Maybe someone will buy it

delete5230

Wish full thinking,

I wish someone would buy Vanguard, but I'm sure SOE got their wish to shut it down permanently.

 

 

It's amazing that this game NEVER had a chance !.......Never !

 

A )  Bad release ( not going into detail to start an argument )

B ) SOE did the bare minimum with the Starter Isle, and very few fixes.

C ) SOE gave zero marketing.

D ) SOE wanted it to fail end of story.

 

 

Vanguard needed two things to happen : 

- Fix the game at least 20% more.

- And a one time rally, to get all players to try at the same time. Not just a simple announcement for Free-to-play here on mmoprg.com but a " Real Rally ".  This MMO was made with thousands of players on a server at the same time. That was the intended formula more so than any other mmo !

What we got was THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE RETURNING BACK AT DIFFRIENT TIMES.  Most players that cycled through Vanguard all say the same things.

" The world is dead "

" Bugs, few but bad ones "

Players even tried to Rally This game at different points on their own. Attempts like that were doomed. This action could only come from developers.....Yet, nothing from SOE !.......I believe all mmo failures are developers fault, not the players. Only they can advertise.

Could you imagine how powerful Vanguard could have been if EVERYONE THAT CYCLED THROUGH THIS GAME AT THE SAME TIME ?.............Most would not leave ! 

 

 

Shame on you SOE......Sell it to someone, then I'll give you at least some respect !!!!!!

Myrdynn

I could take all the bugs and lag spikes

I could take the lack of people around

I couldnt take the lack of character customization that game had.  It had everything but an in depth advancement system

 

Riotact007

I agree with u mate, I remember reading how over budget they went and had to release it when they did. Real shame if they just held off and released it when it was less buggy it would have been so much more successful. Still, me and a few mates still got totally immersed in it for a couple of solid years.

delete5230

I miss Khegor's End......This Dungeon was the first large dungeon that sometimes took hours. If a run went well you made friends.

I miss the small mini dungeons.

I miss spiders on top of a hill guarding a quest item that was impossible to get on your own. 

I miss the music.

I miss the team work, and the friendship built after doing something hard.

I miss the originally of all other Dungeons.

I miss the simple quest, but almost impossible to achieve on your own. The originally of what you had to go through to accomplish a task.

 

 

I hated Free-to-play, never gave it a second look after that

GwapoJosh

SOE would never sell any of their games.  A sold game would equal competition for their other games.  Vanguard is my second favorite mmo of all time and Smed wants to make sure it never sees the light of day again.. EMU..

cheyane

Is there anyone willing to buy it ? Have not heard a peep about any interest in it so far. Why would you condemn SOE for having saved the game from going the way of the dodo soon after it was released. They saved it from the definite failure. 

 

I betaed and played it so I am perfectly aware of how horribly bugged it was and how much SOE did to save it.  Perhaps if Sigil Games had managed their funds better this would never have happened. Blame the right people not SOE.

delete5230

Have you ever found a simple hole in the ground.  Something that looked like almost nothing ?... Or run across a simple monument that seemed insignificant, Yet you go inside and a major cavern opened up, with mobs that would kick the crap out of you to the point of gathering up some friends ?

 

Could you imagine it the world was full of people, how fun this would have been ? 

 

This is how Vanguard was made.  All it needed were players.  Even the most shy could team up !

 

Yet everyone cycled through the game at different times.........THOUSNADS IN AND OUT.

 

delete5230

Originally posted by cheyane

Is there anyone willing to buy it ? Have not heard a peep about any interest in it so far. Why would you condemn SOE for having saved the game from going the way of the dodo soon after it was released. They saved it from the definite failure. 

 

I betaed and played it so I am perfectly aware of how horribly bugged it was and how much SOE did to save it.  Perhaps if Sigil Games had managed their funds better this would never have happened. Blame the right people not SOE.

