Originally posted by Dark-Asylum

Don't bother with this game, the server population is dwindling and the dev team has been reduced to the size of a normal exp party in FFXI.

Which is a shame really. Planetside is getting a part 2 and VG does well to get non revamped content...o wait thats right they dont.  SOE picking up VG could have been a good thing but instead killed it deader than sigil ever could have. Would have been a better fate for the game to have been in the parking lot that day.

I really tried to get into Vanguard a couple years ago, but framerate was awful, and when the framerate wasn't awful, I found the gameplay to be boring and the world to feel very barren and lifeless.

That said, I did go back to Vanguard for at least a couple weeks via station access subscription (subscribed to EQ2 at the time), and really enjoyed the trial island. My problem is I found out that while the trial island was highly optimized and incredibly polished, the main areas of the game were just as buggy and laggy as they had always been. After that, I deleted the game from my hard drive never to look back.
 

 If Vanguard closed shop, changed its name, waited a couple months, and rereleased under a new name.  It would do very well.

It's a good game, especially if your the dedicated PvE/crafter sort of person.  It's not really my cup of tea, but based on quality it should be holding the #2 slot under WoW on subscriptions in the high fantasy market.  The fact that it isn't is just a testimony to Sony's incompetence. 

Anyway I hope you swell your ranks a bit.  Vanguard deserves more attention than it gets.

I'm a old Asherons Call player and have only managed to occupy my MMO interests with WoW. While this is nothing like Asheron's Call I feel like the world environment that you're describing with Vanguard is what I've been missing out on and the combat all looks similar to WoW. Would it be fair to say that there are similarities to both? If that was the case I may have found my new game. Also, can someone describe how the guild system works? Is it anything like asherons call's monarchy system?

Originally posted by Thantalis 

 

While I agree with you on the first part, I must let my oppinion come on the second and third...

In my view Vanguard still has this potential, no other game released since comes even close to what Vanguard has to offer, they are all themepark games, well maybe not Fallen Earth but... So yes it still very much exist!
And they may or may not have moved some staff arround, im not aware of this, but it wouldt be common sence to do so if a project is not going as planned. In the same breath im saying that I agree that SOE does not wdvertise this game enogh. If they gave it the marketing they give other titles like EQ or EQ2, then yes we wouldt see changes. We must remember that not all of us MMO players use sites like this, and takes the time to read about every game out there. Some of us stumple uppon an add and goes, hmm why not, ill try it. Either that or alot of studios is wasting an awefull lot of money.

And your last part. Well as the OP said, had the game been given the adds it wouldt be greater. It had a faulty launch yes, but its come a long way since. Noone besides players remember to tell this story. But tell you what... give it a go, theres a free trial, whats there to loose... Maybe your in for a treat, or maybe you wasted 2 hours of your game time, I say 2 hours because I think you shouldt at least take the time to complete the trial. If you dont like it after this, then fair enogh, but maybe you will get a possitive experience out of it.

I think we both agree Vanguard has potential.  My point was that it is potential that will never be seen.  The game is coming up on its third anniversary and honestly very little with the game has changed outside of performance enhancements.  Most of the work done by the soe team has been finishing up what the sigil team left unfinished or cannibalizing content through zone revamps.  For a 3 year old game it really has not progressed much, especially in comparison to the rest of the market and the company running it certainly isn't going to invest in its advancement.  They seem to be pulling resources away from the game which kills any effort you, I or the original poster might think we can do. 

All of the great potential was in the game at day 1.  Performance issues aside, the game offered just as much at release as it does now. 

I understand that VG doesn't get the advertising budget of other games, but that doesn't matter.  If the gameplay was as awesome as people claim, the game would sell itself.  Word of mouth would turn an increase in the population.  Vanguard did have a media push a little while ago.  It has a free trail.  Word of mouth, etc.  At some point people need to face reality and realize there is something else that is keeping people from joining this game.

Again I have to say if the game was a great as people claim it is, then more people would play it. 

Note I am not saying the game sucks and people shouldn't play it.  I have played the game and I respect some of the games features.  However I don't think the game warrents serious investment, because it is a very unstable game with a very cloudy future.  

---

Originally posted by bluegrazz
It IS an SOE product. I played since launch and SOE was running the show.
Who then markets, distributes, services, promotes (or doesnt), develops and profits from Vangard? Who runs billing and customer service?
SOE- Its an SOE product. Period.

---

No, It's created by Sigil Games Online and released by them aswell in jan 2007 and bought shortly after by SOE in May 2007. They are running the show now but they didn't make this game period :)

Blugrazz is a really good example of a person who doesn't really understand the relationship between Developer and Publisher. He also doesn't seem to understand the difference between Sigil and Sony, but that's a separate issue. I understand Sony dropped the ball on everyone's precious SWG, but let's give credit where it's due shall we?

