The folks at Vanguard have announced that accounts that have been inactive for 60 days or more have been reactivated for a month, to give former player the chance to see what's new in Telon.

Former Vanguard subscribers whose accounts have been inactive for 60 days or more are being called back to Telon! Come back to Vanguard Saga of Heroes for free* starting Sept. 18, 2008, through Oct. 18, 2008, through your reactivated account and uncover new game updates, enhanced character models and an exciting new starting area, the Isle of Dawn.

Those heroes who return to Vanguard through this reactivation promotion, create a new character and journey through the Isle of Dawn while achieving level 10, and then continue into the lands of Telon by re-subscribing to Vanguard with a paid, active subscription in good standing will receive a special pair of Gnomish Rocket Boots**. These boots will help you to progress through the land with great bursts of speed. The Gnomish Boots are yours once you progress off the Isle of Dawn and into the world beyond.

Accounts will be reactivated starting Sept. 18, 2008, at 12:01 a.m. PDT through Oct. 18, 2008, at 11:59 p.m. PDT, so come back to see the great new features for yourself. Simply log back in, rejoin the adventure, start a new character and visit the Isle of Dawn for free!

Read more here.

NEw character models are still ugly and the animations still are piss poor and the trial island looks like generic crap.

Wasn't the free trial supposed to start last week?

This is great, I unsibscribed a couple months ago, but I may as well start playing again.  Hopefully the game will keep my interest longer than before.

I also being a returning vet of past 60 days and have a free month of VG.

I logged in an ventured about during a few peak hours of playtime.

Population just wasnt there, world is almost to big an empty still for my tastes. (Seradon)

Also I just bought WAR an there's people running around everywhere adventuring, rvr, and public questing.

I don't think I will be utilizing my free month thx to WAR.

I'm not worried seeing how every few months Vanguard is f2p.

nevermind, misread :P

Originally posted by Dwarfman420

I also being a returning vet of past 60 days and have a free month of VG.

I logged in an ventured about during a few peak hours of playtime.

Population just wasnt there, world is almost to big an empty still for my tastes. (Seradon)

Also I just bought WAR an there's people running around everywhere adventuring, rvr, and public questing.

I don't think I will be utilizing my free month thx to WAR.

I'm not worried seeing how every few months Vanguard is f2p.

Now i like reading this and it DOES prove my theory on WOW gamers.Most everyone goes to games that have population ,this is further testament to the facts.I have said all along that WOW is a very weak game,but because it has so many players ,this attracts more ,especially kids who wouldn't know a cheap effort from a brilliant one.

I have also stated many times VANGUARD is amongst the best efforts in a long time.The problem for me was also the fact ,that the game was sooo big and there just was not the population.I could handle that to some extent,if i could do some quests solo/duo,but of course the better ones require at least 3-6.I was lucky to even see 3 other players most of the time.The other major flaw was factions,i really don't like that time sink in gaming at all.I realize SIGIL was former EQ staff and that is why a lot of there content was the same as EQ,but factions,,grrr.I don't want to spend hour after hour trying to gain favour so i can at least get within a country mile of that zone or do any of it's content.

All it took to make me quit was getting aggro from so far away ,then i couldn''t get away and had to go all the way back and die again from insanely distant aggro.Drove me nuts at such a ridiculous unrealistic aggro distance.If i had to wander around an empty world it had better at least give the chance to wander around by myself ..lol.Anyhow not a rant,just my pet peeve,other than that the game was real good and had great graphics.I did enjoy the card game as well.

Without a decent pop i can't see myself returning to wander around looking for aggro,sorry to see this game could never take off with the public.They would rather play 12 colour palette texture games and look cute on there level 30 mount.

What I'm wondering is whether or not the subscribers that are actually playing this game get charged during these free times hahaha. That would suck for them.

how the heck do you get to play for free?

I entered my name and password and it wanted to charge me $14.95 or something.... no way im putting in my credit card and gonna pay and I saw no way to play for free with my old account.....

This is like the 4th time they've done this.  Counting the free month that came with buying the game I think I've had account access about 4 or 5 months worth for free.

edit - It appears this only applies to those who received an email.  I played during a free month they gave away between June and July... which was just less than 60 days ago, so I'm guessing I didn't get an email for that reason.  Oh well still same point... they keep giving away these free months isn't a good sign.

I am guessing this will be the last time for a while, I expect they are doing it to boost the player numbers for people leaving IoD to other low teen areas.

The free month after you purchase the game is NOT a free month, you paid for it.

I can only remember this being done twice before and if its true that people who did take up the last free trial, don't get into this one, then thats not a lot of free time.

