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It's a freaking game.  I want to be able to PLAY.  To be honest, I like exploration.  And I would look forward to doing just that.  But how many times did you have to ride the damn boats in EQ before it got old really really old?   In DAoC how many times did you have to ride the horses before it got old, really really old?  In WoW how many times do you have to ride the birds before it's old, really really old?

And none of these games have something so onerous that they let you go off line to travel (caravan system).  I forget which EQ expansion had you traveling to the new druid rings on foot first before you could port to them, but I kind of like that idea.  Same with WoW, where you have to go get the flight path before you can use it.  But after awhile, it all gets old.  

What I want is fun.   Why do people like you always think people want it "easy"?   I just want to PLAY, is that too much to ask for?

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Then, maybe vanguard is not the game for you, nothing in the life is perfect, wow is not,  eq is not, neither SW, they all have streng and weakness, I bet traveling wont be tedious as lot of people are thinking, and basically making  or buying your own boats / ships is really good and guess what You will be playing. I still can't belive what they say about the kind of freedom they are developing for this game, but if they are doing what they say ( and looks like they are really doing that), the game will be for all the kind of people. There are people forming Pirates PvP guilds for Vanguard, basically they will be fighting people in the seas, etc...

Look, I never found traveling tedious, not in wow, EQ2, OLD EQ, or any other game, it was the perfect time to go to the kitchen get a soda, prepare myself a sandwich, etc...

I like traveling, and with the opportunity of driving the boats, I will be more than happy to travel from Thesthra to Qalia or vice versa.

I don't want to sound rude to you, but if traveling is huge problem for you, then in mmorpg.com you can find other good titles. I really don't want to sound rude.

God & heroes also from SOE, is a good title. If you like PvP age of conan or Warhammer. There are many options as colors are in the life. But I really wish you can forget about how tedious or not traveling will be in Vanguard and enjoy more the rest of the spheres.

Peace...

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Originally posted by Minimum

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Originally posted by Axisstorm

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Originally posted by Minimum

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It always amazes me that people hate to have to do anything to get anywhere. Your in mideivel times, if you want ease of travel or quick travel, SWG sounds like your game.

Anyway, if you want easy, go play WoW, you want a little fun, and exploration then you play Vanguard and go out and brave the wild while trying to get where your going.

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It's a freaking game.  I want to be able to PLAY.  To be honest, I like exploration.  And I would look forward to doing just that.  But how many times did you have to ride the damn boats in EQ before it got old really really old?   In DAoC how many times did you have to ride the horses before it got old, really really old?  In WoW how many times do you have to ride the birds before it's old, really really old?

And none of these games have something so onerous that they let you go off line to travel (caravan system).  I forget which EQ expansion had you traveling to the new druid rings on foot first before you could port to them, but I kind of like that idea.  Same with WoW, where you have to go get the flight path before you can use it.  But after awhile, it all gets old.  

What I want is fun.   Why do people like you always think people want it "easy"?   I just want to PLAY, is that too much to ask for?

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Originally posted by Lumster
@baphamet

Yea you are right hawtie, It couldn't be because Vanguard just sucks.

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or could it be your a freaking troll that loves to single out my posts every freaking chance you get? I'm surprised you are not demanding i get out of your forums again *rolls eyes*

i have no desire to discuss any topic with you, that is all....moving on.

geez, these boards...

If you say one thing positive about Vanguard all the spoon fed casuals start screaming 'vanboi' etc because it's easier then actually justifying a rant based on ignorant hate of something that was never even aimed at them in the first place.

Anyhow... the interview...

I'm not saying the interviewer has to be 'a fan' or anything, but boy what a let down from a site I usually rate quite highly. He's either a really boring writer and poor journalist in general, in which case I would wonder why he is even in this job, or he has an axe to grind here.

Next time we have access to the Sigil dev team, can we at least try to make it a little more worthwhile?

Objectivety should be the first rule of any journalist.

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Originally posted by Minimum

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It's a freaking game.  I want to be able to PLAY.  To be honest, I like exploration.  And I would look forward to doing just that.  But how many times did you have to ride the damn boats in EQ before it got old really really old?   In DAoC how many times did you have to ride the horses before it got old, really really old?  In WoW how many times do you have to ride the birds before it's old, really really old?

