Why single out McQuaid? Not as if he's the only designer that's promised the Sun, Moon, and Stars, only to not deliver. Bowman, Raph, Jacobs, Garriott, all guilty of the same things. But for some reason, they're given a free pass, where I'm pretty sure there's more than a few folks here that are rapidly approaching borderline psychosis that would, given the opportunity, relish doing harm to McQuaid personally.
I think Brad will go down in gaming history more along the lines of John Romero and Derek Smart... a victim of too many yes-men and buying in to his own hype. I honestly believe that unless they make some serious progress turning this game around, it will be the last time a publisher gives him the money to make anything noteworthy.
I certainly wouldn't wish any physical harm on the guy, but it would be nice to see him abducted from his ivory tower, brought down to earth and forced to see his game from the perspective of the average subscriber... rather than a bunch of mediocre developers more worried about stepping on his toes than releasing a crappy game. I understand what it is about him that infuriates people though... With the whole "let them eat cake" attitude he has toward the issue of unreasonable system requirements, or the way he occasionally pops up to throw a little pity-party for himself on some fansite forums. Woe is Brad, he had 40 million dollars and 5 years to make a game, it's all Sony's fault that he had to launch early. The game didn't launch early, it was delayed about a year. The problem was their lackadaisical approach to development , even in what most games would consider "crunch-time", and an obvious belief that Sony was going to give him another extension. They had plenty of time and money, they simply didn't get the job done.
to all the 'VG is dying posts', back that with something real. to all the 'VG doesn't have 8 million players posts', tell me why I care as a player wether the game has 10 servers or 100 as long as they are populated. I doubt I agree with that many people on anything else, why should I on games? If your answer involves Brad or Vision- save, because neither I or most people playing the game give a shit about either- while they may come up a hundred times a day here on these forums, I have NEVER seen brad or vision refered to in game, about anything, ever. different games work for different people, thats obvious, and VG is a awesome game for me.
The irony?
Take your own advice and back your text of vomit up with something 'real'.
All your post said was 'I love Vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinions'.
You didn't even state why you enjoy the game.
Sigil's viral marketing team is getting worse.
Actually, he just said that he doesn't agree everyone who thinks the game will die. He wasn't even necessarily saying you're wrong. It just seems like he's sick of seeing it posted a hundred times (probably more) a day by mostly the same people.
Funny how people learned this new "viral marketing" term, and are throwing it all over like its some sort of disease that that Sigil created. Check this out: viral marketing is simply the passing along of a marketing message. Every company with a half way decent marketing team has some form of viral marketing plan. It's not necessarily someone hired by a company to go out, and, whether they feel that way or not, make positive statements about a product. Besides that, paying someone to do this is the most dumbass and risky way to market anything because 99% of the time it backfires. If at the end of his post, he would have posted a message that said, "visit this web page to download your copy of Vanguard today, and *insert whatever Sigil's marketing slogan is here*", that would have been a form of viral marketing. Ad banners on every web page (this one included) are more a form of viral marketing than this guy's post. In fact, if you've ever had a hotmail account, you most likely took part in their viral marketing program. Sorry to take away your "evil empire conspiracy theory" of posters lying about their experiences away, but hopefully, it'll be one less thing for people to bitch about.
to all the 'VG is dying posts', back that with something real. to all the 'VG doesn't have 8 million players posts', tell me why I care as a player wether the game has 10 servers or 100 as long as they are populated. I doubt I agree with that many people on anything else, why should I on games? If your answer involves Brad or Vision- save, because neither I or most people playing the game give a shit about either- while they may come up a hundred times a day here on these forums, I have NEVER seen brad or vision refered to in game, about anything, ever. different games work for different people, thats obvious, and VG is a awesome game for me.
The irony?
Take your own advice and back your text of vomit up with something 'real'.
All your post said was 'I love Vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinions'.
You didn't even state why you enjoy the game.
Sigil's viral marketing team is getting worse.
Actually, he just said that he doesn't agree everyone who thinks the game will die. He wasn't even necessarily saying you're wrong. It just seems like he's sick of seeing it posted a hundred times (probably more) a day by mostly the same people.
Funny how people learned this new "viral marketing" term, and are throwing it all over like its some sort of disease that that Sigil created. Check this out: viral marketing is simply the passing along of a marketing message. Every company with a half way decent marketing team has some form of viral marketing plan. It's not necessarily someone hired by a company to go out, and, whether they feel that way or not, make positive statements about a product. Besides that, paying someone to do this is the most dumbass and risky way to market anything because 99% of the time it backfires. If at the end of his post, he would have posted a message that said, "visit this web page to download your copy of Vanguard today, and *insert whatever Sigil's marketing slogan is here*", that would have been a form of viral marketing. Ad banners on every web page (this one included) are more a form of viral marketing than this guy's post. In fact, if you've ever had a hotmail account, you most likely took part in their viral marketing program. Sorry to take away your "evil empire conspiracy theory" of posters lying about their experiences away, but hopefully, it'll be one less thing for people to bitch about.
Well i'm sorry you couldn't see my statement as a joke. It was a joke thread after all. I know what viral marketing is.
Alot of people have backed their posts with real information, I see alot less bogus hate posts than I do fanboi posts.
Currently Playing: Everything but MMORPGs Cancelled: L2, FFXI, VSoH, LotRO, WAR, WoW Looking Forward To: SW:TOR
to all the 'VG is dying posts', back that with something real. to all the 'VG doesn't have 8 million players posts', tell me why I care as a player wether the game has 10 servers or 100 as long as they are populated. I doubt I agree with that many people on anything else, why should I on games? If your answer involves Brad or Vision- save, because neither I or most people playing the game give a shit about either- while they may come up a hundred times a day here on these forums, I have NEVER seen brad or vision refered to in game, about anything, ever. different games work for different people, thats obvious, and VG is a awesome game for me.
The irony?
Take your own advice and back your text of vomit up with something 'real'.
All your post said was 'I love Vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinions'.
You didn't even state why you enjoy the game.
Sigil's viral marketing team is getting worse.
Actually, he just said that he doesn't agree everyone who thinks the game will die. He wasn't even necessarily saying you're wrong. It just seems like he's sick of seeing it posted a hundred times (probably more) a day by mostly the same people.
Funny how people learned this new "viral marketing" term, and are throwing it all over like its some sort of disease that that Sigil created. Check this out: viral marketing is simply the passing along of a marketing message. Every company with a half way decent marketing team has some form of viral marketing plan. It's not necessarily someone hired by a company to go out, and, whether they feel that way or not, make positive statements about a product. Besides that, paying someone to do this is the most dumbass and risky way to market anything because 99% of the time it backfires. If at the end of his post, he would have posted a message that said, "visit this web page to download your copy of Vanguard today, and *insert whatever Sigil's marketing slogan is here*", that would have been a form of viral marketing. Ad banners on every web page (this one included) are more a form of viral marketing than this guy's post. In fact, if you've ever had a hotmail account, you most likely took part in their viral marketing program. Sorry to take away your "evil empire conspiracy theory" of posters lying about their experiences away, but hopefully, it'll be one less thing for people to bitch about.
Well i'm sorry you couldn't see my statement as a joke. It was a joke thread after all. I know what viral marketing is.
Alot of people have backed their posts with real information, I see alot less bogus hate posts than I do fanboi posts.
I really wanted to reply to your first post xalrythx, but for some reason its noplace in the thread for me except killer4hires quote.
My backup for saying it's not going anywhere is on the left side of your screen- a long list of forums for active MMO's, and for most of them people have said 'omg this game is gone when X new game hits the market.' History is on my side, as is the fact that, even if its performance is dissapointing to the dev's, its still a multi million dollar project- they will squeeze everything they can from it. Add to that whats already been said about station pass, and I think I'm pretty well covered.
'you didn't even say why you enjoy the game'- see thread title- do you see Vanguard review? how about Why I like Vanguard? Maybe Everyone who doesn't like the game is wrong? nope, you don't, because I wasn't reviewing the game, and don't think that at all.
'all your post said was I love vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinion'- I adressed two topics I continue to see brought up in almost every thread in the forum, and stated that I like the game and don't expect everyone else to. How you got this idea from my post I have no idea, but it makes me laugh. I created a new thread to say what I said because otherwise I would have had to go from thread to thread saying it- so I stated my opinion here, once.
I fully expected to see a post here from you and several others bashing both what I said and the fact that I said it, and you didn't dissapoint.
to all the 'VG is dying posts', back that with something real. to all the 'VG doesn't have 8 million players posts', tell me why I care as a player wether the game has 10 servers or 100 as long as they are populated. I doubt I agree with that many people on anything else, why should I on games? If your answer involves Brad or Vision- save, because neither I or most people playing the game give a shit about either- while they may come up a hundred times a day here on these forums, I have NEVER seen brad or vision refered to in game, about anything, ever. different games work for different people, thats obvious, and VG is a awesome game for me.
The irony?
Take your own advice and back your text of vomit up with something 'real'.
All your post said was 'I love Vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinions'.
You didn't even state why you enjoy the game.
Sigil's viral marketing team is getting worse.
Actually, he just said that he doesn't agree everyone who thinks the game will die. He wasn't even necessarily saying you're wrong. It just seems like he's sick of seeing it posted a hundred times (probably more) a day by mostly the same people.
