Alganon founder David Allen strikes back

I actually like the game and I hope this restart launch thingy they have going works and fixes some issues. I also hope these two don't end up hurting it even more.

This just keeps getting better. :)

I know you guys are all anxiously waiting for either myself or QOL to respond in an official capacity. Unlike David, we are actually running our response through legal counsel before we release it.

David is yelling about defamation, yet he does the following:

1. Makes official public statements like this:

"In an effort to enhance Alganon’s® market visibility and following the direction of certain investors, QOL hired Derek Smart as a consultant on December 3, 2009 to assist in the area of sales and marketing. Soon thereafter, and for reasons unbeknownst to me, Mr. Smart began a smear campaign attacking my credibility, first privately among the investors, and then publicly."

Statements which are not only false, but also relies on the very investors he cheated and lied to. The same investors who unanimously kicked him out of the company. The same investors who are currently engaged in burying him in more lawsuits than he could possibly imagine.

2. Goes and issues a press release to "tell his skewed side"

The facts are clear and without interpretation. His complaint (there is no lawsuit btw, thats just rubbish) is without merit and is just designed to strong arm people to do what they have been doing these past four years: give him money.

He can make as much noise as he wants but that won't change the facts. I, for one, can't wait for him to sue because once he does that, everything goes into discovery and the world will eventually see him for the person that he is, the actions he has taken and how - once again - he brought a company to the brink and nearly destroyed it. Only this time the investors had me in place and so the damage was somewhat contained.

This is the guy who goes and "withdraws" whatever little money was left in the company, then gave it to attorneys (first one in Seattle, we just laughed at and sent him packing, then he got another in AZ - we're still laughing) in a bid to sue the very company and investors whose money it was. Money that was for payroll and company expenses.

Right now he should be more concerned about the FBI, the IRS and the SEC more than filing frivolous suits that he has NO money to see through. Whatever money he had left, has already been spent on attorney retainers. Lets see how exactly he plans on bringing about frivolous lawsuits to no less than fourteen individuals and two companies. Not to mention the counter suits and cross complaints that are in the works and which he is most likely going to be buried in for the next ten years of his life.

We've known about his complaint since it was filed back on Mar 25th. But he chose to issue a press release on April 7th? My guess is that he's out looking for a job or some fool to give him money.

In typical David fashion, he has no clue wtf he is doing or what's coming down the line. All this is just noise to take away from the fact that he screwed several investors, screwed thousans of gamers, nearly destroyed the company and left a frigging mess behind. A mess that I have been tasked with clearing up and fixing.

If him or his attorneys have any sense whatsoever, they would closely examine the FACTS surrounding libel and defamation. To think that for as long as I've been on the Net that I would make statements which would even be construed as such, is not only hilarious but is the kind of thing that helps attorneys renovate their homes, buy a yatcht or send their spouses on a shopping spree. Only the attorneys win.

For those of you who really want to learn something, here are just two of thousands of legal briefs on defamation.

What are libel & slander?

http://www.expertlaw.com/library/personal_injury/defamation.html

The EFF on defamation

http://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/defamation

Apart from that, the same way that he tends to lie, we feel that he has not been forthcoming with his attorneys either because there is no way in hell they would even think of filing a complaint, let alone saber rattle if they had all the facts. But he wont' be the first one to lie to attorneys and then engage in damage control when a lawsuit hits.

Legal complaints are usually filed in order to extort money from their target. Thats why the courts place a time limit on them and during which you either piss or get off the pot. This complaint is no different as he has been trying to use it to leverage an exhorbitant buyout that he is in no way, shape or form is entitled to. Now whatever money he would have received is going to go to attorneys.

David - once again - severely underestimates the investors. Because he pretty much spent four years feeding them bullshit and them giving him money, he thinks that they're just going to cave and pay him to go away. When no less than ten people unanimously vote you OUT of a company - TWICE - it means only one thing: they want you GONE.

There is a reason why, since the complaint was filed, nobody from our side has said anything about it publicly. The reason is simple: it is rubbish.

When David Allen decided to bring me to QOL to HELP him, then LIE to me and try to get me to play along with his scheme to continue bilking the investors through lies and deceit he drew the line. Had I gone along with that plan, it would a different story today. The court documents will show EXACTLY what happened. So go ahead David, bring it.

"Unlike David, we are actually running our response through legal counsel before we release it."

