First things first, going off of when this was posted I would say one of the reasons you saw so few players was during double exps for the holidays. Unlike other games where players rush out to adventure in Vanguard during double exps a good majority of the players will be on their characters either crafting or doing diplomacy. I know the major crafting areas were packed during this time since I to was leveling my crafting.

Now to address all those people who complain that there is no patches and the game is not being supported so they won't play the game. Somehow I get the feeling you are the same people who run to these very same boards and are the first to complain that so and so developer just ruined the game you loved by the latest update. Personally I find it great that for the most part the game I have come to love is not being ruined by the developers idea of what they think the game should be now. It has not been WoWafied. It has not been giving the Star Wars treatment. It is and has continued to be the game that it started out to be. Yet people complain still.

Sure it would be nice if they added a bit more content and finish fleshing out some of the continents. I also don't think anyone would complain if they fixed a few of the memory leaks. But all in all it is a solid game and it has a stable population.  The reason you don't see as many people on trial isle is because you can only level to 10 there. The people who like the game have already moved on to a paying subscription while those who are just wanting to play something for free have moved on since there is only so many ways to complete the trial isle before you have done it all.

Of course every one of you are entitled to your opinions but from what I have seen here you are posting your opinions based on what others have said and not from first hand experience in the game.

Originally posted by Adamantine

Err ... personally I dont really see the point of playing a MMO if there isnt "forced" group content.

Sure the game should allow to do some things solo - and Vanguard does - but the main point of playing "massively multiplayer", to me, is to cooperate and compete with other players !

 

But yeah, if Vanguard stays the way it is now, with just 100-200 active players (ignoring the starter island IoD), theres really no point in playing it anymore. Which is sad, because not even at the most distant horizont there isnt ANY company that wants to actually create a game of compareable awesomeness.

I guess I could live with a game that has less content than Vanguard has, but I dont think I will tolerate a rulesystem that just doesnt offer the immense complexity and depth of Vanguard classes. It just would be too frustrating and boring.

 

That's fine if there are enough people to support this play. Like WoW. However, almost every other game has tiny server caps, no cross-server LFG, therefore no one to group with. Its too discouraging to see all this content, and think "Man, I want to do that, but no one is around."

If there is group content there should be systems in place that allow people to do it when no one is around. WoW and now Rift are the only two games that have come close to addresses this issue.

Originally posted by Golelorn

 

That's fine if there are enough people to support this play. Like WoW. However, almost every other game has tiny server caps, no cross-server LFG, therefore no one to group with. Its too discouraging to see all this content, and think "Man, I want to do that, but no one is around."

If there is group content there should be systems in place that allow people to do it when no one is around. WoW and now Rift are the only two games that have come close to addresses this issue.

How can you do group quests or dungeons when nobody is around in WoW or Rift?  I don't think they've came any closer than Vanguard has to "fixing" it.  (I put quotation marks around fixed, because it's assumed that this is even a problem)

Imo mmorpg market could use some serious crash, to clear it.

True that would mean some investor back off, but imo market is just gigantically oversaturated.

Too many games (and games with very similar core concepts) and not enough players to support them.

This game tanked at launch and never recovered. It's existance only remainds due to SOE purchasing it from the original owners and the cost of servers for SOE being ignoreable IE how it managed to also keep SWG open with no population. Not sure why people still even discuss this game.

Top 3 Worst releases

1. Dark & Light

2. Mortal Online

3. Vanguard

Actually, it's a lesson to NEVER let Silius run with the ball as a lead developer. He is the main reason Vanguard is in it's current crappy and unpopulated state.

Originally posted by SuperXero89

Vanguard is a lesson in why it's not exactly a great idea to release a forced grouping game in the modern MMO era.  Vanguard has had a low population for years, but due to the nature of the content, it can be a real pain to progress through the game even if you can ignore the bugs.

wrong. VG went belly up because it was launched broken and couldent keep up with repairs. id say there was somewhere around 35% of the game missing when the game lauched. no APW no flying mounts ( things that were ON THE ORIGINAL BOX) ect ect. and the other 65% of the game was broken. death chunking, gear slips and other gfx problems. but all that aside, the game took way to much rig to run. most people that wanted to play VG were comming over from WoW. ( thats where i was coming from) and a large pop could barly run that game. had nothing to do with " forced grouping" there were so many other problems its not even funny.

Originally posted by Trueth

Actually, it's a lesson to NEVER let Silius run with the ball as a lead developer. He is the main reason Vanguard is in it's current crappy and unpopulated state.

As much as i dont like Silius, hes not the main reason VG is in the crapper. SOE and there financial department is why VG is in the crapper... Better yet. the fuck that came through Mircosofts game department and cut Sigils vains is the reason VG is in the crapper.

Most dont know that an "efficiency expert" came through and was axeing programs left and right. Saw Sigal as a bleeder and desided to stop the hemrrhage. When funding for VG was gone Sigil turned to SOE to do the job Microsoft was goin to do.

However SOE forced Sigil to launch the game befor it was even finished and inturn bought Sigils part of the game and wedged them out. Now SOE has 100% full rights to everything VG. Oh SOE also took 50% of Sigils development team with them. Only to slowly fire each one after they started adding the things that were left out. ie APW/flying mounts and the like.

