VGOEmulator Updates

[AenorVZ]

For those of you sounding off about Vanguard's failure to live up to its hype as the real successor to EQ, here's the history as I recall it from various sources.

1. Brad led up the development of EQ with an approximately $8 million initial budget. They performed miracles with that budget.

2. WoW was developed as a dumbed-down version of EQ with instancing so that all content was available to all players, removing the bottle necks of EQ that created class stratification of haves and have nots. WoW's budget approached $100 million and much of that was spent on graphics optimizations that allowed the game to run on very old systems, making the game accessible to something like the broadest possible audience.

3. Microsoft invested something close to $30 million in Vanguard. Developers who put Brad on blast after the mass firing said he was an absentee developer who was making public statements about pie-in-the-sky functionality like ship to ship warfare while Microsoft was preparing to fold the development because Sigil hadn't proven they could deliver a finished product.

4. The work on the game that was accomplished once Sony bought the IP from Microsoft for pennies on the dollar was described as miraculous. The people who actively worked on the game were credited with pulling a rabbit out of the hat to get the game to the point that we experienced in beta and launch. Vanguard delivered as a game with high system requirements that didn't look good enough to justify them and had hitching even on high end systems.

McQuaid later said he had an "understanding" with Microsoft that Vanguard would be funded as a AAA title and that they pulled funding and didn't fulfill their end. Firstly, it's absurd to put any stock in some sort of off the books "understanding." Secondly, Microsoft funded Vanguard with three times as much capital as Everquest required and Sigil was barely able to deliver an unfinished and ultimately doomed game.

McQuaid then bungled the kickstarter for Pantheon, further harming his already tattered reputation. I followed the Pantheon thread on rerolled for months and was amused by all the glee at Brad's latest failure but, credit where credit is due. The gameplay for Pantheon looks like Halgarad area. I'd love to play in that sort of world again with a game with an EQ feel. I hope it makes it to beta so I can play it.

Meanwhile I hold out little hope that vgemu will ever be able to launch a complete game, specifically a complete PvP game, which is what I would be interested in playing. But I think they've already exceeded meager expectations and I look forward to seeing what they will accomplish. I'll say it again ... I freaking loved Vanguard, flaws and all, and only wish more people could have seen past the shortcomings to appreciate the amazing game underneath.