Whether it has 100k subs or 100 million makes NO difference to me; if I enjoy the game, I will play it. I play Vanguard because I am enjoying the game.
I am not a follower. I never was. I think people that are interested, even obsessed with subscription numbers, should evaluate why that is important to them.
You must be kidding! Maybe at launch and it may of even been more at that time but now? You can't be serious, they'd be lucky to to get a tiny portion of that, even 50k would far exceed it. More like a handful of players, read the forums all over the gaming world and you'll see how dead the servers are.
It's more like an old western town with all this wind and dust blowing up in a ghost town with nothing but a tumbleweed blowing by, that's VG best populated servers
At the rate things are getting "fixed" and the sheer anger on the official forums of the few players still playing, never. Besides even if things did start to change its still got a reputation that would take a loooong time to repair, if ever.
At the rate things are getting "fixed" and the sheer anger on the official forums of the few players still playing, never. Besides even if things did start to change its still got a reputation that would take a loooong time to repair, if ever.
Nah, the game is done, its only real chance is people dabbling in it when they are bored and need a break from EQII or whatever other station game they are playing IF they get the performance issues ironed out. If not, then they will need server merges again lol.
At the rate things are getting "fixed" and the sheer anger on the official forums of the few players still playing, never. Besides even if things did start to change its still got a reputation that would take a loooong time to repair, if ever.
Nah, the game is done, its only real chance is people dabbling in it when they are bored and need a break from EQII or whatever other station game they are playing IF they get the performance issues ironed out. If not, then they will need server merges again lol.
I heard there isn't anything to do at 50. They only got one raid dungeon? Doesn't seem done at all.
For the love of the gods.. if you so bored you keep going back several pages and resurrecting this, you do need a break from MMO in general. Go play the bioshock demo or something !
That said rather cruelly the votes amused me greatly.
At the rate things are getting "fixed" and the sheer anger on the official forums of the few players still playing, never. Besides even if things did start to change its still got a reputation that would take a loooong time to repair, if ever.
Nah, the game is done, its only real chance is people dabbling in it when they are bored and need a break from EQII or whatever other station game they are playing IF they get the performance issues ironed out. If not, then they will need server merges again lol.
I heard there isn't anything to do at 50. They only got one raid dungeon? Doesn't seem done at all.
LoL, by done I mean "all over" "curtains closed" "all washed up".....
Done as in no hope of recovery.
Like I said, its going to make a good fall back or break game for station players but thats it.
its to bad, I just tried it out and the game itself isn't to bad. They had a chance at a decent amount of subs (I doubt 500k) if the game at least was playable at launch. Once an MMO f*cks up a launch, they never recover.
Simple. The answer is never. This is a niche game and will appeal to some but not a majority. The bad press this game has gotten upon it's release will also scare a lot of people away. Hopefully, it will be profitable. The more games that hit Woody's "Game Zapper" the worse off we ALL are.
Show me the bad press please. I'm dying to read it. What i have seen is fair reviews or totally biased reviews.
Thanks
who needs press reviews when you have had first hand experience with this abomination.
I have every hope that SoE will get VG back on track, I really want a deep MMO after so many "me too" clones lately!
Honestly though, Vg will never see a half million subs IMO, no chance. However, if they really put the spit and polish to it and always QA the patches I could see VG hitting 150-200 thousand subs. Not impossible, seeing as CoX has somewhere between 100-200 thousand for example.
There just aren't enough people who appreciate some complexity in their games to hit 500 thousand players. The masses want to be held by the hand, told what skills they have unlocked, and no deviation from the rails the devs set you on, IE LOTWoWO clonage.
I have every hope that SoE will get VG back on track, I really want a deep MMO after so many "me too" clones lately! Honestly though, Vg will never see a half million subs IMO, no chance. However, if they really put the spit and polish to it and always QA the patches I could see VG hitting 150-200 thousand subs. Not impossible, seeing as CoX has somewhere between 100-200 thousand for example. There just aren't enough people who appreciate some complexity in their games to hit 500 thousand players. The masses want to be held by the hand, told what skills they have unlocked, and no deviation from the rails the devs set you on, IE LOTWoWO clonage.
You know I'm playing the retail version this last weekend for the first time (I was a closed beta tester) and I gotta admit, against better judgement, I really like Vanguard. (As much as I howl about fantasy clones and lack of Sci-Fi titles) Sure, I only played for a little but its quite good so far (gameplay, content wise) The technical issues are still pretty bad however.
