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A week of Vanguard, from hater to fanboy in 7 days
Recant
Member UncommonPosts: 1,586
First my here's my hater/fanboy theory:
In very simple terms you have fanboys; who don't understand the why haters hate the game so much, and haters; who don't see why the fanboys love the game so much. If haters are incredulous towards fanboys because of how great they think the game is, chances are it's not a difference in taste, but that they've had vastly different experiences. And on the flip side, if you don't understand why people hate the game, you probably haven't experienced as much the crap they've had to deal with. Of course the overall quality of the game is a huge factor... but it's not the only factor when it comes to how fanboys and haters come into being
If you're with friends, reformed your old guild, doing stuff like building a website and community - then that's augmenting your experience considerably. Conversely if you've joined the game with no friends, perhaps also avoiding other people in game, and perhaps chose a class that doesn't suit your playstyle, the game is going to be crap for you - chances are you're not having fun. This goes for all MMOs, not just Vanguard.
Anyways...
I've been playing Vanguard since last week, and I finally hit level 25. Every one of the last 7 days I've had a revelation about how deep this game actually is. I think that I'm a pretty experienced gamer, I've played EQ for many years, and WoW for 2 years, and some other MMOs in between. Before all my posts on these forums were "accidentally" deleted, I would always defend WoW from haters, as some of you may remember. I still think WoW is one of the top MMORPGs out there and is unfairly criticized by haters, but I think that Vanguard is perhaps the best MMO since WoW and may very well surpass the current king as the most enjoyable online game.
Day 1#
Pre-launch day 1, very exciting. Even someone as cynical as me wanted log on and be one of the first to get out of the newbie areas. As many people said, performance was vastly improved over beta, but there were still some problems. I found the engine to be unpolished, there are many bugs that you simply have to live with. But all the important stuff works, most of the time. Performance is perhaps the game's biggest drawback at the moment.
Day #2 and #3
Was very impressed by the overall feel of the world, I was becoming more attached to it every day. This is definately one of the best realized worlds I've ever encountered. Am I sounding like a fanboy yet? Well, then, there are definately some areas that are pretty poor, in terms of quality of design. Some areas are worse than EQ1 in terms of design, I am sorry to say - which is inexcusable. In contrast though, there are some areas that are so fantastically gorgeous that the fanboy in you screams out "oh my god this is so amazing I wub Vanguard 4ever!". I don't believe that the good areas are "made better" because there are also some poor areas (ying and yang), I just think that the quality of the game varies considerably based on where you are and what you are doing.
Day #4
It was at this point I started grouping up with people regularly. I was suddenly thrown back 7 years to Everquest 1, because the grouping aspect of that game is extremely similar. It shares a lot of similarities to EQ2, with regard to some mobs being flagged as solo and some that were intended for a group. However, it is much better implemented - the dot system is very nice, you are never told a mob is a solo mob, or a group mob, you just know if you have a chance to beat it, or if it's a big risk. The way mobs aggro, and add, and are engaged is much better implemented than EQ2. It's similar to EQ1 and WoW.
Day #5-7
This is where I've become hopelessly addicted and I know I'll be playing to the level cap at least. It feels like 3 mmorpgs rolled into one.
You have World of Warcraft in there - absolutely. This game borrows a LOT from WoW, which will have some hardcore fanboys up in arms I'm sure. But this is a good thing, and it adds to the overall accessibility and common sense logic of game design. The "WoW" quests aren't going to be all you need to do to level, but there's a good amount of them. You can lose exp here, so it doesn't follow WoW in that if you do a certain amount of quests you are guaranteed to level.
You have Everquest in there - diverse races, starting locations, meaningful travel, lore. You can grind exp - and the combat is fun enough that grinding is a nice, not too tedious way of levelling. Factions that mean something, far away places, boats, this is absolutely the game that most EQ1 players will love.
You have Everquest 2 in there - Player housing, really deep crafting, diplomacy, harvesting.
