It IS an SOE product. I played since launch and SOE was running the show.
Who then markets, distributes, services, promotes (or doesnt), develops and profits from Vangard? Who runs billing and customer service?
SOE- Its an SOE product. Period.
No, It's created by Sigil Games Online and released by them aswell in jan 2007 and bought shortly after by SOE in May 2007. They are running the show now but they didn't make this game period
Bluegrazz never said Vanguard was made by SOE, but the game was bought by SOE and they now make the choices that Bluegrazz said the did. As they now own the game, that makes it an SOE product; as Bluegrazz said.
Yes,They make the choices now as they own it, but it's still not a SOE product. And NO bluegrazz didnt say what you are saying.
What would you think would have happened if SOE hadn't bought Vanguard ?
Yes, thats pretty much what I said (or meant)
Look- Hummer (a GM developed product) is probably going to be bought out and taken over by a Chinese Auto Company- Now (pretend this happened today) if I buy me a Hummer tommorow (yes, I'm dreaming- I'm poor white trash) AFTER the Chinese Auto Company takes over production, and I have a major problem with my Brand new Ride, and this Chinese Company tells me (basiclly) to "go to hell" (poor customer service) and does nothing to fix my problem OR treat me with a bit of respect- Is it G.M.'s Fault?
Now, let me clarify my position on Vangard in simple (easy to understand terms)... I pre ordered Vangard- Played at Launch. Buggy as hell. Complete mess. Stuck it it for 6 (yes SIX) months paying $15/month for a product that was broken (because I was giving SOE the benefit of the doubt and wanted to support a game I WANTED to love). SOE was above critisizm on their Forums- Said pointing out Bugs was "unproductive"- Locked threads, acted like Nazis.
SOE took the attitude of "all is good, no room to say otherwise"- Population dies (most quit within 2 months of simple bugs being ignored) six months later - SAME BUGS STILL THERE... Go to Forum and say "What u guyz doing? No bugs fixed- Me paying customer"- Thread locked/deleted. PM sent to SOE. "Me paying customer- wish to know what is being done to address problems". SOE send PM back "Its not our job to provide you with information, we provide game only- No like Game you may leave. Wish to know internal matters at SOE- become Stockholder and go to meetings."- Jaw hits floor. Quits and vows to neer touch SOE product again.
Did that help explain my position? I know SOE didnt develop VG- BUT from LAUNCH SOE's name was on that product, their CS team (lol) handled it, They billed me... SOE has been charge of VG for what, four years now? Its an SOE product . period.
We can banter on issues of semantics but you know what I mean. SOE is a company that should be avoided at all cost's- If their name is on a product- RUN (even if they didnt program the ORIGINAL "app")
1) No RVR / PVP (sorry no AI alone is worth a subscription fee...yet)
2) Bare bones skeleton crew (sorry, my monthly funds need to bring me more patches, updates, expansions)
1.Their is a FFA PVP server and PVP arenas on the PVE servers.
2.Yes, the content patches & updates are way to slow,their is still tons of content though.
It would be impossible to see all the content with one character,it's way to vast for that.
This reminds me. To the people who say this game has a shady future: They would not be releasing any updates at all if they had the plan of closing down the game, which means they have no plans to do so. The population has been going up a lot lately, which makes it even less likely.
Yes, it is true that there is so much content you would need to level multiple alts in order to experience a fraction of it.
I totally loved Vanguard when it came out. But the game just got to the point that even at level 25, it takes you a year and a day to level, its boring, same quests over and over and over. Lots of graphic glitches (2 pc's, 2 different video cards). The game had potential but I dont know where that went.
Just a week ago I got the trial and subbed a few days after. I'm loving quick and visceral combat (so many abilities for my Paladin at such low levels) and the graphics scale well so even my three-year-old laptop can run it with shadows and a nice draw distance.
However, once I got out of the Isle of Dawn (an area that was quite populated with other players and efficiently built for quests), I was then greeted with this huge world that had, well, like five people in it. Okay, that's exaggerating. There were six. Joking aside, I do know it's in my best interest to get in a guild as quickly as I can but it was alarming to see the immense desolation in a land that was intended to be teaming with teammates. It was sad, really, like being in an MMO graveyard.
Okay, I might sound like I'm bashing the game but I'm not. It's just so terribly heart-wrenching to see such a lovely game that was designed with so much heart and ambition to be pretty much empty. This all said, I will gather the guile to group with a guild and see if that takes some of the lonesomeness away.
1) No RVR / PVP (sorry no AI alone is worth a subscription fee...yet)
2) Bare bones skeleton crew (sorry, my monthly funds need to bring me more patches, updates, expansions)
1.Their is a FFA PVP server and PVP arenas on the PVE servers.
2.Yes, the content patches & updates are way to slow,their is still tons of content though.
It would be impossible to see all the content with one character,it's way to vast for that.
This reminds me. To the people who say this game has a shady future: They would not be releasing any updates at all if they had the plan of closing down the game, which means they have no plans to do so. The population has been going up a lot lately, which makes it even less likely.
Yes, it is true that there is so much content you would need to level multiple alts in order to experience a fraction of it.
There have been games that have received updates prior to closing down. AC2 for example received a full blown expansion right before it closed. Receiving updates doesn't grant immunity.
I'm not saying VG is closing tomorrow, but it is heading that way. There are a lot of stages for it to go through first, but the game certainly isn't growing. People have been saying that for the last 2 years now.
Vanguards future is cloudy and has been since release. It doesn't matter that the game has a dev team, it has ended up exactly where people said it would. Very little updates and sitting on life support with a development team far to small to give the game the proper attention it needs. Three years is to long for a game to go without an expansion. The former producer leaves the game and doesn't even say goodbye. The current lead designer/producer gets pulled off the project to work on something else for an undisclosed amount of time and new development of the game is put on hold while he is gone. That last part really makes a statement that should not be ignored. If soe is willing to put the game on hold by stealing the senior management for some other project (that obviously has more potential than VG), don't for one second think they wouldn't remove the whole team if that other project took off and they needed people.
My point is that if people want to try to attract people to the game, they should do so with full disclosure. Not by trying to defame anyone who might have an opposing opinion to hide the problems of the game, but rather by telling the whole true of the situation. Vanguard really suffered by overzealous fans making posts similar to this that praise the game to no end, which upset many potential players when those accountings of the game did not turn out be close to the truth.
I read several times in this thread that they are not currently focusing on PvP, but have they ever since release? I originally played on the team PvP server, cancelled for a while waiting for fixes to the horribly inbalanced crowd control abilites in PvP, and when I came back to check it out I had been transfered to the FFA server, which at the time at least was possibly the deadest server I've ever logged into. I seriously think I might have been the only person on it. spent hours travelling to every major city and area i could think of without seeing another player.
If they have never done anything to PvP and that server is still in the same shape, the improvements they may have made mean little to me. It's to bad, I'd probably still play it at least casually it they had given me a transfer option... I'd have moved to seradon in a second over the FFA server considering how bad it sucked even at release.