Funny how people learned this new "viral marketing" term, and are throwing it all over like its some sort of disease that that Sigil created. Check this out: viral marketing is simply the passing along of a marketing message. Every company with a half way decent marketing team has some form of viral marketing plan. It's not necessarily someone hired by a company to go out, and, whether they feel that way or not, make positive statements about a product. Besides that, paying someone to do this is the most dumbass and risky way to market anything because 99% of the time it backfires. If at the end of his post, he would have posted a message that said, "visit this web page to download your copy of Vanguard today, and *insert whatever Sigil's marketing slogan is here*", that would have been a form of viral marketing. Ad banners on every web page (this one included) are more a form of viral marketing than this guy's post. In fact, if you've ever had a hotmail account, you most likely took part in their viral marketing program. Sorry to take away your "evil empire conspiracy theory" of posters lying about their experiences away, but hopefully, it'll be one less thing for people to bitch about.
Well i'm sorry you couldn't see my statement as a joke. It was a joke thread after all. I know what viral marketing is.
Alot of people have backed their posts with real information, I see alot less bogus hate posts than I do fanboi posts.
I really wanted to reply to your first post xalrythx, but for some reason its noplace in the thread for me except killer4hires quote.
My backup for saying it's not going anywhere is on the left side of your screen- a long list of forums for active MMO's, and for most of them people have said 'omg this game is gone when X new game hits the market.' History is on my side, as is the fact that, even if its performance is dissapointing to the dev's, its still a multi million dollar project- they will squeeze everything they can from it. Add to that whats already been said about station pass, and I think I'm pretty well covered.
'you didn't even say why you enjoy the game'- see thread title- do you see Vanguard review? how about Why I like Vanguard? Maybe Everyone who doesn't like the game is wrong? nope, you don't, because I wasn't reviewing the game, and don't think that at all.
'all your post said was I love vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinion'- I adressed two topics I continue to see brought up in almost every thread in the forum, and stated that I like the game and don't expect everyone else to. How you got this idea from my post I have no idea, but it makes me laugh. I created a new thread to say what I said because otherwise I would have had to go from thread to thread saying it- so I stated my opinion here, once.
I fully expected to see a post here from you and several others bashing both what I said and the fact that I said it, and you didn't dissapoint.
Your right, VG isn't going anywhere.
It's going neither up or down.
It will remain a mediocre game that failed to fulfill any of the promises that came from Brad's mouth. It will trot along just like SWG, and will set an example for future developers on what not to do.
People have a reason to hate, if your not buying into the hate, then good. No one should buy into hate. Everyone should see for themselves and judge just exactly where this game is heading. All the promises have gone down the drain and the game is becoming more and more like WoW everyday.
I don't think people should be paying for potential however. Espically when it's barely there.
Currently Playing: Everything but MMORPGs Cancelled: L2, FFXI, VSoH, LotRO, WAR, WoW Looking Forward To: SW:TOR
VG will most likely cling to life for at least a couple of years. I mean even AC2 managed that.
But in addition to it's obvious problems (performance, bugs, bland content, nerfs), there are two other things to consider:
1. VG cost a whole lot of money. At some point Sigil needs to show that VG can produce a reasonable amount of revenue for the investment. I don't think it can just cruise like Horizons or some other medicore game because of the costs involved.
2. SOE raised it's Sony Station Access fee. A lot of people kept up certain unused subs because it wasn't too expensive. But now the fee is equivalent to 2 regular subs. There are many who will be subscribing to just one game. It is possible that many will play VG solely but historically, players don't like to give up their high level characters, especially for a game with major issues.
MMOs historically do not shutdown that easily but unless VG makes some serious improvements, this game may be considered one of the biggest blunders in computer gaming for a long time.
Why single out McQuaid? Not as if he's the only designer that's promised the Sun, Moon, and Stars, only to not deliver. Bowman, Raph, Jacobs, Garriott, all guilty of the same things. But for some reason, they're given a free pass, where I'm pretty sure there's more than a few folks here that are rapidly approaching borderline psychosis that would, given the opportunity, relish doing harm to McQuaid personally.
I think Brad will go down in gaming history more along the lines of John Romero and Derek Smart... a victim of too many yes-men and buying in to his own hype. I honestly believe that unless they make some serious progress turning this game around, it will be the last time a publisher gives him the money to make anything noteworthy.
John Romero =
Slipgate Ironworks
On August 31, 2005, Romero confirmed [3] that he has been working on a yet-to-be-announced MMOG at his newly opened development studio, Slipgate Ironworks. [2] It has been reported that the name is temporary. "For the record," Romero wrote, "I'm co-founder of a new game company in the Bay Area and am much better off in many ways than I was at Midway." He also said that he would not reveal anything about the company or the game until 2007.
Why single out McQuaid? Not as if he's the only designer that's promised the Sun, Moon, and Stars, only to not deliver. Bowman, Raph, Jacobs, Garriott, all guilty of the same things. But for some reason, they're given a free pass, where I'm pretty sure there's more than a few folks here that are rapidly approaching borderline psychosis that would, given the opportunity, relish doing harm to McQuaid personally.
I think Brad will go down in gaming history more along the lines of John Romero and Derek Smart... a victim of too many yes-men and buying in to his own hype. I honestly believe that unless they make some serious progress turning this game around, it will be the last time a publisher gives him the money to make anything noteworthy.
John Romero =
Slipgate Ironworks
On August 31, 2005, Romero confirmed [3] that he has been working on a yet-to-be-announced MMOG at his newly opened development studio, Slipgate Ironworks. [2] It has been reported that the name is temporary. "For the record," Romero wrote, "I'm co-founder of a new game company in the Bay Area and am much better off in many ways than I was at Midway." He also said that he would not reveal anything about the company or the game until 2007.
I'm not sure what point that list was meant to illistrate, that the guy has worked on a lot of games, or that he actually worked on a couple of good games a decade ago. Maybe you think I was saying that Brad is a total loaser or something, or reading more in to my post than I intented. I was speaking specifically about brad being surrounded by yesmen and fanboys which leads to him buying in to his own hype. Just like Diakatana can't erase the fact that John Romero is responsile for Doom, Brad will still get credit for EQ, no matter how crazy he gets in the furture. I think if you tell a guy he can do no wrong enough times, he starts to believe it.
From very early on in the game's development, Daikatana was aggressively advertised as the brainchild of John Romero, a man famous for his work at id Software in the development of Doom and Quake. Time magazine gave Romero and Daikatana glowing coverage, proclaiming "Everything that game designer John Romero touches turns to gore and gold."[1] An early advertisement for Daikatana, created by marketing guru Mike Wilson and approved by Romero, was a red poster with large black lettering proclaiming "John Romero's about to make you his bitch". Nothing else featured on this poster but a small tag-line reading "Suck It Down", along with an Ion Storm and Eidos logo.
Following its appearance in several gaming magazines, more negative news came out of Ion Storm, fueling distaste for the unreleased shooter. The lavish rockstar-like treatment given to Romero in his attempt to build a designer-centered game studio (including a multimillion-dollar office on the top floor of a Dallas skyscraper), Romero's well-publicized expensive tastes and hobbies (such as racing Ferraris), the dubious saga of Romero's girlfriend Stevie "Killcreek" Case being hired on as a level designer, and the game's development (which included most of the original development team quitting en masse to form a competing company), incited fierce disdain and criticism among certain elements of the then-emergent online gaming fan community. The press regularly published leaked gossip from disgruntled former (and current) employees, providing ample and regular doses of new drama to keep interest in the story high. Several online industry gossip websites came into existence primarily to track the unfolding debacle, some of which are still publishing today.
Due to these and other problems, Daikatana was delayed multiple times from its conception in early 1997 to its eventual release in 2000. By this time, numerous games based on more advanced graphical technology (such as Id Software's Quake III and Epic MegaGames' Unreal Tournament) had already been released, causing Daikatana to lag technologically in the market with its dated Quake II game engine. Additionally, its gameplay had many aspects that were widely disliked by players, such as an artificially limited number of saves per level and the presence of computer-controlled "sidekicks" who were an active impediment to the player. As a result, Daikatana received mediocre reviews from reviewers and users alike. Many believe the fallout from Daikatana sidelined Romero's career in the high-end PC gaming industry for a number of years, though Romero himself has stated that he chose to make his next company, Monkeystone, drastically smaller for his own reasons. The game was a major contributing factor in the closure of Ion Storm's Dallas office.
Ii is also worth pointing out that since the release of Diakatana, most of the games he worked on have been for mobile devices. Including a big chunk of your list post 2000., and that the unannounced MMO remains unannounced.
more from wikipedia, picking up after the collapse of Ion Storm...
Monkeystone Games
In July 2001, Romero and Hall founded Monkeystone Games in order to develop and publish games for mobile devices, and Monkeystone released 15 games (approximately) during its short lifespan of three and a half years. Some highlights of their developments included Hyperspace Delivery Boy (Pocket PC, PC, Mac, Linux, GBA), Congo Cube (Pocket PC, PC, BREW, J2ME), and Red Faction for the Nokia N-Gage.