Bluegrazz, I would recommend reading Brad McQuaid's blog ( http://www.bradmcquaid.com/Brad_McQuaid/Blog/Blog.html ). You'll learn all kinds of interesting reasons for the bullshit launch that was Vanguard (inter-office and extramarital affairs, Brad's drug addiction (!), Microsoft power changes, uncontrollable egos, etc.).

Actually, I just saved you the trouble.

ya know i might just buy the game for 5 bucks after everything i've heard about it.  Whats there to lose for 5 dollars? I have played the trial and i thought it was fun i just did not have the time to play it then.  But i might just go pick it up and check it out.  thanks for the post

how are the EU Servers? in terms of population?

dead

Originally posted by Dark-Asylum

dead

So you speak of nothing you know about...

The EU server is almost always at Medium server population around 2pm EST, which I guess is 7pm there. Medium is good. It used to be at low all the time, and now its not. In fact, all the servers are at Medium. Population must have increased.

I played 1 month vangaurd near launch and despice the fact i was playing wow already and was addicted to it,i must confess Vangaurd had something...different. You were getting that fewling like the fellow said while u played it.. I loved the wasy my barbarian toon looked,had also an elven archer style too and was trying to lvl them both. At the time i was playing it a problem was the big loading times while i was running in the wilds. I never encountereda single bug, i crushed only once in a month,and i bought the game on launch which makes me wonder wth buggs  ppl were talking about. Two things i also liked in vangaurd were the huge variety in classes/races some animations during combat were nice ,in combat terms despice the fact it s the same auto -attack  wowlike ,vangaurd's combat was giving u a fewling it was more tactical and slow and u were actually had time towatch the weapons movements,dodges,parries etc. and the way your toon was chopping trees..was really cool to watch the tree fallign down hehe. Mostly the reason i quitted vangaurd was that my hopes for pvp implement proved hoppeless and the server i was playing was looking so empty of ppl :/ .  At least if vangaurd wont find its way lets hope that future mmorpgs that are under development now will borrow some of the nice ideas vangaurd gave. Housing ships building huge race/classes variety, crafting system ,hopefully along with pvp .

P.S. Has anyone ever thoguht why mmorpgs that have pvp are full of population usually and strict pve games lack ppl?

Originally posted by Nesmin

Blugrazz is a really good example of a person who doesn't really understand the relationship between Developer and Publisher. He also doesn't seem to understand the difference between Sigil and Sony, but that's a separate issue. I understand Sony dropped the ball on everyone's precious SWG, but let's give credit where it's due shall we?

Bluegrazz, I would recommend reading Brad McQuaid's blog ( http://www.bradmcquaid.com/Brad_McQuaid/Blog/Blog.html ). You'll learn all kinds of interesting reasons for the bullshit launch that was Vanguard (inter-office and extramarital affairs, Brad's drug addiction (!), Microsoft power changes, uncontrollable egos, etc.).

Actually, I just saved you the trouble.

Yet at the same time, this product should have died at the Microsoft/Sigil stage of development. 

Soe continued funding a project that was riddled with problems and did nothing to correct those problems.   They essentially funded failure.

A successful release of Vanguard would have pillaged EQ/EQ2, so....

VG is the MMO that could have been.  But slow development, poor performance and graphics by modern standards, bugs, unforgiving penalties and lack of content killed it.  Well should have killed it but SOE keeps it alive for some reason when its basically the spiritual successor of EQ but inferior to EQ2.  The combat system is however quite good.  Unfortunately your toon looks awkward, but hey they did spend months to give us some bigger chests :P

If you want the feel of an MMO that plays a lot like a solo RPG without a storyline, akin to Elder Scrolls, go nuts.  But for a PvE MMO you'd have more to do in EQ2 or LotRO.  Hell even WAR and AoC have more content.  For truly retarded level of content see EQ.  By the time you walked through the zones its has now, no fighting, it would be 2011 ;)

Originally posted by thark

 

---

Originally posted by bluegrazz
It IS an SOE product. I played since launch and SOE was running the show.
Who then markets, distributes, services, promotes (or doesnt), develops and profits from Vangard? Who runs billing and customer service?
SOE- Its an SOE product. Period.

---

 

No, It's created by Sigil Games Online and released by them aswell in jan 2007 and bought shortly after by SOE in May 2007. They are running the show now but they didn't make this game period :)

 

Bluegrazz never said Vanguard was made by SOE, but the game was bought by SOE and they now make the choices that Bluegrazz said the did. As they now own the game, that makes it an SOE product; as Bluegrazz said.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Nesmin

Blugrazz is a really good example of a person who doesn't really understand the relationship between Developer and Publisher. He also doesn't seem to understand the difference between Sigil and Sony, but that's a separate issue. I understand Sony dropped the ball on everyone's precious SWG, but let's give credit where it's due shall we?

Bluegrazz, I would recommend reading Brad McQuaid's blog ( http://www.bradmcquaid.com/Brad_McQuaid/Blog/Blog.html ). You'll learn all kinds of interesting reasons for the bullshit launch that was Vanguard (inter-office and extramarital affairs, Brad's drug addiction (!), Microsoft power changes, uncontrollable egos, etc.).