I read several times in this thread that they are not currently focusing on PvP, but have they ever since release? I originally played on the team PvP server, cancelled for a while waiting for fixes to the horribly inbalanced crowd control abilites in PvP, and when I came back to check it out I had been transfered to the FFA server, which at the time at least was possibly the deadest server I've ever logged into. I seriously think I might have been the only person on it. spent hours travelling to every major city and area i could think of without seeing another player. If they have never done anything to PvP and that server is still in the same shape, the improvements they may have made mean little to me. It's to bad, I'd probably still play it at least casually it they had given me a transfer option... I'd have moved to seradon in a second over the FFA server considering how bad it sucked even at release.
They do free transfers, just page a GM.
On another note... the classes in this game I am finding to be amazing. I am playing a Psionicist, and it has the coolest abilities of any class in any game that I have ever played. I've heard that the blood mage is one of the most unique classes of any MMO, and that all the classes are a load of fun.
Regarding the PVP stuff, I think they tried to focus on it a long time ago, but now they don't plan to. Get off that server, it is dead. Seradon is packed though. As well as Xeth.
1) No RVR / PVP (sorry no AI alone is worth a subscription fee...yet)
2) Bare bones skeleton crew (sorry, my monthly funds need to bring me more patches, updates, expansions)
1.Their is a FFA PVP server and PVP arenas on the PVE servers.
2.Yes, the content patches & updates are way to slow,their is still tons of content though.
It would be impossible to see all the content with one character,it's way to vast for that.
This reminds me. To the people who say this game has a shady future: They would not be releasing any updates at all if they had the plan of closing down the game, which means they have no plans to do so. The population has been going up a lot lately, which makes it even less likely.
Yes, it is true that there is so much content you would need to level multiple alts in order to experience a fraction of it.
This isn't true. Tabula Rasa received updates even when it was planned to shut down. Heck, it even received a major update after the closure of the game was already announced.
Vanguard is a great game, never played it at the begining, so missed alot of the bugs. It's my second most played MMO other than Lotro. Thinkin about givin Lotro Online a break, and going back to Vanguard, hell of alot of things to do Vanguard, so if you never played it use the demo, it's worth the downloading time. I think you can pick it up cheap now on Direct2drive, Steam, etc.
Just about every MMO company out there with a released MMO has a hate base. Look at Blizzard before WoW came out, the majority loved them and praised them now look at the bashing they get. Same goes for Sony, even though they are more underhanded than most, you should not let a companies image get in the way of playing what is essentially a great game. I am not currently playing VG as the wife and I recently have had a child and time is not in the abundance right now. I have VG installed and it will always remain so as long as the game is still live. Whenever Sony reactivates old accounts I am right there ready to login.
There's an old saying that some people may be familiar with:
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
I don't care how "good" people are claiming Vanguard to suddenly be, they'll never take my money again. (for a fourth time in case you're wondering) I've been foolish enough to buy in to these threads for this very game in the past. "Ooohhh come back, it's so much better!" or "They've fixed a lot of the bugs" or "It runs so smooth now, try it and see" Even if any of these statements are even remotely true, why are we having this discussion about a game that's been out for like 2+ years? I played at release and I seem to give this piece of crap a try every 6 months and it's basically the same old thing.
My response to this thread and anyone reading this, play something that isn't a salvage project or on life support. Don't waste your time or your money.
PS, this is a shameless thread started by either : A) devs trying to drum up business for their game or by lonely VG fanbois trying to populate lonely servers
There's an old saying that some people may be familiar with: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
I don't care how "good" people are claiming Vanguard to suddenly be, they'll never take my money again. (for a fourth time in case you're wondering) I've been foolish enough to buy in to these threads for this very game in the past. "Ooohhh come back, it's so much better!" or "They've fixed a lot of the bugs" or "It runs so smooth now, try it and see" Even if any of these statements are even remotely true, why are we having this discussion about a game that's been out for like 2+ years? I played at release and I seem to give this piece of crap a try every 6 months and it's basically the same old thing.
My response to this thread and anyone reading this, play something that isn't a salvage project or on life support. Don't waste your time or your money.
PS, this is a shameless thread started by either : A) devs trying to drum up business for their game or by lonely VG fanbois trying to populate lonely servers
This is a very wise Post. =P
Every 6-8 months or so (give or take) posts like this (nearly the exact wording) begin popping up on MMO sites across the Interweb... I feel its shameless promo from $OE who has no problem paying Buzz Marketing Teams and Nazi Forum Moderators (they just have a problem with traditional advertising and keeping enough Devs on VG when games like "Free Realm" is where they are banking on the future)
When trial Isle was released someone copy/pasted almost word for word the "Come Back its better" BS across message boards everywhere. I feel sorry for the people who have stuck it out based on th games potential when $OE doesnt care about anything but $$$ and how much they can take from you before you leave.
Just beware- $OE is a company known (in a really bad light) to use any tactic to milk you (and their player base) for all they can take.
Best MMO on the market imo. Population is fine (but more is better). I have alts in all level brakets, and get groups everyday np. I see people everywhere I go. Even before mentoring I found groups all the time, now it's even easier! I am on the Seradon server and it's supposed to have the highest pop so I suggest rolling on it if you decide to try the game.
The classes are getting revamps/improvments a few are allready done and the changes are awsome, new dungeons are being added, the level cap was raised and AA's are comming. The open world is amazingly vast and wonderful to explore. If you like crafting this is a fantasic choice! It's a great game for altoholics as well!
Best MMO on the market imo. Population is fine (but more is better). I have alts in all level brakets, and get groups everyday np. I see people everywhere I go. Even before mentoring I found groups all the time, now it's even easier! I am on the Seradon server and it's supposed to have the highest pop so I suggest rolling on it if you decide to try the game. The classes are getting revamps/improvments a few are allready done and the changes are awsome, new dungeons are being added, the level cap was raised and AA's are comming. The open world is amazingly vast and wonderful to explore. If you like crafting this is a fantasic choice! It's a great game for altoholics as well! How much would you pay for all this? $299? $199$ No because we are offering CRAZY dealz. Thats right, act now and receive $20 credit from the CA$H $HOP taxes and restrictions may apply. Next 10 callers also get SUPER UBUR WEAPON OF THEI CHOICE (value $70 @ cash shop) and XTRA SPECIAL DRAGON MOUNT... Yes Folks, were CRAZY- Just giving away the house. All this is you act NOW, for only $99.99- NO, make that $39.99 plus 30 days playtime... You heard me right FOLKS- $39.99. Because SOE cares about its games and its customers. Tell the Marketer #40987 sent you for more SUPERGOOD Dealz. =P
Best MMO on the market imo. Population is fine (but more is better). I have alts in all level brakets, and get groups everyday np. I see people everywhere I go. Even before mentoring I found groups all the time, now it's even easier! I am on the Seradon server and it's supposed to have the highest pop so I suggest rolling on it if you decide to try the game. The classes are getting revamps/improvments a few are allready done and the changes are awsome, new dungeons are being added, the level cap was raised and AA's are comming. The open world is amazingly vast and wonderful to explore. If you like crafting this is a fantasic choice! It's a great game for altoholics as well! How much would you pay for all this? $299? $199$ No because we are offering CRAZY dealz. Thats right, act now and receive $20 credit from the CA$H $HOP taxes and restrictions may apply. Next 10 callers also get SUPER UBUR WEAPON OF THEI CHOICE (value $70 @ cash shop) and XTRA SPECIAL DRAGON MOUNT... Yes Folks, were CRAZY- Just giving away the house. All this is you act NOW, for only $99.99- NO, make that $39.99 plus 30 days playtime... You heard me right FOLKS- $39.99. Because SOE cares about its games and its customers. Tell the Marketer #40987 sent you for more SUPERGOOD Dealz. =P
...fixed
Just so nobody gets the wrong idea Vanguard does not have a cash shop. There is that exchange thing where players can sell there characters and crap but that happens anyway in any mmo. No matter how you feel about sony providing a scam free market place that players can use instead of Ebay or some other site, this thing is going on no matter if they provide the medium or not.