In mid-October 2003, Romero joined Midway Games as Project Lead on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. While he continued to maintain his working relationship with Monkeystone, Lucas Davis took over running the office. The Monkeystone team moved to Austin, Texas to work on Midway's Area 51 title until its release. Monkeystone Games closed down in January 2005. John moved from Project Lead to Creative Director of Internal Studio during this time.
At the end of June 2005, Romero left Midway Games mere months before the completion of Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows.
On August 31, 2005, Romero confirmed [3] that he has been working on a yet-to-be-announced MMOG at his newly opened development studio, Slipgate Ironworks. [2] It has been reported that the name is temporary. "For the record," Romero wrote, "I'm co-founder of a new game company in the Bay Area and am much better off in many ways than I was at Midway." He also said that he would not reveal anything about the company or the game until 2007.
Vanguard may not be going away, but a lot of Vanguard's players are. I don't think it's a trickle either. My account expires on Apr 5, and I logged in yesterday to see some of the updates. I saw very few people at that time, and judging by many of the posts on the different boards I read, many people are taking the wait and see approach. The problem is that if a bulk of the players are waiting six months to a year before coming back, there'll be significanlty less money for the devs to use to fix the game. This will slow down the patching and that will slow down the people returning. It's a bad cycle to be in.
First off I'm still playing VG and will continue to do so. With that said, I ended up buying 4 LoTR Beta Pre-Orders and noticed a few things both at the store and after loading the game (beta).
Before logging in:
The pre-order was $10 and included some nice pre-order options like free expansions with a lifetime membership as well as that locked in reduced Rate.
I noticed so many copies of WoW trials for $1.99 with 14 free days. While I don't play WoW, $1.99 would encourage me to try it no risk.
I felt welcomed by Turbine when I was registering the game as well as fully informed as to what was going on with their game and company without having to search 20 websites.
Turbine did not need my credit card to try the game out. They trusted me enough to know if I enjoy the game, I will continue to line their pockets with silver in the end.
Turbine rewarded me with a one week "exclusive" beta for investing my $10 upfront ahead of the open beta members that will start a week later.
I can manage my accounts easily by having a main account and then attaching sub accounts for easy login and billing management. May not sound like much, but it shows they even went out of the way to make billing/account management more user friendly.
I can create a character in Beta and if I decide to keep the game, have a level 15 character stay in the released game when it's complete. May not sound like much but it demonstrated a respect for the time I invest in my character, even in beta.
After logging in:
No lag, running in high end mode.
Graphics that were totally enjoyable. Yes, I know the potential for VG graphics goes beyond what 90% of the machines currently out there could ever dream of handling, but the 5-20 FPS in kicked down high performance mode eliminates that potential for my low end 4,600 Duel Core with 2 gig's of Ram and a low end 512 MB PCI-Express card.
Zones were full of players who seemed to be totally enjoying the game and helping other players that were new (you know, started 6 hours later) to the game.
Overall:
I said I enjoy VG, and I do. I was left however with a feeling of "35 million later and 5 years+ of development, why could VG not be like this".
~VG~
You already know who Brad and his team are, gives us $50 and we will show you what we can do for you. Trust us, with your wallet 1st. Then we give you buddy keys so you can tell your friends were not as bad as we seem.
~LoTR~
Why should you trust us, pay $10 and see what we really are like. No commitment, no credit cards, just try us out. If it turns out you like what we have, we will reduce your membership rate for life just for trusting us with that 1st $10 and let you even keep the toon you tried us out with.
~VG~
We built relationships along the way with many "Affiliate" sites as well as some "Special" sites, we talk to them on a regular basis. If your good enough, you can even gleam words from the chosen sent down on tablets to the worthy by signing up with a ton of sites to gleam 3rd party information.
~LoTR~
Thank you for being a founder and supporting our game from the beginning. We appreciate your funding of our game and know it's the subscribers that pay for our product. Communicate with us, please, your opinions are valuable to us.
~VG~
We have a 3rd party company that does our billing and publishing. If you have a problem with your billing, it's not us, unless you cancel with us, which is not them, but will go to them from us, perhaps. We don't have "Official Boards" unless you have game issues, unless of course those game issues result in you having a post that reflects negativity on the game which should be posted on affiliate sites, unless of course it's one where we instructed the moderators to filter out negativity. We also offer a savings plan if you play multiple games, however that cost is 2x the monthly fee, so you will need to play 3 games for a savings, however if you play their games, you will still get to pay more in the end, even if you don't play VG to help defray our costs.
~LoTR~
We offer plans that save you money, consolidate accounts for you and your family and a "Official" website where you can post up and be heard.
I'm still playing V:SoH and so's everone in the guild I'm in. No one has left and no one has any plans to leave. In fact, two more friends have decided to play and are playing the game now. Everyone I know that I teamed with on CoH / SWG / EQII now plays V:SoH as well. Most of us have Station Access accounts. I can count no less than 15 people I know personally that play this good MMO. Conversely, none of them play any other SOE MMO or any other MMO for that matter in such numbers. So I guess let the numbers speak for themselves. I see PLENTY of people on during primetime and on weekends.
If you don't play the game, move on. Why in the heck stick around with a game you obviously don't like and make it a personal crusade to try and make everyone else miserable? Although you're far from making me or any of my friends miserable! We're having a blast in V:SoH and will continue to do so.
Find a game you like and visit those forums and be a happier person.
PS: The above was not directed at anyone in general, but those that like to complain alot and try to bring others down without any constructive means of suggesting ways to make things better. I will add here that Sigil and SOE are not perfect. Yes I'd like to see a bit more "we care about you attitude" and official forums and doing some of the great things that other game companies do. But that's not the reality. I take what I experience in-game as the MOST important aspect of my gaming experience, and not what kind of forums there are etc...
Why single out McQuaid? Not as if he's the only designer that's promised the Sun, Moon, and Stars, only to not deliver. Bowman, Raph, Jacobs, Garriott, all guilty of the same things. But for some reason, they're given a free pass, where I'm pretty sure there's more than a few folks here that are rapidly approaching borderline psychosis that would, given the opportunity, relish doing harm to McQuaid personally.
/QFT
I happen to remember many promises for "Hero Classes" in WoW, and also promises of mini games to be playable in taverns and such. It seems the endless item farm is all kids want these days in games...put anything else out there and they will flame you to hell and back.
I'm still playing V:SoH and so's everone in the guild I'm in. No one has left and no one has any plans to leave. In fact, two more friends have decided to play and are playing the game now. Everyone I know that I teamed with on CoH / SWG / EQII now plays V:SoH as well. Most of us have Station Access accounts. I can count no less than 15 people I know personally that play this good MMO. Conversely, none of them play any other SOE MMO or any other MMO for that matter in such numbers. So I guess let the numbers speak for themselves. I see PLENTY of people on during primetime and on weekends. If you don't play the game, move on. Why in the heck stick around with a game you obviously don't like and make it a personal crusade to try and make everyone else miserable? Although you're far from making me or any of my friends miserable! We're having a blast in V:SoH and will continue to do so. Find a game you like and visit those forums and be a happier person. PS: The above was not directed at anyone in general, but those that like to complain alot and try to bring others down without any constructive means of suggesting ways to make things better. I will add here that Sigil and SOE are not perfect. Yes I'd like to see a bit more "we care about you attitude" and official forums and doing some of the great things that other game companies do. But that's not the reality. I take what I experience in-game as the MOST important aspect of my gaming experience, and not what kind of forums there are etc...
I do understand your point here. Also, it is good to have posts like yours to balance the overwhelming negatively. However, the Vanguard forums will be this way for a while because Vanguard is one of the biggest failures in gaming history on many levels.
The attraction is like how people like to look at a car wreck. People will get tired of talking about it in due time but for now it's downfall makes for interesting conversation. Once this dies down I think even the people who like the game will miss Vanguard being in the spotlight. After all, this forum used to be rocking also --> http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/forum/433.
Why single out McQuaid? Not as if he's the only designer that's promised the Sun, Moon, and Stars, only to not deliver. Bowman, Raph, Jacobs, Garriott, all guilty of the same things. But for some reason, they're given a free pass, where I'm pretty sure there's more than a few folks here that are rapidly approaching borderline psychosis that would, given the opportunity, relish doing harm to McQuaid personally.
/QFT
I happen to remember many promises for "Hero Classes" in WoW, and also promises of mini games to be playable in taverns and such. It seems the endless item farm is all kids want these days in games...put anything else out there and they will flame you to hell and back.
I disagree. I think if you can do one thing well before release to get the word of mouth going on a positive path, then people are more forgiving of what you don't have in your game upon release. For instance, LOTR's sounds a lot like WOW to me. Pre-release word of mouth is that it looks nice and is stable and runs well on most cards/machines. Much of WOW's iniatial word of mouth was also positive. It's colorful (although some didn't like the cartoon graphics) and it runs well and is very playable in early beta. Both also had reports when the NDA dropped that the game was FUN. Did WOW forget a few promises like hero classes? Will LOTR's leave something out of their FAQ sheet? Yes, but people tend to over-look that if what you gave them is a) playable and not a buggy mess and b) FUN.
Vanguard on the other hand started beta's 1 and 2 in such an incomplete state that they couldn't get anyone to even log in and play. People broke NDA and posted that the animations and graphics looked like they were from 1999 instead of a next-gen game and that the game still ran like it should be in a pre-alpha stage as well. Then they moved over to SOE after Microsoft dumped them and the vast majority of their fans were people who disliked SOE for either SWG or EQI or EQII.
