing and finding bugs, making suggestions and helping the dev team release a better product.

Instead you guys knock what should be standard features (easy, familiar GUI, guest markers, etc) or an art style that Blizzard doesn't own. You cannot seem to get past your own bias, pre-conceived notions of what the game is from level 1 to 50. 

It makes me wonder why I'm arguing with you guys at all.  You already made up your mind before you even PLAYED the game.

Alganon is a pretty bad excuse to sell some copy-pase game.

It's pretty sad tho that some players are actually desperate enough to play it, and only shows that requirements for a game have sunken to a new low.

Originally posted by Dethnoble

Originally posted by bbbmmmlll

I wish they would have copied WoW's polish.

I've been in the beta since August 3rd. Played several characters to level 15, reported lots of bugs and posted suggestions on their forums.  I haven't played in a couple weeks because I think the game is doomed. In it's current state it's an uninspired, buggy and unpolished product. The developers have chosen a questionable business plan(copy WoW), not adapted to a changing market(F2P & competition) and failed to execute. They've painted themselves into a corner.

I joined the Allods closed beta last weekend and it's completely opposite. It's packed with excited players, polished, stable, has an interesting setting and F2P. There's no comparison.

I don't want Alganon to fail, but I think they already have. It's just a waiting game at this point.

 

I logged into Allods twice and even though I liked the setting, overall, I think the game is just lacking a soul.   Alganon, IMHO, even if it uses mechanics, UI ideas, art styles similiar to WoW it has a ton of soul to it. After getting past the "this is just a WoW clone" first impression, I found that Alganon has alot to it that feels different than WoW. It has it's own personality but to bad bugs do get in the way alot of times.  But, of course, people with no patience and wanting it NOW NOW NOW won't get past the initial impressions.

But, you know what, I'm willing to bet that some of you never even played it and those that did, played it for 10 mins and at the most 30 mins and decided that was enough.  It's a shame, the beta isn't a free trial, it's for testing and finding bugs, making suggestions and helping the dev team release a better product.

Instead you guys knock what should be standard features (easy, familiar GUI, guest markers, etc) or an art style that Blizzard doesn't own. You cannot seem to get past your own bias, pre-conceived notions of what the game is from level 1 to 50. 

It makes me wonder why I'm arguing with you guys at all.  You already made up your mind before you even PLAYED the game.

I would like to point out that I played the game for almost 5 hours, I provided feedback, I reported bugs I tried VERY hard to get past the miserable first impression. I fully intended to beta test it right up to launch and if I felt it was worth it buy the game.
 

I return to my earlier point there is a difference between inspiration and copying. Have you played WAR or Lotro? Both have heavily WoW INSPIRED interfaces. The Art direction is different the exact placement is different but it is fairly easy for a player to go from one to another to another and not feel like they just got thrown into an alien interface.

Alganon copys WoW interface for interface style for style in many if not most places.

However the interface is just the tip of the ice berg in my opinion theres still 78% lurking below. Almost everything that is not a DIRECT COPY is EXTREMELY similar to WoW and plenty of other mmos.

Your allowed to like it and love it and whatever else its your life and your opinion.

I however got the impression that the game had large numbers of features and mechanics that were straight out of WoW was developed by an overly defensive Dev teamwho seem to think they can dismiss all the similaritys, call the game "unique", release it unfinished and unpolished and slap an insane price tag on it.

Originally posted by Dethnoble

It makes me wonder why I'm arguing with you guys at all.  You already made up your mind before you even PLAYED the game.

Several of us have expressed interest in what the unique and different features are because we haven't tried the game yet. I'm hoping you or other people who are actually playing can post about the cool stuff for us.

Holgranth,

I'm not arguing that the interface isn't mostly the same as WoW's.  Heck, at first, the talent tree feels exactly like WoW's.  But, unlike most people, I have the ability to see beyond a book's cover and I have the patience to get past the bumps in the road.  Guess what i found with Alganon?  A game that has it's own personality and it's own style even though it isn't unique. 

I agree that Alganon is probably at least six months to a year away from being ready, but QoL/David Allen don't have that kind of budget.  So they either release now and release at a price range that they felt was needed to keep the game running and get it to that level they invisioned it to be or they simply shut down the game.  Guess what?  They are launching the game and I applaud them and I think that is the right decision.