I don't think they could ever pull 120-200 anytime soon if ever in its current state as it needs a lot more then "spit and polish", its just to technically demanding. Period. People are not going to flock out to upgrade just to play another fantasy game. This isn't 2001 anymore when there were only 4 or 5 MMOs to choose from. Its not the first time technical issues crippled an MMO and probably won't be the last. AoC will be next. Higher system requirments are a sure way to limit your market success.
MMO devs are very poor business people I noticed. They really do not take enough time doing market studies. In fact I really don't recall any MMO company doing one at all, they seem to just "wing it" and go off of limited beta feedback as a baseline for design. Then 90% of them are all shocked when the game falls on its ass.
On top of it, for the life of me, I really don't see why this game has such high requirements. Its average looking at best. Combat animations and effects are totally average on a good day....in fact most free to play games look and handle much better. They would have been much better off going with a lesser demanding engine and focused on scope/depth of gameplay which are the games strong points.
IF they could get it to a reasonable performance state, and they really did a remarket, they might, if the stars are alighned just right, pull 75-100k. I don't think they can do it mainly because its taking to long, 8 months since launch and the game is still in very poor technical shape and the game has a horrible reputation. Add that to the fact its just another fantasy title.........Oh well.
People are not going to flock out to upgrade just to play another fantasy game.
This is especially true since the biggest fantasy game out there has system specs allowing pretty much anyone to play their game. Why go out and spend $2,000+ on a much beefier system when a rig that's a couple of years old enables you to play a fantasy game with millions of others players?
That said, some folks will probably upgrade for games like WAR and AoC, since those seem to be the next big games down the pipeline.
As for VG, I never did understand why it was so technically demanding, especially in comparison to the way it looked. While it had a decent, but entirely generic art style driving it, I never understood why it brought so many systems to their knees. The only thing I could figure is they went polygon crazy in the art department.
I am going to go with option seven. There will be 500k subscribers when I finish developing my time machine and head back to when Vanguard was launched and before it was widely known that it was terrible and the subscribers left in a mass exodus. Notice that this is not never, but a time in the future when it is possible for me to travel to the past.
My theory is that SOE is not committed to this game in terms of resources. That is, the game does not have enough resources to implement the improvements and incorporate the features necessary to take it to the 500k mark. Further, the release was so bad and the marketing and word-of-mouth so devastating, those factors alone could prevent it from even reaching 250k.
Vanguard has an interesting platform. A very large world. Diversity of classes (still two are missing) and races. However, they are implementing raiding. Who really wants to raid, repeatedly, the same dungeons and the same mobs (even if there are 12 of them) when they attain the max level? How big is this market? It is paltry.
Vanguard needs to, and I say this with no modesty, implement my suggestions.
1) Solo epic/heroic quests for
a) armor
b) class specific weapons
c) titles, honors
d) unique houses, boats
2) AA point system
a) unique abilities
b) enhance run speed, swim speed, inter alia.
3) Improved World Feel
a) Fishing
b) Unique Housing
c) Unique Boats
4) Improved Crafting & (ampersand) Diplomacy
a) greater accessibility
5) New Classes
a) Inquisitor and Berserker
6) Other
a) More coin dropage
b) More (medieval) music
c) Butterflies (not a joke)
7) PvP
a) Environmental PvP area
b) Trophies, Honors, Gear, etc.
c) Black Castle - a new and awesome castle Mistmoore
i) they have this, Hilsbury Estate? It is still incomplete.
The above is not exhaustive. It is unacceptable that this game is still incomplete.
My theory is that SOE is not committed to this game in terms of resources. That is, the game does not have enough resources to implement the improvements and incorporate the features necessary to take it to the 500k mark. Further, the release was so bad and the marketing and word-of-mouth so devastating, those factors alone could prevent it from even reaching 250k.
Vanguard has an interesting platform. A very large world. Diversity of classes (still two are missing) and races. However, they are implementing raiding. Who really wants to raid, repeatedly, the same dungeons and the same mobs (even if there are 12 of them) when they attain the max level? How big is this market? It is paltry.
