Publisher: Quest Online
Developer: Quest Online
System requirements: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7; 2.4 GHz CPU; 2 GB RAM; 4 GB hard-drive space; DirectX 9.0c-compatible video card; broadband Internet connection
Genre: MMORPG
Release date: October 31, 2009

From the graphicless days of Major Mudd to the emergence of Everquest (and everything in-between before World of Warcraft), I’ve given time to my fair share of MMORPGs.  By saying “Before World of Warcraft,” you’d assume that I got sucked into Blizzard’s world and never went to another, but this is far from the truth. See, I’m one of those people who couldn’t get completely into WoW; all of the exclamation points, raid stories and class-nerfing patches that go along with it fall on deaf ears when conversations take a turn towards Azeroth. It’s still hard to deny the attraction, however, as it has somehow reeled me back four times despite my disinterest.

So when I was asked to preview Alganon, a new MMO being developed and published by Quest Online, I naturally took the job with the same expectations as anyone would; that is, was something poised to dethrone the world’s largest online addiction and inject new elements into what many consider the same old, same old?  Quest Online doesn’t look at it like that, though, which surprises me.

It seems that their swords-and-sorcery fantasy realm is meant as more of an alternative to WoW instead of an actual challenger to its market share. Sure, there are races, classes and the usual “kill 10 of this beast” or “go talk to this person” quests (heck, even the interface echoes WoW), but underneath all of that is the framework for a robust and active community, plus a few other gameplay tweaks that could turn an eye away from the trials and tribulations of Horde and Alliance.

The differences follow a template Quest Online has developed to give players a place to gather and advance, both online and off. MyAlganon.com gives everyone a central spot to communicate, gather information and brag about their latest quest spoils instead of forcing them to traverse outside of the developer’s house to a third-party community site. You can check individual member stats and guild rosters, even post to a comment stream similar to those on social networking sites. It gives you a chance to keep up with everything, even when you’re not able to make it into the game for a few days.

That’s not the only advantage to being part of Alganon, though, as the game extends ideas to, and responds to long-standing requests from, MMO players. Perhaps the most intriguing is the study system, which allows those who can’t play eight hours a day the opportunity to learn skills while they’re offline to stay competitive. There’s also the library, a sort of in-game Wikipedia, which classifies beasts, loot and the like and allows you to regale others with tales of epic battles and match personal achievements on the leaderboards. New players are also welcomed with open arms by a system that assigns a family name to your character and instantly gives you common ground with others. Guilds are still in Alganon too, but the family system adds another layer for ease of grouping and socializing.

My cohort in the beta (and esteemed editor) Michael Smith and I delved into the realm of Alganon and came away feeling that it was still in need of a couple of months in the oven. Lag issues, poor collision detection, full desktop crashes and server issues prevented either of us from making any marked progress, although frequent patches are being issued that address some of the more nagging problems. With an Oct. 31, 2009  release date, Quest Online needs to get things rolling if Alganon is to be a functional alternative to the biggest online game in history.