Sadly, I don't think SOE EVER lets anything out of it's clutches, no matter how horribly mangled :\

I've been hoping that they'd sell off Planetside for years now, and it hasn't happened. They're blabbing about a Planetside 2 even, and god knows, if it's SOE that does it, it'll probably have an in-game shop when you buy item cards to play against the other side to see who caps the tower :(

if SOE would allow players that are on a trial to leave the isle of dawn then more people would stay. Isle take about a day to complete all content in it through all three spheres.  Thats not much of a trial.  The real product is the game after Isle of Dawn and trial players dont get to experience this. Those that do sub then find the starter towns empty, and the ability to find a group is nonexistent at that level and players end up leaving after a few days on the mainland.  Opening up the trial would allow the trial players to populate the other starting areas and experience more of the game,  thus maybe keeping more

Originally posted by jroller99

if SOE would allow players that are on a trial to leave the isle of dawn then more people would stay. Isle take about a day to complete all content in it through all three spheres.  Thats not much of a trial.  The real product is the game after Isle of Dawn and trial players dont get to experience this. Those that do sub then find the starter towns empty, and the ability to find a group is nonexistent at that level and players end up leaving after a few days on the mainland.  Opening up the trial would allow the trial players to populate the other starting areas and experience more of the game,  thus maybe keeping more

Why make a noobie island, when the full game already has newbie starter areas! All having the island does is detatch it from the actual game, give false impressions, and litteraly CHOKE the influx of new players who could be in the full games start zones. Which kills any grouping aspect and basically kills any profit SOE could be looking for.

Overall the trial island = Bad idea, and more harmfull than good.

Couple of reasons for the trial isle.

Its confined, its bug free and its a small download.

The real game is spread out, read empty, buggy and a massive download.  Did they even fix the Raki starter quest of gathering, I think water or flowers?

Anyway trial isle has a little bit of everything even graphically.  Some solo, some group, 2? dungeons...  If you did it one day, you need to get out more =P

Originally posted by Solude

Course I could be wrong but I'd like to hear from those that see where it was or could go explain with real examples why VG could reach say EQ2 numbers?

Vanguard, even with soe attached to it and general word that the game was in horrible shape, still sold over 200k copies which is EQ2 like numbers (at least back in 2007).  The common phrase about vanguard is that it is the real successor to everquest as said by many people.  If I recall right, someone on the EQ2 forums said EQ2 dropped by about 70k users when VG released.

Perhaps those are not absolute examples you were looking for, but I don't think it is to hard to see that vanguards aim is directly at the everquest market and if the game had a better release it would not only have attracted more everquest players (and eq2 players), but I think it would have retained them as well.  It might have even attracted people who have sworn off soe games.  

From a design standpoint (not delivery), vanguard is superior to eq2 in almost every aspect.  The game concepts and mechanics for the most part were solid and have changed very little over the last 3 years.  Better world, graphics, classes, combat, etc. 

Compared that to EQ2 that has spent the last 5 years going through major changes and a lack of consistent direction trying to find its identity has lead to a very unstable experience.  It is almost like the devs try to grow the game by changing who the game is made for with each expansion. 

Ask them how much to sell the game.

Trial isle takes 2-3 hours to do.

Game should be made free with a micro-payments system.

It's a wonderful game, but I play eq2 because I want to play a game where I might actually bump into someone when running around...  Or bundle it free with EQ/EQ2 sub, and no, not that access thing.

A 'free' game would attract a LOT of ppl to it, which is all it now needs.

Nox

Originally posted by Kyleran

Offer them $500M for the product and I'll bet they'll be willing to sell it to you.

Anything can be bought for enough money.

 

The purchased it for 7 million. LOL

Originally posted by Thillian

Well that was the point why they bought it. So noone else could get it, improve it and compete to their precious Everquest franchise (with which is in direct competition).

 Time for a reality check. Vanguard was failing long before SOE took it over. SOE is out to make money they'd love to unload Vanguard if anyone was stupid enough to pony up even close to the amount they shelled out for it, but lets be real no ones interested in buying a game that has only 10k subscribers and barely stays out of the red. SOE would probably develop it if they thought there was any money to be made but Vanguard just isn't that special and its day in the sun has come and gone, with the exception of a few die hards almost no one wants to go back and give give Brads failure another chance.
 

