Vanguard: Saga of Heroes recently went with a hybrid subscription-free to play revenue model. Since then, the team has been working hard to give players lots to experience and look forward to in the future. We had the opportunity to check out Vanguard's new look in a couple of areas and to talk with Producer Harvey Burgess and Game Designer Corey LeFever. See what we discovered and then relate your experiences in the comments.

Vanguard has the distinct honor of being the final Sony Online game to go free to play, a move that frankly surprised many fans of the game who waited for a long while to finally see it head that way. Since the August conversion to F2P, the player population has increased and continued to see ‘bumps’ at specific times including the launch on Steam and after significant updates to the game. In fact, after the Vanguard release on Steam, the population grew so precipitously that instancing had to be introduced into the game! During my tour, it was also abundantly clear from the number of players running about that the population is good-sized.

Read more of Suzie Ford's Vanguard: Celebrating Six Big Years.

Originally posted by ChuChuTrick
They're still restricting items F2P players can use, that enough for me to say no.

I suppose you want everything someone pays a sub for for free? F2P is exactly what it says it is,you can play the game for free.

Originally posted by ChuChuTrick
They're still restricting items F2P players can use, that enough for me to say no.

what are you gonna do? take your money elsewhere?  it seems you weren't going to spend any in the first place?

Originally posted by Darth-Batman
They should of done this 5 years ago, now the game is just terribly dated in terms of looks and mechanics but it really doesnt matter because of the duppers and hackers.

Game is hardly dated in terms of looks....and still looks amazing for a 6 year old game.  Post some screenshots of any 6 year old game and i will post Vanguard screens to show how wrong you are.

Originally posted by ChuChuTrick
They're still restricting items F2P players can use, that enough for me to say no.

I really really hate freeloaders. You guys want everything for free. 

Originally posted by ChuChuTrick
They're still restricting items F2P players can use, that enough for me to say no.

Everything for free. the world works like that for sure. 

And the game looks really nice for a 6 older. To bad the animation is quite nasty atm

Originally posted by Doogiehowser

Originally posted by Darth-Batman
They should of done this 5 years ago, now the game is just terribly dated in terms of looks and mechanics but it really doesnt matter because of the duppers and hackers.

Game is hardly dated in terms of looks....and still looks amazing for a 6 year old game.  Post some screenshots of any 6 year old game and i will post Vanguard screens to show how wrong you are.

 

Originally posted by ChuChuTrick
They're still restricting items F2P players can use, that enough for me to say no.

I really really hate freeloaders. You guys want everything for free. 

Well, debating over better graphics is personal taste so theres no point in that. If it works for you and you like it, thats cool im not going to try tell you otherwise. Just because I say something doesnt mean I expect you to feel the same way, that would be boring. Im just saying its my personal opinion. I watch my brother play it ALL THE TIME (unfortunately) 6 years later even and everything in the game looks plastic and the animations look like cardboard cut-outs or something to me (he plays it maxed). I actually wanted VG to do well and have given it multiple tries, it just seems like SOE doesnt care about it and never really did which is a shame.

When is this all suppose to happen?in a year?

Originally posted by nilden
Vanguard has some good points but it only has 2 servers even after being on Steam. What really gets my goat is City of Heroes was shutdown while doing much better than Vanguard.

So true. Even though the CoX community stepped up to support, NCsoft closed it down in their face. SOE is a hard company to part money with as well. At this stage of my gaming career, I gauge my games more on the companies developing and publishing them rather than graphics and even gameplay. 

If you want another single serving high-fantasy mmo, there are more exciting ones out there than Vanguard. Tried it twice and bored me to tears.

Apologies to all Vanguard fans. It is what it is.

Originally posted by Fangrim

Originally posted by ChuChuTrick
They're still restricting items F2P players can use, that enough for me to say no.

I suppose you want everything someone pays a sub for for free? F2P is exactly what it says it is,you can play the game for free.

i think people tend to generalize too much when we talk about what is limited or not for Free players. If i am going to play without paying a sub, i expect they sell in the cash shop an item unlock so i can gear up and be competitive. If i decide to support the game through cash shop instead of subscription they should lift progresison limits to whoever pays for that unlock. Otherwise its just waste of money and not worth it. I dont like subs and i prefer to support game companies using cash shop, as long as i can lift at least progression and competitive limitations like the ability to wear better gear. If i cannot do that, im not wasting my money to still stay behind the rest.