People will be stuck in three molds, the first and most unfortunate is they'll just see the cover and make assumptions, the second mold is they'll have the ability to see past the cover and see what Alganon's personality is and they'll decide they don't care for it even then.  The third mold is the people who will see past the cover and enjoy it.

The first mold people, I truly feel sorry for and they are typically the ME ME ME, NOW NOW NOW people but I can respect people of the second mold because at least they have the patience and ability to recognize that the world isn't black and white.   They simply don't care for the GAMEPLAY and there are people like that for ALL games, even WoW.   You don't have to like the game but you HAVE to know what the game is to have any kind of credibility when posting about it.

Originally posted by LynxJSA

Originally posted by Dethnoble

It makes me wonder why I'm arguing with you guys at all.  You already made up your mind before you even PLAYED the game.

 

Several of us have expressed interest in what the unique and different features are because we haven't tried the game yet. I'm hoping you or other people who are actually playing can post about the cool stuff for us.

Go play the game for yourself long enough (meaning, past the first area) and try not to allow bias to predetermine your opinions.  After you give an honest try at that then come back and argue here.   You should be able to easily get a key now.

Originally posted by Dethnoble

How about this.... since Alganon is copying everything from WoW.  How about you list some of WoW's unique features that they didn't copy?

I dont think thats the point. Alganon needs to be pushed back, because, even though it copies, it didnt polish.

Could anyone who has played this game help me out a bit? How do I talk in 4.develeopment? My keyboard seems to be Us or something, because I cannot write / at all. So I've not been able to talk to people except say yet. 

Originally posted by Dethnoble

you have that well with the tentacles coming out of it

Wait...there's a well in the clone of Elwynn Forest that has tentacles coming out of it?? Well, I stand corrected. This game IS different!

Originally posted by Dethnoble

I logged into Allods twice and even though I liked the setting, overall, I think the game is just lacking a soul.   Alganon, IMHO, even if it uses mechanics, UI ideas, art styles similiar to WoW it has a ton of soul to it. After getting past the "this is just a WoW clone" first impression, I found that Alganon has alot to it that feels different than WoW. It has it's own personality but to bad bugs do get in the way alot of times.  But, of course, people with no patience and wanting it NOW NOW NOW won't get past the initial impressions.

But, you know what, I'm willing to bet that some of you never even played it and those that did, played it for 10 mins and at the most 30 mins and decided that was enough.  It's a shame, the beta isn't a free trial, it's for testing and finding bugs, making suggestions and helping the dev team release a better product.

Instead you guys knock what should be standard features (easy, familiar GUI, guest markers, etc) or an art style that Blizzard doesn't own. You cannot seem to get past your own bias, pre-conceived notions of what the game is from level 1 to 50. 

It makes me wonder why I'm arguing with you guys at all.  You already made up your mind before you even PLAYED the game.

    How much is QOL paying you to say all these? Perhaps thats why they ran out of money after all. Wake up dude. The WoW copy is not even the issue here. If this game was a nice polished wow  "borrower"  i would gladly play it and enjoy it. But what about the unfinished product?. The product for which you will be asked to pay money for in a monthly basis?

    Like it or not m8, thats how the market works. The competition is fierce and customers are demanding and impatient. Companies cannot survive based on romantics like you.There is just too much competition for a game like Alganon to survive, when the features it offers completely lack innovation and the most important of all...its all still in the papers or in Allen's head. If you like Alganon, go ahead and enjoy it as much as you can but PLS PLS dont try to convince us that Alganon is a good game because it simply IS NOT.

And to even compare Alganon with Allods is a joke. Allods is MILES ahead as a game.

Originally posted by Dethnoble

All of which obviously didn't play past 30 mins in the game?  My first 30 mins felt the same as well, but after I got past the simliarities between the game and WoW, I actually found enjoyable things with the game.   I also understand that I signed up as a 'beta tester' and that means I was given a spot to 'test' the game not 'try it out to see if i like it'.

Of course, everyone who comes in here and plays it for 30 mins then quits because it's "copied from WoW" seem to miss that point completely.  So yeah, bring in your laughs and your drivel all you want but you were invited to test the game and you only went in to 'try it out'.  That is your fail.

