Casual vs. Hardcore: Didn't Vanguard have the caravan system, where you'd form a permanent group and anyone offline but in the caravan would share the XP gained by the members online?
As for it shutting down, I'm deeply saddened but slightly less saddened than when I read about
1) How badly SOE botched the launch (I was there for the last month of beta and the first month of live)
2) The gold duping hack that wrecked the economy in the first year or two (this was after I left)
I always felt it was a better EQ2 than EQ2, even if it was in a different world with different lore. The Vanguard RP site was where I met some friends who I've been in a few other MMOs with, too, and I have Vanguard to thank for them. But mostly, I just liked all of the dozens of options. More-than-just-cats for the furries! Black and Asian humans! Healers who heal by punchin! So many good ideas, so little execution.
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