In early March of this year, Quest Online officially announced the hiring of industry veteran Derek Smart to head the company and lead the team toward the completion of its upcoming game, Alganon. The move was made because the company’s members and investors were determined to address several challenges related to the development and completion of its Alganon game.

In particular, the company, faced with disappointed investors concerned about significant losses, felt the company required new leadership and direction. The company’s members also felt the prior administration, headed by Managing Member David Allen, prematurely released an unfinished Alganon product that exceeded anticipated budgets, contained an unacceptable level of performance issues, and failed to adequately distinguish itself from the competition.

For these reasons, the company’s members desired a change in leadership. Derek Smart was, therefore, retained as company president to work with David Allen. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Smart and Mr. Allen disagreed about the company’s direction, as well as the product itself. Consequently, the company’s members, forced to make a decision between David Allen and Derek Smart, unanimously voted to remove Mr. Allen as managing member thereby leaving Derek Smart as President of the company. The company’s other Managing Member, Gregory Wexler, who had not been responsible for the daily affairs of the company, remains as Managing Member and has been closely working with Mr. Smart to complete and release the game.

Since Smart has taken over leadership, the company has reduced overhead and streamlined operations and Alganon has also gained significant exposure in the gaming marketplace. Further, it has addressed game elements it believed were inefficient, ineffective, or otherwise unmanageable. It has upgraded Alganon’s interface, redesigned creative elements, improved its economy, modified game play and is confident it has created a product that will provide users with a unique and exciting gaming experience.

In regard to the change in leadership, Gregory Wexler opines “We have worked diligently to right-size the company and chart a course that gives us an improved outlook. In these challenging industry and economic times, it takes experience, dedication and a proven track record to spearhead and launch any new property that is vying for gamer dollars. All the investors are in unanimous agreement that Smart’s involvement continues to be invaluable to the company and indeed to the Alganon game. Alganon is now on track to completion, has gained significant exposure and Quest Online has garnered renewed confidence from its investors. We are all very excited about the new release.”

While the unfortunate events that surround the departure of Mr. Allen from QOL have been widely publicized and resulted in a lawsuit filed by Mr. Allen (Maricopa County Superior Court under case number CV2010-010391) against the Company and several individuals, Smart, in response to the suit, states: “Mr. Allen’s allegations are false and without merit. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves in Court and are confident of prevailing in the proceeding.”

Sounds like rocky times at the MMO developer and hopefully they’ll get it sorted out and back on track soon.