 

I can't help but agree with these points.  Honestly, I logged in to see if the rumors about being a WoW ripoff were true.  Appearance wise, I agree, but I didn't give the game a fair chance to prove anything as far as story and gameplay.  Gonna go give it an honest shot before immediately dismissing it.

Originally posted by arctarus

Deatnoble, a few of us really is sincere about knowing more of this game. If you are playing open beta now, don't mind give us a list of the good things that you feel regarding this game. Those features that you've said that make this game different form others.

Thanks...

 

 

Well I'll stick my neck out there.  When you play Alganon, it most certainly is its own game.  It *looks* a lot like WoW, but it doesn't *feel* like WoW.  It honestly feels like a different game.  And for my personal style, at least in regard to PvE, I enjoy it.

One of the features Alganon brings that WoW doesn't have is the Offline Study system.  It allows your character to study a huge range of things while your character is logged out (though the studying does continue while you're playing).  Things from raising specific stat points to being more capable with a certain weapon type, to an array of magic abilities.  

Later on, after you've studied enough of a certain area, you actually start to unlock quests and such with your studies.  Personally, I love the system.  I can see some ways for players to bend it to their advantage, but it's a nice system.  An example of what I am referring to is creating a character that you don't plan to play yet, then keep up on their studies.  You would then start at level 1 (when you did decide to play this character) with hugely modified abilities compared to a character with no studies. 

Will this break the game?  I don't see how.. but there are clear advantages to those that keep up with studies on all of their characters, whether they are playing them yet or not.

Anyway, I haven't played past level 11.  I spend a lot of time testing every area I can find and testing game mechanics versus just trying to gain levels.  I don't know what else is in store for people.  But what I have seen so far interests me.. provided they can stomp out a few more bugs that are still in the game.. with those bugs gone, I think it would be a fun little go-to game when i'm bored with my main title.

Acidon

So all i hear you saying is that yeh its a wow copy but it's a different game? well so are the other 100 korean grinders. Like many others have already asked please tell us differences that are actually in game so we know what your talking about. I've been playing the game in beta since july and have made every character and gotten to a good lvl but besides the studying system which really barely affects you if at all i havent noticed any difference in gameplay from all the other games. Hell they don't even have proper or enough quests after lvl 30 and besides questing there is nothing to do. Again it isnt just the wow similarities people hate, the game as a whole just isnt great.

Originally posted by Dethnoble

It's funny, if Blizzard does it it's borrowing ideas but if David Allen does it it's copying Blizzard.

I gotcha.  Discussion is over.  Mods can lock this thread.

Dude. It is one thing to borrow a few ideas, it is another when my wife walks by and asks why I am playing WoW.

Originally posted by Nightbringe1

Originally posted by Dethnoble

It's funny, if Blizzard does it it's borrowing ideas but if David Allen does it it's copying Blizzard.

I gotcha.  Discussion is over.  Mods can lock this thread.

 

Dude. It is one thing to borrow a few ideas, it is another when my wife walks by and asks why I am playing WoW.

lol my little nephew was over at my house while i was playing alganon, i left my computer for a sec to get a drink and when i come back he's like hey what spec do you want your warrior to be, proc? when i told him it wasn't wow he's like oh i just thought you turned down the graphic settings that's why it looked like this. Was kinda funny but sad at the same time.

"It feels different!" Seriously, it feels different? That is the best argument you have for playing the game? You can't name a single feature, or why it feels different? It just does? That isn't an argument. What makes it feel different, because I can tell you between level 1-15, I got quests that felt like I was doing quests right from WoW, collect this get that. I had to kill mobs as well, using skills that were named identical to those in WoW. The combat felt no different than WoW. There was no taking advantage (except terrain exploiting) of the mobs ai, you click a button and click another until the mob is dead. For Magus I just cast fireball, auto want, fireball until it was on me and then cast cone of cold. No kiting, no taking more than 10% health loss. The only thing that felt different was that mobs were rubberbanding all over the place.

But I, like many people, keep hearing about this different feeling thing. So I am curious how a game that is high fantasy with the same classes and skills, same AH, same 3 tier talent tree, same crafting, no pvp, only 2 races, no instances, and same UI feels so different. If your answer is "play it" then you might as well just say -- it isn't.