I created a new toon on the EU server on sunday and IoD was very, very busy. I am hoping with the vet offer, the lower levels of VG will get a huge boost.

Originally posted by xaphod

how the heck do you get to play for free?

I entered my name and password and it wanted to charge me $14.95 or something.... no way im putting in my credit card and gonna pay and I saw no way to play for free with my old account.....

You have to have been signed up to recieve the Vanguard official newsletter. They would have emailed this news to you then. I don't know if you can just sign up for it now, and get the free month.

How many times are they going to reactivate our accounts to get the hint we arnt coming back?

Damn, I can't remember my account. Anyone not returning to Vanguard ever want to let me play for this 60 days offer?

most i've seen on vanguard in a LONG time maybe, since the start of vanguard

Originally posted by Goldknyght

How many times are they going to reactivate our accounts to get the hint we arnt coming back?

Speak for yourself.

Originally posted by rvjones10

Originally posted by Goldknyght

How many times are they going to reactivate our accounts to get the hint we arnt coming back?

 

Speak for yourself.

He can speak for me too...

Originally posted by rvjones10

Originally posted by Goldknyght

How many times are they going to reactivate our accounts to get the hint we arnt coming back?

 

Speak for yourself.

Don't need to when they are always trying to get the OLD ACCOUNTS to come back. Means not alot of Vanguard Starters come back to play the game so they keep doing this Promo when they should be giving the people who actually still play this game some kind of free month.

If anyone is never going back to Vanguard, pm me the account, just remove your payment and personal info, Id love to get back into this game.

Originally posted by Goldknyght

Originally posted by rvjones10

Originally posted by Goldknyght

How many times are they going to reactivate our accounts to get the hint we arnt coming back?

 

Speak for yourself.

 

Don't need to when they are always trying to get the OLD ACCOUNTS to come back. Means not alot of Vanguard Starters come back to play the game so they keep doing this Promo when they should be giving the people who actually still play this game some kind of free month.

Its no secret the game had a terrible launch, so since the game has been improved significantly, and they have added features,  why not give canceled subs the opportuntiy to try it out again. They don't care if you and 90% of folks don't come back. If only 10% return its still success for them. One side note is that these "comeback to vanguard" events seem to coincide with other game launches. I went back to Vanguard in July after AOC took a massive dump. I imagine there will be folks who don't care for WAR. To each his own.

Originally posted by rvjones10

 

Its no secret the game had a terrible launch, so since the game has been improved significantly, and they have added features,  why not give canceled subs the opportuntiy to try it out again. They don't care if you and 90% of folks don't come back. If only 10% return its still success for them. One side note is that these "comeback to vanguard" events seem to coincide with other game launches. I went back to Vanguard in July after AOC took a massive dump. I imagine there will be folks who don't care for WAR. To each his own.

The launch has nothing to do with Vanguards dissappointment. The game wasn't even playable on most Machines till October when it launched in January. The only thing Vanguard has is the diplomacy feature. Other then that you can do everything in EQ2 minus boats and flying mounts woopie. Why dont they do something for the people who actually play and pay for the game so they can keep them. With a free trial out there now people can just make new accounts and see if they like it then pay on there old accounts if they want to come back so bad to vanguard. A comeback to Vanguard Every 2 Months is getting old. Its like they said it the first time people didnt listen, so they  are trying to say it again. Well news flash as for most people we still arn't listening. Vanguard burned people and no amount of improvements will sway people to come back.

Actually I know quite a few people that came back..Isle of Dawn is fun.  /shrug

But some folks think that once something "fails" there's no going back.   Hope those that think that way, never have a Boss that thinks that way.....or you won't be employed long :D

Things change over time, even Vanguard..certain things like factions have eased up...only time faction kicks in now is for your level 30 or 50 mount.   Up to you to decide if you want to incur kill on sight faction by getting one of those mounts.    If you do the Unicorn or Shadowhound quests instead,  you have a faction free mount..and no faction applies, you can go anywhere you please in the world.

There is already one raid zone..which takes a very long time to get through, and pretty shortly a new revamped Pantheon of the Ancients ..will be the next raid zone, with of course the ability of small groups to still visit  the early parts without having to run into uber dungeon bosses.

Lots of changes, lots of optimizations...last large patch there were over a thousand bugs fixed at the same time as the Isle of Dawn and new character models came in.

I have to say that I like the new models, from an artistic point of view.  

Free trial for the Isle of Dawn...you decide if its a change to what you saw in January 2007,  I  left for a year after launch came back early June prior to the "free time" and found it was a lot more fun to play.   No more crash to desktop for me.   Which was what was hampering my gameplay.

Isle of Dawn was pretty crowded when I tried it out a little while back,  was nice to see. :)

Cend