I have somewhere around 3000 hours logged into World of Warcraft according to Xfire (most of that in vanilla, some in BC just prior to WotLK), so when someone with 3000 hours has trouble deciding if the screen shot used in this article is from WoW or not, that to me is crazy.
My thoughts went like this:
That’s WoW, the horse is the paladin special mount.
No wait, it’s not WoW, the icons above the guards are different.
No it is WoW, the stone texture below the horse is exactly from WoW.
No wait it’s not WoW, the guards are wearing different armor than what I remember.
It’s WoW, this must be some location in WotLK and hence I don’t recognize the armor, the overall look is EXACTLY WoW.
Seriously, that’s what just happened, and I just feel incredibly dirty/cheated right now. Everyone related to Alganon’s development, along with anyone playing or supporting that game dying in a fire would still be too nice a fate. GTFO of the genre you worthless copycat trash heap.
And if this crap gets a sideline fan like me worked up (I’ve been aware of Alganon being a total copy for a while, but I was not THIS aware of it), I can’t image how a smaller indie dev like Brian feels when he sees garbage like that game getting released and mentioned on a site like Massively. Death can’t come soon enough for that title.
Hardcore Casual 
On Brian’s point on innovation in MMOs …
As an older gamer, I see what’s happening in MMOs from a different perspective.
Basically, MMO = I want to play Dungeons and Dragons on a computer with my friends.
Looking at WoW/etc I see there is a long way for innovation to achieve that dream:
. dungeons (which are the main part of MMOs) tend to have 5-pack mobs in long linear progression. I mean, for GODS SAKE, is that corny and comic book or what. Think about those strange D&D runs with unusual encounters, traps and puzzles
. D&D loot could be very mysterious, eg. a sword that has improved fire damage, but with hidden properties, and a dark magical history. NOT like a WoW +10stamina +20 strength sword (how dull)
I don’t even need to read the body… the subject line already made me lol, and I already know what the post is about. \n/
The faces were the giveaway for me. But if you think that’s bad, you should see the UI interface. Take a look at this screenshot:
Yea I was aware of the UI (although I had not seen their talent tree, which again… dear god), but to me UI is one thing, the total look of your game is another. I could see someone saying “I like the UI of WoW, and instead of players learning something new, lets just go with that and instead focus on what we are bringing”. But ‘what we are bringing’ in this case is straight up copy/paste WoW.
I mean I take shots at Bliz for copy/paste tactics, but they look like CCP compared to this.
Yeah, its an unashamed WoW clone. The good news is that its a throw away title no one is going to play and is totally irrelevant in the MMO world.
Wait. Did Syncaine just call himself a ‘sideline fan‘ of WoW?!
Sideline fan of MMO development (sideline fan was bad phrasing by me here, but eh), rather than Brian who actually does this for a living.
WoW is awesome though!
Oh, Syn, I can’t agree with you more.
You should read the interview Shawn did with the developer. (It’s the same guy who did Istaria.) That was one painful interview that pretty much got nothing accomplished except he was pissed at people for saying his game looks like WoW.
Made me a sad panda.
Link for the lazy?
http://www.massively.com/2009/11/11/alganon-community-interview-your-questions-answered/#continued
Lazy link powers, activated!
And my apologies. It was the community interview, not Shawn’s interview. Shawn’s interview was kinda… kinda eehhhhhh. If you get my drift.
Ah that interview is gold. It was like hearing Mark McGuire talking about steroids, and repeating over and over that while he took them (we have the same looking game), they did nothing to enhance his home run totals (our game is not a total rip job).
hmm they should release Worgen and goblin before WoW do and they would get a fair few subs ;)
Syncaine crits Alganon for 10,000 damage.
Alganon is dead.
Syncaine earns 10 xp and 5 gold.
Definitely not worth farming.
When I saw that image on Massively, I skimmed over it because I thought it was WoW, and thus had no interest in it.
omg humor! Very funny – need to let this beast out of it’s cage more often.