I agree with Coldmeat's comparison to Bowman and Co and Brad. The reason Brad's is magnified is pretty much his own fault. I don't wish harm on him and am not freaking out over Vanguard but I also am dissapointed with what we got as a game in comparison to what Brad promised. Bowman claimed Horizon's was the second coming of MMORPGs but he wasn't working with Microsoft and a 30 million budget. He also wasn't a legendary personality based on the success of a MMORPG that partially started this whole genre.
Mcquaid is unfortunately the scapegoat for not only Vanguard's shortcomings, but also for D&D Online, Dark and Light, Horizon's, Shadowbane and any other game that lead fans on, promised the moon and then crapped in a box and said, "Buy our unpolished,unfinished game and we will try to fix everything that is wrong with it in a year or so."
I think people are making a statement and that WOW raised the bar at least on quality. I know WOW had bugs at release but it ran smooth and was quite playable. I think a lot of people are either not playing MMORPGs or are staying with WOW untill someone can release something that plays well right out of the box. Too many choices are coming for anyone to have to play something unfinished unless all the companies are releasing unfinished games. And if that is the case then no up and coming MMORPG should be suprised to see that their game didn't bring in the masses either.
I'm still playing V:SoH and so's everone in the guild I'm in. No one has left and no one has any plans to leave. In fact, two more friends have decided to play and are playing the game now. Everyone I know that I teamed with on CoH / SWG / EQII now plays V:SoH as well. Most of us have Station Access accounts. I can count no less than 15 people I know personally that play this good MMO. Conversely, none of them play any other SOE MMO or any other MMO for that matter in such numbers. So I guess let the numbers speak for themselves. I see PLENTY of people on during primetime and on weekends. If you don't play the game, move on. Why in the heck stick around with a game you obviously don't like and make it a personal crusade to try and make everyone else miserable? Although you're far from making me or any of my friends miserable! We're having a blast in V:SoH and will continue to do so. Find a game you like and visit those forums and be a happier person. PS: The above was not directed at anyone in general, but those that like to complain alot and try to bring others down without any constructive means of suggesting ways to make things better. I will add here that Sigil and SOE are not perfect. Yes I'd like to see a bit more "we care about you attitude" and official forums and doing some of the great things that other game companies do. But that's not the reality. I take what I experience in-game as the MOST important aspect of my gaming experience, and not what kind of forums there are etc...
This website is devoted to reviewing sevaral games, even if this is the "Vanguard" section. There are several forums that are dedicated to ONLY the game that you have stated you are having a blast in. So why don't you take some of your own advice and if you don't enjoy the negativity here try going to a site that is more geared towards ONLY the active community of the game.
Alot of people read up on games they don't play, and the sub-forums of this site are not reserved for polite, praising of the games.
So while yes, some people bash too much and need to move on, but this is not a place where negative opinion and feedback is taboo, quite the opposite.
I'm still playing V:SoH and so's everone in the guild I'm in. No one has left and no one has any plans to leave. In fact, two more friends have decided to play and are playing the game now. Everyone I know that I teamed with on CoH / SWG / EQII now plays V:SoH as well. Most of us have Station Access accounts. I can count no less than 15 people I know personally that play this good MMO. Conversely, none of them play any other SOE MMO or any other MMO for that matter in such numbers. So I guess let the numbers speak for themselves. I see PLENTY of people on during primetime and on weekends. If you don't play the game, move on. Why in the heck stick around with a game you obviously don't like and make it a personal crusade to try and make everyone else miserable? Although you're far from making me or any of my friends miserable! We're having a blast in V:SoH and will continue to do so. Find a game you like and visit those forums and be a happier person. PS: The above was not directed at anyone in general, but those that like to complain alot and try to bring others down without any constructive means of suggesting ways to make things better. I will add here that Sigil and SOE are not perfect. Yes I'd like to see a bit more "we care about you attitude" and official forums and doing some of the great things that other game companies do. But that's not the reality. I take what I experience in-game as the MOST important aspect of my gaming experience, and not what kind of forums there are etc...
If you read many of the negative posts here, you will find many of the people purchased the game and were very disappointed. Spending $50 on something that does not deliver gives a person the right to complain about it as much as they please.
Now what I would love to see is a response that can say how they fixed the fellowship problems, have the boats and flying mounts setup and ready to use, fixed the chunking problems, fixed the problem with the friends list not showing friends online as well as a host of other bugs and glitches so we could all be told to shut up.
The only counter responses I see is that the game is not that bad and they never finished it, so it's not their fault. Tell me, if all the things people are saying is false, then why do so many keep saying the same things and no one can defend them short of saying "go back to game "x"?
I sorta picture the Burger King commercial with the "All meat" add, then going to Burger King and getting a veggie burger. Well, you see sir, McDonalds was putting out their new burger and we spent a fortune on the add, but we did not get the beef yet, sorry, I can't refund you, but if you come back in 6 months....
The game is not going to close its doors anytime soon. Look at the Matrix Online, for example, still limping along. Vanguard will be around at least 5 years, sucky though it is.
However, when a game doesn't sell many subscriptions, that eventually has an effect on the game. Fewer expansions, with less quality. Server mergers. Reduced support.
Those things aren't going to happen just yet - they are going to pour money into it for a while to see if they can't get the numbers up. But once they conclude the numbers aren't going up, expect bad times.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
So right that folks who spent $50 have a positive right to complain if they are unhappy.
Some positive posts to balance the negative - they are fine as well. When WoW was in the pre-launch phase there were some negative posts as well. Difference is that the ratio of positive to negative was c. 20:1 based on a survey I did and posted way back . I haven't done the same for VSoH but it is clear - whichever board you go on, this, VN, Silky, TenTon etc. that the negatives far out number the positives.
VSoH not going away - well my take on this would be that whilst it wasn't still born according to Brad's own claims it hasn't yet got enough subscribers to stay afloat. I assume that the range he gave was to allow for Station Access pass subscribers but he was 50-150k short. Basic economic fact: things that lose money eventually get closed down.
Blah, blah SoE will keep it alive as part of their access pass. Last I checked this wasn't a Sony game. And either they were not prepared to pony up more money for a bigger slice of VSoH (a bad sign) or Brad decided he didn't want to let SoE or some other company have a slice of VSoH and decided to launch as was (a bad sign). And the Access Pass is going up - was I the only person to detect that this didn't go down that well.
The key months are coming up - but the prognosis doesn't look brilliant imo based on sales chart, what has been posted and the number of characters at level 10 and up.
Now what I would love to see is a response that can say how they fixed the fellowship problems, have the boats and flying mounts setup and ready to use, fixed the chunking problems, fixed the problem with the friends list not showing friends online as well as a host of other bugs and glitches so we could all be told to shut up.
Zarthaine have a look at the Official Tech support forums; boats are in, flying mounts too to a certain degree. I have never had a problem with friends not showing in the list - though there is a bug where they still show after logging out. However their status is "Unknown Zone" so its easy to tell they arent in game. I have a theory some people press "log out" and then walk away from their PCs leaving the character select loaded.
Chunking can still be a tad slow crossing some zones (not all) but in nearly 33 levels I havent had any other issue with them apart from that. I also know that issue would go away completely if I ever bothered to replace the 1gb RAM stick that died on me in Sept last year during beta. Infact it is because the performance hit going from 2 to 1 gig was so neglible that I never bothered to replace it.
I too wish they were able to fix the Fellowship system; unfortunately it didnt make the Top 10 list of things to fix, so we are either in the minority or the problem is not easily solved.
Romero did more right then wrong. Brad worked on one major game Everquest . Vanguard was Brad's break away project, and he flopped it.
I don't see brad working with Warren Specter on Deus EX ? Or Valve/Sierra in Half-Life . Brad has almost no experience as a major developer.
I will wait for Romero's "when it is done" mmo , rather then " omfg we ran out of money, ship it NOW !!!!!"
I agree with you there, and I wasn't really trying to compare the two guys' work overall.. rather the attitude a developer can get when he has way too many people telling him his game is awesome, even if it isn't. Maybe instead of comparing Romero and BMQ, I should have compared Vanguard to Diakatan, as the end result of that kind of attitude. I also think that unfortunately, no matter what Romero did before that game, it's sorry state, and his rock-star attitude during it's production are the reason we haven't seen publishers willing to throw cash at him to develop a triple A title since then.
vanguard imho is the new thing, they've just brung it out when it should still be in closed beta theres still 1000's of things wrong with it but once there fixed, and they are fixing them daily this game will start liftin it self up n i can't wait.
www.chaoscrew-clan.com, Criminal gang for All Points Bulletin (APB) join us
Comments
I think Brad will go down in gaming history more along the lines of John Romero and Derek Smart... a victim of too many yes-men and buying in to his own hype. I honestly believe that unless they make some serious progress turning this game around, it will be the last time a publisher gives him the money to make anything noteworthy.
