Because it is not worth a sub and if you want to completely play the game you eventually need to sub. If they would do the free to play like AION I would play it.

Originally posted by tawess

very simple.

 

Big empty and uninspired world.

 

If i wanted that i might as well play Project Entropia.

 

Only if you enjoy throwing real money at everything. ^^  

well the world is actually the only thing you can enjoy for free in PE =P

But i think i'l stick to WoW for my fantasy fix, i have invested way to much time in that game to just toss it aside. And i actually will enjoy MoP.

Vanguard is a good game.. it just do not have the community needed to populate the world, ironic as it might seem. Had it a more compact world i am sure it would feel a lot better for me. As it stands when i last played it i felt like the last man on earth so to speak.

why am i not playing?  nothing to do with anything bad for vanguard, but rather because of good games that have my attention at the moment.

they go f2p with the following on the table.

LOTRO Rohan

RIFT storm legion

The game that shall not be mentioned: MoP

GW2 release

personally for me one of the above, along with eve, is all the gaming i need along with my occasional forays into Civ5 and LoL...

if they had released freemium last year, or even earlier this year, they might have caught my attention to the point where i wouldnt even be following Rohan or Storm legion.  I love large world games (eve player since 2007 much?) and i would have played vg since launch if it werent for its unplayability at launch for me.

they were too late in incorporating freemium, in my opinion and now they are trying to vie for attention between a lot of new games and expansions for other good games.

Because it's still a very low populated game

Now it just have a crappy F2P model on top of it

I can deal with the "F2P" part, if the population was healthy and booming with players + adding xpacs at the same rate as other newer MMOs or even EQ1/EQ2. Since that's not the case, I feel I won't get my moneys worth with a gold subscription nor the more expensive option of opening up all slots and all spheres on all the characters I would have to, just to enjoy the experience

Originally posted by tuppe99

Installed the game last night and it actually does not look bad at all.

 

The graphics is not worse that WoW for instance and looking at the Unofficial trailer on youtube that someone on these forums posted the link to, the game looks to be much more like what a lot of people on these forums want.

 

So, why are you not playing it?

 

Sometimes I think no game will ever satisfy us MMOers on these forums. Or we all play WoW secretly ;)

The graphics are seriously bad. WoW is ugly too but at least it has a style. Vanguard has that typical SOE look of "we got a high capability engine that still feels like a Second Life wannabe".

What I mean by that is the the individual models look  decent but it fails to create a "real" world feeling. Things don't fit. 

I also got tired of falling through the world to my death and waiting for a GM to fix it days later so I could play again.

Characters are also plain ugly.

Oh and I played it at launch. Why didn't you?

Don't play because:

- SOE owns the game

- Subscription based

Between hearing all the horror stories from my friends who once played Vanguard, and seeing videos of gameplay, I keep on being scared away.

I really wanted to try it when it went F2P, but my friends assured me I was super crazy for even contemplating it.

Came back for the free-to-play and I'm still regretting my Vanguard: SOH Collector's Edition.

The UI and graphics are pretty bad and the gameplay is uninspired. I do like some of the monster models though but the PC character models are pretty bad.

I just don't find this game to be very fun and also it doesn't even put a dent in my GTX 580 video card.

Please excuse me while I go play some classic Everquest.

I'd say Vanguard is by far the weakest of the SOE Free-to-Play titles.

The fun gameplay elements are just not there.

Originally posted by DangerNobuo

Came back for the free-to-play and I'm still regretting my Vanguard: SOH Collector's Edition.

 

The UI and graphics are pretty bad and the gameplay is uninspired. I do like some of the monster models though but the PC character models are pretty bad.

I just don't find this game to be very fun and also it doesn't even put a dent in my GTX 580 video card.

Please excuse me while I go play some classic Everquest.

I'd say Vanguard is by far the weakest of the SOE Free-to-Play titles.

 

The fun gameplay elements are just not there.

 While I can appreciate your opinion, Vanguard is as close to classic EQ as you can get nowadays(less the CR's) without playing classic. They even have J-Boots and long grinds. I personally see it as what EQ2 should have been. You know you can install a modded interface if you want to as well. In addition I find it odd that you can except EQ-classic graphics but not VG's- Ive played them both and VG's graphics are clearly superior.   

i am one of the old players of VG, why am i not playing VG anymore?

simply, it's the year 2012, and the graphics started to kick in, back in 2007, it was amazing because most of MMOs still looks the same, of course it doesnt make up for everything, the gameplay and community was one of the reason i love this game to death back in the days

i used to remember when you visit a map and there would be more than 50 people in a single map, and it was fun

now? it's a world of zombie, there is no one to be seen.. and it's even creepier that you feel like you are the only one and maybe a few others that is in the huge world.. 

honestly, i havent go back and check the game since they went F2P, but judging from what people say, looks like the world even after F2P are still empty

vanguard is showing its age. several of the key systems need updates badly. for example.. the quest journal and quest poi map system is horrible. and Advanced Infomap isnt any help.

Ive also noticed that since F2P transition performance has gone down the toilet again.. it just like release. VG's shining potential has been to long neglected and i doubt it will ever see fruition.

Ive also noticed that the long time Vets are very hostile and unwelcomingto f2p players. They have a mjor chip on their shoulders.

Thats why I'm not playing.

I played during beta, then I played for 3 months.  I came back after free to play only to see many of the same bugs that were there when the game launched.  All I saw was massive amounts of lag just like launch,  and I logged of and reinstalled.

There is nothing for me to go back to, end of story.

The game has some good ideas and features, but their execution of everything else is really subpar.

