Sony Online Entertainment recently announced that Vanguard: Saga of Heroes would be going free to play sometime this summer. In today's Devil's Advocate, we take a look at that announcement and offer a few thoughts. See what you think before heading into the comments to leave your thoughts.

I tend to think of Vanguard as an MMO time capsule, one that has been generally undisturbed for many years. Now that SOE has pledged some support for bringing some vigor back into Vanguard, I do believe it's time to make an appeal to MMO players out there to bring about a resurgence on the world of Telon. As such, today's Devil's Advocate is about discussing what makes Vanguard a worthwhile game to play, and what SOE's renewed interest in the game can potentially do for the game's future.

Read more of Victor Barreiro Jr.'s The Devil's Advocate: The Vanguard Appeal.

I tried Vangaurd several times in the past. Once even a month ago. I found it bit problematic with its UI and game responsiveness. I have a good laptop and it is running most new games in high mode. But VSoH just seemed clanky. And UI itself needed a lot of love too.

I absolutely loved Vanguard, and would play it again in a F2P model. The harvesting system, crafting and diplomacy were so engaging. The lack of players due to the lack of support was the straw that broke the desire to pay to play. Every game has issues and ever game has strong points. Here is to hoping that Vanguard receives a renewed interest.

Thanks for the update Victor

I'm really looking forward to the inevitable population increase that the freemium conversion will bring, but I'm very concerned with how limiting the options will be- of all the companies' payment models for games that have gone from subscription only to "F2P" I've found Sony's to be the worst.

look forward with that )

I played at launch and for the first two months before qutting.

Recently went back and subbed for a few more months.  The game ran great for me, Win7x64, 8GB RAM, GTX-460 SLI, SSD.

The world still has the "awe-factor" than many of today's games are missing.  Lots of fun and I will be playing more when it goes F2P.

There is a free 14 day trial.

Vanguard has appeal?

Hi folks.

Just wanted to let everyone know that if you do try to play Vanguard, the latest version of the launchpad is available at http://www.soe.com/getthegame/

Just make sure you change the client install to LIVE by clicking the cog on the lower left of the launchpad above the download progress bar, and select the Live game version. :D

It took me a while to figure this out myself, mostly due to the fact that the Vanguard site isn't too forthcoming with answers, sadly.

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Originally posted by ThaneUlfgar
Vanguard has appeal?

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Yes, perhaps not for you, but then I refer you to your own reply to another poster:

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Originally posted by ThaneUlfgar
Heavens forbid someone like games different than what you like?

You seem to care a lot about what other people like.

Get over yourself.

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I was in vanguard beta, I even had a 3 month sub to the game when it first came out.  The sad truth was and still is that soe really does ot care about this game.  It has sat for year with  minimal updates.  Honestly I think that the reason for that was the wanted to kill off the competition to eq2. Now that they are working on on EQ3(EqNext) only have the let silius go back to vanguard.

I might play it free to play, I think the game had a lot of potential right after the nge hit but soe seamed fit to just let the game languish in obscurity, despite there being a small vocal amount of players who think it is the greatest thing since Swiss cheese.

I honestly don't see how it got the score they gave it.  But he I realize if they don't give high scores to games folks are not going to talk to them about the games they really want to look at.

Played this one off and on over the years, and I found it to be a lot of fun.  Full of bugs that shouldn't be there like running into the water and somehow slipping beneath it and out of the zone and floating into the netherworld hehe!  I will definately return to when the FTP goes into effect.

Originally posted by ThaneUlfgar

Vanguard has appeal?

Haa! ZING!

I had a lot of fun with Vanguard, despite the bugginess.  But I would never go back unless they bring back the FFA PVP server.  That server was a blast but I would never play a pure PVE game.

Unless they put PvP back in Vanguard I will play the game even at FTP.

F2P is not gonna happen I think. With the upcoming EU transtition, all $O€ games are listed, except Vanguard and EverQuest 1. I can understand why EQ1 is skipped with EQN coming soon, but Vanguard missing would imply that $O€ might give up on it :(

Originally posted by werewood

I tried Vangaurd several times in the past. Once even a month ago. I found it bit problematic with its UI and game responsiveness. I have a good laptop and it is running most new games in high mode. But VSoH just seemed clanky. And UI itself needed a lot of love too.

       I find Vanguard to be one of the hardest games to get to run smoothly.......Even on a really good gaming rig I cant get it to run without issues.....

Its always been an amazing game to me. Just not enough players around.

I am enjoying Vanguard. Whenever I want a shot of old-school MMO, Vanguard delivers. I particularly like the wide open seamless world, and the crafting and diplomacy mini-games.

Also, there is a TON of content: you could level 2-3 characters from 1-50 and never repeat the same content. For each level, there are at least two or three different areas to play in.

"As such, today's Devil's Advocate is about discussing what makes Vanguard a worthwhile game to play"

Best classes ever. Anyone who loves MMOs will have a blast playing through the different classes, imo.

I hate that it's going F2P. Of course I dont pay for it right now because the attention it gets from SOE isn't worth $15 a month ...

I can't see cash shops being a good direction for this game.