I certainly wouldn't wish any physical harm on the guy, but it would be nice to see him abducted from his ivory tower, brought down to earth and forced to see his game from the perspective of the average subscriber... rather than a bunch of mediocre developers more worried about stepping on his toes than releasing a crappy game. I understand what it is about him that infuriates people though... With the whole "let them eat cake" attitude he has toward the issue of unreasonable system requirements, or the way he occasionally pops up to throw a little pity-party for himself on some fansite forums. Woe is Brad, he had 40 million dollars and 5 years to make a game, it's all Sony's fault that he had to launch early. The game didn't launch early, it was delayed about a year. The problem was their lackadaisical approach to development , even in what most games would consider "crunch-time", and an obvious belief that Sony was going to give him another extension. They had plenty of time and money, they simply didn't get the job done.
-----Zero Punctuation Eve Online Review-----
The irony?
Take your own advice and back your text of vomit up with something 'real'.
All your post said was 'I love Vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinions'.
You didn't even state why you enjoy the game.
Sigil's viral marketing team is getting worse.
Actually, he just said that he doesn't agree everyone who thinks the game will die. He wasn't even necessarily saying you're wrong. It just seems like he's sick of seeing it posted a hundred times (probably more) a day by mostly the same people.
Funny how people learned this new "viral marketing" term, and are throwing it all over like its some sort of disease that that Sigil created. Check this out: viral marketing is simply the passing along of a marketing message. Every company with a half way decent marketing team has some form of viral marketing plan. It's not necessarily someone hired by a company to go out, and, whether they feel that way or not, make positive statements about a product. Besides that, paying someone to do this is the most dumbass and risky way to market anything because 99% of the time it backfires. If at the end of his post, he would have posted a message that said, "visit this web page to download your copy of Vanguard today, and *insert whatever Sigil's marketing slogan is here*", that would have been a form of viral marketing. Ad banners on every web page (this one included) are more a form of viral marketing than this guy's post. In fact, if you've ever had a hotmail account, you most likely took part in their viral marketing program. Sorry to take away your "evil empire conspiracy theory" of posters lying about their experiences away, but hopefully, it'll be one less thing for people to bitch about.
The irony?
Take your own advice and back your text of vomit up with something 'real'.
All your post said was 'I love Vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinions'.
You didn't even state why you enjoy the game.
Sigil's viral marketing team is getting worse.
Actually, he just said that he doesn't agree everyone who thinks the game will die. He wasn't even necessarily saying you're wrong. It just seems like he's sick of seeing it posted a hundred times (probably more) a day by mostly the same people.
Funny how people learned this new "viral marketing" term, and are throwing it all over like its some sort of disease that that Sigil created. Check this out: viral marketing is simply the passing along of a marketing message. Every company with a half way decent marketing team has some form of viral marketing plan. It's not necessarily someone hired by a company to go out, and, whether they feel that way or not, make positive statements about a product. Besides that, paying someone to do this is the most dumbass and risky way to market anything because 99% of the time it backfires. If at the end of his post, he would have posted a message that said, "visit this web page to download your copy of Vanguard today, and *insert whatever Sigil's marketing slogan is here*", that would have been a form of viral marketing. Ad banners on every web page (this one included) are more a form of viral marketing than this guy's post. In fact, if you've ever had a hotmail account, you most likely took part in their viral marketing program. Sorry to take away your "evil empire conspiracy theory" of posters lying about their experiences away, but hopefully, it'll be one less thing for people to bitch about.
Well i'm sorry you couldn't see my statement as a joke. It was a joke thread after all. I know what viral marketing is.
Alot of people have backed their posts with real information, I see alot less bogus hate posts than I do fanboi posts.
Currently Playing: Everything but MMORPGs
Cancelled: L2, FFXI, VSoH, LotRO, WAR, WoW
Looking Forward To: SW:TOR
The irony?
Take your own advice and back your text of vomit up with something 'real'.
All your post said was 'I love Vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinions'.
You didn't even state why you enjoy the game.
Sigil's viral marketing team is getting worse.
Actually, he just said that he doesn't agree everyone who thinks the game will die. He wasn't even necessarily saying you're wrong. It just seems like he's sick of seeing it posted a hundred times (probably more) a day by mostly the same people.
Funny how people learned this new "viral marketing" term, and are throwing it all over like its some sort of disease that that Sigil created. Check this out: viral marketing is simply the passing along of a marketing message. Every company with a half way decent marketing team has some form of viral marketing plan. It's not necessarily someone hired by a company to go out, and, whether they feel that way or not, make positive statements about a product. Besides that, paying someone to do this is the most dumbass and risky way to market anything because 99% of the time it backfires. If at the end of his post, he would have posted a message that said, "visit this web page to download your copy of Vanguard today, and *insert whatever Sigil's marketing slogan is here*", that would have been a form of viral marketing. Ad banners on every web page (this one included) are more a form of viral marketing than this guy's post. In fact, if you've ever had a hotmail account, you most likely took part in their viral marketing program. Sorry to take away your "evil empire conspiracy theory" of posters lying about their experiences away, but hopefully, it'll be one less thing for people to bitch about.
Well i'm sorry you couldn't see my statement as a joke. It was a joke thread after all. I know what viral marketing is.
Alot of people have backed their posts with real information, I see alot less bogus hate posts than I do fanboi posts.
I really wanted to reply to your first post xalrythx, but for some reason its noplace in the thread for me except killer4hires quote.
My backup for saying it's not going anywhere is on the left side of your screen- a long list of forums for active MMO's, and for most of them people have said 'omg this game is gone when X new game hits the market.' History is on my side, as is the fact that, even if its performance is dissapointing to the dev's, its still a multi million dollar project- they will squeeze everything they can from it. Add to that whats already been said about station pass, and I think I'm pretty well covered.
'you didn't even say why you enjoy the game'- see thread title- do you see Vanguard review? how about Why I like Vanguard? Maybe Everyone who doesn't like the game is wrong? nope, you don't, because I wasn't reviewing the game, and don't think that at all.
'all your post said was I love vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinion'- I adressed two topics I continue to see brought up in almost every thread in the forum, and stated that I like the game and don't expect everyone else to. How you got this idea from my post I have no idea, but it makes me laugh. I created a new thread to say what I said because otherwise I would have had to go from thread to thread saying it- so I stated my opinion here, once.
I fully expected to see a post here from you and several others bashing both what I said and the fact that I said it, and you didn't dissapoint.
The irony?
Take your own advice and back your text of vomit up with something 'real'.
All your post said was 'I love Vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinions'.
You didn't even state why you enjoy the game.
Sigil's viral marketing team is getting worse.
Actually, he just said that he doesn't agree everyone who thinks the game will die. He wasn't even necessarily saying you're wrong. It just seems like he's sick of seeing it posted a hundred times (probably more) a day by mostly the same people.
Funny how people learned this new "viral marketing" term, and are throwing it all over like its some sort of disease that that Sigil created. Check this out: viral marketing is simply the passing along of a marketing message. Every company with a half way decent marketing team has some form of viral marketing plan. It's not necessarily someone hired by a company to go out, and, whether they feel that way or not, make positive statements about a product. Besides that, paying someone to do this is the most dumbass and risky way to market anything because 99% of the time it backfires. If at the end of his post, he would have posted a message that said, "visit this web page to download your copy of Vanguard today, and *insert whatever Sigil's marketing slogan is here*", that would have been a form of viral marketing. Ad banners on every web page (this one included) are more a form of viral marketing than this guy's post. In fact, if you've ever had a hotmail account, you most likely took part in their viral marketing program. Sorry to take away your "evil empire conspiracy theory" of posters lying about their experiences away, but hopefully, it'll be one less thing for people to bitch about.
Well i'm sorry you couldn't see my statement as a joke. It was a joke thread after all. I know what viral marketing is.
Alot of people have backed their posts with real information, I see alot less bogus hate posts than I do fanboi posts.
I really wanted to reply to your first post xalrythx, but for some reason its noplace in the thread for me except killer4hires quote.
My backup for saying it's not going anywhere is on the left side of your screen- a long list of forums for active MMO's, and for most of them people have said 'omg this game is gone when X new game hits the market.' History is on my side, as is the fact that, even if its performance is dissapointing to the dev's, its still a multi million dollar project- they will squeeze everything they can from it. Add to that whats already been said about station pass, and I think I'm pretty well covered.
'you didn't even say why you enjoy the game'- see thread title- do you see Vanguard review? how about Why I like Vanguard? Maybe Everyone who doesn't like the game is wrong? nope, you don't, because I wasn't reviewing the game, and don't think that at all.
'all your post said was I love vanguard which makes everyone else wrong when they state their opinion'- I adressed two topics I continue to see brought up in almost every thread in the forum, and stated that I like the game and don't expect everyone else to. How you got this idea from my post I have no idea, but it makes me laugh. I created a new thread to say what I said because otherwise I would have had to go from thread to thread saying it- so I stated my opinion here, once.
I fully expected to see a post here from you and several others bashing both what I said and the fact that I said it, and you didn't dissapoint.
Your right, VG isn't going anywhere.
It's going neither up or down.
It will remain a mediocre game that failed to fulfill any of the promises that came from Brad's mouth. It will trot along just like SWG, and will set an example for future developers on what not to do.
People have a reason to hate, if your not buying into the hate, then good. No one should buy into hate. Everyone should see for themselves and judge just exactly where this game is heading. All the promises have gone down the drain and the game is becoming more and more like WoW everyday.