I don't play F2P games because I hate cash shops. I want access to all things in the game through play thats just my preference. I would not be playing Vanguard if there was a cash shop.
PS, this is a shameless thread started by either : A) devs trying to drum up business for their game or by lonely VG fanbois trying to populate lonely servers
Assumptions make an Ass out of U. Just because you think there are only 2 possibilities for someone wanting to promote the game, doesn't mean thats the be all end all. One, I'm not a dev. You should know by now that SOE would NEVER spend extra money on advertising, which I stated in the OP but I doubt you read that. Two, a lonely player in VG? I play on Seradon, there is no lonliness there lol.
I love ignorant people, you don't have to do anything to embarrass them, they do it themselves.
Originally posted by Muddleglum Just so nobody gets the wrong idea Vanguard does not have a cash shop. There is that exchange thing where players can sell there characters and crap but that happens anyway in any mmo. No matter how you feel about sony providing a scam free market place that players can use instead of Ebay or some other site, this thing is going on no matter if they provide the medium or not. I don't play F2P games because I hate cash shops. I want access to all things in the game through play thats just my preference. I would not be playing Vanguard if there was a cash shop.
Having in game player micro transactions for items is worlds apart from 3rd party companies that sell GOLD.
You can't log onto some random website and buy a sword of power, because they don't sell items. Far fewer people are going to risk getting banned or scammed via 3rd party websites. They are far less likely to roll need on an item they can't use, just to sell if for gold and MAYBE sell that gold for a few dollars. Again risking their account.
However, company sanctioned player RMT sales in vanguard makes EVERYONE a potential gold seller, plus it will entice players into it that would otherwise never get invovled. It changes the very nature of how the game is designed AND how people will play it.
Your gross over generalization fails, because they both affect the game in different ways.
Not to mention the laughable aspect that soe did this to create a "scam free" area for players to partake in these activities. If that were true soe wouldn't take a cut of every sale. Not to mention their previous stance was real money transactions hurt their game communities. I guess when soe makes a percentage of the sale though, it is ok for their communities to be hurt. No surprise there.
Heaven forbid people actually play a game with their keyboard/mouse and not their wallet.
As far as conventional MMOs go... this is the best bar none. The real killer for me is the low population. I'm from Europe so if I go on the Euro server I get low population. If I go on Seradon, I get low population because I don't play at US peak times. It's a catch 22 situation really. I (and I'm sure many others) don't play the game any more because not enough people play for me to enjoy it. I got in a few groups while I played and it really is a great team game. But when there aren't enough players to do dungeons with each session I play (at peak times), I don't think I can stand to play. So people who actually enjoy the game are put off by the low population... And don't play... Which doesn't help the low population problem.
I really liked Vanguard. But I, too, left the game after several months due to the low population.
I started with the Isle of Dawn trial -- and fell in love with the game. Terrific classes/races, great storyline & quests, fascinating crafting, challenging diplomacy, lots of people, etc., etc. What's not to like? I played 4 different classes (Dread Knight, Blood Mage, Ranger and Psy) before leaving the Isle.
Unfortunately, after subbing and moving my DK to Qa Riverbank, the game came to a halt. Although I was able to complete a few more quests (mostly solo) and do a bit more crafting, soon all the tasks I encountered were recommended for groups. Although my DK was pretty resilient, he still couldn't take on some of those tasks solo -- and finding ANYONE to help was next to impossible. Long-term players were well beyond this area, and there honestly were not many new arrivals coming over from the Isle of Dawn. (My Ranger, who went to Veskel's Exchange, had a slightly better time of it, though the population there was still meager.)
Then one night a couple months ago, I logged in during "prime time" and found my DK all alone on the Riverbank, in the dark, in the rain. Even region chat was silent. That was it for me. The next day I canceled my sub.
It should also be noted that, at San Diego Comic-Con this year, SOE was pushing DC Universe Online (understandable) and Free Realms. But at least EQ2 was demoing on one monitor. Vanguard was nowhere to be seen.
I was still a sub then, but the obvious disinterest shown by SOE undoubtedly contributed to my decision to cancel.
Not sure how I missed this thread but I'll repost what I had from the VG boards. Take this post for what its worth, I've been in VG since beta 2.5. So this is not from a vanboi nor a VG hater, just a realist. And I played on Shidreth (merged to Seradon).
Reasons why players left? Numerous reasons and they add up to inevitably give the game a next to bare population
- Bad launch (Although most games have em, making this game was slated to be more of a niche game, you lose players to an already supposively smaller gaming population, it will sting.)
- An immense amount of bugs at launch and overtime. Of course bugs will never be fixed 100% in anygame but major game mechanic bugs were in the game even to this date although not as major as they were a year ago.
- No endgame at launch. I was one of the first players to hit 50 (3rd WW) and yes with the way the game is I do regret playing as hard as I did. But at the end, there was zero raiding, no epic questlines, nothing. It sat like this until Novemeber when APW was launched. Until then you had only Rahz, ToT, or Swamp to do in the high end and it was terrible, VG was dying fast as even casuals were getting 50 and realizing it was bad (this is noted that APW was still in testing).
- The final buyout of Sigil to SOE. Yes I know SOE had some say in the game from the start, but people have vendettas against SOE so it chipped a small bit away.
- Server Merges. They have to happen for obvious reasons. People like em, people hate em. People leave over them, not alot but still with a game taking blow by blow, it still hurts.
- Death of PVP. Vanguard was never meant for PVP but even still they are players who want to get into a PVE heavy game with some PVP on the side. They even couldn't get their small helping. Lets not get into the population of the PVP server today, its absolutely rediculous.
- Skeleton Dev Team. I have been playing since Beta 2, the team is 1/12th of what it used to be, and trust me, it used to be a nice sized team. The focus of the game has changed drastically as they continue to cut devs off or devs jumped ship to better opportunities. This also goes in play of switching Lead Producer a whopping 3 times in 2.5 Years (From Hasium, Phantom, to Silius (who isn't really in the role just a fill in)). You look at the game level 1 - 49 and its great, you look at the game 50 - 55 and you tell me what happened.