Actually, I just saved you the trouble.

 

Yet at the same time, this product should have died at the Microsoft/Sigil stage of development. 

Soe continued funding a project that was riddled with problems and did nothing to correct those problems.   They essentially funded failure.

A successful release of Vanguard would have pillaged EQ/EQ2, so....

Imagine how the game would have been if it had got the funding from Microsoft...

Originally posted by GPrestige

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Nesmin

Blugrazz is a really good example of a person who doesn't really understand the relationship between Developer and Publisher. He also doesn't seem to understand the difference between Sigil and Sony, but that's a separate issue. I understand Sony dropped the ball on everyone's precious SWG, but let's give credit where it's due shall we?

Bluegrazz, I would recommend reading Brad McQuaid's blog ( http://www.bradmcquaid.com/Brad_McQuaid/Blog/Blog.html ). You'll learn all kinds of interesting reasons for the bullshit launch that was Vanguard (inter-office and extramarital affairs, Brad's drug addiction (!), Microsoft power changes, uncontrollable egos, etc.).

Actually, I just saved you the trouble.

 

Yet at the same time, this product should have died at the Microsoft/Sigil stage of development. 

Soe continued funding a project that was riddled with problems and did nothing to correct those problems.   They essentially funded failure.

A successful release of Vanguard would have pillaged EQ/EQ2, so....

Imagine how the game would have been if it had got the funding from Microsoft...

This last part shouldn't be a suprise.  Pretty much if I see Microsoft and MMO.. I just see another project that will be killed off during development (tho I guess they made the right call with Vanguard).

honestly what killed it for me was before it even got started me and a friend ran into a friend of his at best buy when the game came out apprently his guild was going to kick him out if he didnt switch from eq to vanguard and so even though he still liked eq he was buying vanguard which as i beilive a month later got kicked out of the guild anyway after a month and went back to eq

this elitist attitude that seems to prevail in wow just made me not even want to try it

I remember trying it when it first came out and it was pretty cool. My PC could not handle it so I did not continue playing in. Downloading the trial now to see how it is today.

For the people in this thread that have not actually played VG but have jumped on the SOE hate bandwagon,you should not comment on the game.It's a case of "i am not playing it because he said so".SWTOR is coming out and everyone is on the "bioware means great game bullshit"  let's see how many of you are screaming Bioware when they log into a easy mode linear game which is kotor 3 with multiplayer add on..lol no thanks...

Ill stick with VG....

I was playing the game for a bit. I only made it to level 17 I believe before I got tired of never seeing anyone. I'm not sure if I was on Seradon or not but I felt VERY LONELY. I had no buddies to play with or anything...

There is no future for this mmorpg. It's just a matter of time before the plug is pulled.

I am not gonna derail the op comments at all - since ppl simply like diffrent things in gaming.  But here are quite a few obsticles that I have been unable to look past.  First one is the animation in the game.  They are horrible to say the least - if compared to the top quality visuals in other MMOs.  This is a big factor in why I havn't been able to even play the free trial through all the trial period.  It is for me very much game breaking.

Second.  And this is where the OP should have come clean.  VG is on minimum support and has been from start.  This has resulted in little updates or new content.  Much of the patches as focusing on fixing the horrendus issues the game had at launch and this is done with very small dev crew.

And after all - this is the main reason why I would not recomend VG to any gamer. Playing a sub based MMO today should offer more updates than what a game like VG can offer.  In the end it all comes down to the same old.  The game was just not ready at launch - and the results is that the game has very limited options to expand on tight bugget.  Cause quite frankly - As an investor - throwing money into a game after release to fix what was supposed to be  taken care off at launch - would be just stupid.

---

Originally posted by bverji

---

Originally posted by thark

 

---

Originally posted by bluegrazz
It IS an SOE product. I played since launch and SOE was running the show.
Who then markets, distributes, services, promotes (or doesnt), develops and profits from Vangard? Who runs billing and customer service?
SOE- Its an SOE product. Period.

---

 
No, It's created by Sigil Games Online and released by them aswell in jan 2007 and bought shortly after by SOE in May 2007. They are running the show now but they didn't make this game period :)
 

---

 
Bluegrazz never said Vanguard was made by SOE, but the game was bought by SOE and they now make the choices that Bluegrazz said the did. As they now own the game, that makes it an SOE product; as Bluegrazz said.

---

Yes,They make the choices now as they own it, but it's still not a SOE product. And NO bluegrazz didnt say what you are saying.

What would you think would have happened if SOE hadn't bought Vanguard ?

I really wonder how this game would have fared if it had of released like it is now. Hell, I might be playing it to this day. Memories of beta still haunt me however, i've tried the trial again, but I have a hard time giving it a chance. Though I hear as PVE goes, it's right up there with PVE.

Hope someone in the big wigs learned something from this launch.