And none of these games have something so onerous that they let you go off line to travel (caravan system).  I forget which EQ expansion had you traveling to the new druid rings on foot first before you could port to them, but I kind of like that idea.  Same with WoW, where you have to go get the flight path before you can use it.  But after awhile, it all gets old.  

What I want is fun.   Why do people like you always think people want it "easy"?   I just want to PLAY, is that too much to ask for?

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Originally posted by vesavius

Objectivety should be the first rule of any journalist.

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Originally posted by Lepidus

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Originally posted by vesavius

Objectivety should be the first rule of any journalist.

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I must say, I'm a bit baffled. What part of the article does anyone think lacks objectivity?

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Well, the interviewer didn't gush all over Vanguard and Brad, didn't have an orgasm about the second coming of mmorpgs, and didn't tell everyone it would own WoW, EQ2, DAoC, or everyone else out there, so obviously it was a hate and biased interview against Vanguard.

I'm glad Vanguard is coming out personally.  Maybe it will suck the low-life raiders who ruin other games to this one, but personally, I think it will just suck.

YMMV.

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Originally posted by Lepidus

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Originally posted by vesavius

Objectivety should be the first rule of any journalist.

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I must say, I'm a bit baffled. What part of the article does anyone think lacks objectivity?

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Originally posted by Dimitrio

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Then, maybe vanguard is not the game for you

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I'm sure they appreciate you telling their potential customers not to bother.

On the other hand, I realize it isn't going to be perfect and I realize no game IS perfect.

All I did was give an opinion.

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Originally posted by quixadhal

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Originally posted by Minimum

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It's a freaking game.  I want to be able to PLAY.  To be honest, I like exploration.  And I would look forward to doing just that.  But how many times did you have to ride the damn boats in EQ before it got old really really old?   In DAoC how many times did you have to ride the horses before it got old, really really old?  In WoW how many times do you have to ride the birds before it's old, really really old?

And none of these games have something so onerous that they let you go off line to travel (caravan system).  I forget which EQ expansion had you traveling to the new druid rings on foot first before you could port to them, but I kind of like that idea.  Same with WoW, where you have to go get the flight path before you can use it.  But after awhile, it all gets old.  

What I want is fun.   Why do people like you always think people want it "easy"?   I just want to PLAY, is that too much to ask for?

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Ask yourself this.... WHY does slow travel suck?  It's not because it takes you X minutes or hours to get from point A to point B.  It's because there not much to DO while you're traveling.  Most MMO's have build their game worlds around the concept of fixed location encounters.  You wander around until you find the goblin stronghold, then you travel back and forth from the nearest town to this encounter until you've out-grown it.  Repeat the process for the next zone.

It doesn't HAVE to work that way.  If the world is dynamic enough, things could move around as conditions demand it.  Someone found the goblin camp near town and started farming them?  Ok, after a while the goblins decide to pick up and move elsewhere.  Nobody's hanging around a certain village?  Well, maybe some pirates will set up a base nearby, since it's "safe" for them.

The other thing many people dislike about travel is the lack of purpose.  Sure, you need to get from point A to point B, but why?  Guild Wars and DDO decided that there really wasn't any reason to have all that travelling, since all you were planning to do was skip it and do the encounter at point B... so they don't have much.  Not my kind of game, but maybe yours?

EVE takes a different approach... there's still travel, and it's pretty boring for the most part.  However, trading is a viable career option in the game, so it can serve a purpose beyond just moving from encounter point to encounter point.  Travel is also dangerous in EVE, since you are a valid PvP target at every jump point.

I don't know the details of Vanguard's system.  Perhaps they'll give us things to do while travelling.  Perhaps it won't be the automated snore-fest that it is in WoW.  I guess the real question is, will you have to keep travelling back and forth between the same set of places all the time, or will the game encourage you to keep going?  If the latter, I'd want it to be slower so I can enjoy it more.

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Originally posted by Lepidus

Originally posted by vesavius
Objectivety should be the first rule of any journalist.

I must say, I'm a bit baffled. What part of the article does anyone think lacks objectivity?

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its not "objectivity" that your article lacks, it comes off as if you already formed a bias opinion before even doing the interview, the article reads more like a blog than a actual interview IMO.

