Vanguard is old-school, perhaps the real successor to EQ. 

-The game world is huge, with no instances. Even going into a bldg or dungeon is not an instance. No loading screens.

- There are no zone boundaries either, the world is totally wide open. See a mountain in the distance? Go explore it. The game is not on rails. Go explore a high level area if you want, and if you dare :)

- Lots and lots of content. For each level, there are multiple areas to level in. You could level 2-3 characters to max, and not repeat anything.

- no easy mode, and there are many areas a solo player just cannot get to. Many dungeons require groups.

- crafting and diplomacy mini-games require attention, not just button mashing

- lots of interesting classes and races

As for the graphics, I think they are fine.

Today's Patch:

Free to Play

·Free Players:

o All races and classes available at character create without needing to unlock them

o Can create guilds as well as join them

o 2 plat coin limit has been removed

o Quest limit has been raised to 50

o All bag slots are now unlocked

o Can now join Caravans and Brotherhoods

o Broker and mail fee penalties have been removed, reducing costs to previous subscriber levels

o Can purchase a housing plot.

·Gold Members:

o 50% XP boost

o Gain faction at double the normal rate

o 20% discount on broker fees, mail fees, riftway fees, item repair, and housing upkeep

o Can purchase 2 housing plots

o In progress: Improved odds at receiving rare loot drops. (Coming in next week's update)

·For more information about the Membership benefits, view the Membership feature matrix and read the FAQ.

·To receive rewards, open the Marketplace and click the Claim button near the bottom of the window.

·Note: This update only affects previously available rewards. New veteran rewards will be implemented in a future update.

·Check out these new items:

o Ground mount: Malson's Turtle Dragon - Ride in style on his sturdy shell

o Visage of the Mummy - Just the thing to startle your group mates

o Vanity Pet: Rock Troll - He may not say much, but he's ever at your side

o Petamorph: Statue Cat - A fresh, if somewhat stony, look for your class pet

·Potion of Quickened Steps can now be consumed instantly

·Consumable items have been moved into the Services category

·Appearance slot armor and clothing have been combined into the Outfits category

·Mounts and Pets have been split into their own categories

·All marketplace boats are on sale. There's never been a better time to sail Telon's high seas!

·Azebaj Staff and Templar Staff of Delight now have appearances

·Time-Imbued Crystal and Fake Crystal are now marked as quest items

·Ripped Scale Gloves no longer have doubled stats

·The health regeneration effect of Magi Hold Spellwand will now persist for the entire 10 minutes of the ability

·Princess Freestone's Tiara now has Primal, Etherence, Infuse, and Rune enhancement slots

·Avarem's Messenger Bag now gives a 10% runspeed bonus that stacks with other effects

o Ancient Breastplate now has Etherence, Primal, and Rune enhancement slots

o Tharridon's Ring now has Etherence, Primal, and Rune enhancement slots

o Tharridon's Mighty Maul now has a proc, and its damage has been corrected

·Druid - Switching to Hierophant's Blessing stance no longer triggers an auto-attack animation

·Bard and Light Fighter trainers will now offer the song component Mellarien's Chorus of Arms

·Shadow Vein should now open up chains on critical strikes

They just eased up a ton on the f2p restrictions, and boosted the gold perks a bit to keep it desirable.

Graphics are great when you look at the world and the dungeons... however characters and water not so great.

What you get with vanguard is:

1. Some of the best dungeons in any MMO ever

2. Some of the best class designs in any MMO ever

3. More content 1-40 than i have seen in any MMO ever

4. Excellent crafting

Never did the diplo thing so i can't comment...

I have a ton of chars

51 bmg/44 bard/43 dk/35 psi/35 disc/23 rng/ 37 shaman / 22 necro / 13 druid

My favorities in order:

Blood mage / psi / bard / DK / disc / ranger

Like to get into necro more but she is my crafter ;)

O.0 =.O

Am I seeing things? I will be able to play Vanguard MY way? That waffling rocks to the moon and back!!!

And boy did you overdo the intro Dirkin. But what I saw, well, impressed me. Can't wait to dl it tomorrow.

OMG and when I buy TSW to boot. WOW! What an awesome start of a year!

:D :D xD

edit: I have faith that they will update the water. It only needs a layer of two of shaders anyhow. 

Just before I start:

Telon's the right server, yes?

Isle of Dawn or can I start in racial storylines? I'd prefer latter, but if former is way better I'll take that one.

Really, you have to ask yourself one simple question.  Why the heck does this (or any) game think it can charge a monthly fee?  This game did have a monthly sub, and offered zero content updates.  Now it's "Free" to play, but you still have to buy stuff.  Once you buy enough, is it free to play?  Making it a "buy to play" game?

Some people might argue, because you pay for the service, the servers...  Ok, so how much is fair?

Most of us pay $100 for our cell service.  Data, text, voice...

Would we pay $1000 for cell phone service?  I wouldn't.  It's really nice to have, but not THAT nice.

$15 a month is a bit steep to have access to characters in a virtual world. 

I tried it F2P. It's fine but it just didn't grab me. I wanted access to the housing and F2P locks me out of that. The rest wasn't enough to inspire me to sub so I left.

Originally posted by Gorwe

Just before I start:

Telon's the right server, yes?

Isle of Dawn or can I start in racial storylines? I'd prefer latter, but if former is way better I'll take that one.

