It's true. There is content for all, even the end-game Power Gamers & the Casual Gamers. And that's the key: Content. It's there for all to enjoy.

Here, this is from the VSoH FAQ, and it's a good read:

How about soloing and casual play? If Vanguard is mostly about grouping, but I am more of a solo or casual player, is Vanguard not for me?

We are NOT trying to drive out solo players -- that would be foolish. In fact, we're making casual areas to support solo players, as well as players who have less contiguous time to play, and then even the occasional more hard core player who wants to log on briefly and actually still get something done.

The focus of the game is on the group experience. On each side, you have the solo or more casual content, and then the raid content.

You also touched on some reasons, as did I, as to why people solo. A big one is that it's hard to find a group. We agree and are doing a bunch of things to make it easy to find a group and to keep that group together -- in fact, we believe strongly that grouping is one of the cornerstones behind community building, especially pick-up groups. I can't promise you that you'll always find a group, but I will promise you that we'll do our best to bring people together, by the way we lay out the world, with various game mechanics, abilities, tools, etc. So, in a nutshell, having any significant number of people who would rather group but are forced to solo is something we can't allow.

Then there are people who simply like to solo, but to solo in an online game. I've seen some people ask these people, hey, why the heck are you playing a multiplayer game if you want to solo? Honestly, I think this is a little narrowsighted. Just because it doesn't appeal to you, doesn't mean that somebody else likes to solo in an environment with other people because it makes the world seem more alive, or, really for whatever their reason is. People are different.

Now, will these people like Vanguard? Good question. I think some will, and some won't. You *will* be able to solo in Vanguard, but it will be more difficult, you will advance more slowly, and you won't be able to realistically access many areas (and so will either not obtain some better items or have to buy/trade for them). That will turn some solo players off and while we regret that, I don't see how we could cater to them and our primary target audience both: those who like to group. But I think there are other solo players who don't mind this. If they want something, they don't mind deciding to either not worry about it, or perhaps to group on a rare occasion and see that area or obtain that item, or even save their money and buy it in-game. This subset of solo player is usually less competitive and more focused on his character and his accomplishments and less on what other people are doing. That solo player I think could have a great time in Vanguard.

Just to make sure I'm being consistent with what I've said in the past: we are making content for casual, group, and raid. Obviously, the solo player would be playing in the casual areas. But even the casual areas are designed for small pick-up groups. So he'll be able to progress, but still not as quickly or as effectively as if he were to join a small group of people and play a while.

The reason we did this is because we think there are more people who want casual areas because they have less time to play, or more specifically less contiguous time to play, and still want to be able to log in, advance, and have a good time. We feel there are more people like that than those who insist on soloing (wrong or right, that's how we're looking at it). So they are the target audience for the casual regions, more so than the solo player, but I don't think it will exclude the solo player either.

I've also said that, when asked to make comparisons, that the ability to solo will likely turn out to be about as effective as it was to solo in EQ. Now this is a very broad and general statement. Some classes could solo a lot better in EQ, plus there were some exploits that went on for some time that would allow solo players to advance relatively quickly (eg more quickly than what was designed). Addressing this, we hope our approach to classes with our Job system makes it such that there isn't a specific class that always solos better. But we do make mistakes, and I imagine there will still be, but hopefully it won't be as bad. And as for exploits, well, we have to fix those right away for a variety of reasons -- not to screw the solo player, but to maintain the overall health and integrity of the game. So *roughly* similar to EQ and other games where you could similarly solo, but not exactly the same either.

You can solo the casual content (mobs) right now in beta. We're still making lots of tweaks, but this should remain true. A group of 2-3 is more efficient, of course, but you can solo.

But please make sure you've read the multple posts I and others have made regarding this topic. The vast majority of the game is focused on group content (something like 4-8 players, working together). That is where most of the content will be geared for, where most of the good loot will be found, most of the adventure. And, honestly, IMHO, most of the fun. I'm not saying soloing won't be fun. A lot of this is subjective and relative to the player and what he or she enjoys. But right now the group/guild I play with nightly consists of 6-8 players and we are able to enjoy the dungeons and other areas meant for our level range. And it's a blast.