Vanguard needs to, and I say this with no modesty, implement my suggestions. 1) Solo epic/heroic quests for a) armor b) class specific weapons c) titles, honors d) unique houses, boats 2) AA point system a) unique abilities b) enhance run speed, swim speed, inter alia. 3) Improved World Feel a) Fishing b) Unique Housing c) Unique Boats 4) Improved Crafting & (ampersand) Diplomacy a) greater accessibility 5) New Classes a) Inquisitor and Berserker 6) Other a) More coin dropage b) More (medieval) music c) Butterflies (not a joke) 7) PvP a) Environmental PvP area b) Trophies, Honors, Gear, etc. c) Black Castle - a new and awesome castle Mistmoore i) they have this, Hilsbury Estate? It is still incomplete.
The above is not exhaustive. It is unacceptable that this game is still incomplete.
Well I have only been playing a few days but the priority should still be performance BUT moving beyond that, the one thing that would really help is some sort of battlefield similar to DAoC. You wouldn't need to do the end realm vs realm, at least not on the scale of DAoC but some sort of optional competitive field of play would really help make things a bit more interesting. (not arenas, arenas keep things interesting for about 15 minutes, they fail in almost every game)
The raid thing is only 12 man (given the population state, that could still be an issue) but 12 man isn't really a "raid" in the traditional sense. AC usually took 2 groups to do some of the more difficult quest but no one ever called it a "raid".
I think AC had the best approach to the whole thing. No specific "end game" just continuous quest tied into large (1 to 2 groups) end-boss type stuff THROUGHOUT the entire game not just the end. So simple of a design but almost never repeated. AC content is some of the best MMO gaming out there. Ever since WoW everyone is totally hung up on level caps and raiding. No one plays MMORPGs anymore they just want to bang out numbers for loot.
I wouldn't worry about alot of the features you list, EQII was missing most of what you listed...the problem with SOE is they will add but at a cost. Those guys never heard of "free content updates" like just about every other game out there. You gotta pay extra to sneeze in an SOE game. Once they have the preformance issues stabilized, they will start cranking out expansions with little bits here and there and of course the "buy our new box rewards"...and vet (stay subscribed) rewards .....
Its only a matter of time before they drop in the "collection" quest and you will get you butterflies....
It may be a matter of philosophy or semantics or both, but I consider a 12-person raid a raid in a traditional sense. Ironically, I never really considered zerging a raid in the traditional sense, per se.
EQ 2 does have all the features I listed. In fact, it is probably why I enjoy the game as much as I do. It offers a great deal of "stuff." However, I am not that familiar with EQ 2 PvP; I heard there is an arena or something. I have not been there, yet. EQ 2 does offer free content, especially the the launch of the Neriak area. A great place to experience, in my view. I really enjoy EQ 2, and I intend to stick with it for years to come. Unless WAR or AoC are both totally amazing, I do not foresee myself ever quitting EQ 2 (unfortunately, I can barely play with how much work I have). I like EQ 2's features, always something to do: adventure, individual instances, group instances, raids, collection quests, solo quests, fun crafting, good exploration, inter alia. I can also just log in and talk with people. The immersion with the sound and graphics is great.
Ironically, AC is one of the few games I never played. Nevertheless, I totally agree with the end-game you described. That is, small group Quests but tons of them. Actually, one of the reasons I quit WoW is because of the end-game raiding. After I quit Vanguard, I bought a copy of The Burning Crusade but quit several hours later because 1) the community was awful and 2) I was ironically not able to solo effectively with my Blood Elf Paladin past level twenty or something.
You were not able to solo a Pally in the 20s in WoW? You must have hit a bad batch of mobs or something. The game is designed to solo throughout. WoW does not promote group interdependence until level cap. You probably were having "an off day". Dunno
If you like EQII stick with it. Personally I don't, and for many reasons but they are my personal opinions.....I personally like Vanguard better but the performance bugs me (literally) and the total lack of other players is a killer. Either way, neither game IMHO is going to be worth my time for different reasons. EQII is about as fun and exciting as trushing your teeth and Vanguard has no real future....I will probably just keep at something I use to play like Lineage2 or WoW or something and BF2. I'm gonna dump this station pass, I've had it with SOE and their empty population games.
AC was a great game in its prime. I don't think if you tried it now you would fully appresiate it. The pops are gone and other games have spoiled us with better features and UI's but back in the day.....the old days of Qual, portal storms and the Lugian Citadel..........sigh
I though vanguard was a nice game. Mostley a PvE game, but it was still nice. the turn off for me was the low pop server but should be fine with the server merge.
But i dont think they will ever hit half a million.
