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<generator>Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/</generator><item><title><![CDATA[First Impressions: Alganon]]></title><link>http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/01/11/first-impressions-alganon/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/01/11/first-impressions-alganon/</guid><comments>http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/01/11/first-impressions-alganon/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/fantasy/" rel="tag">Fantasy</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/game-mechanics/" rel="tag">Game mechanics</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/launches/" rel="tag">Launches</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/new-titles/" rel="tag">New titles</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/first-impressions/" rel="tag">First Impressions</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/alganon/" rel="tag">Alganon</a></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.alganon.com"><img hspace="4" border="1" align="top" vspace="4" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/massively.joystiq.com/media/2010/01/alganon-fihead-epl-108.jpg" alt="" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">Today's <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/First-Impressions/">First Impressions</a> could use a little bit of external reading before you go too deeply into it. So I'm going to start by linking an article that's nearly seven years old but still excellent -- <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/9/">Fantasy Heartbreakers</a>.</div>
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Now that you've all clicked "Back" in some confusion or just avoided the link in the first place, some explanation. The article is the origin of a term that pen-and-paper RPG fans have come to use to describe a certain type of game referenced in the article. It's referring to the countless game companies who thought they could make a game that was better at being <a href="http://www.wizards.com/DnD"><em>Dungeons and Dragons</em></a> than, well, <em><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/tag/Dungeons-and-Dragons/">Dungeons and Dragons</a></em>. Many of the games in question weren't bad games -- sometimes even good ones -- but they were built on the fundamental premise that they would be "like <em>D&amp;D</em> but with X."<br />
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Some of you probably see where this is going, or got it as soon as you saw the term. Because we're all very aware of how predominant <a href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com"><em>World of Warcraft</em></a> has become in the MMO marketplace, to the point where it's the essential standard that other MMOs are judged against. <a href="http://www.alganon.com"><em>Alganon</em></a>, then, could be seen as our genre's first fantasy heartbreaker. Because it's genuinely tough not to play the game and see that there's some really good stuff in here.<p><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/01/11/first-impressions-alganon/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>First Impressions: Alganon</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com"><img src="http://massively.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="Massively" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/01/11/first-impressions-alganon/">First Impressions: Alganon</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com">Massively</a> on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/01/11/first-impressions-alganon/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/forward/19304344/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/01/11/first-impressions-alganon/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>]]></description><category>alganon</category><category>animations</category><category>bugs</category><category>dd</category><category>dnd</category><category>dungeons-and-dragons</category><category>eve</category><category>eve-online</category><category>fantasy-heartbreaker</category><category>first-impressions</category><category>landscapes</category><category>mechanics</category><category>myalganon</category><category>quest-online</category><category>studies</category><category>surreal</category><category>talent-points</category><category>talents</category><category>world-of-warcraft</category><category>wow</category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Eliot Lefebvre]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST</pubDate></item></channel></rss>