If something is different you can verbalize why. So tell us all, what is so different?

Originally posted by Gabby-air

Originally posted by Nightbringe1

Originally posted by Dethnoble

It's funny, if Blizzard does it it's borrowing ideas but if David Allen does it it's copying Blizzard.

I gotcha.  Discussion is over.  Mods can lock this thread.

 

Dude. It is one thing to borrow a few ideas, it is another when my wife walks by and asks why I am playing WoW.

 

lol my little nephew was over at my house while i was playing alganon, i left my computer for a sec to get a drink and when i come back he's like hey what spec do you want your warrior to be, proc? when i told him it wasn't wow he's like oh i just thought you turned down the graphic settings that's why it looked like this. Was kinda funny but sad at the same time.

Q.Q
 

AWW shame on you

Originally posted by tro44_1

Originally posted by Gabby-air

Originally posted by Nightbringe1

Originally posted by Dethnoble

It's funny, if Blizzard does it it's borrowing ideas but if David Allen does it it's copying Blizzard.

I gotcha.  Discussion is over.  Mods can lock this thread.

 

Dude. It is one thing to borrow a few ideas, it is another when my wife walks by and asks why I am playing WoW.

 

lol my little nephew was over at my house while i was playing alganon, i left my computer for a sec to get a drink and when i come back he's like hey what spec do you want your warrior to be, proc? when i told him it wasn't wow he's like oh i just thought you turned down the graphic settings that's why it looked like this. Was kinda funny but sad at the same time.

Q.Q
 

AWW shame on you

I'd say they were lieing if it wasn't so damn plausible......

I just can't get over how terribly ugly the game is, seriously it's like a dulled lifeless version of WoW's artistic graphics with stretched out textures, and horrific lighting and shadows (blobs).

Here's my "copy+pasted" review from my blog :D

The Alganon beta is very laggy at times. This is no doubt exacerbated by my bad wireless connection. Even though I was getting booted, and had to slow down my progression due to lag, It was a good experience. After 8 levels, I was able to get many quests under my belt, study a few skills, if that’s what they are calling it because there are other skills that you get through leveling, and delved into crafting a bit all while seeing a good sized chunk of the extremely large starting zone.

My first 4 levels were filled with acquainting myself with the game and world. Creating a character seems average to any other MMORPG. Not super in-depth, but not shallow either. You can pick hair, face, all that jazz. Unique is the family names you choose from. Each race has 5 families to choose from. These are an attempt to help group players to other like-minded players. Each family is related largely to one field of combat or study. There’s an adventuring family, a crafting family, and so on.

I took a human soldier which starts me in Asheran Forest. It’s a gigantic zone, and has the most pleasantly diverse terrain I’ve ever seen. The layout for all the terrain seems natural, full, varied, and never gives a feeling of repetition(Hey I saw that exact shape and size boulder 2 kilometers back). There are some nice animations with swarms of bugs, tree tops gently swaying in the breeaze, and other little incidental novelties that actually felt like it brought the world more to life. This zone is also immense. I could only hazard a guess that it may be like taking the zone Stormwind, from WoW, and quadrupling it in size. It’s a colorful world. It has a cartoon-ish look, but high texture and water details make it look sharper, more focused, and a bit less cartoon-y than WoW.

Quests are standard, nothing new here. fetch, kill, find are the norm. Tutorial based quests will get you accustomed to the controls, and your surroundings. There’s a built in quest tracker, to find where you need to go. Some may think this takes away immersion or is too easy. For a first time player I found it very helpful, as the zone is huge and easy to get lost in.

I clicked my study icon to get started with what I could. It’s time based skills that let you select from about 3 after character creation, and as you study, more will open up. I found it fine. I started with bladesmanship, then went to crafting related studies. I was only level 5 when did the novice craftsmen which completed within one play session. It opened up specific craft related studies such as natural oils, alloy, etc… I chose alloy, and suddenly it’s take 24 hours to get that study. I felt that it was a huge jump from the first level of studies I took. I am not at all familiar with EVE and it’s time-based skills, so I will have to have some more…uh, time with this part of Alganon.