I love the game. Was the best game i ever played. i wouldent pay SOE one red cent to play it again though. If it went F2P today i would right back in Talon and thousands of others would be to.

Uh-hu.

As an active Vanguard-Player, this thread is really weird material.

Vanguard had a couple construction errors, such as too high graphic requirements (no wonder, it wasnt planned to release it so early) and a serious f***up in the department of making contracts with Microsoft about the nature of the planned game. Then suddenly M$ changed their whole game department and Vanguard just got thrown out in the process.

All in all pretty sad, but hey, life goes on. After all these issues, one still can play Vanguard just fine.

My main problem with the lack of success thanks to the early release is that Vanguard has been no success and all the good lessons one can learn from playing Vanguard are going to be lost. Such as the highly interactive and complex combat system.

EverQuest Next, for example, doesnt mention Vanguard at all.

So far however it seems like Vanguard will continue to be playable for years to come. SOE pretty much guarantees that.

Originally posted by Adamantine

EverQuest Next, for example, doesnt mention Vanguard at all.

So far however it seems like Vanguard will continue to be playable for years to come. SOE pretty much guarantees that.

 

what do you mean by EQNext doesent mention VG at all?

i was hopping that there would be a marrage of sorts between VG and EQ to form eqnext.

the lack of info atm is taxing but it is what it is. can only wait till game play vids are available to see.

Originally posted by SuperXero89

Vanguard is a lesson in why it's not exactly a great idea to release a forced grouping game in the modern MMO era.  Vanguard has had a low population for years, but due to the nature of the content, it can be a real pain to progress through the game even if you can ignore the bugs.

What a load of BS,Vanguards grouping system has nothing to do with the low population.

Nice try though..

Originally posted by DexterMMO

This game tanked at launch and never recovered. It's existance only remainds due to SOE purchasing it from the original owners and the cost of servers for SOE being ignoreable IE how it managed to also keep SWG open with no population. Not sure why people still even discuss this game.

Top 3 Worst releases

1. Dark & Light

2. Mortal Online

3. Vanguard

Some of us stil play it and love it ;)

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Originally posted by Sylvarii

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Originally posted by SuperXero89
Vanguard is a lesson in why it's not exactly a great idea to release a forced grouping game in the modern MMO era.  Vanguard has had a low population for years, but due to the nature of the content, it can be a real pain to progress through the game even if you can ignore the bugs.

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What a load of BS,Vanguards grouping system has nothing to do with the low population.
Nice try though..

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The number one reason that people stop playing VG is the lack of people to group with. I would say that definitely makes grouping at least a part of the problem.

Has the population gone up at all since I made the topic? I really enjoy VG, but not with such low population that it had at the beginning of the month and through December.

That's sad.  May not be alot of people who play, but those that do seem to really like it.

SOE should really try to F2P this game.  Something/anything to get some free marketing buzz going.

Originally posted by Elikal

Originally posted by SuperXero89

Vanguard is a lesson in why it's not exactly a great idea to release a forced grouping game in the modern MMO era.  Vanguard has had a low population for years, but due to the nature of the content, it can be a real pain to progress through the game even if you can ignore the bugs.

YES. Most of all this.

Oh the many debates I had with people back then, who ALL wanted back the EQ1 era hardcore, and I told them 1000 times such an experiment would fail. If the game were good, people would ignore bugs, as many succesfull MMOs in the past have proven. It was a dinosaur from day one on.

it would only fail because there is a generation of mmo players who's first mmo was wow and lets be honest wow was easy mode compared to the older mmo's.

Originally posted by Robsolf

That's sad.  May not be alot of people who play, but those that do seem to really like it.

SOE should really try to F2P this game.  Something/anything to get some free marketing buzz going.

Agree sir.

It is funny that as the MMO genre grows and release after release comes, you realize the turn that new titles took... away from eq/vanguard/swg/even wow..

It is becoming more and more about fast action fighting and quick and dirty dungeons... Vanguard offers the old school gameplay ( to a point ) as an open world Themepark with sandbox elements that many people want.

Problem is you can't recover from failed launches without a relaunch ( DDO ) and F2P would do that for vanguard, but i seriously doubt SOE will do it.

Sad to see, but I'm partly to blame because I left long ago and dont plan on rejoining.  Yet my momory is that its a good game.

I loved how the classes and races are so completly different.  The Druid was so fun in combat.  Hunter, Shaman, Necro, all different and fun.

I really liked VG, I wasn't a big fan of when they made it easier to level....But thats me...

I left when the PvP support left (and killed the server), and game support followed...

Its too hard to bounce back from a bad launch, best thing to do would be a massive revamp, and slap a 2 on it or something imo...But no one is going to commit that money, so I don't see much hope for it.

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Originally posted by quasar941

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Originally posted by Sylvarii

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Originally posted by SuperXero89
Vanguard is a lesson in why it's not exactly a great idea to release a forced grouping game in the modern MMO era.  Vanguard has had a low population for years, but due to the nature of the content, it can be a real pain to progress through the game even if you can ignore the bugs.

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What a load of BS,Vanguards grouping system has nothing to do with the low population.
Nice try though..

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The number one reason that people stop playing VG is the lack of people to group with. I would say that definitely makes grouping at least a part of the problem.

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I played Vanguard for a couple months a while back, got to level 37 and quit because nearly all my quests were group quests and it would take me days to find a group.