- Next to no advertisement. This is more in line of an SOE trait. They don't heavily market their games as much as they should, maybe because they have too many. But Vanguard never got any form of heavy advertisement that it should have. All it lived off of was the hype it generated during development. Although Silius stated they did advertisement. Look at the advertisement LOTR and Aion are getting (I chose those 2 because they are the next best examples aside dropping the WoW bomb).
- Raid Game is limited. Extremely limited. VG was supposed to bring back EQ style of play. With that it must include raids. Ancient Port Warehouse (the game's only raid dungeon) was launched in Novement 2007. Its nearly 2 years and no other raid dungeon has made it. Do the math. Also with a grand total of count em (Jagund, PW, Dresla, Nerksawl, Fengrot, Physik, Rinipin, Yerkj, Nimaa, Slim, Guar, Karax, and Varking) 14 overland raid mobs. Most guilds (even casuals) clear out roughly 90% of all raid content in 2-3 days of 4 hour raiding. Or asides the fact that Pota has made APW obsolete.
- Group content degrades as you reach higher levels. I'll let you be the personal judge for this. I'll repeat myself, the level 1 - 49 game of VG is on track of a good game. Lvl 50 - 55 content is in the opposite direction. Shores of Darkness and Pota type content are one of the main reasons why today VG is still losing players. If you're not raiding, your options are limited to SoD, BoD, Pota, and Virak (with Hilsbury on the way I don't think will change the mold). However if you want the BEST stuff, you do pota. You do not have to raid period to have top shelf gear, just farm the stuff (which mind you takes a good while).
- Diplomacy/Crafting were not taken to the next level as they should have. I'll admit, these two spheres were one of the highlights of VG's prescence in the industry. However lets be real, they got slapped in the face when they started dropping devs left and right. The entire Diplo dev team is gone aside Jansen and Silius is the only one left from the crafting team. In my opinion, diplo/crafting to this date compared to a year or so ago, are now just something to fill your time.
- And the final but most notciable. Vanguard does not have a SUSTAINABLE population. Now I have frequent on these boards about why VG isn't in the position it should be, and this has got to be the #1 reason.The game simply does not have a good enough retention rate for it to go into the positive ranks. It goes down, new patch, goes up, then dies back down, rinse and repeat. The development team/SOE simply have not found the right formula of decisions to feed into the game's momentum. They will release one good patch, then follow it with weird decisions in non-broken game mechanics. Right now, the end-game population is taking hits slowly because of the Pota grind and no new raid content that works. And as many posted before, if your friends stop playing, your will to continue play slowly die out with it. Look at Seradon, they lost 2 of their oldest guilds in Forgotten Horde and Trinity. When looking at the game, you have to look at it a full 360 and take everything into account and you can then see why VG is in its current state. Yes, VG may have the graphics and the concept, but the main deciding factor to games these days is good content and good support. If you can't muster both of those elements then you are bound for failure. VG may still be fun to some, but VG is starting to become a dated trend and newer games will learn off of VG's mistakes and apply their concepts in a much safer manner.
Take this post for what its worth.
I feel personally, the potential for Vanguard has worn its course. Its not going to get better to become a much more well known game nor will it go to the trash can (even though most believe it will). The simple fact of finances has determined VG's fate as to ever becoming the game we wanted it to be. Personally, I do not believe VG should be charing the same premium of $14.95 a month like other MMOs. It recieves less support but charges the same. Now yes, the game may be a bit more diverse than say WoW/Lotro/etc, but does it warrant the price? You can pick this game up for about 3 bucks in any store these days but still charges the same amount, even though its understandable why.
However, with all being said, the only reason why VG is still afloat is because since VG, there hasn't been any major PVE emphasized that went with the Warrior/Cleric/Wizard/Rogue setup without mass instancing. If there were to be a game that would come out and match VG's world, VG would be dead without a doubt. But it seems right now we're in the PVP era of MMOS so VG is only surviving for the fact that its been the last "half-decent" PVE-based MMO. If the next PVE-based fantasy MMO were to launch today, it would be the end of VG because a good number of players currently in VG are only there because "there's nothing else to play". I wouldn't be sitting too comfortably as a developer if I heard that from my customers.
There's an old saying that some people may be familiar with: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
I don't care how "good" people are claiming Vanguard to suddenly be, they'll never take my money again. (for a fourth time in case you're wondering) I've been foolish enough to buy in to these threads for this very game in the past. "Ooohhh come back, it's so much better!" or "They've fixed a lot of the bugs" or "It runs so smooth now, try it and see" Even if any of these statements are even remotely true, why are we having this discussion about a game that's been out for like 2+ years? I played at release and I seem to give this piece of crap a try every 6 months and it's basically the same old thing.
My response to this thread and anyone reading this, play something that isn't a salvage project or on life support. Don't waste your time or your money.
PS, this is a shameless thread started by either : A) devs trying to drum up business for their game or by lonely VG fanbois trying to populate lonely servers
Thanks for typing this. It saved me from typing something very similar. I came back to the game twice after buying it straight after launch. The last time was about 6 or 7 months ago. Boredom makes people do the daftest things.
I played it for about two weeks I think. The first week was kind of interesting and the second week was a real struggle in which I was trying to convince myself that it was worth logging in. The game really isnt worth bothering with despite what these intermittent "Come back to Vanguard" posts like to tell everyone........and as newer and better games keep come out Vanguard will continue to get buried deeper and deeper. Soon it will fade away and become a mere memory. Ah well no more Mr Doghead, Mr Foxhead and Mrs Cathead. What a shame to see such awesome original races fade into obscurity.
There's an old saying that some people may be familiar with: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
I don't care how "good" people are claiming Vanguard to suddenly be, they'll never take my money again. (for a fourth time in case you're wondering) I've been foolish enough to buy in to these threads for this very game in the past. "Ooohhh come back, it's so much better!" or "They've fixed a lot of the bugs" or "It runs so smooth now, try it and see" Even if any of these statements are even remotely true, why are we having this discussion about a game that's been out for like 2+ years? I played at release and I seem to give this piece of crap a try every 6 months and it's basically the same old thing.
My response to this thread and anyone reading this, play something that isn't a salvage project or on life support. Don't waste your time or your money.
PS, this is a shameless thread started by either : A) devs trying to drum up business for their game or by lonely VG fanbois trying to populate lonely servers
Thanks for typing this. It saved me from typing something very similar. I came back to the game twice after buying it straight after launch. The last time was about 6 or 7 months ago. Boredom makes people do the daftest things.
I played it for about two weeks I think. The first week was kind of interesting and the second week was a real struggle in which I was trying to convince myself that it was worth logging in. The game really isnt worth bothering with despite what these intermittent "Come back to Vanguard" posts like to tell everyone........and as newer and better games keep come out Vanguard will continue to get buried deeper and deeper. Soon it will fade away and become a mere memory. Ah well no more Mr Doghead, Mr Foxhead and Mrs Cathead. What a shame to see such awesome original races fade into obscurity.