I don't think people should be paying for potential however. Espically when it's barely there.
Currently Playing: Everything but MMORPGs
Cancelled: L2, FFXI, VSoH, LotRO, WAR, WoW
Looking Forward To: SW:TOR
CONTRIBUTE INTO THE GAMING INDUSTRY! STOP PAYING FOR BORING COPYCATS, UNFINISHED BUGFESTS AND CRANKY JUNKWARE. BE A RESPONSIBLE GAMER!
If you have been lied to about your game,
And now you totally hate it,
You have to face the facts and realise,
You've probably been McQuaided!
But in addition to it's obvious problems (performance, bugs, bland content, nerfs), there are two other things to consider:
1. VG cost a whole lot of money. At some point Sigil needs to show that VG can produce a reasonable amount of revenue for the investment. I don't think it can just cruise like Horizons or some other medicore game because of the costs involved.
2. SOE raised it's Sony Station Access fee. A lot of people kept up certain unused subs because it wasn't too expensive. But now the fee is equivalent to 2 regular subs. There are many who will be subscribing to just one game. It is possible that many will play VG solely but historically, players don't like to give up their high level characters, especially for a game with major issues.
MMOs historically do not shutdown that easily but unless VG makes some serious improvements, this game may be considered one of the biggest blunders in computer gaming for a long time.
John Romero =I think Brad will go down in gaming history more along the lines of John Romero and Derek Smart... a victim of too many yes-men and buying in to his own hype. I honestly believe that unless they make some serious progress turning this game around, it will be the last time a publisher gives him the money to make anything noteworthy.
Slipgate Ironworks
On August 31, 2005, Romero confirmed [3] that he has been working on a yet-to-be-announced MMOG at his newly opened development studio, Slipgate Ironworks. [2] It has been reported that the name is temporary. "For the record," Romero wrote, "I'm co-founder of a new game company in the Bay Area and am much better off in many ways than I was at Midway." He also said that he would not reveal anything about the company or the game until 2007.
Game credits =
Area-51 (2005), Midway Home Entertainment, Inc.
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (2005), Midway Home Entertainment, Inc.
Cartoon Network Block Party (2004), Majesco Sales, Inc.
Congo Cube (2003), THQ Wireless Inc.
Dig It! (2003), THQ Wireless Inc.
Jewels and Jim (2003), THQ Wireless Inc.
Red Faction (2003), THQ Wireless Inc.
Hyperspace Delivery Boy! (2002), Monkeystone Games
Anachronox (2001), Eidos Interactive, Inc.
Deus Ex (Game of the Year Edition) (2001), Eidos Interactive, Inc.
Deus Ex (2000), Eidos Interactive, Inc.
John Romero's Daikatana (2000), Eidos, Inc.
Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 (1998), Eidos Interactive, Inc.
Half-Life (1998), Sierra On-Line, Inc.
DOOM 64 (1997), Midway Games, Inc.
Chex Quest (1996), Ralston-Purina
Final DOOM (1996), GT Interactive Software Corp.
Quake (1996), id Software, Inc.
Strife (1996), Velocity Inc.
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders (1995), id Software, Inc.
Hexen: Beyond Heretic (1995), id Software, Inc.
The Ultimate DOOM (1995), GT Interactive Software Corp.
Blake Stone: Planet Strike (1994), FormGen, Inc.
Corridor 7: Alien Invasion (1994), Capstone Software
DOOM II: Hell on Earth (1994), GT Interactive Software Corp.
Heretic (1994), id Software, Inc.
Rise of the Triad: Dark War (1994), FormGen, Inc.
Super Noah's Ark 3-D (1994), Wisdom Tree, Inc.
Bio Menace (1993), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold (1993), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Curse of the Catacombs (1993), Froggman
Dangerous Dave's Risky Rescue (1993), Softdisk Publishing
DOOM (1993), id Software, Inc.
ScubaVenture The Search For Pirate's Treasure (1993), Softdisk Publishing
ShadowCaster (1993), ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
Street Ball (1993), Froggman
Terror of the Catacombs (1993), Froggman
Catacomb 3-D (1992), Gamer's Edge, Softdisk Publishing
The Catacomb Abyss (1992), Softdisk Publishing
Cyberchess (1992), Softdisk Publishing
Spear of Destiny (1992), FormGen, Inc.
Wolfenstein 3D (1992), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle (1991), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine (1991), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter! (1991), FormGen, Inc.
Commander Keen: Keen Dreams (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Hovertank (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Paganitzu (1991), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Rescue Rover (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Rescue Rover 2 (1991), Expert Software, Inc., Froggman, Softdisk Publishing
Slordax: The Unknown Enemy (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Xenopods (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Alfredo's Stupendous Surprise (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Big Blue Disk #40 (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Big Blue Disk #41 (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Big Blue Disk #44 (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Catacomb (1990), Gamer's Edge, Softdisk Publishing
Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars (1990), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Commander Keen 2: The Earth Explodes (1990), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Commander Keen 3: Keen Must Die! (1990), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Dark Designs II: Closing the Gate (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Dino-Sorcerer (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Pixel Puzzler (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Shadow Knights (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Sub Stalker (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur (1989), Infocom
Big Blue Disk #32 (1989), Softdisk Publishing
Big Blue Disk #35 (1989), Softdisk Publishing
How to Weigh an Elephant (1989), Softdisk Publishing
Journey: The Quest Begins (1989), Infocom
Magic Boxes (1989), Softdisk Publishing
Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World (1989), New World Computing, Inc.
Space Rogue (1989), ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
Twilight Treasures (1989), Softdisk Publishing
Zappa Roidz (1989), Softdisk Publishing
Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz (1989), Infocom
City Centurian (1988), Nibble Magazine
Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate's Hideout (1988), Uptime Disk Monthly
James Clavell's Shogun (1988), Infocom
Evil Eye (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Jumpster (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Krazy Kobra (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Lethal Labyrinth (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Major Mayhem (1987), Nibble Magazine
Neptune's Nasties (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Pyramids of Egypt (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Subnodule (1987), Keypunch Software, Inc.
Wacky Wizard (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Zippy Zombi (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Bongo's Bash (1985), A+ Magazine
Cavern Crusader (1984), A+ Magazine
Scout Search (1984), inCider Magazine
Dodge 'Em (1982),
who me ?
John Romero =I think Brad will go down in gaming history more along the lines of John Romero and Derek Smart... a victim of too many yes-men and buying in to his own hype. I honestly believe that unless they make some serious progress turning this game around, it will be the last time a publisher gives him the money to make anything noteworthy.
Slipgate Ironworks
On August 31, 2005, Romero confirmed [3] that he has been working on a yet-to-be-announced MMOG at his newly opened development studio, Slipgate Ironworks. [2] It has been reported that the name is temporary. "For the record," Romero wrote, "I'm co-founder of a new game company in the Bay Area and am much better off in many ways than I was at Midway." He also said that he would not reveal anything about the company or the game until 2007.
Game credits =
Area-51 (2005), Midway Home Entertainment, Inc.
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (2005), Midway Home Entertainment, Inc.
Cartoon Network Block Party (2004), Majesco Sales, Inc.
Congo Cube (2003), THQ Wireless Inc.
Dig It! (2003), THQ Wireless Inc.
Jewels and Jim (2003), THQ Wireless Inc.
Red Faction (2003), THQ Wireless Inc.
Hyperspace Delivery Boy! (2002), Monkeystone Games
Anachronox (2001), Eidos Interactive, Inc.
Deus Ex (Game of the Year Edition) (2001), Eidos Interactive, Inc.
Deus Ex (2000), Eidos Interactive, Inc.
John Romero's Daikatana (2000), Eidos, Inc.
Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 (1998), Eidos Interactive, Inc.
Half-Life (1998), Sierra On-Line, Inc.
DOOM 64 (1997), Midway Games, Inc.
Chex Quest (1996), Ralston-Purina
Final DOOM (1996), GT Interactive Software Corp.
Quake (1996), id Software, Inc.
Strife (1996), Velocity Inc.
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders (1995), id Software, Inc.
Hexen: Beyond Heretic (1995), id Software, Inc.
The Ultimate DOOM (1995), GT Interactive Software Corp.
Blake Stone: Planet Strike (1994), FormGen, Inc.
Corridor 7: Alien Invasion (1994), Capstone Software
DOOM II: Hell on Earth (1994), GT Interactive Software Corp.
Heretic (1994), id Software, Inc.
Rise of the Triad: Dark War (1994), FormGen, Inc.
Super Noah's Ark 3-D (1994), Wisdom Tree, Inc.
Bio Menace (1993), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold (1993), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Curse of the Catacombs (1993), Froggman
Dangerous Dave's Risky Rescue (1993), Softdisk Publishing
DOOM (1993), id Software, Inc.
ScubaVenture The Search For Pirate's Treasure (1993), Softdisk Publishing
ShadowCaster (1993), ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
Street Ball (1993), Froggman
Terror of the Catacombs (1993), Froggman
Catacomb 3-D (1992), Gamer's Edge, Softdisk Publishing
The Catacomb Abyss (1992), Softdisk Publishing
Cyberchess (1992), Softdisk Publishing
Spear of Destiny (1992), FormGen, Inc.