My first 5 levels kept me pretty close to the starting area, and then the quests started having me move down a road to the town of Greenvale. At level 6 I found out I could have already been crafting at level 1. So I jumped in, asked developer chat a few questions and got started. There’s honestly not much I can say beyond “If you’ve played WoW, you know everything you need to know about Alganon crafting”. It doesn’t just look the same, you’ll feel like you’re playing WoW at times, if not for the graphical differences, with all the similar movements you’ll be going through.

Crafting is the same system used in WoW. It looks like they ripped it out of WoW, put it in Alganon, and just renamed items, recipes, and ingredients. That’s not saying it’s bad, I think it speaks more volume to say “It’s familiar” and I’ll get to that more in a bit. I found a blacksmith, purchased mining, and blacksmithing. I then went out mining which was a pleasurable experience. This is a one-click gathering system. You get a tracker. In my case I could locate ore, but there was a small extra perceived sense of hunting on my part. Even when you near the node, it can take some looking for. It may be behind a tree or rock, or just hiding down in a depression in the ground. It also could be nicely placed amongst some mobs requiring some skill to get to it if you are equal or even above the mobs level. One click got me copper, limestone, and sometimes a jewel along with the others. The most I ever got from one node was 2 copper, 1 limestone, and 1 jewel.

There’s a vendor in town selling some reagents that you’ll need to go along with the ore when crafting. I also found, with the beginning recipes, you’ll quite often also need to refine the ore and get some drops from mobs to create the item(s).

From level 7-8 I went on more quests which sent me further along the zone. I was done crafting for the time being, after feeling used to it, and I wanted to see more of the great graphics in the zone. There are plenty of hubs with lots of NPC’s. Many of them just stand there, but they all have voiced greetings for you. The houses are nice. I always love many buidlings you can go into. Just like the terrain, the buildings are varied in size and shape. Asheran Forest lends itself to “log” cabins and wooden small houses. There’s a few 2-story houses that I explored. This is where the camera flaws really show up.

I found myself constantly zooming in and out, whether in the forest or in town. The trees are so lush with wide tops, and the camera doesn’t snap below them, so any trees in your way will have to be avoided by zooming in. Same goes for inside a building. There seems to be an attempt at camera snapping, as you enter a buildings doorway then turn right or left it snaps to the characters back just fine, and you can easily rotate around to get the interiors layout. But many times, especially in the multi-storied buildings you have to zoom in to avoid staring at the floor above you.

The most unique and exciting feature in the game, to me, is the Library. It’s simply defined as an in-game repository of information on everything in the game. It’s not simple though, as it has everything. If WoW had this, it would be like taking Thottbot, and WoW Armory, smashing them together, and then letting you access that info all without alt+tab’ing out. There’s also a slew of Alganon world lore to look up. It’s a very nice interface.

Apart from crafting being identical to WoW, the difference for Alganon is how they plan to get items into players hands. They’ve said that they plan on balancing the really good weapons and armor between crafting and drops. You’ll be able to get that Uber Green Glowing Demon Sword+1 from a series of challenging crafting tasks, or from a challenging raid. It sounds like they are trying to create a dichotomy of equality. That is to say, it seems they’re trying to create equal feelings of work and time invested for both the crafter and raider after the same item. I’m very curious to see how this plays out. Unfortunately no instances are available in the beta. Any real world testing will have to wait until after the game’s launch.

To sum up, I felt the game was very polished visually. The server snags and lags quite a bit right now, but that’s to be expected in beta this young. It plays very much like WoW in many respects. I felt torn whether I should dislike this or not. You could almost disassociate yourself from the graphics and you could simply believe you found some brand new zones in WoW. I never used the term WoW clone before so I do not use it lightly now. The interfaces from crafting looked ripped directly from WoW, as does a few other interfaces, and also the way you interact within those interfaces. Ultimately it doesn’t make me dislike the game in the least. It’s not a bad thing to be a clone. And it really has it’s own look graphically. At the end of reaching level 8, I find that apart from the knowledge base called the Library, there isn’t much in the way of innovation. I don’t need innovation when a game uses many approved standards of play that agree with me. I find myself wanting to play more to see how beautiful the rest of the world is, if nothing else, and to see how the crafting implementation will affect the player base and my enjoyment level of crafting.