Now, if 5,000 players were to play this game at the same time......I'll bet you would play Vanguard as if it were new !

cheyane

In the beginning a lot of people played. I was in a whole guild that after two months was dead. People abandoned the game because it was very ,very buggy. That is the truth. It is not about not appreciating the game. I did I enjoyed so many nice things about it but the bugs were too much that it finally defeated me too. I came back a year later when SOE had improved the game a lot but people were so sparse. I used to run about for a whole hour and not see a soul. Thank heavens for the crafting channel or I would have quit but in the end the game just did not have enough people to sustain it. I think SOE tried their level best but this game was simply that bad that people were simply not coming back . So they shut it down. 

 

Hope it does get a buyer I suppose but anyone with any sense looking at the history will know it will be dead weight. Pity if not for all the issues it was a good game. Even f2p it could not get enough people to play. That is sad. They sent all the people with SOE accounts notification before you say SOE did not advertise enough. What more do you expect them to do. I did not go back.

GwapoJosh

Originally posted by delete5230

Originally posted by cheyane

Is there anyone willing to buy it ? Have not heard a peep about any interest in it so far. Why would you condemn SOE for having saved the game from going the way of the dodo soon after it was released. They saved it from the definite failure. 

 

I betaed and played it so I am perfectly aware of how horribly bugged it was and how much SOE did to save it.  Perhaps if Sigil Games had managed their funds better this would never have happened. Blame the right people not SOE.

Now, if 5,000 players were to play this game at the same time......I'll bet you would play Vanguard as if it were new !

I'd be there.. I miss my Bloodmage.  Best healing class ever!

 

delete5230

Originally posted by cheyane

In the beginning a lot of people played. I was in a whole guild that after two months was dead. People abandoned the game because it was very ,very buggy. That is the truth. It is not about not appreciating the game. I did I enjoyed so many nice things about it but the bugs were too much that it finally defeated me too. I came back a year later when SOE had improved the game a lot but people were so sparse. I used to run about for a whole hour and not see a soul. Thank heavens for the crafting channel or I would have quit but in the end the game just did not have enough people to sustain it. I think SOE tried their level best but this game was simply that bad that people were simply not coming back . So they shut it down. 

 

Hope it does get a buyer I suppose but anyone with any sense looking at the history will know it will be dead weight. Pity if not for all the issues it was a good game. Even f2p it could not get enough people to play. That is sad. They sent all the people with SOE accounts notification before you say SOE did not advertise enough. What more do you expect them to do. I did not go back.

Well, Your right.

SOE did send e-mails. Still the population did not take.....The game design was made for LARGE population, all or nothing.

However " thousands returned but two at a time ". 

ONLY SOE HAD THE POWER TO RALLY.  No way in hell could players achieve this.

 

 

 

shamall

SOE did not save Vanguard at all. What they really did was save EQ2 by buying Vanguard and putting it on life support before another company got it and actually put some money into it. SOE will never let Vanguard go since it is a direct threat/competitor to EQ2. As much as i dislike SOE, it was a very smart move on their part.

delete5230

 

Maybe, the only solution would have been  " Vanguard 2 " . 

But because of the failure, not to be called Vanguard at all.

SOE always had a bad engine, EQ2 was almost as bad,  unfixable.  That's why WoW blew the socks off them in 2003 or when ever.

 

 

 

The problem with SOE :

They don't fix their stuff, they only sold expansions then advertised.  Blizzard went years with free up dates until they went greedy.  To this day the buildings are not quite square, shorelines don't look natural, rocks that float.  And the coding is still horrible ! ..........I don't like SOE.

MMOredfalcon

Originally posted by delete5230

 

Maybe, the only solution would have been  " Vanguard 2 " . 

But because of the failure, not to be called Vanguard at all.

SOE always had a bad engine, EQ2 was almost as bad,  unfixable.  That's why WoW blew the socks off them in 2003 or when ever.

 

 

 

The problem with SOE :

They don't fix their stuff, they only sold expansions then advertised.  Blizzard went years with free up dates until they went greedy.  To this day the buildings are not quite square, shorelines don't look natural, rocks that float.  And the coding is still horrible ! ..........I don't like SOE.