It seems many of us share this same sentiment. LOL @ "assumptions" btw, I guess "ignorance" is truly bliss.
Originally posted by Muddleglum Just so nobody gets the wrong idea Vanguard does not have a cash shop. There is that exchange thing where players can sell there characters and crap but that happens anyway in any mmo. No matter how you feel about sony providing a scam free market place that players can use instead of Ebay or some other site, this thing is going on no matter if they provide the medium or not. I don't play F2P games because I hate cash shops. I want access to all things in the game through play thats just my preference. I would not be playing Vanguard if there was a cash shop.
Having in game player micro transactions for items is worlds apart from 3rd party companies that sell GOLD.
You can't log onto some random website and buy a sword of power, because they don't sell items. Far fewer people are going to risk getting banned or scammed via 3rd party websites. They are far less likely to roll need on an item they can't use, just to sell if for gold and MAYBE sell that gold for a few dollars. Again risking their account.
However, company sanctioned player RMT sales in vanguard makes EVERYONE a potential gold seller, plus it will entice players into it that would otherwise never get invovled. It changes the very nature of how the game is designed AND how people will play it.
Your gross over generalization fails, because they both affect the game in different ways.
Not to mention the laughable aspect that soe did this to create a "scam free" area for players to partake in these activities. If that were true soe wouldn't take a cut of every sale. Not to mention their previous stance was real money transactions hurt their game communities. I guess when soe makes a percentage of the sale though, it is ok for their communities to be hurt. No surprise there.
Heaven forbid people actually play a game with their keyboard/mouse and not their wallet.
For the record I don't like the exchange I never stated my personal oppinion on it. The "scam free" thing is the reason that SoE gives for it. And 3rd party sites sell more then "GOLD" they sell accounts and powerleveling. And back in the day before soulbound items became the norm you better believe you could go and buy a "sword of power". Thats how this stuff got started, items and accounts were the thing to buy not gold. I am sure you can still find and buy certian tradeable items if you wanted.
I have never had an issue with people looting things they don't need. Vanguard has a good looting system you can't roll on somthing you can't use and anything else everyone has a shot at. There are serveral types of loot options as well pick what works for you. But like I said I have never been a group yet where anyone pulled anything shady.
I don't know what that last part is about when I wrote I hate cash shops and don't play F2P games. I don't like the exchange personally but I don't get the feeling it is effecting Vanguard much if at all. I have never spent money on items in a game before and never will, and I am not judging others that play games where they do it that way I just can't get into games like that personally.
Anyway bottom line is I love the game and want others to try it out too. I know that there are people out there that would love it every bit as much as I do. SoE owns Vanguard, nothing I can do about that or the exchange but it's my favorite game and worth playing even with all that working against it.. it's that good!
Well, you talked me into it. I just bought a cheap copy off of Amazon. What really made me want to get it is because I'm an old EQ1 addict. I miss that type of play style and figure if I don't like the game I only spent five bucks on it so it's worth a shot. By the way what server are you on?
Well, you talked me into it. I just bought a cheap copy off of Amazon. What really made me want to get it is because I'm an old EQ1 addict. I miss that type of play style and figure if I don't like the game I only spent five bucks on it so it's worth a shot. By the way what server are you on?
Definitely play Seradon. The most populated sever. Well, that and Xeth.
Comments
No, It's created by Sigil Games Online and released by them aswell in jan 2007 and bought shortly after by SOE in May 2007. They are running the show now but they didn't make this game period
Bluegrazz never said Vanguard was made by SOE, but the game was bought by SOE and they now make the choices that Bluegrazz said the did. As they now own the game, that makes it an SOE product; as Bluegrazz said.
Yes,They make the choices now as they own it, but it's still not a SOE product. And NO bluegrazz didnt say what you are saying.
What would you think would have happened if SOE hadn't bought Vanguard ?
Yes, thats pretty much what I said (or meant)
Look- Hummer (a GM developed product) is probably going to be bought out and taken over by a Chinese Auto Company- Now (pretend this happened today) if I buy me a Hummer tommorow (yes, I'm dreaming- I'm poor white trash) AFTER the Chinese Auto Company takes over production, and I have a major problem with my Brand new Ride, and this Chinese Company tells me (basiclly) to "go to hell" (poor customer service) and does nothing to fix my problem OR treat me with a bit of respect- Is it G.M.'s Fault?
Now, let me clarify my position on Vangard in simple (easy to understand terms)... I pre ordered Vangard- Played at Launch. Buggy as hell. Complete mess. Stuck it it for 6 (yes SIX) months paying $15/month for a product that was broken (because I was giving SOE the benefit of the doubt and wanted to support a game I WANTED to love). SOE was above critisizm on their Forums- Said pointing out Bugs was "unproductive"- Locked threads, acted like Nazis.
SOE took the attitude of "all is good, no room to say otherwise"- Population dies (most quit within 2 months of simple bugs being ignored) six months later - SAME BUGS STILL THERE... Go to Forum and say "What u guyz doing? No bugs fixed- Me paying customer"- Thread locked/deleted. PM sent to SOE. "Me paying customer- wish to know what is being done to address problems". SOE send PM back "Its not our job to provide you with information, we provide game only- No like Game you may leave. Wish to know internal matters at SOE- become Stockholder and go to meetings."- Jaw hits floor. Quits and vows to neer touch SOE product again.
Did that help explain my position? I know SOE didnt develop VG- BUT from LAUNCH SOE's name was on that product, their CS team (lol) handled it, They billed me... SOE has been charge of VG for what, four years now? Its an SOE product . period.
We can banter on issues of semantics but you know what I mean. SOE is a company that should be avoided at all cost's- If their name is on a product- RUN (even if they didnt program the ORIGINAL "app")
1.Their is a FFA PVP server and PVP arenas on the PVE servers.
2.Yes, the content patches & updates are way to slow,their is still tons of content though.
It would be impossible to see all the content with one character,it's way to vast for that.
1.Their is a FFA PVP server and PVP arenas on the PVE servers.
2.Yes, the content patches & updates are way to slow,their is still tons of content though.
It would be impossible to see all the content with one character,it's way to vast for that.
This reminds me. To the people who say this game has a shady future: They would not be releasing any updates at all if they had the plan of closing down the game, which means they have no plans to do so. The population has been going up a lot lately, which makes it even less likely.
Yes, it is true that there is so much content you would need to level multiple alts in order to experience a fraction of it.
-Computer specs no one cares about: check.
-MMOs played no one cares about: check.
-Xfire stats no one cares about: check.
-Signature no one cares about: check.
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-Narcissism: check.
I totally loved Vanguard when it came out. But the game just got to the point that even at level 25, it takes you a year and a day to level, its boring, same quests over and over and over. Lots of graphic glitches (2 pc's, 2 different video cards). The game had potential but I dont know where that went.