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Originally posted by baphamet

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Originally posted by Lepidus

Originally posted by vesavius
Objectivety should be the first rule of any journalist.

I must say, I'm a bit baffled. What part of the article does anyone think lacks objectivity?

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its not "objectivity" that your article lacks, it comes off as if you already formed a bias opinion before even doing the interview, the article reads more like a blog than a actual interview IMO.

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I've never played Vanguard and really have no concretely formed opinions on it.  Like most games, some of their ideas appeal to me and some do not. As I said in the conclusion, we wont know until we try.

This article is basic and was largely written with a new reader in mind. When you're interviewing a sole community manager over lunch at a tradeshow without a demo or any announcements... there really is only so much that can be learned. For the hardcore fans, there is even less to be gleaned. Thus, we honed in on one feature, which sounded quite promising.

It saddens me that this revolution of a game is getting hammered by people that have no sence of the future and how Vanguard is going 2 change Mmo's as we know them.

How can an utterly great title like this sit at a hype of 6.9...

Well lets stop mouning and start smiling for nothing is going 2 stop this game from greatness...                         I personally can't wait for this the next big thing in Mmo...

Great job so far Sigil / SOE

 Guys help me out on this one!

There are a lot of reasons for including travel as part of the game.  Some of the big ones are that they are intended to become systems of battle.  Arial combat, ship combat, mounted combat etc.  With their own rulesets independant of standard on foot combat.

To the people who somehow got the impression that VG is a "raiders game" they couldn't be more off base.  VG is group centric, the devs have said it from day 1.  20% raid content, 20% solo content 60% group content. 

Yes, end game group focused content, not raid grind (unless you really want to, you always have that choice), alternatively there is enough solo content and quests that if you wanted to you could solo up to level cap as well.  It's not the most efficient way but there is content to do so if you choose.  But the most options and variety come to groups.

That's kinda the whole point about VG, you get a lot of choice.  Quite a few of us could tell you why VG gets a bad rap on these forums but that might involved deleted posts and quite frankly, who cares?  In the end it will more than likely be a very revolutionary title. 

Caravans and the fellowship system are not implemented "because travel is soooo bad".  They are part of the game to make it easier to play with a goup of friends and always stay about the same level and stick together, it removes the need to spend a few minutes to head over to your friends and play with them, you're already there when you log in.  Its a pretty slick system, so are quite a few others.  A lot of innovation in general.

Got questions?  Check the rather MASSIVE FAQ at Silky Venom or the main site. 

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Originally written by Brad McQuaid

Hi all,

Despite some controversy and debate, my releasing actual beta 3 gameplay focused shots from the upcoming Massively Multiplayer Game Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (check out both www.vanguardsoh.com and www.joinvanguard.com for more information, more varied screenshots, active message boards, and a detailed FAQ, plus www.sigil.com to find out more about our company and pedigree making these games) at various sites the other day generated a lot of talk and interest and questions. To many MMOG players, you already know about Vanguard and are either looking forward to it, or at least looking forward to getting into beta or checking out the game being played by someone else in beta, or perhaps even waiting to see how launch goes. To many other MMOG gamers, especially long time gamers, you're already active on our boards and looking forward to the game. But then to many other MMOG gamers, there's a lot of about Vanguard you don't know about -- you might have heard that it's an old style game, or only for hard core players, or that it's too challenging and tedious. Or, on the other hand, you may be playing in one of the current MMOGs and are looking for something new on the horizon. Or both. Our message and our efforts, whether releasing a series of screenshots or doing interviews in major magazines is one and the same: this game was likely made for someone just like you and it's our job to get this message out, let you know about this game, and to dispel any inaccurate rumors you may have heard (for example, no, Vanguard is NOT a hard core raiding only game by any stretch of the means).

