Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Vanguard makes me sad.
Skarmy
Member Posts: 38
Vanguard is my ideal MMO; boasting a massively open world and robust crafting system, why isn't this game more popular? I've always wanted a game like vanguard; player housing, player ships, etc etc... So, why has Vanguard fallen flat?
Comments
OP, there has been a lot of threads like this. Lets just hope f2p brings back enough folks that we can go adventuring again.
Come on,isnt this question getting a little old?
Lets look to the future and the new updates and FTP this summer.As a Vanguard player since beta and never having stopped playing i could go into a rant about why this and why that but it really is old news.
Look forward not back and hopefully Vanguard will be populated enough to put a smile back on your face.
Old question? No no, I haven't been following vanguard, I remember when it was announced and haven't heard anything about it since, so I really don't know that the question I am asking is such an old one.
f2p may help, currently the bad preformance client and lack of people playing it + its bad rep for years does not make it a ideal game to invest money in hoping you get youre worth in fun
I've done a little research, apparently Vanguard had a bad launch, pitty...
A smooth start cannot be understated in the road to success for new MMOs. I've seen plenty of games that were quite lacklustre to me do quite well simply due to seeming polished...
I remember playing beta for Vanguard and falling through the ground 3 times in one hour, I also remember being so frustrated at the other bugs that I stopped playing. Years later, it's much better.
There are certainly performance issues, but it's a very immersive MMO, I find that non-existant these days.
Unfortunately Vanguard may have been a few years ahead of it's time and like anything on the interwebs, the end users are all locusts who consume whatever comes out next and move onto the next big thing. It is almost impossible to reclaim an audience despite the product being good later down the track.
As someone mentioned, the launch was quite abysmal. The bugs in the game were the sort that did have large encompassing effects on people. Falling through the world consistently for 6 months is not anyones idea of fun. Amongst the game crashes, falling through world, speed hackers and broken quests there lied an amazing gem of a game that had character. But not many people are prepared to find that gem, instead treating the game on face value.
The current generation of gamer are dull minded sheep who are now accustomed to giant arrows telling them where to go, instance hubs that congregate all the dungeons into a nice friendly lobby and a learning curve thats as steep as the flattest plateau. Vanguard requires you to ask questions of others and seek advice on how to do certain things. You will die alot, at first, and thats all part of the enjoyment.
The sort of gamer who enjoys something like Vanguard is too small a market to ever recover the massive development costs that went into it and is quite saddening to think we don't have anything else out there like it. Archeage is the only one that comes to mind that is coming up.
Hopefully F2P gets some interest and people are stubborn enough to get through that hard outer crust that makes VG a bit inaccessible at first.
I've resubbed in anticipation but my interest will only remain if they get a FFA server back up.
From the state of MMOs in general today, Vanguard is not just some years ahead of other MMOs. More like decades.
The game needed one more year of polish and bug fixing. It was not ready when it was released. It had some very serious problems at first. I believe it could have been a very successful nice game if it was released when it was ready. But players in general just leave and never return if they try a new game and think its buggy and unfinished. It makes no difference how much potential there is or how good ideas the develpers have. Most players are not willing to wait or to give a game second chance.
I was one of the first beta players when it was a Micro soft game. Long before Sony had anything to do with the game... And we really believed it would be the best game ever. I remember me and some of the other followers more or less wanted a game like EQ pre Velious with new graphics and some new ideas. And believed it would be the perfect game we had been waiting for for years.
I'm in once the F2P conversion opens. I'm looking forward to it. Never played so the whole thing will be new for me.
I used to play a lv45 cleric. I really didn't like their game engine, specially horrible clipping, fps fall when in big city or even when opening a door...
Rest was suberb, excellent PVE as i like. i only hope there will be enough people so we can form group.
I recently did the Vanguard trial. Although a bit dated graphically and also a bit too heavily slanted towards conventional PvE for my taste (I'm a bit allergic to the standard "kill 10 X" quests by now), it seems like a good solid themepark game - the open world really gives you an immersive feeling and it also has cool stuff like housing, boats and diplomacy (!).
I wouldn't sub as it is, but I'll definitely play it when it goes ftp.
Me too.
I started on the Isle a couple of times but never made it past level 2-3. It just didn't grab me. But there will be more people around after f2p and I heard the other starter areas are better.
There is some debate about where the best place to start is. The Isle of Dawn is easily digestible and linear but has better gear at the end. The other starter areas vary, but in general they're more flavorful and give a better picture of the open-ended feel of Vanguard. The gear is not as good, but with the exception of the diplomacy trinket you'll have most of it replaced by the mid-teens anyway. And the diplo trinket can be had by any charcter of at laest level 10 right now, by visiting a Herald of Telon located outside several of the major cities.
Personally, I prefer the old starter areas.