  Vanguard is a Money sink in most developers eyes. it was circling the drain before SOE picked it up, and the only thing thats kept it from being shut down long ago was SOE rescuing it from the scrape heap and putting it on life support..

  The EQ and EQ2 players already tried it before and after SOE bought it and in both cases they found it wanting and left. Thinking Vanguard was ever any competition to EQ or EQ2 simply borders on Delusional. Ever wonder why no developer has ever even mentioned the the possibility of looking into trying to get vanguard? Its because simply put no developer wants it.

The bottom line :

1) SOE can scrap it so no one gets it.

2) Some day ( God knows when ) SOE could some day go crazy and fix Vanguard, and advertise the heck out of it.

3) Sell it, if so I'm sure devs would like to look into the backward coding that only SOE could understand, who knows maybe even some deves would go with the the buyer.

YOU NEED A CRYSTAL BALL TO SEE INTO THE FUTURE !

Only SOE knows, it's a secret, even if they hold a public press conference, you still don't know because it's still a secret. We all like Vanguard at least we know the potential is their. Best you could do is to check here every few weeks and see if anything changes.

Originally posted by denshing

Originally posted by jroller99

if SOE would allow players that are on a trial to leave the isle of dawn then more people would stay. Isle take about a day to complete all content in it through all three spheres.  Thats not much of a trial.  The real product is the game after Isle of Dawn and trial players dont get to experience this. Those that do sub then find the starter towns empty, and the ability to find a group is nonexistent at that level and players end up leaving after a few days on the mainland.  Opening up the trial would allow the trial players to populate the other starting areas and experience more of the game,  thus maybe keeping more

 

Why make a noobie island, when the full game already has newbie starter areas! All having the island does is detatch it from the actual game, give false impressions, and litteraly CHOKE the influx of new players who could be in the full games start zones. Which kills any grouping aspect and basically kills any profit SOE could be looking for.

Overall the trial island = Bad idea, and more harmfull than good.

Exactly :) Hated this idea from the get go for the very same reason. What a waste of development time and money. Pathetic that the developers themselves didn't come to this same conclusion.

The new island is bad! If the starter areas on the main land would be used and more player would play...vanguard would be more lively and it would be easier to find groups.

Originally posted by Borkotron

Originally posted by denshing

Originally posted by jroller99

if SOE would allow players that are on a trial to leave the isle of dawn then more people would stay. Isle take about a day to complete all content in it through all three spheres.  Thats not much of a trial.  The real product is the game after Isle of Dawn and trial players dont get to experience this. Those that do sub then find the starter towns empty, and the ability to find a group is nonexistent at that level and players end up leaving after a few days on the mainland.  Opening up the trial would allow the trial players to populate the other starting areas and experience more of the game,  thus maybe keeping more

 

Why make a noobie island, when the full game already has newbie starter areas! All having the island does is detatch it from the actual game, give false impressions, and litteraly CHOKE the influx of new players who could be in the full games start zones. Which kills any grouping aspect and basically kills any profit SOE could be looking for.

Overall the trial island = Bad idea, and more harmfull than good.

 

Exactly :) Hated this idea from the get go for the very same reason. What a waste of development time and money. Pathetic that the developers themselves didn't come to this same conclusion.

I agree also, the Trial Island was a bad idea
 

Originally posted by Warjin

I'ts a shame a game with this much to offer is being held back by lack of funds, from what I read if this game had the right team can do some damage to compitition.

2 years ago no,even if fixed all the bugs in 1 week and had the best team it still would of failed, Why well because the system specs where 2 high for It's time, I would say maybe 10/15% could handle the specs 2 years ago.

Hell man the time is now with Vanguard,the system specs fill a larger base nowdays and with all the WoW burnouts and soon to follow Aion, Vanguard could and should take the jump, But they lack funds, so I wonder what we could do to help, any thoughts?

I would love for SoE to sell Vanguard to someone who will take better care of it, kind of sad really, Man if there where a Children and Youth for Mmos SoE would be in jail thats for sure lol.

Convince them to sell it? Well that's easy. All you have to do is find an investor or a set of investors who will offer Sony enough to make it worth while. Convincing them would probably not be too hard at all. It's finding investors who would be willing to do it. Now THAT'S  the hard part.