Production costs money and the longer production go's on the more money it cost im not a geinius to point that out. I have see alot of great Ideas for games come along and then see them canned simply because they became too expensive to make or other games came out on the market that attracted players attention so that the great games that are still indevelopement simply got forgotten about or rushed through developement so that when the game comes out it's so buged and unplayerble people simply give up playing it. We can continiue to put lots of great features and content into a game untill the world ends but it has to be decided when you have enough of a game that is different and more inetevive enough than there is currently on the market.

So its got to be considered even though something seems like a great idea youve got to decide " is this going to add too much time and money into the developement" , "are people going to wait that long for it to be developed ". I really like the look of this game and it do's have alot of really good ideas and i cant wait to play it . Which is what allot of people will be thinking also. There is always room for more Idears and content but I think it is best usesd in after sale's production in the form of monthly updates and expantions.

i am so much in favorite of ryan's arguments i could come over there to pull some ears myself!

there is a reason  older programmers need to do things in specific ways. This involves stability, workflow, cost/time analysis and so much more.  A leading character in the industry will be of course able to analyize, estimate and if approved, implement a new idea,  safe route or ever re-design that a young puppy would suggest. In this way both characters would work exaclty "as itended" as far as their ceo manager mind is concerned.

to younger ppl : be alerted, learn as much as you can and dont RUSH. when your opinion is asked, state your answer assertively. When you THINK you have a great idea and want to suggest it, try first an "inner debate" and then share it with your colleagues. Your skills and maturity then will be widely recognized.

cheers all, anxious to start playing with your baby !!

//altair arch engineer dplg.

      Having a hard time understanding why Vanguard has this linked on their site... definitely not the kind of positive hoo-ha they throw around.  

  I don't know how many people here have actually followed the development/plan for Vanguard. At a guess I think this is an attempt to sell the game due to the amount of resistance they have generated from a good portion of the MMO community. Simply put, despite the style, what this article seems to be trying to say is "Trust me, we've put a lot of thought and debate into this, it's what you want despite what you might think".

 According to Vanguard's site, this entire game is designed to be "Old School". It is intended to basically emulate EQ 1 with new technology in terms of content (long, very hard quests with little payoff, etc...) and to ultimatly favor uber-raiders who can put a "lifestyle" type committment into the game.

 This is compared to the "new school" that put games like WoW on top of the charts, where even the most casual player could login for half an hour and usually feel like they accomplished something.

 WoW succeeded because Blizzard seemed to understand that the majority of people out there have lives, and that MMOs (due to the money involved) have more or less replaced true single-player CRPGS (games like Oblivion are far and few between, the days of Wizardry, Ultima, and Might and Magic are more or less gone). Thus the best way to go is to make an MMO that allows both solitary and group type play.

 Of course an industry criticism of WoW is that due to Blizzard's way of programming it *DID* turn into an Uber-raider game in a way because people blew through the first 60 levels of content pretty quickly. This lead to the development of more and more 'old school' type raiding time sinks (along with week-long reset timers in many cases) to keep people occupied. The problem with the "New School" is that it requires a level of content production that the primary innovator (Blizzard) was unable to meet, and ultimatly to be maintained is going to make less money due to production compared to a game that can be just left there to sit and generate cash.

 Indeed it's argued by many that within 6 months of release "Burning Crusade" will be exhausted, and many of the people currently involved in the 'endgame' just aren't going to tolerate the way things are now while waiting for the next expansion and move on. As it is, the "Carrot On The Stick" is what has kept a lot of people (and even guilds) going.

 That said, even with the raid Zones Blizzard put a lot of effort into making sure it was possible for someone who plays alone to get gear comperable to what can be pulled out of most raid instances without having to actually deal with another person. It's theoretically possible to get BWL equivilent gear through PVP (and you don't have to use pre-made groups, although it is easier), and a lot of the CC gear from "Medals" and faction grinding is equivilent to what can be pulled out of an endgame zone.

 At any rate, what your typical MMO player wants is a game like WoW, except with enough content to keep it going with that level of pacing, without having to rely on 39 other people, or your online social abillity. This is now what Vanguard is though.

 The Vanguard concept seems to be highly competitive, and designed around the idea of servers where less than 1% of the population will totally dominate and will be worshipped by their lesser peers (OMG! Where did you get that item!) these people being utterly hard core. We've seen it in EQ all the time. For this to work however it requires a lot of casual gamers to come in and effectively make up the peasantry, something that you find less and less people willing to do. Your average guy does not want to sit around in say Mithaniel Marr and talk about how cool "Afterlife" is. They want to be able to do the same things as opposed to being locked out from going forward because they have to work 8-10 hours a day, or do homework.

  It's also known that when MMO players committ to a game, they tend to spend time whining and 'naysaying' and don't usually leave a game. Indeed to an extent all the crying, footstomping is part of what makes the guys on top feel special about themself (as odd as that might sound).

 The point here is that this is a carefully premeditated sales pitch. Vanguard looks like the best game out there in a lot of respects (graphics, some of the game play concept), but it's the overall theory of it's development that has sparked this kind of advertisement/article to begin with.

 Basically Vanguard seems to be being developed by a bunch of guys who want to recapture the old days when EQ 1 was pretty much the only MMO option, and a handfull of people at the top got to hold court/be worshipped in places like the North Freeport Bazaar, or Qeynos (before Luclin came out that is where people gathered to trade and were the social hubs of the game, depending on the server). As a result even the "new guy" seems to subtly lean in this direction, and the "old guy" is much wiser and such.

 All this rambling aside, my point is that if your not familiar with Vanguard you should check out their site and some of the things that have been said there over the many months of it's existance. If your in any way casual Vanguard probably isn't the game for you. If your hard core, you probably won't get what your looking for in  Vanguard since I don't think "the peasantry" is going to be there anymore. Reading their site is probably the best way to understand what I'm talking about (and why they are advertising this way).

  EQ1 and it's concepts of advancement/dominance and such are antiquidated. A dinosaur ridden by cavemen so to speak, and Vanguard is trying to play "Jurassic Park".

                                     >>>-----Therumancer--->

                Mage Speaker: Kamahi Immotum (Shadow Council Server, WoW)

        (Yes, I'm an experienced Endgame raider in multiple games despite everything I said)