 

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes was a high fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Sigil Games Online, and now developed and run by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). Originally, the game was co-published by Sony Online Entertainment and the company producing it, Sigil Games Online. The game was released on January 30, 2007, with an early access date of January 26, 2007 for pre-order customers. On May 15, 2007, it was announced in a press release that Sony Online Entertainment had completed a transaction to purchase key assets of Sigil Games Online, including all rights to Vanguard.

The game initially sold around 242,000 copies, while the number of active subscriptions (those who play longer than the free month included when buying the game) was estimated to be around 130,000, to drop in the next months to about 40,000.For much of 2009 the population of Vanguard was almost non-existent. Though recently, after some changes in the game to make it more stable, the population has started to rise again and it has a noticeably larger in-game player presence.

Following the acquisition by SOE, the developers mainly focused on bug fixes and gameplay improvements for a long time. In July 2008, the developers announced they wanted to attract old and new players as the game had reached a much more presentable state. On September 10, 2008, Game Update 6 finally introduced the long awaited trial island, the Isle of Dawn, which also quickly became the standard starting area for new regular characters. On October 8, 2008, the trial version was released.

On March 12, 2009, SOE announced that it would add its LiveGamer Exchange RMT (real money trading) service to Vanguard, which allows trading game money, items, and whole characters between players, for real currency.

On July 7, 2010 the three remaining US game servers were merged into one, bringing the total number of Vanguard servers down to two.

After a long hiatus, new game content was announced at the end of July 2011. A game update was released on August 10, 2011,  with another at August 24, 2011. On March 21, 2012, SOE announced that Vanguard would become free-to-play in summer 2012. As of August 14, 2012, Vanguard has been free to play.

On January 24, 2014 Sony Online Entertainment announced that the game will be shut down on July 31, 2014.

On July 31, 2014, at 9:00 PM, the game officially shut down. The game website now redirects to Sony Online Entertainment.

 

A wee bit of research into the game that you love so much and the company you hate so much will show you...if not for SOE...your beloved game probibly wouldn't have seen the light of day to begin with or would have been shut down shortly after release. As for the rally talk...SOE did what they could...they couldn't force players to return.  I am not a big fan of SOE...but when it comes to Vanguard...SOE did attempt to save it and because of them we even got to enjoy the game for a few years.

 

 

 

 

 

cheyane

So unfair to say SOE did nothing to help Vanguard. When I betaed and played it when it launched the chunking was horrible. With SOE tech on the job the programmers managed to reduce it to a level it was not so noticeable. Anyone who played it when Sigil owned the game and when SOE took over and improved it will if they are honest be able to tell there were improvements. It is just that the Vanguard engine was really horrible and they had an uphill task and people refused to come back and who could blame them that they game finally got laid to rest 7 years later than it would have. 7 years is a long time for a game not to be able to get enough people to support it ,how much longer do you expect SOE to carry this dead game.

 

BTW in my opinion although I loved vanilla WoW, Everquest 2 and Everquest hold a very special place in my heart and EQ 2 IMO is one of the better MMORRPGs.

Joseph_Kerr

SOE didnt ruin VG, Brad Mcquaid did, just like he ruined Pantheon.

Acidon

Just FYI to those actually interested.  SOE had no intention of even entertaining offers for Vanguard.

"For business reasons we aren't at liberty to release the game for purchase."

 

Source (While it's still up): https://forums.station.sony.com/vg/index.php?threads/vanguard-saga-of-heroes-sunset-faq-new-info-added-on-7-24-14.71456/

 

Acidon

Loke666

Originally posted by delete5230

Have you ever found a simple hole in the ground.  Something that looked like almost nothing ?... Or run across a simple monument that seemed insignificant, Yet you go inside and a major cavern opened up, with mobs that would kick the crap out of you to the point of gathering up some friends ?

Could you imagine it the world was full of people, how fun this would have been ? 

This is how Vanguard was made.  All it needed were players.  Even the most shy could team up !

Yet everyone cycled through the game at different times.........THOUSNADS IN AND OUT.

Well, it did need a bit more than just players.... SIGIL left the game half finished and SOE programmers had to duct tape it together, that never turn out well as anyone who ever worked on other peoples code can tell you. It is 10 times harder to fix as as doing it yourself.

