Alganon is for you, if you have a life.

MMOs:
Full Disclosure: Due to the NDA agreement that goes along with all beta tests, I am not giving any information that cannot be obtained yourself from the website. And all opinions are solely based on that information.
Today’s focus is on a game called Alganon. Color me impressed. I’ve had a rash of graphically and playably unimpressive beta tests lately, so I’ve been pessimistic. This time, however, I am pleasantly surprised.
This is a slightly better World of Warcraft in terms of graphics and very similar in terms of art style. Saying that is a double edged sword in my opinion. Is WoW not the bar by which all are judged? So then this would be a good thing, right? But then one might say, “well then I’ll just play World of Warcraft.” Ok, I hear you, but… do you have a job?
It looks like Alganon is specifically targeting to WoW players who have lives. Granted this is a small percentage. But even 1% will get you 150k subscriptions which seems to be the magic number for MMO profitability. And I’m betting this is the same math the investors did.
So how are they going to do it. OFFLINE ADVANCEMENT. Yes, you heard me right. Your character will gain in power while you’re logged out. Rested XP? Forget that. You can pick what they call “Studies” and you can study all kinds of things from melee attack, defense, crafting, etc. So essentially, you can have a level 1 character that’s as good with a sword as a max level character, so long as you log in every couple of days to reset your study.
To me this means I can play this in tandem with other games and not have to worry about falling drastically behind the server. I can log into Alganon real quick to check my advancement, then do what ever I want. I can play Alganon when I feel like it and it doesn’t have to become a chore.
This is a great concept. Take something great, and tailor it to a specific audience so that they like it more. In my opinion, there is no reason why you should not have an Alganon account when the game is released, unless you absolutely hate games like World of Warcraft.