Quest Online Community Manager Mathew “Berek” Anderson has sent us the most recent community dev blog from Alganon! In this dev blog Berek explains MMO Multitasking and the current MMO's he's playing, and the long list of MMO's he's played in the past!
Here's a look at the Alganon Dev Blog:
Alganon Community Blog
by Mathew “Berek” Anderson
Quest Online
Can you enjoy playing three MMOs in
tandem? This is the dilemma I am currently facing. No, it's actually worse
than that. I would consider myself trying to play four MMOs at once.
Thankfully, I am paid to play at least one of them, that one being Alganon
of course. The other three also include Alganon for fun, as well as a bit of
time in two others (can you guess which ones?).
Back in the Ultima Online and EverQuest days (those aren't the ones), I would spend (yes, in my mother's basement) an average night of 10 hours gaining one or two levels in EQ, or raising my Mining skill in UO by 10 points. This intense focus involved a lot of fatty foods, sugary beverages, and the occasional trip to the bathroom. At the "end" of the day, around 5 or 6 in the morning, I would throw myself on the nearby bed (a sofa). In brief reflection, I now understand why I lost 65 pounds in 5 months while teaching in China... and gaining it back by typing this while eating nachos, instead of riding my bike to lunch.
At the peak of my gaming extravaganza, I had three computers setup next to each other, complete with an EQ account each so I could level-up secondary characters with my own private group. I also had a bad habit of collecting hundreds of items in Diablo 2 and spending days organizing them over eleven accounts. I'm not a pack-rat, but I do love sorting and organizing, which is a good thing because I've discovered being a good community manager requires this attribute.
This kind of routine is ultimately unsustainable though. Eventually my schedule began to fill up beyond the ability to play at every waking moment. I had my "three legged stool" of work, school, and game time. For those of you who know what the "three legged stool" is really all about, it sadly doesn't include gaming. There was room during a few days a week for two or three hours of game time, if I was lucky to not have household chores or other interruptions. You know, those silly things that get in the way like mowing the lawn, cleaning out the garbage, and heaven forbid... clothes shopping.
After the years passed, I began to shift my focus from those long-hour game sessions to shorter things that would keep my interest, such as writing blogs and focusing on my career. At the time I didn't know exactly what my career was; I just knew I loved working with the community, so it was something involving you guys. After I began volunteering in the EQ Guide program and news reporting at various media networks, it became clear to me what I wanted to do. I focused more on that and less on MMO multitasking.
Fast forward to today and I somehow ended up back at playing multiple MMOs at a time, though I now only have one account for each. The days of three simultaneous accounts for EQ, eleven for Diablo 2 (which isn't an MMO, but that is beside the point in this case), and one account for UO or whatever other game I happened to be playing at the time, are over. I managed to fire up three distinct MMOs and play them at points during the past few weeks. Soon the need to focus on just one game at a time came back in a rush.
Why is that? Why are MMOs requiring so much of our time that we can't enjoy two or three of them simultaneously, each at a satisfactory pace? Some of us watch movies a dozen times per week, go to the theatre at least once or twice, and find time to share their experiences with others. Are there any games out there today that are full fledged MMOs, but only require small chunks of your time to really advance and feel a part of their worlds without being forced to abandon one for the other?
Is Alganon one of those games? Alganon has certain qualities that allow you to find time to play it around the other MMOs that you enjoy. The designers built it to be familiar at its base, yet dynamic and unique as you become more involved in the world. You may have heard our Lead Data Designer, Hue Henry, talk about how Alganon is "not a jealous game". After working with the game for several months, I am beginning to understand what he means.
Alganon will be a full featured MMO, yet you won't have to spend countless hours gaining one level and feel you've come away with nothing other than a higher number on your character's stat sheet. You could if you wanted to of course, but you don't have to just to keep up with your friends. And that, I think, may be a major reason why I can still play two other MMOs, while playing and working on Alganon, all at the same time.
Comments