Free MMO Alganon -- Run By Derek Smart's 3000AD -- Currently Offline As It Migrates Servers

Remember Alganon? If you don't, that's no big surprise. It launched in late 2009 to little fanfare, replaced its lead designer, went free-to-play, and ... well, was mostly forgotten. The last time we wrote about it on this site was 2011, two years before even I came aboard.

Well, now it's gone. But it will be back soon, supposedly, thanks to one of MMO gaming's most infamous figures.

According to Gamasutra, Alganon has been offline since November, but a Jan. 16 post on the game's Steam discussion board by the developer says that it will be back "as soon as we are done with the on-going process" of migrating the servers. That's taking a while because many of the servers are old, dating back to 2006: "some were dead, need maintenance, running older versions of Windows Server etc."

All this would be semi-interesting enough, even given Alganon's very low player population, except that the company behind the move is 3000AD, which is operated by Derek Smart. If you're not aware, Smart is one of the most vocal critics of Star Citizen -- which is certainly a game that deserves some criticism -- but Smart's blistering attacks on the game, as well as his insistence that he could do it better and willingness to wade into comment threads to fight with gamers, have hardly endeared him, even to the anti-SC crowd.

As for his history with Alganon, he apparently convinced its previous owner to force its original designer out so he could take over. There were lawsuits, along with an Alganon press release that was almost lifted whole cloth from Star Wars: The Old Republic, and ... well, this Reddit post sums up some of the shenanigans. Warm up your popcorn.