Just a week ago I got the trial and subbed a few days after. I'm loving quick and visceral combat (so many abilities for my Paladin at such low levels) and the graphics scale well so even my three-year-old laptop can run it with shadows and a nice draw distance.
However, once I got out of the Isle of Dawn (an area that was quite populated with other players and efficiently built for quests), I was then greeted with this huge world that had, well, like five people in it. Okay, that's exaggerating. There were six. Joking aside, I do know it's in my best interest to get in a guild as quickly as I can but it was alarming to see the immense desolation in a land that was intended to be teaming with teammates. It was sad, really, like being in an MMO graveyard.
Okay, I might sound like I'm bashing the game but I'm not. It's just so terribly heart-wrenching to see such a lovely game that was designed with so much heart and ambition to be pretty much empty. This all said, I will gather the guile to group with a guild and see if that takes some of the lonesomeness away.
1.Their is a FFA PVP server and PVP arenas on the PVE servers.
2.Yes, the content patches & updates are way to slow,their is still tons of content though.
It would be impossible to see all the content with one character,it's way to vast for that.
This reminds me. To the people who say this game has a shady future: They would not be releasing any updates at all if they had the plan of closing down the game, which means they have no plans to do so. The population has been going up a lot lately, which makes it even less likely.
Yes, it is true that there is so much content you would need to level multiple alts in order to experience a fraction of it.
There have been games that have received updates prior to closing down. AC2 for example received a full blown expansion right before it closed. Receiving updates doesn't grant immunity.
I'm not saying VG is closing tomorrow, but it is heading that way. There are a lot of stages for it to go through first, but the game certainly isn't growing. People have been saying that for the last 2 years now.
Vanguards future is cloudy and has been since release. It doesn't matter that the game has a dev team, it has ended up exactly where people said it would. Very little updates and sitting on life support with a development team far to small to give the game the proper attention it needs. Three years is to long for a game to go without an expansion. The former producer leaves the game and doesn't even say goodbye. The current lead designer/producer gets pulled off the project to work on something else for an undisclosed amount of time and new development of the game is put on hold while he is gone. That last part really makes a statement that should not be ignored. If soe is willing to put the game on hold by stealing the senior management for some other project (that obviously has more potential than VG), don't for one second think they wouldn't remove the whole team if that other project took off and they needed people.
My point is that if people want to try to attract people to the game, they should do so with full disclosure. Not by trying to defame anyone who might have an opposing opinion to hide the problems of the game, but rather by telling the whole true of the situation. Vanguard really suffered by overzealous fans making posts similar to this that praise the game to no end, which upset many potential players when those accountings of the game did not turn out be close to the truth.
If the game is great, it will sell itself.
I read several times in this thread that they are not currently focusing on PvP, but have they ever since release? I originally played on the team PvP server, cancelled for a while waiting for fixes to the horribly inbalanced crowd control abilites in PvP, and when I came back to check it out I had been transfered to the FFA server, which at the time at least was possibly the deadest server I've ever logged into. I seriously think I might have been the only person on it. spent hours travelling to every major city and area i could think of without seeing another player.
If they have never done anything to PvP and that server is still in the same shape, the improvements they may have made mean little to me. It's to bad, I'd probably still play it at least casually it they had given me a transfer option... I'd have moved to seradon in a second over the FFA server considering how bad it sucked even at release.
They do free transfers, just page a GM.
On another note... the classes in this game I am finding to be amazing. I am playing a Psionicist, and it has the coolest abilities of any class in any game that I have ever played. I've heard that the blood mage is one of the most unique classes of any MMO, and that all the classes are a load of fun.
Regarding the PVP stuff, I think they tried to focus on it a long time ago, but now they don't plan to. Get off that server, it is dead. Seradon is packed though. As well as Xeth.
-Computer specs no one cares about: check.
-MMOs played no one cares about: check.
-Xfire stats no one cares about: check.
-Signature no one cares about: check.
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-Narcissism: check.
1.Their is a FFA PVP server and PVP arenas on the PVE servers.
2.Yes, the content patches & updates are way to slow,their is still tons of content though.
It would be impossible to see all the content with one character,it's way to vast for that.
This reminds me. To the people who say this game has a shady future: They would not be releasing any updates at all if they had the plan of closing down the game, which means they have no plans to do so. The population has been going up a lot lately, which makes it even less likely.
Yes, it is true that there is so much content you would need to level multiple alts in order to experience a fraction of it.
This isn't true. Tabula Rasa received updates even when it was planned to shut down. Heck, it even received a major update after the closure of the game was already announced.
Hey,
Vanguard is a great game, never played it at the begining, so missed alot of the bugs. It's my second most played MMO other than Lotro. Thinkin about givin Lotro Online a break, and going back to Vanguard, hell of alot of things to do Vanguard, so if you never played it use the demo, it's worth the downloading time. I think you can pick it up cheap now on Direct2drive, Steam, etc.
Have Fun.
Just about every MMO company out there with a released MMO has a hate base. Look at Blizzard before WoW came out, the majority loved them and praised them now look at the bashing they get. Same goes for Sony, even though they are more underhanded than most, you should not let a companies image get in the way of playing what is essentially a great game. I am not currently playing VG as the wife and I recently have had a child and time is not in the abundance right now. I have VG installed and it will always remain so as long as the game is still live. Whenever Sony reactivates old accounts I am right there ready to login.
There's an old saying that some people may be familiar with:
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
I don't care how "good" people are claiming Vanguard to suddenly be, they'll never take my money again. (for a fourth time in case you're wondering) I've been foolish enough to buy in to these threads for this very game in the past. "Ooohhh come back, it's so much better!" or "They've fixed a lot of the bugs" or "It runs so smooth now, try it and see" Even if any of these statements are even remotely true, why are we having this discussion about a game that's been out for like 2+ years? I played at release and I seem to give this piece of crap a try every 6 months and it's basically the same old thing.
My response to this thread and anyone reading this, play something that isn't a salvage project or on life support. Don't waste your time or your money.
PS, this is a shameless thread started by either : A) devs trying to drum up business for their game or
by lonely VG fanbois trying to populate lonely servers
This is a very wise Post. =P
Every 6-8 months or so (give or take) posts like this (nearly the exact wording) begin popping up on MMO sites across the Interweb... I feel its shameless promo from $OE who has no problem paying Buzz Marketing Teams and Nazi Forum Moderators (they just have a problem with traditional advertising and keeping enough Devs on VG when games like "Free Realm" is where they are banking on the future)
When trial Isle was released someone copy/pasted almost word for word the "Come Back its better" BS across message boards everywhere. I feel sorry for the people who have stuck it out based on th games potential when $OE doesnt care about anything but $$$ and how much they can take from you before you leave.
Just beware- $OE is a company known (in a really bad light) to use any tactic to milk you (and their player base) for all they can take.
Best MMO on the market imo. Population is fine (but more is better). I have alts in all level brakets, and get groups everyday np. I see people everywhere I go. Even before mentoring I found groups all the time, now it's even easier! I am on the Seradon server and it's supposed to have the highest pop so I suggest rolling on it if you decide to try the game.
