To start off I really have high hopes for this game. I've been playing mmorpgs for 7 years and started with Everquest during Verants era. I really loved it including my favorite explansion Scars of Velious. So on that my anticipation for playing for this game is extremely high. I did post this same reply on the Vanguard forums. The reason is just to allow Vanguard to see hopefully some concerns due to myself as well as many others getting noticed.

On that note, I've been watching all the beta videos on gameplay because this is where you really get the feel for a game. Here's my observations and I hope they address this before the game releases into production.

1) The character movements are terrible. They are not anywhere near lifelike. I don't believe they could've been choreographed by people like other mmorpgs do to gain realism in the movements. The movements look robotic and some poses are not appealing to the eye. I heard that the developers/designers recognize this and this will be fixed so I have hopes for that. Otherwise this could be a game breaker for me.

2) The spell effects are sooooo boring and so is the sound effects. The spell effects are so primitive and lazy. I understand that in the beta videos the video settings might be turned way down to avoid lag during frapsing so I hope that's the case. Otherwise this really needs some work badly. The sound is so repetitious, the same clanking sound over and over with no significant changes. I hope this is addressed too. I understand this is beta so my hopes are high that the developers/designers recognize this and this is just a symptom of being beta.

3) I know that this is already known but I'll say it again. The models on the mounts look like they are stiff as a board. No movement in the character models as a horse gallops. The boats have no wake/spashing of water. The flying mounts wings are so stiff. So many things in this game are stiff and non-lifelike. I know I've heard they recognize this so I'll wait for this to change as well. Something very important to me is being immersed into a game and having somewhat realistic movements/environmental effects is really really important. Gamebreaking important.

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Good notes, I love the SKY and the vastness of the TERRAIN. Amazing work.

In conclusion, the following 3 items above are very important to many players. If these aren't addressed this could definitely prevent me from playing though I'm a heavy mmorpg'er and loved Everquest. Everquest had these issues as well described above but the mmorpg for that generation was amazing and new for most of us so all that was overlooked for the new type of 1st person mmoprg gameplay. Times are different now so none of the 3 points above should be acceptable if not addressed. The character movements should be more fluid and lifelike, not robotic and fake looking. There's so much competition coming over the horizon that game makers can't afford to ignore the responses of these types of forums on video gameplay while in beta.

Please fix this, because if you do this game will be AMAZING!