You were not able to solo a Pally in the 20s in WoW? You must have hit a bad batch of mobs or something. The game is designed to solo throughout. WoW does not promote group interdependence until level cap. You probably were having "an off day". Dunno If you like EQII stick with it. Personally I don't, and for many reasons but they are my personal opinions.....I personally like Vanguard better but the performance bugs me (literally) and the total lack of other players is a killer. Either way, neither game IMHO is going to be worth my time for different reasons. EQII is about as fun and exciting as trushing your teeth and Vanguard has no real future....I will probably just keep at something I use to play like Lineage2 or WoW or something and BF2. I'm gonna dump this station pass, I've had it with SOE and their empty population games. AC was a great game in its prime. I don't think if you tried it now you would fully appresiate it. The pops are gone and other games have spoiled us with better features and UI's but back in the day.....the old days of Qual, portal storms and the Lugian Citadel..........sigh
I was not able to solo, with a Blood Elf Paladin, in WoW. You can blame me. Fine. If I were able to solo, I would have still quit because the community was that bad.
I am confused by your second paragraph.
I suppose I would not fully "appresiate" AC. I love EQ 2. I really do. It is the, as a total experience, the most well done MMORPG I have ever played since I started with UO and EQ 1. Many aspects of UO 1 I miss, but I still like EQ 2 the most in the traditional EQ 1 sense.
You were not able to solo a Pally in the 20s in WoW? You must have hit a bad batch of mobs or something. The game is designed to solo throughout. WoW does not promote group interdependence until level cap. You probably were having "an off day". Dunno If you like EQII stick with it. Personally I don't, and for many reasons but they are my personal opinions.....I personally like Vanguard better but the performance bugs me (literally) and the total lack of other players is a killer. Either way, neither game IMHO is going to be worth my time for different reasons. EQII is about as fun and exciting as trushing your teeth and Vanguard has no real future....I will probably just keep at something I use to play like Lineage2 or WoW or something and BF2. I'm gonna dump this station pass, I've had it with SOE and their empty population games. AC was a great game in its prime. I don't think if you tried it now you would fully appresiate it. The pops are gone and other games have spoiled us with better features and UI's but back in the day.....the old days of Qual, portal storms and the Lugian Citadel..........sigh
I was not able to solo, with a Blood Elf Paladin, in WoW. You can blame me. Fine. If I were able to solo, I would have still quit because the community was that bad.
I am confused by your second paragraph.
I suppose I would not fully "appresiate" AC. I love EQ 2. I really do. It is the, as a total experience, the most well done MMORPG I have ever played since I started with UO and EQ 1. Many aspects of UO 1 I miss, but I still like EQ 2 the most in the traditional EQ 1 sense.
Easy man, I'm not "blaming" you for anything Dunno, maybe Pallies are different, I haven't played WoW in a very long time (2 years maybe?) You are not missing anything anyway....(I'm in a rambling mood today so my post are jumping around a lot)
By that (AC) I mean that its not the same as it was years ago with a population, its a dead game now. Its just not the same without a large player base so if you tried it today it would not be like it was years ago.
Yeah, EQII is a full game, I just don't like it, thats my opinion, no flame intended. I am a huge believer in playstyle preference. People who attack other players / posters because to the game they like and play are just trolls. You see that sort of thing all the time. If you like it, you like it. I can see where you are coming from, its just not my cup of tea.
Vanguard could have been a pretty decent game and who knows, maybe SOE will patch it up into a quality state. Thats going to take time. Its to bad SOE keeps getting itself caught up in the same issues over and over in every game they launch. The management there has horrible judgement. They seem to shoot themselves twice in the foot before they remove the ammo in everything they get involved with....... I don't think they actually set out to make "bad games" they just don't seem to be able to get their act together to launch a good one. Its really hurting the reputation of MMORPGs in the long run.
Isn't strange how so few games have matched or acceded old UO? Devs got so hung up on competing with WoW, they crippled the genre.
(side note, it really boggles me the amount of customization they removed from Vanguard.....??? Hopefully they put some of that back in the near future!)
Its not a niche game. Who would you think it would be a niche for? Hardcore people? Its not hard to solo. Players that only want to fight? What about the crafting system or diplomacy? People that only want to craft? Sure why not, you don't have to fight.