What can I say. The sooner they fix performance, clear up bugs, and word of mouth gets around, this game will be one of the big MMOs for a long time to come. Vanguard, despite the odds - has suprassed my expectations in nearly every possible way.
In very simple terms you have fanboys; who don't understand the why haters hate the game so much, and haters; who don't see why the fanboys love the game so much. If haters are incredulous towards fanboys because of how great they think the game is, chances are it's not a difference in taste, but that they've had vastly different experiences. And on the flip side, if you don't understand why people hate the game, you probably haven't experienced as much the crap they've had to deal with. Of course the overall quality of the game is a huge factor... but it's not the only factor when it comes to how fanboys and haters come into being
If you're with friends, reformed your old guild, doing stuff like building a website and community - then that's augmenting your experience considerably. Conversely if you've joined the game with no friends, perhaps also avoiding other people in game, and perhaps chose a class that doesn't suit your playstyle, the game is going to be crap for you - chances are you're not having fun. This goes for all MMOs, not just Vanguard.
Anyways...
I've been playing Vanguard since last week, and I finally hit level 25. Every one of the last 7 days I've had a revelation about how deep this game actually is. I think that I'm a pretty experienced gamer, I've played EQ for many years, and WoW for 2 years, and some other MMOs in between. Before all my posts on these forums were "accidentally" deleted, I would always defend WoW from haters, as some of you may remember. I still think WoW is one of the top MMORPGs out there and is unfairly criticized by haters, but I think that Vanguard is perhaps the best MMO since WoW and may very well surpass the current king as the most enjoyable online game.
Day 1#
Pre-launch day 1, very exciting. Even someone as cynical as me wanted log on and be one of the first to get out of the newbie areas. As many people said, performance was vastly improved over beta, but there were still some problems. I found the engine to be unpolished, there are many bugs that you simply have to live with. But all the important stuff works, most of the time. Performance is perhaps the game's biggest drawback at the moment.
Day #2 and #3
Was very impressed by the overall feel of the world, I was becoming more attached to it every day. This is definately one of the best realized worlds I've ever encountered. Am I sounding like a fanboy yet? Well, then, there are definately some areas that are pretty poor, in terms of quality of design. Some areas are worse than EQ1 in terms of design, I am sorry to say - which is inexcusable. In contrast though, there are some areas that are so fantastically gorgeous that the fanboy in you screams out "oh my god this is so amazing I wub Vanguard 4ever!". I don't believe that the good areas are "made better" because there are also some poor areas (ying and yang), I just think that the quality of the game varies considerably based on where you are and what you are doing.
Day #4
It was at this point I started grouping up with people regularly. I was suddenly thrown back 7 years to Everquest 1, because the grouping aspect of that game is extremely similar. It shares a lot of similarities to EQ2, with regard to some mobs being flagged as solo and some that were intended for a group. However, it is much better implemented - the dot system is very nice, you are never told a mob is a solo mob, or a group mob, you just know if you have a chance to beat it, or if it's a big risk. The way mobs aggro, and add, and are engaged is much better implemented than EQ2. It's similar to EQ1 and WoW.
Day #5-7
This is where I've become hopelessly addicted and I know I'll be playing to the level cap at least. It feels like 3 mmorpgs rolled into one.
You have World of Warcraft in there - absolutely. This game borrows a LOT from WoW, which will have some hardcore fanboys up in arms I'm sure. But this is a good thing, and it adds to the overall accessibility and common sense logic of game design. The "WoW" quests aren't going to be all you need to do to level, but there's a good amount of them. You can lose exp here, so it doesn't follow WoW in that if you do a certain amount of quests you are guaranteed to level.
You have Everquest in there - diverse races, starting locations, meaningful travel, lore. You can grind exp - and the combat is fun enough that grinding is a nice, not too tedious way of levelling. Factions that mean something, far away places, boats, this is absolutely the game that most EQ1 players will love.