No matter who you are, we want to reach out to you and pique your interest in the game because we are confident it's going to change the face of massively multiplayer online gaming next year. A huge marketing and PR campaign has just begun with our co-publishers, Sony Online Entertainment. But the unique thing about Vanguard is that Sigil, a company founded by many of the original makers of EverQuest and other older MMOGs is that we are working together with SOE and have retained creative control over the project. Our aim, quite simply, is to offer an alternative to an online gaming genre that is dominated by a few very large and quite excellent games right now (Final Fantasy XI and World of Warcraft come to mind). Why? Because life, especially entertainment, is about choices. And this game being an alternative to the MMOGs you may be currently enjoying is also by no means is an indication that Vanguard is for a niche crowd -- it contains content and quests and adventures for all sorts of people -- casual players, 'core' players, and even those who spend a lot of time at these games raiding in large groups -- we're all about making a world that is inclusive, *not* exclusive. Vanguard offers a freedom that players have never before experienced -- you have a wide variety of races and classes to choose from, unparalleled capability to customize your character, multiple ways of advancing your character, be it traditional adventuring, to an exciting system of harvesting and crafting, to a brand new spin on gameplay called Diplomacy where you use your wits and not your sword to decide the outcome of events and make your mark on the world.

And on top of all of this, the world itself is simply incredible and awaiting all sorts of people who want to be part of a living, breathing, virtual environment, in which you can own your own house, ride or sail a ship anywhere you can see, and even one day perhaps fly through the clouds on the back of a dragon to the destination of *your* choice. There are virtually no limitations in Vanguard -- you get what you put into it and so much more. The world of Telon, which is where Vanguard takes place, is literally massive -- but it's not just big for the sake of being big, rather it's full of variety and laid out in a seamlesss environment where if you can see an intriguing location miles into the distance, or simply just a mountaintop off in some direction, you can most likely always get there -- travel in Vanguard has meaning.

And not only that, we've expanded upon the traditional High Fantasy we all love and included not just one continent with familiar Western European, Tokieneque and Arthurian settings, but also another continent that draws from the tales of Arabian Nights, full of pyramids, hanging gardens, hidden jungles filled with exotic intrigue -- virtually the entirety of Persian, Egyptian, and other middle eastern mythology. But then we didn't stop there either -- a third continent, this time with an Oriental twist forms a vast archipelago of islands. Picture yourself a thief or a ninja, or even merchant or pirate, sailing from one isle to the next, discovering new lands and even lost empires swallowed whole long ago by the sea.

And I promise you, I've given you but a taste of what is in store for you this Winter -- there's simply *so* much more -- far, far too much to cover here. I do hope you check out our web sites and other resources, with more and more information being revealed virtually every day. Head to www.joinvanguard.com to find out more about the game as well as www.vanguardsoh.com where again there are movies, screenshots, a detailed FAQ to answer your many questions about the game, as well as a very active message board already with well over 100,000 members.

But enough of an introduction filled with only words. Check out these web sites, visit our host of affiliate web sites dedicated to this highly anticipated game. And in the meantime, please accept this first tiny piece -- a small and focused taste of the game. While we've been releasing screenshots, movies, and information about Vanguard for quite some time now, we're finally at the point where we've just entered our third and first truly major phase of beta testing, where hundreds of testers are helping us tune and tweak this massive endeavor. What almost 100 people have poured their hearts and souls into for over four years is about ready to release! So please take a moment to check out the following screenshots taken from this beta, involving actual beta testers, and then if anything catches your eye whatsoever, do some more digging -- information on the game is not hard to find and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised both with the information out there already as well as with our plans to whet your appetite over the next several months!

You may have already read articles about Vanguard, or seen our ads in the major game publications that are already out. You may have already picked up a copy of the Computer Games magazine with Vanguard as its cover story a few months back. Know that this is just the beginning of a huge outreach by Sigil and SOE that is now beginning to come into full swing. You'll see more articles, ads, and online coverage. You'll hear more about the exciting freedoms, opportunities, and exciting adventures Vanguard brings to massively multiplayer games, many for the first time ever and many of which have been kept under wraps until now.

But at Sigil we know that it's just as important, if not more so, to reach out to the community ourselves and support you all directly. This is why, in addition to this more formal massive marketing campaign that is just now beginning, that is it just as important to also reach out to various MMOG oriented fan sites, to support them and provide them with information, to answer *your* questions and to receive answers by people actually working on the game..

So please take a look at this set of screenshots taken just tonight from our beta test. These in particular focus on one group of testers and future players who were having a blast fighting their way though the overland region called the Temple of Daliuk in the Arabian Nights themed continent called Qalia.

This is a low-mid level outdoor (with some indoor) massive dungeon, designed to accommodate many groups. It is live on Beta 3, which is from where these pictures were taken. The players are real, although I step in a bit with Aradune, my GM character who is also a high level ranger, and intervene here and there. But the vast majority of what you see is the real game -- in fact, you'll see one of the testers dead body that was quickly recovered after a minor setback.