Wolfenstein 3D (1992), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle (1991), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine (1991), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter! (1991), FormGen, Inc.
Commander Keen: Keen Dreams (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Hovertank (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Paganitzu (1991), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Rescue Rover (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Rescue Rover 2 (1991), Expert Software, Inc., Froggman, Softdisk Publishing
Slordax: The Unknown Enemy (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Xenopods (1991), Softdisk Publishing
Alfredo's Stupendous Surprise (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Big Blue Disk #40 (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Big Blue Disk #41 (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Big Blue Disk #44 (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Catacomb (1990), Gamer's Edge, Softdisk Publishing
Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars (1990), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Commander Keen 2: The Earth Explodes (1990), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Commander Keen 3: Keen Must Die! (1990), Apogee Software, Ltd.
Dark Designs II: Closing the Gate (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Dino-Sorcerer (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Pixel Puzzler (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Shadow Knights (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Sub Stalker (1990), Softdisk Publishing
Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur (1989), Infocom
Big Blue Disk #32 (1989), Softdisk Publishing
Big Blue Disk #35 (1989), Softdisk Publishing
How to Weigh an Elephant (1989), Softdisk Publishing
Journey: The Quest Begins (1989), Infocom
Magic Boxes (1989), Softdisk Publishing
Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World (1989), New World Computing, Inc.
Space Rogue (1989), ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
Twilight Treasures (1989), Softdisk Publishing
Zappa Roidz (1989), Softdisk Publishing
Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz (1989), Infocom
City Centurian (1988), Nibble Magazine
Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate's Hideout (1988), Uptime Disk Monthly
James Clavell's Shogun (1988), Infocom
Evil Eye (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Jumpster (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Krazy Kobra (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Lethal Labyrinth (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Major Mayhem (1987), Nibble Magazine
Neptune's Nasties (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Pyramids of Egypt (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Subnodule (1987), Keypunch Software, Inc.
Wacky Wizard (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Zippy Zombi (1987), Uptime Disk Monthly
Bongo's Bash (1985), A+ Magazine
Cavern Crusader (1984), A+ Magazine
Scout Search (1984), inCider Magazine
Dodge 'Em (1982),
I'm not sure what point that list was meant to illistrate, that the guy has worked on a lot of games, or that he actually worked on a couple of good games a decade ago. Maybe you think I was saying that Brad is a total loaser or something, or reading more in to my post than I intented. I was speaking specifically about brad being surrounded by yesmen and fanboys which leads to him buying in to his own hype. Just like Diakatana can't erase the fact that John Romero is responsile for Doom, Brad will still get credit for EQ, no matter how crazy he gets in the furture. I think if you tell a guy he can do no wrong enough times, he starts to believe it.
This page from wikipedia focuses a little more on the side of John Romero I was talking about... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daikatana
From very early on in the game's development, Daikatana was aggressively advertised as the brainchild of John Romero, a man famous for his work at id Software in the development of Doom and Quake. Time magazine gave Romero and Daikatana glowing coverage, proclaiming "Everything that game designer John Romero touches turns to gore and gold."[1] An early advertisement for Daikatana, created by marketing guru Mike Wilson and approved by Romero, was a red poster with large black lettering proclaiming "John Romero's about to make you his bitch". Nothing else featured on this poster but a small tag-line reading "Suck It Down", along with an Ion Storm and Eidos logo.
Following its appearance in several gaming magazines, more negative news came out of Ion Storm, fueling distaste for the unreleased shooter. The lavish rockstar-like treatment given to Romero in his attempt to build a designer-centered game studio (including a multimillion-dollar office on the top floor of a Dallas skyscraper), Romero's well-publicized expensive tastes and hobbies (such as racing Ferraris), the dubious saga of Romero's girlfriend Stevie "Killcreek" Case being hired on as a level designer, and the game's development (which included most of the original development team quitting en masse to form a competing company), incited fierce disdain and criticism among certain elements of the then-emergent online gaming fan community. The press regularly published leaked gossip from disgruntled former (and current) employees, providing ample and regular doses of new drama to keep interest in the story high. Several online industry gossip websites came into existence primarily to track the unfolding debacle, some of which are still publishing today.
Due to these and other problems, Daikatana was delayed multiple times from its conception in early 1997 to its eventual release in 2000. By this time, numerous games based on more advanced graphical technology (such as Id Software's Quake III and Epic MegaGames' Unreal Tournament) had already been released, causing Daikatana to lag technologically in the market with its dated Quake II game engine. Additionally, its gameplay had many aspects that were widely disliked by players, such as an artificially limited number of saves per level and the presence of computer-controlled "sidekicks" who were an active impediment to the player. As a result, Daikatana received mediocre reviews from reviewers and users alike. Many believe the fallout from Daikatana sidelined Romero's career in the high-end PC gaming industry for a number of years, though Romero himself has stated that he chose to make his next company, Monkeystone, drastically smaller for his own reasons. The game was a major contributing factor in the closure of Ion Storm's Dallas office.
Ii is also worth pointing out that since the release of Diakatana, most of the games he worked on have been for mobile devices. Including a big chunk of your list post 2000., and that the unannounced MMO remains unannounced.
more from wikipedia, picking up after the collapse of Ion Storm...
Monkeystone Games
In July 2001, Romero and Hall founded Monkeystone Games in order to develop and publish games for mobile devices, and Monkeystone released 15 games (approximately) during its short lifespan of three and a half years. Some highlights of their developments included Hyperspace Delivery Boy (Pocket PC, PC, Mac, Linux, GBA), Congo Cube (Pocket PC, PC, BREW, J2ME), and Red Faction for the Nokia N-Gage.
In mid-October 2003, Romero joined Midway Games as Project Lead on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. While he continued to maintain his working relationship with Monkeystone, Lucas Davis took over running the office. The Monkeystone team moved to Austin, Texas to work on Midway's Area 51 title until its release. Monkeystone Games closed down in January 2005. John moved from Project Lead to Creative Director of Internal Studio during this time.
At the end of June 2005, Romero left Midway Games mere months before the completion of Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows.
On August 31, 2005, Romero confirmed [3] that he has been working on a yet-to-be-announced MMOG at his newly opened development studio, Slipgate Ironworks. [2] It has been reported that the name is temporary. "For the record," Romero wrote, "I'm co-founder of a new game company in the Bay Area and am much better off in many ways than I was at Midway." He also said that he would not reveal anything about the company or the game until 2007.
-----Zero Punctuation Eve Online Review-----
Vanguard may not be going away, but a lot of Vanguard's players are. I don't think it's a trickle either. My account expires on Apr 5, and I logged in yesterday to see some of the updates. I saw very few people at that time, and judging by many of the posts on the different boards I read, many people are taking the wait and see approach. The problem is that if a bulk of the players are waiting six months to a year before coming back, there'll be significanlty less money for the devs to use to fix the game. This will slow down the patching and that will slow down the people returning. It's a bad cycle to be in.
Before logging in:
After logging in:
- No lag, running in high end mode.
- Graphics that were totally enjoyable. Yes, I know the potential for VG graphics goes beyond what 90% of the machines currently out there could ever dream of handling, but the 5-20 FPS in kicked down high performance mode eliminates that potential for my low end 4,600 Duel Core with 2 gig's of Ram and a low end 512 MB PCI-Express card.
- Zones were full of players who seemed to be totally enjoying the game and helping other players that were new (you know, started 6 hours later) to the game.
Overall:I said I enjoy VG, and I do. I was left however with a feeling of "35 million later and 5 years+ of development, why could VG not be like this".
~VG~
You already know who Brad and his team are, gives us $50 and we will show you what we can do for you. Trust us, with your wallet 1st. Then we give you buddy keys so you can tell your friends were not as bad as we seem.
~LoTR~
Why should you trust us, pay $10 and see what we really are like. No commitment, no credit cards, just try us out. If it turns out you like what we have, we will reduce your membership rate for life just for trusting us with that 1st $10 and let you even keep the toon you tried us out with.
~VG~
We built relationships along the way with many "Affiliate" sites as well as some "Special" sites, we talk to them on a regular basis. If your good enough, you can even gleam words from the chosen sent down on tablets to the worthy by signing up with a ton of sites to gleam 3rd party information.
~LoTR~
Thank you for being a founder and supporting our game from the beginning. We appreciate your funding of our game and know it's the subscribers that pay for our product. Communicate with us, please, your opinions are valuable to us.
~VG~
We have a 3rd party company that does our billing and publishing. If you have a problem with your billing, it's not us, unless you cancel with us, which is not them, but will go to them from us, perhaps. We don't have "Official Boards" unless you have game issues, unless of course those game issues result in you having a post that reflects negativity on the game which should be posted on affiliate sites, unless of course it's one where we instructed the moderators to filter out negativity. We also offer a savings plan if you play multiple games, however that cost is 2x the monthly fee, so you will need to play 3 games for a savings, however if you play their games, you will still get to pay more in the end, even if you don't play VG to help defray our costs.
~LoTR~
We offer plans that save you money, consolidate accounts for you and your family and a "Official" website where you can post up and be heard.