The classes are getting revamps/improvments a few are allready done and the changes are awsome, new dungeons are being added, the level cap was raised and AA's are comming. The open world is amazingly vast and wonderful to explore. If you like crafting this is a fantasic choice! It's a great game for altoholics as well!
Thanks for the post OP!
...fixed
...fixed
Just so nobody gets the wrong idea Vanguard does not have a cash shop. There is that exchange thing where players can sell there characters and crap but that happens anyway in any mmo. No matter how you feel about sony providing a scam free market place that players can use instead of Ebay or some other site, this thing is going on no matter if they provide the medium or not.
I don't play F2P games because I hate cash shops. I want access to all things in the game through play thats just my preference. I would not be playing Vanguard if there was a cash shop.
Assumptions make an Ass out of U. Just because you think there are only 2 possibilities for someone wanting to promote the game, doesn't mean thats the be all end all. One, I'm not a dev. You should know by now that SOE would NEVER spend extra money on advertising, which I stated in the OP but I doubt you read that. Two, a lonely player in VG? I play on Seradon, there is no lonliness there lol.
I love ignorant people, you don't have to do anything to embarrass them, they do it themselves.
-Computer specs no one cares about: check.
-MMOs played no one cares about: check.
-Xfire stats no one cares about: check.
-Signature no one cares about: check.
------------------------------------------------------------
-Narcissism: check.
Having in game player micro transactions for items is worlds apart from 3rd party companies that sell GOLD.
You can't log onto some random website and buy a sword of power, because they don't sell items. Far fewer people are going to risk getting banned or scammed via 3rd party websites. They are far less likely to roll need on an item they can't use, just to sell if for gold and MAYBE sell that gold for a few dollars. Again risking their account.
However, company sanctioned player RMT sales in vanguard makes EVERYONE a potential gold seller, plus it will entice players into it that would otherwise never get invovled. It changes the very nature of how the game is designed AND how people will play it.
Your gross over generalization fails, because they both affect the game in different ways.
Not to mention the laughable aspect that soe did this to create a "scam free" area for players to partake in these activities. If that were true soe wouldn't take a cut of every sale. Not to mention their previous stance was real money transactions hurt their game communities. I guess when soe makes a percentage of the sale though, it is ok for their communities to be hurt. No surprise there.
Heaven forbid people actually play a game with their keyboard/mouse and not their wallet.
I really liked Vanguard. But I, too, left the game after several months due to the low population.
I started with the Isle of Dawn trial -- and fell in love with the game. Terrific classes/races, great storyline & quests, fascinating crafting, challenging diplomacy, lots of people, etc., etc. What's not to like? I played 4 different classes (Dread Knight, Blood Mage, Ranger and Psy) before leaving the Isle.
Unfortunately, after subbing and moving my DK to Qa Riverbank, the game came to a halt. Although I was able to complete a few more quests (mostly solo) and do a bit more crafting, soon all the tasks I encountered were recommended for groups. Although my DK was pretty resilient, he still couldn't take on some of those tasks solo -- and finding ANYONE to help was next to impossible. Long-term players were well beyond this area, and there honestly were not many new arrivals coming over from the Isle of Dawn. (My Ranger, who went to Veskel's Exchange, had a slightly better time of it, though the population there was still meager.)
Then one night a couple months ago, I logged in during "prime time" and found my DK all alone on the Riverbank, in the dark, in the rain. Even region chat was silent. That was it for me. The next day I canceled my sub.
It should also be noted that, at San Diego Comic-Con this year, SOE was pushing DC Universe Online (understandable) and Free Realms. But at least EQ2 was demoing on one monitor. Vanguard was nowhere to be seen.
I was still a sub then, but the obvious disinterest shown by SOE undoubtedly contributed to my decision to cancel.
Not sure how I missed this thread but I'll repost what I had from the VG boards. Take this post for what its worth, I've been in VG since beta 2.5. So this is not from a vanboi nor a VG hater, just a realist. And I played on Shidreth (merged to Seradon).
Reasons why players left? Numerous reasons and they add up to inevitably give the game a next to bare population
- Bad launch (Although most games have em, making this game was slated to be more of a niche game, you lose players to an already supposively smaller gaming population, it will sting.)
- An immense amount of bugs at launch and overtime. Of course bugs will never be fixed 100% in anygame but major game mechanic bugs were in the game even to this date although not as major as they were a year ago.
- No endgame at launch. I was one of the first players to hit 50 (3rd WW) and yes with the way the game is I do regret playing as hard as I did. But at the end, there was zero raiding, no epic questlines, nothing. It sat like this until Novemeber when APW was launched. Until then you had only Rahz, ToT, or Swamp to do in the high end and it was terrible, VG was dying fast as even casuals were getting 50 and realizing it was bad (this is noted that APW was still in testing).
- The final buyout of Sigil to SOE. Yes I know SOE had some say in the game from the start, but people have vendettas against SOE so it chipped a small bit away.
- Server Merges. They have to happen for obvious reasons. People like em, people hate em. People leave over them, not alot but still with a game taking blow by blow, it still hurts.
- Death of PVP. Vanguard was never meant for PVP but even still they are players who want to get into a PVE heavy game with some PVP on the side. They even couldn't get their small helping. Lets not get into the population of the PVP server today, its absolutely rediculous.
- Skeleton Dev Team. I have been playing since Beta 2, the team is 1/12th of what it used to be, and trust me, it used to be a nice sized team. The focus of the game has changed drastically as they continue to cut devs off or devs jumped ship to better opportunities. This also goes in play of switching Lead Producer a whopping 3 times in 2.5 Years (From Hasium, Phantom, to Silius (who isn't really in the role just a fill in)). You look at the game level 1 - 49 and its great, you look at the game 50 - 55 and you tell me what happened.
- Next to no advertisement. This is more in line of an SOE trait. They don't heavily market their games as much as they should, maybe because they have too many. But Vanguard never got any form of heavy advertisement that it should have. All it lived off of was the hype it generated during development. Although Silius stated they did advertisement. Look at the advertisement LOTR and Aion are getting (I chose those 2 because they are the next best examples aside dropping the WoW bomb).
- Raid Game is limited. Extremely limited. VG was supposed to bring back EQ style of play. With that it must include raids. Ancient Port Warehouse (the game's only raid dungeon) was launched in Novement 2007. Its nearly 2 years and no other raid dungeon has made it. Do the math. Also with a grand total of count em (Jagund, PW, Dresla, Nerksawl, Fengrot, Physik, Rinipin, Yerkj, Nimaa, Slim, Guar, Karax, and Varking) 14 overland raid mobs. Most guilds (even casuals) clear out roughly 90% of all raid content in 2-3 days of 4 hour raiding. Or asides the fact that Pota has made APW obsolete.