You'll see a few different NPCs, a vast area, lots of spells and abilities going off, several different races and classes, all working together. None of this was choreographed, however. Rather, from my and others at Sigil's standpoint, we're going to spend some time periodically throughout beta 3 and beta 4, until we release the NDA covering the game, and release actual beta footage of real beta players, both in the form of screenshots and movies.

This will not preclude our regular release of screenshots to affiliate sites, other sites, major sites, or any other PR or Marketing plan. I bring these to you (and the other sites who receive shots from this series) because I know the audience here and elsewhere often wants to see the real game and what it's all really about. You want a view of the real game play, and you've got it. And this is only the first of several series!

We are still working on movies which will show a lot more of the game. We are still in beta, so you will find flaws here and there because while the game is close to finish, it still has several months ahead of it for us to wrap things up and polish the game for general release. And then, even after release, we'll be updating the game, keeping it fresh, growing the world, much of which you will download automatically before logging on. But from what I see here, you get a pretty cool glimpse into what people are experiencing in Vanguard beta right now, with well over 500 people online at any given time. And that number is growing daily -- we're going to need thousands of people to test what is more than a game but actually a living virtual world.

So please keep in mind again that the series here is all about one area, fighting various mobs outside the Temple of Dailuk -- again, a low-mid level huge mostly outdoor dungeon in Qalia. And this is very much the Qalia you've probably heard about -- it's a lost temple in the middle of a vast desert. Some of the shots show beautiful vistas, and there are a variety of points of interest, but the focus here is not on showing off a variety of themes or locations, but rather a group of 'core' gamers having a blast, working together as a team, playing in this one area. Again, to see more variety, I encourage you to head to the sites I listed above and dig into the game in more detail should this series of shots catch your attention.

Movies are still coming, shots from other areas still on their way, more about gameplay, the interface, etc.. Most of it is coming through the more conventional PR and Marketing (e.g. released to major online sites and publications) plan I referred to above. So consider this series and those shots found on other sites to be only a part of Sigil's solemn commitment to keep in mind the fan site, the MMOG discussion site, the guilds' sites, etc. in mind and to never forget that community is what makes these games, and communities are filled with individuals -- we are creating a service here and take that service very seriously. While we're just starting to 'go big' with marketing for this game and have some incredible plans we never want to forget the smaller sites or the more focused sites either.

Ask questions, criticize, note that we're not done, remind us we need to get movies out more frequently, take issue with it being a series of shots all from the same location -- we value your opinions and feedback, here, on our official message boards, or anywhere.

Overall, though, please enjoy them, which I think most of you will -- it's a pleasure to share here this glimpse into an incredible new MMOG coming your way this Winter. Here is Series One of the battle for the Temple of Daliuk -- look for several more series of the Temple in the next day or so, and the more series covering different areas after that (in the following weeks).

Brad McQuaid
Chairman & CEO, Sigil Games Online
Executive Producer, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
Original Producer & Co-Designer, EverQuest

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Originally posted here with the links to the pictures he's referring to:

http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1387403#post1387403

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Originally posted by Brad McQuaid

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valant Brad are you expecting players, even on high end machines, to experience significant FPS drop when the shadows are turned up along with high settings and draw distance? I have a 7900GTX 512mb card with 2 gigs of DDR2 800 mhz RAM....however when I turned the shadows and draw distance up to near max on EQ2 the problems just poured in and the screen chop was ridiculous...I know it wasnt my card, so I think it was more of an EQ2 software issue than anything else.... Have the internal private tests proved that the game still runs very smoothly with all the shadows and elevated draw distance/details enabled?

That's what's taking us so long to implement environment shadows. Using the latest tech we want people, at least on higher end cards, to *really* be able to use it. We could hack in in a couple of days environment shadows that slam the fps such that exist in other games but that everyone turns off after going 'cool' once. But we want to do it right, and we're on the cusp of getting the tech ourselves coded as well as the latest graphics cards being able to handle it.