Pros:

• Great selection of races and classes
• Fantastic open world design
• Crafting with depth
• Diplomancy

• Dated graphics
• Terrible music and sound effects
• Amazingly unpolished UI
• Poor animations
• Uncanny Valley cranked to 11
• Unispired combat.
• The nametags make my eyes bleed.
• No class flexibility

Originally posted by tuppe99

Installed the game last night and it actually does not look bad at all.

 

The graphics is not worse that WoW for instance and looking at the Unofficial trailer on youtube that someone on these forums posted the link to, the game looks to be much more like what a lot of people on these forums want.

 

So, why are you not playing it?

 

Sometimes I think no game will ever satisfy us MMOers on these forums. Or we all play WoW secretly ;)

 I played it from launch till right before they got rid of PvP servers.  I think it is a great game, im watching and waiting...Seeing how commited they are to it...  Would of been great if they wouldn't of waited so long to do something with it.  They were supposed to do a relaunch years ago, and never did it, till now.

---

Originally posted by xDayx

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Originally posted by DangerNobuo Came back for the free-to-play and I'm still regretting my Vanguard: SOH Collector's Edition.   The UI and graphics are pretty bad and the gameplay is uninspired. I do like some of the monster models though but the PC character models are pretty bad. I just don't find this game to be very fun and also it doesn't even put a dent in my GTX 580 video card. Please excuse me while I go play some classic Everquest. I'd say Vanguard is by far the weakest of the SOE Free-to-Play titles.   The fun gameplay elements are just not there.

---

 While I can appreciate your opinion, Vanguard is as close to classic EQ as you can get nowadays(less the CR's) without playing classic. They even have J-Boots and long grinds. I personally see it as what EQ2 should have been. You know you can install a modded interface if you want to as well. In addition I find it odd that you can except EQ-classic graphics but not VG's- Ive played them both and VG's graphics are clearly superior.   

---

Higher poly counts don't make them better - the EQ character models - even the Luclin era ones - are better than Vanguard's, and we all know how important general animation quality is in relation to the feel of the game as a whole.

VG feels syrupy, with very plastic, out of place character models with highschool a/v club quality animations. It's quite jarring and ruins character->player interaction.

I love Vanguard. I used to play at launch and still have the account. SOE Customer Service was amazing in finding that account; I didn't have to wait on hold and they were both patient and nice. I work customer service/technical support, so I definitely understand when I receive exemplary service. I re-created when F2P came along, because I was tired of other games making feeble attempts to re-create old IPs. After playing for about a week now, I've re-subbed and bought a few cash store items. My computer plays VG:SOH excellently, I don't experience much lag (Unless I pop out of a Rift and there's a bunch of people standing at the stone, let's say in such places as New Targ, then it takes a moment but still not terrible). I honestly don't know where people come off saying the lag is that terrible; Using the FPS/Ping meter, I consistently run ~90-150ms ping and 50-60 FPS without many dips (With all settings completely maxed; I used NVidia Control Panel to force AA at 4x.) [Edit: Haven't gone into raids, don't have a maxed toon.. I notice a lot of gripes about raids]. I can even run a second F2P act on max settings on my second monitor and both games will receive 20-40 FPS depending on the time.

I WILL say that I've fallen through the world a couple times. /stuck yes fixed that with impunity and without death (Don't fall for 20 minutes before typing it and you won't die.) I've had this happen in other MMOs as well, so it doesn't surprise me. The ease to fix that bug is child's play.  It seems that they've fixed most of the bugs though; I haven't lost any gear, haven't drowned whilst sailing a boat in the ocean, haven't zoned and come out without gear or stuck, interface doesn't bug out as bad as it used too (It still has some issues though, sometimes interface parts move on their own. Simply unlocking interface and moving it where it should be fixed it). And the interface customization is still amazing compared to what most other MMOs allow.

I will say that the game has a definite "older" feel, but personally, I like games like that (read: EQ, EQ2, Runescape, etc).  Also, the game's systems are definitely EQ-like. The system of "grinds" are still in place, especially for harvesting and crafting. Raising adventuring levels happens fairly quickly until 40+ and then seems to slow down a bit. There's a ton of quests, and since the F2P introduction, it feels like there IS more players around. Definitely not WoW numbers, but c'mon. This isn't WoW. You shouldn't expect it to be. I find groups with ease, I've had a 6 man group every time I've adventured for dungeons across Telon. I find harvesting and crafting groups just by advertising in the general channels without much problem as well.

All in all, it's still a good game. People give this game a ridiculously hard time in and out of game, I think it's just the stigma from the bad launch (Should I say REALLY bad? Probably) clouding player expectations and causing them to diss it overly much without actually giving it an unbiased go. Either that or their computers or internet sources are terrible and they're blaming it on the game. 

TLDR? The game is decent. Not amazing by any right, but it's definitely a good play, give it a shot at least before you rage about how terrible it is or who owns the title..

(Edit: Clarified a few things regarding settings, edited out typos, clarified a few things)

Originally posted by dreamscaper

The game has some good ideas and features, but their execution of everything else is really subpar.

 

Pros:

• Great selection of races and classes
• Fantastic open world design
• Crafting with depth
• Diplomancy

Cons:

• Dated graphics
• Terrible music and sound effects
• Amazingly unpolished UI
• Poor animations
• Uncanny Valley cranked to 11
• Unispired combat.
• The nametags make my eyes bleed.
• No class flexibility

I cannot help but comment.  Terrible music?  Vanguard has the best music I have heard in an MMO since '03.  SWG had excellent music if you liked SW's obviously.

I guess it depends on personal preference in the end.  Here are 2 links to some VGSOH music.  The songs fit the areas extremely well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0XB9wlII8I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjf28axkyk