I'm still playing V:SoH and so's everone in the guild I'm in. No one has left and no one has any plans to leave. In fact, two more friends have decided to play and are playing the game now. Everyone I know that I teamed with on CoH / SWG / EQII now plays V:SoH as well. Most of us have Station Access accounts. I can count no less than 15 people I know personally that play this good MMO. Conversely, none of them play any other SOE MMO or any other MMO for that matter in such numbers. So I guess let the numbers speak for themselves. I see PLENTY of people on during primetime and on weekends.
If you don't play the game, move on. Why in the heck stick around with a game you obviously don't like and make it a personal crusade to try and make everyone else miserable? Although you're far from making me or any of my friends miserable! We're having a blast in V:SoH and will continue to do so.
Find a game you like and visit those forums and be a happier person.
PS: The above was not directed at anyone in general, but those that like to complain alot and try to bring others down without any constructive means of suggesting ways to make things better. I will add here that Sigil and SOE are not perfect. Yes I'd like to see a bit more "we care about you attitude" and official forums and doing some of the great things that other game companies do. But that's not the reality. I take what I experience in-game as the MOST important aspect of my gaming experience, and not what kind of forums there are etc...
/QFT
I happen to remember many promises for "Hero Classes" in WoW, and also promises of mini games to be playable in taverns and such. It seems the endless item farm is all kids want these days in games...put anything else out there and they will flame you to hell and back.
I do understand your point here. Also, it is good to have posts like yours to balance the overwhelming negatively. However, the Vanguard forums will be this way for a while because Vanguard is one of the biggest failures in gaming history on many levels.
The attraction is like how people like to look at a car wreck. People will get tired of talking about it in due time but for now it's downfall makes for interesting conversation. Once this dies down I think even the people who like the game will miss Vanguard being in the spotlight. After all, this forum used to be rocking also --> http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/forum/433.
Is this better than having that?
/QFT
I happen to remember many promises for "Hero Classes" in WoW, and also promises of mini games to be playable in taverns and such. It seems the endless item farm is all kids want these days in games...put anything else out there and they will flame you to hell and back.
I disagree. I think if you can do one thing well before release to get the word of mouth going on a positive path, then people are more forgiving of what you don't have in your game upon release. For instance, LOTR's sounds a lot like WOW to me. Pre-release word of mouth is that it looks nice and is stable and runs well on most cards/machines. Much of WOW's iniatial word of mouth was also positive. It's colorful (although some didn't like the cartoon graphics) and it runs well and is very playable in early beta. Both also had reports when the NDA dropped that the game was FUN. Did WOW forget a few promises like hero classes? Will LOTR's leave something out of their FAQ sheet? Yes, but people tend to over-look that if what you gave them is a) playable and not a buggy mess and b) FUN.
Vanguard on the other hand started beta's 1 and 2 in such an incomplete state that they couldn't get anyone to even log in and play. People broke NDA and posted that the animations and graphics looked like they were from 1999 instead of a next-gen game and that the game still ran like it should be in a pre-alpha stage as well. Then they moved over to SOE after Microsoft dumped them and the vast majority of their fans were people who disliked SOE for either SWG or EQI or EQII.
I agree with Coldmeat's comparison to Bowman and Co and Brad. The reason Brad's is magnified is pretty much his own fault. I don't wish harm on him and am not freaking out over Vanguard but I also am dissapointed with what we got as a game in comparison to what Brad promised. Bowman claimed Horizon's was the second coming of MMORPGs but he wasn't working with Microsoft and a 30 million budget. He also wasn't a legendary personality based on the success of a MMORPG that partially started this whole genre.
Mcquaid is unfortunately the scapegoat for not only Vanguard's shortcomings, but also for D&D Online, Dark and Light, Horizon's, Shadowbane and any other game that lead fans on, promised the moon and then crapped in a box and said, "Buy our unpolished,unfinished game and we will try to fix everything that is wrong with it in a year or so."
I think people are making a statement and that WOW raised the bar at least on quality. I know WOW had bugs at release but it ran smooth and was quite playable. I think a lot of people are either not playing MMORPGs or are staying with WOW untill someone can release something that plays well right out of the box. Too many choices are coming for anyone to have to play something unfinished unless all the companies are releasing unfinished games. And if that is the case then no up and coming MMORPG should be suprised to see that their game didn't bring in the masses either.
This website is devoted to reviewing sevaral games, even if this is the "Vanguard" section. There are several forums that are dedicated to ONLY the game that you have stated you are having a blast in. So why don't you take some of your own advice and if you don't enjoy the negativity here try going to a site that is more geared towards ONLY the active community of the game.
Alot of people read up on games they don't play, and the sub-forums of this site are not reserved for polite, praising of the games.
So while yes, some people bash too much and need to move on, but this is not a place where negative opinion and feedback is taboo, quite the opposite.
Now what I would love to see is a response that can say how they fixed the fellowship problems, have the boats and flying mounts setup and ready to use, fixed the chunking problems, fixed the problem with the friends list not showing friends online as well as a host of other bugs and glitches so we could all be told to shut up.
The only counter responses I see is that the game is not that bad and they never finished it, so it's not their fault. Tell me, if all the things people are saying is false, then why do so many keep saying the same things and no one can defend them short of saying "go back to game "x"?
I sorta picture the Burger King commercial with the "All meat" add, then going to Burger King and getting a veggie burger. Well, you see sir, McDonalds was putting out their new burger and we spent a fortune on the add, but we did not get the beef yet, sorry, I can't refund you, but if you come back in 6 months....
The game is not going to close its doors anytime soon. Look at the Matrix Online, for example, still limping along. Vanguard will be around at least 5 years, sucky though it is.
However, when a game doesn't sell many subscriptions, that eventually has an effect on the game. Fewer expansions, with less quality. Server mergers. Reduced support.
Those things aren't going to happen just yet - they are going to pour money into it for a while to see if they can't get the numbers up. But once they conclude the numbers aren't going up, expect bad times.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
I don't see brad working with Warren Specter on Deus EX ? Or Valve/Sierra in Half-Life . Brad has almost no experience as a major developer.
I will wait for Romero's "when it is done" mmo , rather then " omfg we ran out of money, ship it NOW !!!!!"
who me ?
So right that folks who spent $50 have a positive right to complain if they are unhappy.
Some positive posts to balance the negative - they are fine as well. When WoW was in the pre-launch phase there were some negative posts as well. Difference is that the ratio of positive to negative was c. 20:1 based on a survey I did and posted way back . I haven't done the same for VSoH but it is clear - whichever board you go on, this, VN, Silky, TenTon etc. that the negatives far out number the positives.
VSoH not going away - well my take on this would be that whilst it wasn't still born according to Brad's own claims it hasn't yet got enough subscribers to stay afloat. I assume that the range he gave was to allow for Station Access pass subscribers but he was 50-150k short. Basic economic fact: things that lose money eventually get closed down.
Blah, blah SoE will keep it alive as part of their access pass. Last I checked this wasn't a Sony game. And either they were not prepared to pony up more money for a bigger slice of VSoH (a bad sign) or Brad decided he didn't want to let SoE or some other company have a slice of VSoH and decided to launch as was (a bad sign). And the Access Pass is going up - was I the only person to detect that this didn't go down that well.
The key months are coming up - but the prognosis doesn't look brilliant imo based on sales chart, what has been posted and the number of characters at level 10 and up.
Now what I would love to see is a response that can say how they fixed the fellowship problems, have the boats and flying mounts setup and ready to use, fixed the chunking problems, fixed the problem with the friends list not showing friends online as well as a host of other bugs and glitches so we could all be told to shut up.
Zarthaine have a look at the Official Tech support forums; boats are in, flying mounts too to a certain degree. I have never had a problem with friends not showing in the list - though there is a bug where they still show after logging out. However their status is "Unknown Zone" so its easy to tell they arent in game. I have a theory some people press "log out" and then walk away from their PCs leaving the character select loaded.
Chunking can still be a tad slow crossing some zones (not all) but in nearly 33 levels I havent had any other issue with them apart from that. I also know that issue would go away completely if I ever bothered to replace the 1gb RAM stick that died on me in Sept last year during beta. Infact it is because the performance hit going from 2 to 1 gig was so neglible that I never bothered to replace it.
I too wish they were able to fix the Fellowship system; unfortunately it didnt make the Top 10 list of things to fix, so we are either in the minority or the problem is not easily solved.
http://vgplayers.station.sony.com/newsArchive.vm?id=091§ion=News
I don't see brad working with Warren Specter on Deus EX ? Or Valve/Sierra in Half-Life . Brad has almost no experience as a major developer.
I will wait for Romero's "when it is done" mmo , rather then " omfg we ran out of money, ship it NOW !!!!!"
I agree with you there, and I wasn't really trying to compare the two guys' work overall.. rather the attitude a developer can get when he has way too many people telling him his game is awesome, even if it isn't. Maybe instead of comparing Romero and BMQ, I should have compared Vanguard to Diakatan, as the end result of that kind of attitude. I also think that unfortunately, no matter what Romero did before that game, it's sorry state, and his rock-star attitude during it's production are the reason we haven't seen publishers willing to throw cash at him to develop a triple A title since then.
-----Zero Punctuation Eve Online Review-----
vanguard imho is the new thing, they've just brung it out when it should still be in closed beta theres still 1000's of things wrong with it but once there fixed, and they are fixing them daily this game will start liftin it self up n i can't wait.
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