So that's what's taking so long. I'm not going to go ask my lead graphics guy to hack in huge FPS hitting environment shadows just to make screenshots look better. Maybe that's the wrong call, I don't know -- sometimes hacking some stuff in for a PR/Marketing standpoint *is* the right call, but at the same time these are the same graphics programmers who are optimizing the graphics engine to make it so more and more people with a wider variety of machines can have a great framerate and a great looking game in beta and later after release, whether they are on very low, medium, or high settings.

We *will* have environment shadows before launch, but it will also be one of the last technologies coded so we can use the very latest in tech and know-how. It's in the schedule, I do wish we had it now and I could snap my fingers, it does bug me every time someone asks where they are when screenshots and videos are released, but I've talked it over with my Director of Technology and other very smart people and they say it's worth the wait. And I trust them -- they've not let me done thus far.

Will you have to have a high end system? I don't know that yet either. It may be the case -- environment shadows are very expensive. The sad part is a year or two from now, I bet graphics cards will do them automatically in hardware and it will just be a matter of turning them on like anti aliasing (another very expensive thing to do in code, but that is moving to hardware on the cards and makes a huge difference visually).

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Another idea of the kind of mindset the main dev has.

Primary focus?  Functionality and good gameplay for as many people as possible.

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Originally written by Brad McQuaid in responce to someone who had made repeated heated criticisms about VG (some of them valid but still loaded with a lot of anger)

I never said the anim tech would be done in beta 2. Technology like that continues to evolve. We did put better animation tech and animation data into beta 2, and we're improving it in beta 3, and it will likely continue to improve up to launch and beyond. In fact, the entire game from a content, playability, polish, technology, and feature standpoint will continue to evolve, expand, and get better and better throughout beta and then for years after launch.

I know this is your hot button -- that MMOGs are never released 'finished'. To me, they need to be released with the feature sets they were advertised to have and if anything changes pre-release, the developer needs to be up front about it (as we have been). They need to be released with enough content and features to entertain people up until the majority of them are ready for a major expansion. They need to continue to have content added and balance and data and systems tweaked both before and after launch such that these games are living evolving entities, constantly improving and expanding, and also so that unexpected events can be responded to if necessary to safeguard the long term health of the game.

To me, what is most hated by you, and it seems to go way back to our working on EQ 1, is that we don't ever release anything that is completely done, in a box forever, fire and forget. The irony is that what seems to upset you the most if what excites me most of about this genre -- it's like a great book series -- it's like a real virtual world -- the game is never done! It's not a product, it's a service.

Now this can go wrong, sure. MMOGs can be released with lots of launch troubles, or horribly imbalanced, or without sufficient content. Too much time can be taken between expansions and people can end up becoming bored. The world, the engine technology, etc. can not be designed to grow along side the real world such that the game can't be refreshed visually and from a playability standpoint over the months and years MMOGs should be enjoyed.

We did an ok job with EQ 1. I'm damn proud of it, considering how long it was top dog, what a blast it was to play, and how long it's been around (it's still kicking!). And we *never* had any idea this would be true -- we didn't design EQ to last for years -- we didn't have expansions and new features in mind. Yet we, and then others who took up the reigns after we left, still managed to grow the game, polish it, improve it, etc. (no, not in every way I would have, but hey, like I've said a hundred times, it's their world now -- I left, after all).

But what has me so excited about Vanguard is that we took all that we learned from working on EQ 1, several of its expansions, plus being involved in EQ 2, Planetside, Sovereign, SW:G, and other games, and also have watched carefully games like WoW, FFXI, Lineage 1 & 2, etc. Our designers and management have several max level characters in all of those games, earned not bought, at least, if not more.

So we've taken all of this knowledge and personal experience and designed the technology and world and features in Vanguard such that when we release we're going to have an awesome game. I know you doubt this and have heard some negative things out of beta 2 NDA breakers (I wonder if you're heard anything from beta 3 players, heh). I know you think Diplomacy, for example, should have been planned perfectly from the beginning and not revised several times during beta. I now you don't agree with a long beta where we interact with players and make all sorts of changes to the game, some small, and some even big -- you'd rather we test all of this in-house somehow and then have a short beta with no NDA that is really more of a preview. It bothers you that we post 'work in progress' that clearly has flaws in it. You don't have faith that we have time to complete our goals and are convinced that we either won't ship or will ship with so much less than we've promised that there won't really be much of a game there at all.