As far as I'm concerned, you don't have a clue what the game is about Balisidar. You haven't played, all you do is flame.
i played, gave them time to fix stuff, played some more again and i agree, it's NOT a niche game -- it just sucks.
could we please get correspondent writers and moderators, on the eve forum at mmorpg.com, who are well-versed on eve-online and aren't just passersby pushing buttons? pretty please?
Comments
Whether it has 100k subs or 100 million makes NO difference to me; if I enjoy the game, I will play it. I play Vanguard because I am enjoying the game.
I am not a follower. I never was. I think people that are interested, even obsessed with subscription numbers, should evaluate why that is important to them.
Boycott EA Games. RIP Sim City.
Two things:
1. Check the dates on the original posts in this thread. They're from February, right after the game launched.
2. There's a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing. Consider switching.
Alright who ressurected this zombie.. hands up .. there be no reprisals !
You necromancers always pulling pranks.
500k?
You must be kidding! Maybe at launch and it may of even been more at that time but now? You can't be serious, they'd be lucky to to get a tiny portion of that, even 50k would far exceed it. More like a handful of players, read the forums all over the gaming world and you'll see how dead the servers are.
It's more like an old western town with all this wind and dust blowing up in a ghost town with nothing but a tumbleweed blowing by, that's VG best populated servers
Time to resurrect this thread again given the impending server merges. Course with such few servers I'd like to see 500K people fit :P
My vote is still for never.
Never be afraid of choices. More choices are always good things.
oh the irony!
At the rate things are getting "fixed" and the sheer anger on the official forums of the few players still playing, never. Besides even if things did start to change its still got a reputation that would take a loooong time to repair, if ever.
Nah, the game is done, its only real chance is people dabbling in it when they are bored and need a break from EQII or whatever other station game they are playing IF they get the performance issues ironed out. If not, then they will need server merges again lol.
Nah, the game is done, its only real chance is people dabbling in it when they are bored and need a break from EQII or whatever other station game they are playing IF they get the performance issues ironed out. If not, then they will need server merges again lol.
I heard there isn't anything to do at 50. They only got one raid dungeon? Doesn't seem done at all.
For the love of the gods.. if you so bored you keep going back several pages and resurrecting this, you do need a break from MMO in general. Go play the bioshock demo or something !
That said rather cruelly the votes amused me greatly.
Nah, the game is done, its only real chance is people dabbling in it when they are bored and need a break from EQII or whatever other station game they are playing IF they get the performance issues ironed out. If not, then they will need server merges again lol.
I heard there isn't anything to do at 50. They only got one raid dungeon? Doesn't seem done at all.
LoL, by done I mean "all over" "curtains closed" "all washed up".....Done as in no hope of recovery.
Like I said, its going to make a good fall back or break game for station players but thats it.
its to bad, I just tried it out and the game itself isn't to bad. They had a chance at a decent amount of subs (I doubt 500k) if the game at least was playable at launch. Once an MMO f*cks up a launch, they never recover.
Thanks
who needs press reviews when you have had first hand experience with this abomination.
I uded to be a VG fanboy but after 2-3 months after the launch I had to surrender to reality...the game was going to die.
So my answer is never! Lucky if they get 20K.
I have every hope that SoE will get VG back on track, I really want a deep MMO after so many "me too" clones lately!
Honestly though, Vg will never see a half million subs IMO, no chance. However, if they really put the spit and polish to it and always QA the patches I could see VG hitting 150-200 thousand subs. Not impossible, seeing as CoX has somewhere between 100-200 thousand for example.
There just aren't enough people who appreciate some complexity in their games to hit 500 thousand players. The masses want to be held by the hand, told what skills they have unlocked, and no deviation from the rails the devs set you on, IE LOTWoWO clonage.
You know I'm playing the retail version this last weekend for the first time (I was a closed beta tester) and I gotta admit, against better judgement, I really like Vanguard. (As much as I howl about fantasy clones and lack of Sci-Fi titles) Sure, I only played for a little but its quite good so far (gameplay, content wise) The technical issues are still pretty bad however.
I don't think they could ever pull 120-200 anytime soon if ever in its current state as it needs a lot more then "spit and polish", its just to technically demanding. Period. People are not going to flock out to upgrade just to play another fantasy game. This isn't 2001 anymore when there were only 4 or 5 MMOs to choose from. Its not the first time technical issues crippled an MMO and probably won't be the last. AoC will be next. Higher system requirments are a sure way to limit your market success.