Keep in mind, 'your home town' takes you to the Human hubs, so it is only your races home town if you pick a human. Otherwise, it is your 'home continent'.

Both the isle and all 3 human hubs are good storylines. 

Isle of Dawn/Tanvu = asian-esque

Thestra = middle ages Europe-esque

Qalia = middle eastern/desert-esque

Originally posted by Painlezz

Really, you have to ask yourself one simple question.  Why the heck does this (or any) game think it can charge a monthly fee?  This game did have a monthly sub, and offered zero content updates.  Now it's "Free" to play, but you still have to buy stuff.  Once you buy enough, is it free to play?  Making it a "buy to play" game?

 

Some people might argue, because you pay for the service, the servers...  Ok, so how much is fair?

Most of us pay $100 for our cell service.  Data, text, voice...

Would we pay $1000 for cell phone service?  I wouldn't.  It's really nice to have, but not THAT nice.

 

$15 a month is a bit steep to have access to characters in a virtual world. 

15$ per month is like 50 cents a day......how is that equivalent to a 1000.00 phone bill?

They just revamped the F2P limitations

http://www.vanguardthegame.com/news/article.vm?month=012013&id=1532

Originally posted by Ikonic

They just revamped the F2P limitations

 

http://www.vanguardthegame.com/news/article.vm?month=012013&id=1532

That's really really awesome. I may actually come back to it now.

Yeah they just made f2p WAY less restrictive.

As for what server you want, I'd definitely go Telon. Halgar is the EU server, but has a much smaller population.

You really hardly have to pay for anything now. And a sub is only $15 a month if you pay per month. My sub, which has admittedly been active since launch, is on I think a yearly recurring plan. This works out to about $7 a month, plus 500 station cash.

new changes should sell ya.....

Free to Play
 

·We're pleased to offer substantial improvements to Vanguard for both free players and gold members! Our goal is to open up the game to free players while increasing the value of memberships.

·Free Players:

oAll races and classes available at character create without needing to unlock them

oCan create guilds as well as join them

o2 plat coin limit has been removed

oQuest limit has been raised to 50

oAll bag slots are now unlocked

oCan now join Caravans and Brotherhoods

oBroker and mail fee penalties have been removed, reducing costs to previous subscriber levels

oCan purchase a housing plot.

·Gold Members:

o50% XP boost

oGain faction at double the normal rate

o20% discount on broker fees, mail fees, riftway fees, item repair, and housing upkeep

oCan purchase 2 housing plots

oIn progress: Improved odds at receiving rare loot drops. (Coming in next week's update)

oYour previous member benefits remain: more character slots, more bank slots, no item restrictions, 10% Marketplace discount, and 500 Station Cash per month.

·For more information about the Membership benefits, view the Membership feature matrix and read the FAQ.

Veteran Rewards
 

·Previously existing veteran rewards are once again available. If your account has rewards available, you will see a message when you log in telling you that there are items waiting to be claimed.

·To receive rewards, open the Marketplace and click the Claim button near the bottom of the window.

·Note: This update only affects previously available rewards. New veteran rewards will be implemented in a future update.

Marketplace
 

·Check out these new items:

oGround mount: Malson's Turtle Dragon - Ride in style on his sturdy shell

oVisage of the Mummy - Just the thing to startle your group mates

oVanity Pet: Rock Troll - He may not say much, but he's ever at your side

oPetamorph: Statue Cat - A fresh, if somewhat stony, look for your class pet

·Potion of Quickened Steps can now be consumed instantly

·Consumable items have been moved into the Services category

·Appearance slot armor and clothing have been combined into the Outfits category

·Mounts and Pets have been split into their own categories

·All marketplace boats are on sale. There's never been a better time to sail Telon's high seas!

My little plug I guess.....

Originally posted by Biskop
Oh wait, they never are. There will still be moaning and whining because they have to spend a couple of bucks on item unlocks after freely enjoying VG insane amount of content for weeks and months on end (yes you'll have to play A LOT to actually need that yellow and orange gear).

Lol because it's not high enough of a reason? Gear restriction is basically pay to win, which a lot of gamers loath, and it's not like you pay once and you can equip them forever, you gotta pay for each gear piece, i'm not sure if you were sarcastic or actually complaining about free players, your post was a bit hard to detect the nature of it.

The new f2p changes are great, but i can't restrain myself from thinking, now if that gear limit would go away, it would be perfect.

I haven't played in about a 1.5 years, but I can say from my time there that it's worth a go. It feels a lot like Everquest 2 should have. The nicest part is that if you see something in the distance then you can go there; the background isn't just for show...it's a destination.

The game also has a lot to explore; my first time through all I did was explore and I found quite a few uninstanced dungeons along the way that kept me going for exploration alone( though a bit of fancy blue gear drops didn't hurt).

At the end of the day it's a f2p game - nobody can tell you if you'll enjoy it or not. From my experience, it's definitely worth a try.

Originally posted by Gorwe

Thank You all for your advices! Yes, even you Starpower, even tho you are blocked :D

Wait, what? You blocked the guy for giving his honest opinion in a way that wasn't even the least bit trolling? So you require other people to tell you what you like, and when someone gives a sound reason why not, you block them?

Yeah, go ahead and block me, too. I can't see myself ever engaging a schizoid like yourself in a reasonable and objective conversation anyway.