You have Everquest 2 in there - Player housing, really deep crafting, diplomacy, harvesting.
What can I say. The sooner they fix performance, clear up bugs, and word of mouth gets around, this game will be one of the big MMOs for a long time to come. Vanguard, despite the odds - has suprassed my expectations in nearly every possible way.
Still waiting for your Holy Grail MMORPG? Interesting...
Comments
Thank you for the review.
Still waiting for your Holy Grail MMORPG? Interesting...
I do not crash though. I am running the game with everything maxed out, anisotropic 16x, + vgclien.ini maxed out; it is stable on my system.
It's the animations that made me not want to carry on, the character models don't have facial expressions and look like dolls too. With new mmorpgs like WOW i've come to expect a higher level of polish that wasn't in this game and it's hard to get used to again.
I'll play when they'ved fixed these points above, by then i'll probally be addicted to WAR.
LMAO i guess you didn't play that game in beta and first release i personally found it to be ALOT laggier and buggier than this it hasn't even been out a wek give it time getting better by the hour. And i used to like WOW so i'm not some wow trollOnly problem I saw with WOW at release was Lag & Crashes due to overcrowding & lack of servers , Really the game should have started with 100 servers .. But I guess they were busy with other things like counting there millions
Only problem I saw with WOW at release was Lag & Crashes due to overcrowding & lack of servers , Really the game should have started with 100 servers .. But I guess they were busy with other things like counting there millions
or is this all you allowed youself to see?
" A man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest." The Boxer- Simon and Garfunkle
I didn't play WoW at release. I played it about a year after release and in my 7 months of playing I found numerous bugs. Polished?
Agreed. I'm not here to say that WoW is bad because i liked it for what it was... just saying you can't compare a game less than a week opened to a game thats been out for a while. To do that is ignorant and blind. And on another note they're 2 different games. Ones more for immersion character roles stories and roleplaying. WoW is more get right to it oriented. I mean i don't really know many RPers excited about wow.
ANYWAY back on topic the OP did a great and non biased review thank you OP
Tbh WOW's problems at launch are tiny compared to Vanguards.
WOW - servers
Vanguard - Game breaking issues.
And as for bugs I played WoW 4 months after release, so i missed the start but 4 months in I cant recall 1 bug, atleast not a single game breaking bug.
VG as has been said time and time again, is not complete (not that MMO's ever r) but you go to 1 area and you can see its been worked on, go to another and its just some crappy terrain generated crap with some mobs added. Lets not mension the animation, poor sound effects in some areas and IMHO bad gfx, unless ya into plastic and dolls.
I'll take a look in 6 months, but ill probably be playing LOTRO or WAR by then. I dont think VG is bad game but im not willing to look passed its short comings in hopes it improves.
Sorry thats what you guys turn these topics into.
Sorry also I just had to do it cause Everith did.
WoW had game breaking issues at the beginning as well.. There was insane lag in high traffic areas, crashes, bugs. Servers down for 2 or 3 days at a time.. It really only got good about 2 months in.
Vanguard has been so game breaking that ive played it nearly a week straight, theyve patched it almost daily, and other than some heavy traffic area lag its been great. And its not a cartoon!
Sorry also I just had to do it cause Everith did.
Yep once again another thread has turned into the "apples and orange juice" type thread. But if I believe what everyone is saying about all the bugs that WOW had up until 7 months after release only reaffirms my view in not purchasing Vanguard until 7 months down the road ( which will be Oct) for numorous reasons besides VG's issues. Vista comes to mind , but personally I'm waiting on a 2nd gen type DX10 card to play on instead of a 1st gen one.
And ya OJ does kill
Because WoW models are lifelife full of expression:
It seems like half the game is just low quality placeholders! OK for an alpha, unforgivable for a retail product.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
You NEED 2go to run it smooth.
eqnext.wikia.com