Play This, Not That: Alganon Vs. TinierMe
We at WorldsinMotion.biz receive mountains of press releases each week urging us to play the latest games. While we'd love to delve into each fantasy world, whether it be conquering a medieval kingdom or building a trendy cafe, we have limited amounts of time, especially since we're sneaking a few minutes here and there during office hours. How to choose what to play? Here's a quick guide to two of the latest offerings:
Alganon
Quest Online
A fantasy-based MMORPG, Alganon will soon be up for open beta testing before its official launch on December 1. A glance at their website shows a game dominated by commanding chests, deities, weapons, magic, and other usual fare.
Quest Online is betting that players will be drawn to familiar elements while gaining some new features over other MMOGs. The company is also putting a lot of effort into community-building through blogs and forums to guide new players. Already, the Alganon website has dozens of questions and answers.
Players wishing to participate in the Open Beta test will be able to join through numerous affiliate game sites including IGN via Direct2Drive/FilePlanet, MMORPG.COM, Curse Gaming, as well as the Alganon and MyAlganon websites.
WorldsinMotion Verdict: Play This! At least until the testing period is over. The artwork is worth a look, and it'll be interesting to see how robust Alganon's community will grow.
TinierMe
GCrest Entertainment
We admit, we were immediately drawn to the manga-style artwork of TinierMe. Who can resist big, watery eyes and long, rock-star hair? Plus, the game has over a million fans in Japan. But once we logged into TinierMe, we wondered if those million people were all under the age of eight.
The fun is limited to dressing up your avatar and waving hello to the guys and gals hanging out in the unfortunately named "Selfy Town." And while terms like this are awkward, the Engrish in TinierMe isn't nearly bad enough to be funny. Perhaps if it were, the game would attract a Western audience. As it is, TinierMe isn't any more intriguing than similar games such as Yoville, Sorority Life or even the static avatar designers in Yahoo.
WorldsinMotion Verdict: Skip This!
