Our old friend Mathew "Berek" Anderson gives us an exclusive look at what the Alganon Library is all about.

We have seen dozens of interactive databases developed since online games came into existence over a decade ago. Dedicated fans pour thousands of hours into researching the games they play, pulling every bit of detail they can out of them, in order to build a tool that can provide the rest of the community with game information easily and quickly. These sites are often well respected and contribute to the community for their game in ways that go above and beyond the database for which they were originally built.

Wouldn't it be nice though if there was an even more complete database already built into the game, available from the official community site, containing details just like those provided by fansite databases?

The 'Library' is the first true game database, exclusively for the Alganon MMO. This database will be available both in-game and on the Alganon community portal site, MyAlganon.com. Closed testing of the Library has begun, with public access beginning at a later stage of the beta. On the surface it may appear as equal to any other database out there, but it goes well beyond the typical listing of game information, starting with a plethora of details on your characters.

The Library presents news, core game statistics (most powerful crit, etc.) and keeps track of the exploration your characters have done by showing their own personal library-based accomplishments and sharing of this information with the rest of the community. Players can also look up creatures, items, skills, and abilities. Some of this data is "static" (such as info on skills and abilities) while other data is a mixture of static and dynamic (looking up a creature).

The goal of the library is to maximize shared game information, while allowing proactive information gathering through community submissions as you explore the game world.

Key concepts

• Learn all aspects of the game through the library interface
• Locate and learn about all the items and tools you will use on your adventures
• Capital cities contain a grand library. Players contribute to the library at these locations; however, view access to the library is available anywhere in the game.
• The Library records not only facts about the game, but Legends of the greatest warriors of Alganon. These Leaderboards record things like largest damage done, richest player, most library scryings, etc.
• Since the reward for contributing is based on player action (time since last scrying), the library system gives players an "unspoken quest" to go seek out a "rarely scryed" object.

Key features

• Personal Library - The Personal Library is your character's "Memoir" of their adventures. You can look up all of the library-related things they have done; what items, creatures and points of interest they've captured over the character's life.
• Repository - This area of the library contains information one can "scry" (or capture for the Library), such as: Creatures, Items, Points of Interest. Any living creature or item in the world can be scryed.
• Legends - Legends are all about your character's achievements. Legends information contains titles such as: highest stats, hardest hit, best heal and more. They are all stored in the Library, along with who holds the record. This is where players can shine and fight for the spotlight. Try to do the most damage, kill the most identical creatures in an hour - you name it!
• News - Custom news pertaining to the game as a whole, but also news that is exclusive to the server you play on. You will also have the ability to view Library items in a history tab that you can save and come back to for future reference.
• Events - Events are similar to news in many ways, though they outline game events in a summarized calendar window.

Contribute to the Library

Scrying is the primary method for contributing to the Library. When you scry something, you receive a certain number of Library Points based on the difficulty of the Scrying (level, etc.). Library Points can then be used to gain achievements, perhaps ranks, titles, etc. For every "scryable" source in the Library, there is a "most recently updated on XXX" date tied to a character's name. The longer something goes unscryed, the more valuable it is in Library Points and Gold rewards.

We wanted to build a complete community experience, which meant getting you directly involved in building the Library. Fortunately, this is much easier than it sounds! To help contribute to the Library, you only need to bring your character to one of the major cities. From there, you can gain direct access to the library and upload in seconds all of the knowledge and achievements you acquired since last returning. While you have to visit major cities to gain input to the Library, you can view the entire Library's contents anywhere in the game world, and on MyAlganon!

The longer something has been scribed, the more it's worth in scribing it. The main Library web page will show things that haven't been scribed in a long time with a list of the oldest organized on top. This way everyone can easily see what hasn't been scribed in a long time and will go after it to be the first to scribe it in that time period.

A Living Library

As with many features in online games, the Library is one that is always changing and growing for the needs of the community. Private testing of the Library has begun with items and NPC information, with quests soon to follow. After that, we'll expand to cover zones, objects, points of interests, studies, abilities, and the rest. Around this time we hope to release the Library to the public!

Mathew "Berek" Anderson
Alganon Community Manager
Quest Online, LLC