MMO devs are very poor business people I noticed. They really do not take enough time doing market studies. In fact I really don't recall any MMO company doing one at all, they seem to just "wing it" and go off of limited beta feedback as a baseline for design. Then 90% of them are all shocked when the game falls on its ass.
On top of it, for the life of me, I really don't see why this game has such high requirements. Its average looking at best. Combat animations and effects are totally average on a good day....in fact most free to play games look and handle much better. They would have been much better off going with a lesser demanding engine and focused on scope/depth of gameplay which are the games strong points.
IF they could get it to a reasonable performance state, and they really did a remarket, they might, if the stars are alighned just right, pull 75-100k. I don't think they can do it mainly because its taking to long, 8 months since launch and the game is still in very poor technical shape and the game has a horrible reputation. Add that to the fact its just another fantasy title.........Oh well.
This is especially true since the biggest fantasy game out there has system specs allowing pretty much anyone to play their game. Why go out and spend $2,000+ on a much beefier system when a rig that's a couple of years old enables you to play a fantasy game with millions of others players?
That said, some folks will probably upgrade for games like WAR and AoC, since those seem to be the next big games down the pipeline.
As for VG, I never did understand why it was so technically demanding, especially in comparison to the way it looked. While it had a decent, but entirely generic art style driving it, I never understood why it brought so many systems to their knees. The only thing I could figure is they went polygon crazy in the art department.
I am going to go with option seven. There will be 500k subscribers when I finish developing my time machine and head back to when Vanguard was launched and before it was widely known that it was terrible and the subscribers left in a mass exodus. Notice that this is not never, but a time in the future when it is possible for me to travel to the past.
That is all.
"I am the greatest swordsman that ever lived."
My theory is that SOE is not committed to this game in terms of resources. That is, the game does not have enough resources to implement the improvements and incorporate the features necessary to take it to the 500k mark. Further, the release was so bad and the marketing and word-of-mouth so devastating, those factors alone could prevent it from even reaching 250k.
Vanguard has an interesting platform. A very large world. Diversity of classes (still two are missing) and races. However, they are implementing raiding. Who really wants to raid, repeatedly, the same dungeons and the same mobs (even if there are 12 of them) when they attain the max level? How big is this market? It is paltry.
Vanguard needs to, and I say this with no modesty, implement my suggestions.
1) Solo epic/heroic quests for
a) armor
b) class specific weapons
c) titles, honors
d) unique houses, boats
2) AA point system
a) unique abilities
b) enhance run speed, swim speed, inter alia.
3) Improved World Feel
a) Fishing
b) Unique Housing
c) Unique Boats
4) Improved Crafting & (ampersand) Diplomacy
a) greater accessibility
5) New Classes
a) Inquisitor and Berserker
6) Other
a) More coin dropage
b) More (medieval) music
c) Butterflies (not a joke)
7) PvP
a) Environmental PvP area
b) Trophies, Honors, Gear, etc.
c) Black Castle - a new and awesome castle Mistmoore
i) they have this, Hilsbury Estate? It is still incomplete.
The above is not exhaustive. It is unacceptable that this game is still incomplete.
The raid thing is only 12 man (given the population state, that could still be an issue) but 12 man isn't really a "raid" in the traditional sense. AC usually took 2 groups to do some of the more difficult quest but no one ever called it a "raid".
I think AC had the best approach to the whole thing. No specific "end game" just continuous quest tied into large (1 to 2 groups) end-boss type stuff THROUGHOUT the entire game not just the end. So simple of a design but almost never repeated. AC content is some of the best MMO gaming out there. Ever since WoW everyone is totally hung up on level caps and raiding. No one plays MMORPGs anymore they just want to bang out numbers for loot.
I wouldn't worry about alot of the features you list, EQII was missing most of what you listed...the problem with SOE is they will add but at a cost. Those guys never heard of "free content updates" like just about every other game out there. You gotta pay extra to sneeze in an SOE game. Once they have the preformance issues stabilized, they will start cranking out expansions with little bits here and there and of course the "buy our new box rewards"...and vet (stay subscribed) rewards .....
Its only a matter of time before they drop in the "collection" quest and you will get you butterflies....
It may be a matter of philosophy or semantics or both, but I consider a 12-person raid a raid in a traditional sense. Ironically, I never really considered zerging a raid in the traditional sense, per se.
