The new head of Quest Online talks about the company shakeup and the direction of the company's fantasy MMO Alganon.

ZAM: The look and feel of the game are pretty blatant of World of Warcraft. How did that happen and why weren't the potential implications addressed sooner?

Smart: Well from the onset David set out to develop a cheap WoW clone. This was no secret. He felt that he could develop a WoW clone - on the cheap - but with some improved aspects.

Now that I am president, everything has been made clear to me that all along most of the team didn't want that direction, but that is the job they were hired to do and that's what they continued to do.

ZAM: You have said that much of the WoW-related look is being tossed. That seems like a monumental task to be done by an April 8th relaunch. What will the facelift entail?

Smart: It is a monumental task, but we're going to tackle it in phases. The goal is not to rip the game apart, but rather to reshape it in such a way that it can gain its own identity and move away from all that stigma.

At first, things are going to be subtle (e.g. the in-game UI) and then as time goes on we will address other areas which we feel simply have no place in the game.

ZAM: Do you plan on releasing changes piecemeal via patches or do you want to do a huge splash for the relaunch?

Smart: We're still doing the standard patches and hot fixes because we don't want to keep gamers hanging too long while waiting for critical updates. The April launch is going to be more of a splash in terms of the new features such as instances, the micro-transactions (a.k.a. The Tribute System), etc.

Right now, it's just baby steps. It is a worthy game and I have no doubt that it will find its own footing and niche once completed. We just need to get there from here and given my track record, we're most definitely going to get there.

ZAM: Explain the new revenue model Quest is implementing.

Smart: Well basically it is now a subscription free game. You buy the client for $19.95 and you can play all you want. No monthly fees. Ever.

If you want to buy items and other things that you otherwise don't have access to, then you can use the Tribute Merchant system to buy them. The types of items currently range from potions, weapons, armor and recipes to pets, mounts and outfits.

In the long term, we are also going to be releasing new areas and quests as DLC rather than going the expansion route since that can take a very long time. We want to continue growing and enriching Alganon as regularly as we can in order to keep the player base engaged, involved and having fun. And during those updates we are going to go full bore on things like a brand new networking layer for the server and client, improved graphics, improved assets (e.g. player character models), introduction of the new races, events etc.

ZAM: You mentioned other news that you couldn't get into because you were pressed for time. How about some insight now?

Smart: Well, my lips are sealed for now, but it all revolves around the future of Quest Online. For now, I'd like to focus on helping the team get Alganon finished and out there before I start throwing in any further distractions to the mix. :)

ZAM: With all the changes coming to Alganon, how will you keep it from becoming a fantasy version of Galactic Command Online?

Smart: Well, apart from the fact that they are at opposite ends, my goal is not to change Alganon from one type of game to another. The goal is to lead the team to finish Alganon, help it grow and see where it goes.

My own upcoming MMO games (yes, I have two) are in completely different genres. One (un-announced) is a shooter in the All Aspect Warfare world and IP and the other, Galactic Command Online is a space/planetary/fps hybrid set in the Universal Combat world and IP.

ZAM: Heading up Quest and 3000AD seems like a massive juggling act. How are you handling both companies at once?

Smart: Ah, it's quite easy really. Since I'm not doing any development work on Alganon, my role is one of oversight more than anything else. Even so, because of my technical and management skills as well as my industry background, doing oversight for such a stellar team makes my job that much easier. We can communicate and share at a peer to peer level and that tends to make my job easier simply because, first and foremost, I trust them.

I have been promoting the same policies that I have used with my teams over the years and that's one of honesty, openness and respect. In my first dev meeting I told them exactly what I was hired to do and exactly what I expected them to do. And in that meeting when I flat out asked the tough questions - and shockingly got the tough answers - I went back to the investors and told them the team was worth fighting for and that we should help them finish their game, regardless of how it turns out in the end.

So it is because of how they are that makes running QOL so easy. At the end of the day, I don't have to babysit anyone. That helps me focus on QOL as well as on my own company, though 3000AD is a lot more self-sustaining since it's not just me running it.