Quest for Glory Online

Quest for Glory Online was an planned online MMO spin-off of the Quest For Glory Series to be released in 1996. But after Corey Cole left the development of the game, it was transformed into the released game The Realm (and all QFG related ideas were dropped from the project, short of adventure game exploration elements, and art style similar to maps in QFG1 and QFG4, but in a higher SVGA resolution). Following the release of the Realm they also tried to submit for another MMO game called the World of Quest for Glory

Background

According to various accounts, the original game premise (for The Realm) started out as Quest For Glory Online before it was converted over to its own IP, but this was even before the Cole's were asked to take part in it's development.

There were two main attempts to create "World of Quest for Glory".

Yes, first one was after Sierra cancelled QG V, and I went off to work on other projects, and Craig Alexander had the idea of branding The Realm as World of Quest for Glory. The 1999 edition was after we made QG V with Sierra, and it was our idea of how to extend that game concept to be an MMO. Of course we had no clue how expensive such a project would be!

According to Corey Cole:

Yes, the game was The Realm. It was quite far along at that point, but Sierra was looking at "branding" it as "World of Quest for Glory." That sounded exciting, and they wanted us to create quests for it.

Unfortunately, when we had the meeting and asked about tools and support for creating quests, the developers admitted that they hadn't created anything along those lines yet. They assumed they could just add quests at the end of the project.

The game was supposed to release in a few months; we didn't think there was enough time to "shoehorn" in an entire quest system and the hundreds or thousands of quests it would take to create a compelling multiplayer world.

Given enough time, it could have been pretty cool, but I don't think we would have had enough time. The positive side was that participating in that meeting instead led to Lori making Quest for Glory V with Sierra.

LC: When Sierra decided to make QfG again about three years after breaking our contact and waving good-bye to us, it was because they had a problem. They had an aged on-line role-playing system, The Realm, which was starting to lose subscribership and definitely was dying out. They wanted to bring it back to life and so the "Powers That Be" decided that they should mix the Realm with QfG. Since the PTB were different PTB when we left Sierra, I really believe they were influenced by all the fan letters and the "Quest for MORE Glory" website.

Shannara was released in December 1995, and the Coles were called back to Sierra to develop multiplayer on-line QG game.

Lori Cole: After we made “Shannara,” Sierra had entirely changed management. I was approached by the new Sierra to co-design a multiplayer on-line game with another designer using the QG name." .

The Realm was an online RPG by Sierra On-Line, but still exists but has changed several company hands over the years. It still continues to receive some added content.

Behind the scenes

The Coles have given somewhat conflicting versions of the story of the development of this game concept. One is that Corey came into the game while it was still in early development, with the idea of converting it over to Quest for Glory based game before its release.

The other is that they came in later after it already been released with the idea of 'rebranding' it, and transforming the game into a Quest for Glory spinoff.