Note I'm talking here mostly about the adventuring sphere. The other spheres are to some degree more doable with less people in your group, and some very doable individually. We're shooting for variety here, not just for those who like to group less, but also those who like to group but perhaps are on when their buddies aren't, or who have less time to find a group and head into the depths of a dungeon some night and still want something to do, areas where they can advance, activities where they are still having fun. (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)

*waits for the trolls to put their own spin on this*

/popcorn

What is this?  You are providing real info from the devs, official FAQ info, and lots and lots of words to read through.  How dare you!  You aren't quoting just disgruntled players who should not even be in the beta anyway...or quoting those players that dislike a game that they personally aren't interested in, without thinking that other people may like something that they don't like.

Arg this is too much...

Yet, if you don't raid, you will miss 20% of the tools needed to achieve grouping podiums, thereby you will be left out, a second-class grouper, because you don't raid.

Zzzz...Long winded post to circle around the point rather than go straight to it, 20% of the content is off-limit if you don't raid, including 20% of the best grouping tools.

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Originally posted by Anofalye

Yet, if you don't raid, you will miss 20% of the tools needed to achieve grouping podiums, thereby you will be left out, a second-class grouper, because you don't raid.

Zzzz...Long winded post to circle around the point rather than go straight to it, 20% of the content is off-limit if you don't raid, including 20% of the best grouping tools.

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LOL... no, it's all open to you, you just choose not to raid...

Speak as a non-raider myself, I'll add that raiding takes a group, and you're complaining about getting group items? And on top of that, this game has 3 Conts and several seas, and you're worried about Content? Seriously, I know people that played Galaxies for years and never saw all the POI's...

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Originally posted by Anofalye

Yet, if you don't raid, you will miss 20% of the tools needed to achieve grouping podiums, thereby you will be left out, a second-class grouper, because you don't raid.

Zzzz...Long winded post to circle around the point rather than go straight to it, 20% of the content is off-limit if you don't raid, including 20% of the best grouping tools.

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100% true for players who play tanks. With 4 tank classes there will be a preffered group tank class for group content. Tanks are 100% gear dependant and without playing 10+ hours a day and raiding every night you won't get groups, just like EQ. Solo content will be out for tanks, because then they are considered "overpowered" for group and raid content. So there you go, the most popular class cut out unless you are an unemployed loser playing Vanguard 24/7. Expect raiders to have double the hps and a sizeably higher armor class that pushes all others out of tanking for grouips because raiders demand gear with at least twice as much power as casuals get. Cough cough like EQ with 400+ hp gear available only to raiders while SOE throws a bone of 175 hp gear to casuals.

Only 20% unavailable IF you do not want to Raid?  Fine by me!  

I would rather explore than power level anyday.  Also - how can people play 10 hours a day and raid at night!!!  What about work (or school) and then RL committments?

That leads to the question - Do Hardcore players have no life? 

Now that should get the thread moving!    LOL!

Answer: Goodurden-Warrior-EQ 724 days played 18 hours 46 minutes....  .... ..... and I didn't even spend much time looking for one to answer that!

Fine they love casuals.  We still hate them.  My problem goes deaper than will they let me play.  It goes to the core of MMORPGs.  Why does end game content have to be raiding?  Can the developers not come up with something better?  or are the too scared?

D

PS The forum editor is screwy.

PPS I will not play a MMORPG that the primary end game content is raiding.

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Originally posted by dimaryp
Fine they love casuals.  We still hate them.  My problem goes deaper than will they let me play.  It goes to the core of MMORPGs.  Why does end game content have to be raiding?  Can the developers not come up with something better?  or are the too scared?

D

PS The forum editor is screwy.

PPS I will not play a MMORPG that the primary end game content is raiding.

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Raids are an easy fix to the content problem.

• Put the players focus on the level they will be able to "raid" (get to the good stuff) and they do not look to closely where they are at.
• Attention really only needs to be give to the raid content not all levels. The rest of the game can be stuffed with "filler" like kill task.
• By keep all the worthwhile content in the endgame, its much easier to controll and requires less resources to create.

The vast majority of games went for this raid idea solely because EQ had some success with it. ALmost ALL second generation games use Kill Task as content and Raids as endgame. (there are a few exceptions) Very few MMO's over the last 5 years have actually attempted to create good overall content throughout.

What someone might notice is that WoW, who duplicated the raid/kill task formula, is backing off it. They realized that the vast majority of players are not interested in these 40 man raids. It will be interesting to see how many games react to this.

But it does look like Vanguard is going for Kill Task/raid. So we get a 3rd generation game that copying a  second generation game formula (that isn't that successful) that originated with a single first generation game. Pretty damn unambitious as far as content is concerned.