- Group content degrades as you reach higher levels. I'll let you be the personal judge for this. I'll repeat myself, the level 1 - 49 game of VG is on track of a good game. Lvl 50 - 55 content is in the opposite direction. Shores of Darkness and Pota type content are one of the main reasons why today VG is still losing players. If you're not raiding, your options are limited to SoD, BoD, Pota, and Virak (with Hilsbury on the way I don't think will change the mold). However if you want the BEST stuff, you do pota. You do not have to raid period to have top shelf gear, just farm the stuff (which mind you takes a good while).
- Diplomacy/Crafting were not taken to the next level as they should have. I'll admit, these two spheres were one of the highlights of VG's prescence in the industry. However lets be real, they got slapped in the face when they started dropping devs left and right. The entire Diplo dev team is gone aside Jansen and Silius is the only one left from the crafting team. In my opinion, diplo/crafting to this date compared to a year or so ago, are now just something to fill your time.
- And the final but most notciable. Vanguard does not have a SUSTAINABLE population. Now I have frequent on these boards about why VG isn't in the position it should be, and this has got to be the #1 reason.The game simply does not have a good enough retention rate for it to go into the positive ranks. It goes down, new patch, goes up, then dies back down, rinse and repeat. The development team/SOE simply have not found the right formula of decisions to feed into the game's momentum. They will release one good patch, then follow it with weird decisions in non-broken game mechanics. Right now, the end-game population is taking hits slowly because of the Pota grind and no new raid content that works. And as many posted before, if your friends stop playing, your will to continue play slowly die out with it. Look at Seradon, they lost 2 of their oldest guilds in Forgotten Horde and Trinity. When looking at the game, you have to look at it a full 360 and take everything into account and you can then see why VG is in its current state. Yes, VG may have the graphics and the concept, but the main deciding factor to games these days is good content and good support. If you can't muster both of those elements then you are bound for failure. VG may still be fun to some, but VG is starting to become a dated trend and newer games will learn off of VG's mistakes and apply their concepts in a much safer manner.
Take this post for what its worth.
I feel personally, the potential for Vanguard has worn its course. Its not going to get better to become a much more well known game nor will it go to the trash can (even though most believe it will). The simple fact of finances has determined VG's fate as to ever becoming the game we wanted it to be. Personally, I do not believe VG should be charing the same premium of $14.95 a month like other MMOs. It recieves less support but charges the same. Now yes, the game may be a bit more diverse than say WoW/Lotro/etc, but does it warrant the price? You can pick this game up for about 3 bucks in any store these days but still charges the same amount, even though its understandable why.
However, with all being said, the only reason why VG is still afloat is because since VG, there hasn't been any major PVE emphasized that went with the Warrior/Cleric/Wizard/Rogue setup without mass instancing. If there were to be a game that would come out and match VG's world, VG would be dead without a doubt. But it seems right now we're in the PVP era of MMOS so VG is only surviving for the fact that its been the last "half-decent" PVE-based MMO. If the next PVE-based fantasy MMO were to launch today, it would be the end of VG because a good number of players currently in VG are only there because "there's nothing else to play". I wouldn't be sitting too comfortably as a developer if I heard that from my customers.
Rift: Storm Legion Raid Progression Tracker
Thanks for typing this. It saved me from typing something very similar. I came back to the game twice after buying it straight after launch. The last time was about 6 or 7 months ago. Boredom makes people do the daftest things.
I played it for about two weeks I think. The first week was kind of interesting and the second week was a real struggle in which I was trying to convince myself that it was worth logging in. The game really isnt worth bothering with despite what these intermittent "Come back to Vanguard" posts like to tell everyone........and as newer and better games keep come out Vanguard will continue to get buried deeper and deeper. Soon it will fade away and become a mere memory. Ah well no more Mr Doghead, Mr Foxhead and Mrs Cathead. What a shame to see such awesome original races fade into obscurity.
Thanks for typing this. It saved me from typing something very similar. I came back to the game twice after buying it straight after launch. The last time was about 6 or 7 months ago. Boredom makes people do the daftest things.
I played it for about two weeks I think. The first week was kind of interesting and the second week was a real struggle in which I was trying to convince myself that it was worth logging in. The game really isnt worth bothering with despite what these intermittent "Come back to Vanguard" posts like to tell everyone........and as newer and better games keep come out Vanguard will continue to get buried deeper and deeper. Soon it will fade away and become a mere memory. Ah well no more Mr Doghead, Mr Foxhead and Mrs Cathead. What a shame to see such awesome original races fade into obscurity.
It seems many of us share this same sentiment. LOL @ "assumptions" btw, I guess "ignorance" is truly bliss.
Having in game player micro transactions for items is worlds apart from 3rd party companies that sell GOLD.
You can't log onto some random website and buy a sword of power, because they don't sell items. Far fewer people are going to risk getting banned or scammed via 3rd party websites. They are far less likely to roll need on an item they can't use, just to sell if for gold and MAYBE sell that gold for a few dollars. Again risking their account.
However, company sanctioned player RMT sales in vanguard makes EVERYONE a potential gold seller, plus it will entice players into it that would otherwise never get invovled. It changes the very nature of how the game is designed AND how people will play it.
Your gross over generalization fails, because they both affect the game in different ways.
Not to mention the laughable aspect that soe did this to create a "scam free" area for players to partake in these activities. If that were true soe wouldn't take a cut of every sale. Not to mention their previous stance was real money transactions hurt their game communities. I guess when soe makes a percentage of the sale though, it is ok for their communities to be hurt. No surprise there.
Heaven forbid people actually play a game with their keyboard/mouse and not their wallet.
For the record I don't like the exchange I never stated my personal oppinion on it. The "scam free" thing is the reason that SoE gives for it. And 3rd party sites sell more then "GOLD" they sell accounts and powerleveling. And back in the day before soulbound items became the norm you better believe you could go and buy a "sword of power". Thats how this stuff got started, items and accounts were the thing to buy not gold. I am sure you can still find and buy certian tradeable items if you wanted.
I have never had an issue with people looting things they don't need. Vanguard has a good looting system you can't roll on somthing you can't use and anything else everyone has a shot at. There are serveral types of loot options as well pick what works for you. But like I said I have never been a group yet where anyone pulled anything shady.
I don't know what that last part is about when I wrote I hate cash shops and don't play F2P games. I don't like the exchange personally but I don't get the feeling it is effecting Vanguard much if at all. I have never spent money on items in a game before and never will, and I am not judging others that play games where they do it that way I just can't get into games like that personally.
Anyway bottom line is I love the game and want others to try it out too. I know that there are people out there that would love it every bit as much as I do. SoE owns Vanguard, nothing I can do about that or the exchange but it's my favorite game and worth playing even with all that working against it.. it's that good!
Well, you talked me into it. I just bought a cheap copy off of Amazon. What really made me want to get it is because I'm an old EQ1 addict. I miss that type of play style and figure if I don't like the game I only spent five bucks on it so it's worth a shot. By the way what server are you on?
Definitely play Seradon. The most populated sever. Well, that and Xeth.
-Computer specs no one cares about: check.
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-Narcissism: check.