Ardwulf's Lair | Ardwulf's YouTube Channel | Ardwulf on Twitter
Why do you guys always blame it on bad reputation or poor client performance? Maybe it's because the game doesn't appeal to casuals and that's why the numbers suck or do you guys truly believe there are millions of hardcores out there? The game has harsh and punishing combat and is not solo friendly. I have serious doubts that F2P is going to draw a lot of people into the game, let alone the ones who tried it before.
Vanguard had possibly the worst launch in MMO history, with bugs, extremely high system requirements, and the whole SOE/Sigil fiasco. Had it not had these problems, I think it's a reasonable safe assumption that it could have carved out a decent niche market of fans of EQ1 and other early MMOs. As it stands now, people are just unwilling to give it another shot, either because they have bad memories of the launch, or because they don't want to try an MMO that is already several years old.
That last comment is frankly untrue. MMO gamers are incredibly fluid and switch around to different games regularly. The market clearly shows that people are moving around and trying various games, both AAA and niche / asian games. AoC and AO and even WoW had terrible launches either due to technical game issues or severe overloads of people crashing the servers, yet they have healthy numbers now. Especially in regards to AoC and AO, both of which are considered the worst launches in history. AO was by far worse than VG. If a game is involving and at least moderately fun, gamers will overlook technical issues in the hopes they will eventually get fixed or at least return 6 months or a year later to try it again.
The one differing factor is that of all these games, VG is the least solo friendly and has unforgiving combat with lots of deaths and / or near deaths and I consider them too many to be fun. Even EQ Live is more casual friendly and as a result it still has decent numbers even before the change to F2P.
So you never played Dark&Light,that and a few other mmo take the crown for worst launch ever.
neverSeconYou d,several means around the seven mark,vanguard is 5.3 years old but still has graphics that fit right into todays mmo graphics,we are not talking EQ graphics here.
The other shot will come with the FTP because they really don't have to spend a penny to go beyond the isle,nothing to lose.
Once they go beyond the isle they will find a world that has be vastly improved since it released 5.3 years ago,as a matter of fact i suspect many will kick themselves for not giving it a second chance.If they allow FTP on Telon they will see players that have stuck with vanguard sporting some great items that take months if not years to get.
The good thing is they will have many vets willing to help and give advice,we are a small but great bunch of mature adults.Vanguard has some of the best open world dungeons that you will find in any mmo today.These are more like raids in other mmo,some of the group dungeons take days to complete and have dungeon withing dungeons.
For many it will be like drawing back the years to old time EQ,i mean Vanguard is one of the only mm that still has certain classes with the levitation skill.Many times i have been flying across the top of the world with my bard only to dismount and equip my drum for some supersonic running across the roof of the world with bards levitation reaching speeds of 530% with wood elf racial.Curse of the vampire was a c
Before they removed curse of the vampire i have hit 590%,that is faster than any mount in the game,flying or land.
Curse you picked up by killing undead in misthaven but it was also a buff,it lasted until you logged out from what i remember.
The game had one of the worst launches in mmo history...unbalanced...you'd fall through the world and the devs couldn't get your toon back...so you'd have to reroll....game was mainly pve based...so pvpers had crap. Games that launch this bad will have a hard time bouncing back. They had an opportunity at launch...tons were there. Anothe SOE fail...best thing you can do is always avoid SOE games...they will screw you over...
Incognito
www.incognito-gaming.us
"You're either with us or against us"
Vanguard is unforgiving but that's whats been lost with these current mmo,to much for to little and no risk.By the time to reach level 55 you will really know your class and be proud to have come through the hard knocks.
Here a tip,slow down and actually think about what you are doing,just like EQ had players do.Vanguard is not a mmo for everyone but that's the beauty of the game,work for what you want and keep what you kill.
As much as I love bashing SoE, they are not to blame for Vanguard. Sigil and Brad McQuaid are at fault. SoE just salvaged the game and made it remotely playable.
The quality of the old starting areas is pretty variable. Some are fantastic (raki / wood elf) and some are boring and involve too much running back and forth (goblin / orc). For some races the Isle of Dawn is far superior, but others will get a richer experience from their home town.
Nope,the best thing YOU can do is avoid SOE game and let others make up their own minds.You obviously know nothing about the birth of Vanguard or you would know it was Sigil and not SOE that made and launched Vanguard.SOE saved Vanguard whether for selfish reason or not,they saved it.
The uninformed always give me a laugh.
I think its a bit unfair to blame SOE. It was really a Microsoft game. They abandoned Sigil when most of the game was finished. Of course SOE should have given them one more year or so to polish the game and fix bugs and performance problems. But I still think its a bit unfair to believe SOE should be blamed for everything. I mean Sigil decided to work with Microsoft and when they lost patience with them they had to go to SOE begging for help. Without SOE the game would never have been released at all.