I can't really respond to this other than to say check out what we've accomplished so far -- compare the early screenshots and movies of the game to a year ago, and then those that came out this E3 with what has just come out. You can *see* the progress -- it's right there. And the beautiful thing about the last phases of MMOG development is that your team is more and more familiar with the tools, pieces and parts are coming together, you have lots of beta testers and great feedback, and so what you get done and the rate at which you get it done continues to increase in both quality and quantity.

I know you still won't believe this. I do sincerely hope, no matter how angry you seem, that you enjoy Vanguard after its launched. You may not, because it is so clearly designed to not only be a great game at launch but also to evolve so much further post-launch that you may feel we should have stayed in production another 2 or 3 years. I really don't know. But at least I am here letting you know our production methodology and being up front about it.

Yes, Vanguard will be ready when we launch in this Winter. No, it won't be perfect. Yes, it will be missing some things we hoped would be in it, but we will make sure to continue to be up front with everyone about these items. Also, however, it will include things that I didn't think would make it in by launch, as well as systems and technology and features that are *better* than what I would have thought.

But at the same time the Vanguard of 2008 will hardly resemble the Vanguard of 2007. Again, we have learned from the past. We have features and ideas to build upon this solid foundation that could literally take us the next 5+ years to implement. And I'm not just talking about a few ideas scratched on a notepad -- I'm talking about design and vision documents hundreds of pages long. We have entire continents, empires, player and NPC races planned out for after launch. We're going to take mounts and ships and turn them from merely vehicles into full on combat systems -- ships will fire cannons and aerial combat will have its own rule set, but still integrate into the existing game as opposed to being shoe horned in because we planned ahead. Bits and pieces of lore and architecture you run across in the game when it comes out you'll find one day explaining the back-story of an entire expansion... entire lost empires and civilizations.

You'll see Diplomacy evolve from a new approach to factions and non-combat character advancement into an entire system involving player run towns and an RTS element to appeal to more strategy oriented players. You'll see the biggest and best dungeons that are level 50 (e.g. end game) material at launch looked dwarfed and almost pathetic when you eventually explore vast under worlds and cities floating in the sky (our 2km by 2km 'chunks' our seamless world is created out of have Z coordinates too -- and while we won't use them at launch, the code and data is there so we can certainly use them in the future) -- imagine flying 8 km up into the air to explore a city in the clouds!

All of this is possible and, yes, planned for post launch (along with a lot of things I can't reveal because a. we don't need to see it in other games and b. we keep back information we're either not positive about or c. we hold back some exciting information for exclusive coverage in the major magazines and on the major gaming sites).

I look at EQ and the last 7 years and I am blown away because I can see what can be done by determined and talented people even with a system and foundation that was never designed for the long term and was also designed by MMOG newbies -- a bunch of MUD geeks who got a lucky chance to make what became the king of 3d MMOG for many years -- yes, us. And when I see all that that game has become, ignoring the problems and looking at the good, I can't help but be blown away by Vanguard's potential not just at release but a year from now, 3 years from now, 5 years from now -- again, the technology, the planning, unique ideas on how to preserve and extend content, slow MUDflation, refresh the old world while still adding to the existing world...

All of this seems to either bother you or you just think I'm full of it. Again, I don't know why you are so angry and skeptical -- we made our fair share of mistakes with EQ, and I'm sorry if they hurt you at some point, but I can assure you we never meant to hurt anybody and our decisions, even our tough ones, whether wrong or right looking back now with 20/20 hindsight, were always made out of love for the game. So I can understand being upset, not liking us, not agreeing with our production methodology. I can understand skepticism -- that worries me the least, because the proof is in the pudding, and we'll see who was right about Vanguard soon enough. But I wish there wasn't this anger. We're just gamers like you and we love MMOGs like you and we're doing our best. Some people will criticize me for feeding the trolls and even responding to you, and I don't most of the time, but man, whatever it was, a single event or a series of events... whatever it was, while I know for a fact there was no malice on our part (and I know -- I was on watch -- I was calling the shots) -- I apologize anyway.

Please accept that apology. No, I don't say that because I fear your posts or your negativity. No, it's not to make another buck. I don't want you to stop being critical nor skeptical, and please call us on issues you think are or could be a problem. But as for the other emotional stuff, hey man, peace

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