I dread to think how much longer a tirade of nonsense you'd post here if you weren't waiting to release it.

Time the pair of you grew up and acted your ages. Conducting a private vendetta on a public website is grossly immature and crass, and you don't need the opinion of legal counsel to know the truth of that.

The fact is that neither of you has yet produced a successful MMO and it doesn't look like either of you ever will. I guess you both just get off on the public attention, but why anyone like Massively gives it to you isn't too apparent right now.

nonono .. let derek post. Let me air all the dirt in QOL. Allen should join in too.

This drama is MUCH more entertaining than Alganon. We should have a pool to see who is going to be the big loser at the end of this lawsuit.

Allen clearly demonstrates in that brief quote exactly why he was fired: He's f*cking clueless.

"Question my loyalty, honesty, and ability to successfully create, build, run, and manage a multi-million dollar MMOG development company; something I have been doing successfully for over four years," Allen wrote."

It's opposite day every day in David Allen's mind. It's like he is completely bereft of any common sense.

OBVIOUSLY a MMO dev company's measure of success is not how many years they've been running, or how much money they've milked from investors, it's the products they put out. Since Allen's only contributions from his super successful MMO companies that are so successful are two of the least successful, and most astonishingly-poorly conceived and executed MMOs in history.

The average Massively reader has enough sense to know that intentionally making a direct WoW clone is quite possibly the most unbelievably stupid design decision possible. David Allen, who probably made millions of dollars developing MMOs (probably why he cant' understand why everything thinks he's a failure: "I drive a Mercedes, I'm a successful MMO developer!"), does not have that sense.

Alganon in and of itself is smear campaign enough, regardless of Derek Smart.

Only kinda on topic; IMO Derek Smart's brutal honesty of Alganon's faults doesn't come off as a relief to me. Yes, he's absolutely right. But he's being given too much credit for simply stating in plain English that Alganon sucks. We already knew that. Any idiot can point to a crappy game and say that it's crappy, especially when a thousand other people have already stated the fact.

A brief note to breezer, your comment also applies to Mr. Smart equally. He hasn't released a game worth playing but constantly brags about keeping the doors open at his company and release iterations of 3 games that make his wallet fat.

Go ahead, ask him.

He doesn't seem to care that the stuff he releases is garbage. The fact people pay for it doesn't mean it's any good, so he's taken his show on the road and is now at a company that he'll fit right in with.

Maybe instead of charging for Alganon, they could start charging to watch Allen and Smart act like utter tools?

While I don't necessarily believe Derek Smart should have posted here today, I still have no reason to doubt anything he's said about David Allen and the going ons of QOL. When I was in Alganon's beta, I hated it. Absolutely detested it. Not because it was trying to clone WoW, but because it was trying to clone WoW so badly. And Allen was BRAGGING about how he was cloning WoW, as if that was the epitome of a successful MMO. And I was testing it fairly close to its supposed release. Frankly, my first thought was "If this doesn't go free to play, then it won't exist in 6 months." And even then I thought it would need a lot of work to survive past that. I simply have no respect for David Allen's "success" because I haven't seen anything he's got a hand in at the moment BE a success. Horizons, while a nifty game, certainly doesn't fit the bill of "success" while he was still working there. And Alganon was utter trash under his supervision.

Put Derek Smart down all you want, but at least he's been saying the right things about Alganon. It might never become a huge hit, but I actually feel confident that it might survive and carve out its own niche in the mmo field. It might not be due to Smart's expertise in the field, but it sure as hell will be because he was able to get rid of a cancer in the company. So if does nothing else, he's got my respect for that.

I find it amusing when things like this happen. It's just like regular, generic, internet gamer drama that you experience in games like DotA or in inter-guild conflicts.

I think Penny Arcade's Greater Internet Dickwad Theory sums it up nicely. Something about people(internet + games) = jerks, lol.

I just love seeing MMO players defending Derek Smart. I suppose I can't hold it against you if weren't around when Derek was at his peak spewing BS all over the Internet, but still...you may want to hold off on defending him. Give him another couple months and I guarantee you'll be begging him to go back to his shitty single player game.

I'd gladly pay a monthly sub to see more two and fro from two off the biggest hacks on the net who between them haven't put out a decent game - ever ;)

I'd pay more if you could get Scott Jennings in it as well to complete the Menage a Douche

@23 - Derek

TL;DR U MAD BRO? LOL