Originally posted by Doogiehowser

Originally posted by Darth-Batman
They should of done this 5 years ago, now the game is just terribly dated in terms of looks and mechanics but it really doesnt matter because of the duppers and hackers.

Game is hardly dated in terms of looks....and still looks amazing for a 6 year old game.  Post some screenshots of any 6 year old game and i will post Vanguard screens to show how wrong you are.

 

Originally posted by ChuChuTrick
They're still restricting items F2P players can use, that enough for me to say no.

I really really hate freeloaders. You guys want everything for free. 

I really really hate sheep. They just let themselves be sheered. It's because of a sheep's willingness to be sheered that allows designers to get away with requiring so much wool to unlock basic functionality in a game, like item equipping.

The game wasn't good enough to pay $15 a month, and I wouldn't even care for more than a few seconds if I accidently wiped my ass with a $20 and flushed it down the toilet. Why would I pay what usually amounts to more than $15 a month to play the same shitty game that wasn't worth $15 a month to begin with?

F2P economics are somewhat baffling to me. 

Originally posted by Doogiehowser

Originally posted by ChuChuTrick
They're still restricting items F2P players can use, that enough for me to say no.

I really really hate freeloaders. You guys want everything for free. 

There's a difference between disliking the way an MMO artificially restricts players to force them into the cash shop and wanting everything for free. If an MMO made it impossible to use any skills unless you paid for them in the cash shop (essentially meaning you can log-in and run around for free and that's it) I imagine you'd be joining the so called 'freeloaders' in complaining.

The fact is the dev teams behind these cash shops are getting more and more bold about restricting basic game functionality in order to charge for it. The reason they're getting so bold? Because there are so many sheep like yourself just lapping it up and insulting anyone that (rightfully) complains.

Originally posted by Alberel

Originally posted by Doogiehowser

Originally posted by ChuChuTrick
They're still restricting items F2P players can use, that enough for me to say no.

I really really hate freeloaders. You guys want everything for free. 

There's a difference between disliking the way an MMO artificially restricts players to force them into the cash shop and wanting everything for free. If an MMO made it impossible to use any skills unless you paid for them in the cash shop (essentially meaning you can log-in and run around for free and that's it) I imagine you'd be joining the so called 'freeloaders' in complaining.

The fact is the dev teams behind these cash shops are getting more and more bold about restricting basic game functionality in order to charge for it. The reason they're getting so bold? Because there are so many sheep like yourself just lapping it up and insulting anyone that (rightfully) complains.

 

You can play the whole game use all the skills and most all the items if u buy  stuff of auction house so really u can play the WHOLE game for free and not pay a dime and still have all the best stuff....

Originally posted by umcorian

Originally posted by Doogiehowser

Originally posted by Darth-Batman
They should of done this 5 years ago, now the game is just terribly dated in terms of looks and mechanics but it really doesnt matter because of the duppers and hackers.

Game is hardly dated in terms of looks....and still looks amazing for a 6 year old game.  Post some screenshots of any 6 year old game and i will post Vanguard screens to show how wrong you are.

 

Originally posted by ChuChuTrick
They're still restricting items F2P players can use, that enough for me to say no.

I really really hate freeloaders. You guys want everything for free. 

I really really hate sheep. They just let themselves be sheered. It's because of a sheep's willingness to be sheered that allows designers to get away with requiring so much wool to unlock basic functionality in a game, like item equipping.

 

The game wasn't good enough to pay $15 a month, and I wouldn't even care for more than a few seconds if I accidently wiped my ass with a $20 and flushed it down the toilet. Why would I pay what usually amounts to more than $15 a month to play the same shitty game that wasn't worth $15 a month to begin with?

 

F2P economics are somewhat baffling to me. 

 

 

 

So let me guess a game is shit and not worth 15 bucks but you would still play it if it is for free? and you have the audacity to call others a sheep?

All games which go F2P are nothing more than an extended free trial. I thought people would know that by now. Try the game and if you like it sub to it, crying over things like 'high end armor' restrictions is pointless. I don't know since when gaming turned in to charity where they should hand everything to you for free. The game already has a very good F2P model and you won't even need high end armor till lvl 50+.