Now is SIGIL had an ace programmer, 10M$ more and someone who actually could manage money then this game could have become huge. They had many great ideas that worked excellent in the game and many parts, particularly the group content was really fun. However did the game always feel like a beta and they never really got the character customization in the game either.

I don't think that another should buy up it since fixing it up would be a lot of job, they might as well just steal all the good ideas and program it from start instead, it would not be much difference in cost and releasing it with a new name would help initial sales.

Sure, a small F2P company could buy it and run it without fixing it up but I doubt SOE would allow that.

The whole thing is sad but you can't let Brad handle the economical part, he is full of great ideas but he suck completely with managing money.

Kyleran

OP is overlooking an important point, Vanguard never did PVP right, and a look at the MMO landscape shows most long running games have a solid PVP component.

They eliminated the faction PVP servers almost immediately, which is why I never went back. I don't believe the FFA servers lasted much longer, leaving a PVE only game that had little appeal to players like myself.

delete5230

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by delete5230

Have you ever found a simple hole in the ground.  Something that looked like almost nothing ?... Or run across a simple monument that seemed insignificant, Yet you go inside and a major cavern opened up, with mobs that would kick the crap out of you to the point of gathering up some friends ?

Could you imagine it the world was full of people, how fun this would have been ? 

This is how Vanguard was made.  All it needed were players.  Even the most shy could team up !

Yet everyone cycled through the game at different times.........THOUSNADS IN AND OUT.

Well, it did need a bit more than just players.... SIGIL left the game half finished and SOE programmers had to duct tape it together, that never turn out well as anyone who ever worked on other peoples code can tell you. It is 10 times harder to fix as as doing it yourself.

Now is SIGIL had an ace programmer, 10M$ more and someone who actually could manage money then this game could have become huge. They had many great ideas that worked excellent in the game and many parts, particularly the group content was really fun. However did the game always feel like a beta and they never really got the character customization in the game either.

I don't think that another should buy up it since fixing it up would be a lot of job, they might as well just steal all the good ideas and program it from start instead, it would not be much difference in cost and releasing it with a new name would help initial sales.

Sure, a small F2P company could buy it and run it without fixing it up but I doubt SOE would allow that.

The whole thing is sad but you can't let Brad handle the economical part, he is full of great ideas but he suck completely with managing money.

I guess I would have to agree with paragraph 3.

Fixing it would be as hard as starting over add to the fact SOE would probably charge three times the amount any other company would charge with all things being equal. It doesn't take a programmer to know the engine is just bad.

And yes, best you can hope for is someone to steal all the good ideas. And of curse SOE would probably sue being the way they are.

 

I don't think anyone would even be able to make an emulator for Vanguard since the original disc was sooooo screwed up.

 

So, Guess you guys got to me....I guess it's really over...Thank you SOE

Akulas

Any other current running game where you can be a cc tank mage? 

Myrdynn

Originally posted by emperorwings
Any other current running game where you can be a cc tank mage? 

RIFT, Asheron's Call, Archeage, TSW

csthao

I agree, there were a few times when I plunged into the game when people tried to rally. Hell I even joined the guild that a few people from this website formed. It was really fun, but the fun ended about 1 month later when less and less players didn't log in anymore.

I just got started into raiding APW with my guild and then that guild did the same, they stopped logging in. That was about as far as I got. But once I introduced my brother into playing it, we were able to accomplish so much things together. It got to the point where we could trio (he boxed a bard) most of the CoB bosses. We duo'd Teraxes. It was endless. It got to the point where he was forcing me to play with him haha. He liked it so much more than I did, only because I played it 3 years longer than him and I felt burnt out.

Adamantine

Originally posted by Riotact007
I agree with u mate, I remember reading how over budget they went [...]

For the record, they didnt went over budget.

They had agreed with Microsoft about a big budget AAA title. Unfortunately, they never made an agreement ON PAPER. Then Microsoft changed their game department and suddenly completely different people would make the descisions.

The problem of Sigil was bad luck and lack of experience.