EQ 2 does have all the features I listed. In fact, it is probably why I enjoy the game as much as I do. It offers a great deal of "stuff." However, I am not that familiar with EQ 2 PvP; I heard there is an arena or something. I have not been there, yet. EQ 2 does offer free content, especially the the launch of the Neriak area. A great place to experience, in my view. I really enjoy EQ 2, and I intend to stick with it for years to come. Unless WAR or AoC are both totally amazing, I do not foresee myself ever quitting EQ 2 (unfortunately, I can barely play with how much work I have). I like EQ 2's features, always something to do: adventure, individual instances, group instances, raids, collection quests, solo quests, fun crafting, good exploration, inter alia. I can also just log in and talk with people. The immersion with the sound and graphics is great.
Ironically, AC is one of the few games I never played. Nevertheless, I totally agree with the end-game you described. That is, small group Quests but tons of them. Actually, one of the reasons I quit WoW is because of the end-game raiding. After I quit Vanguard, I bought a copy of The Burning Crusade but quit several hours later because 1) the community was awful and 2) I was ironically not able to solo effectively with my Blood Elf Paladin past level twenty or something.
You were not able to solo a Pally in the 20s in WoW? You must have hit a bad batch of mobs or something. The game is designed to solo throughout. WoW does not promote group interdependence until level cap. You probably were having "an off day"
. Dunno
If you like EQII stick with it. Personally I don't, and for many reasons but they are my personal opinions.....I personally like Vanguard better but the performance bugs me (literally) and the total lack of other players is a killer. Either way, neither game IMHO is going to be worth my time for different reasons. EQII is about as fun and exciting as trushing your teeth and Vanguard has no real future....I will probably just keep at something I use to play like Lineage2 or WoW or something and BF2. I'm gonna dump this station pass, I've had it with SOE and their empty population games.
AC was a great game in its prime. I don't think if you tried it now you would fully appresiate it. The pops are gone and other games have spoiled us with better features and UI's but back in the day.....the old days of Qual, portal storms and the Lugian Citadel..........sigh
I though vanguard was a nice game. Mostley a PvE game, but it was still nice. the turn off for me was the low pop server but should be fine with the server merge.
But i dont think they will ever hit half a million.
I was not able to solo, with a Blood Elf Paladin, in WoW. You can blame me. Fine. If I were able to solo, I would have still quit because the community was that bad.
I am confused by your second paragraph.
I suppose I would not fully "appresiate" AC. I love EQ 2. I really do. It is the, as a total experience, the most well done MMORPG I have ever played since I started with UO and EQ 1. Many aspects of UO 1 I miss, but I still like EQ 2 the most in the traditional EQ 1 sense.
I was not able to solo, with a Blood Elf Paladin, in WoW. You can blame me. Fine. If I were able to solo, I would have still quit because the community was that bad.
I am confused by your second paragraph.
I suppose I would not fully "appresiate" AC. I love EQ 2. I really do. It is the, as a total experience, the most well done MMORPG I have ever played since I started with UO and EQ 1. Many aspects of UO 1 I miss, but I still like EQ 2 the most in the traditional EQ 1 sense.
Easy man, I'm not "blaming" you for anythingBy that (AC) I mean that its not the same as it was years ago with a population, its a dead game now. Its just not the same without a large player base so if you tried it today it would not be like it was years ago.
Yeah, EQII is a full game, I just don't like it, thats my opinion, no flame intended. I am a huge believer in playstyle preference. People who attack other players / posters because to the game they like and play are just trolls.
You see that sort of thing all the time. If you like it, you like it. I can see where you are coming from, its just not my cup of tea.
Vanguard could have been a pretty decent game and who knows, maybe SOE will patch it up into a quality state. Thats going to take time. Its to bad SOE keeps getting itself caught up in the same issues over and over in every game they launch. The management there has horrible judgement. They seem to shoot themselves twice in the foot before they remove the ammo in everything they get involved with.......
I don't think they actually set out to make "bad games" they just don't seem to be able to get their act together to launch a good one. Its really hurting the reputation of MMORPGs in the long run.
Isn't strange how so few games have matched or acceded old UO? Devs got so hung up on competing with WoW, they crippled the genre.
(side note, it really boggles me the amount of customization they removed from Vanguard.....??? Hopefully they put some of that back in the near future!)
i played, gave them time to fix stuff, played some more again and i agree, it's NOT a niche game -- it just sucks.
could we please get correspondent writers and moderators, on the eve forum at mmorpg.com, who are well-versed on eve-online and aren't just passersby pushing buttons? pretty please?