Vanguard: Sago Of Hero's

[Japan]

Originally Posted by Yinikren [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Vanguard was an amazing game. Fuck Japan and all you naysayers.

i played to level cap at launch.

80% of my playtime was spent in zones that hadn't been itemized (not even coin drops) and had no quests. The game was shit.

[KilyenaMage]

Originally Posted by Yinikren [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Vanguard was an amazing game. Fuck Japan and all you naysayers.

I really had a LOT of fun playing VG when it was released. Apparently I was one of the fortunate ones, because I **NEVER** had any of the crashes etc. that everyone complained about.

Granted I was running a then-$400 top-of-the-line Nvidia 8800 gtx.

It definately had the old world EQ feel to it - and yes the game world is massive.

[RKromwell]

Originally Posted by KilyenaMage [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I really had a LOT of fun playing VG when it was released. Apparently I was one of the fortunate ones, because I **NEVER** had any of the crashes etc. that everyone complained about.

Granted I was running a then-$400 top-of-the-line Nvidia 8800 gtx.

It definately had the old world EQ feel to it - and yes the game world is massive.

This, I never had crashing problems and my card was step or two down from yours.

I would play it again in a heartbeat if I could afford to play it. I just don't have the time or extra money any more. I will say this, I loved the paladins in that game...loved them.

[KilyenaMage]

Lol. I played on the PvP server with old friends from Tallon Zek. We had a Paladin named Bimli - toon was basically unkillable.

The classes in Vanguard were really well done - Paladins had what? Virtue Points was it!?

[korrowan]

I loved VG but I hated the fact that it was released a year too early and how that killed the community and I hate guild hopping everytime the guild falls apart because they all quit. The bugs and crashes killed the game.. the gameplay was amazing and was immensely fun.

[Ardenya]

Vanguard was indeed a great game and definitely the best PvE MMO I have ever played. Its a real shame it never came into its own after the horrible launch. They screwed people big time back then.

Still, I admire and respect Sigil's plans and "vision"(tm) for Vanguard since they implemented alot of ideas which we used to love in EQ and miss dearly in modern games. They had great, in part the best, people in the industry working on the game, Keith Parkinson and Steve "Aruspex" Williams being among them. It makes me kinda sad to see that their marvelous work dwindles down to meaninglessness.

If only SOE would have held their word and would have taken care of the game the way it deserved, they might have turned the boat around and kept Vanguard alive and floating. Right now, who in their sane mind would start playing a game like this seriously when there is no chance of new content comng out anytime soon?

In sight of recent events in the industry, I think the best chance for Vanguard to survive ist to bring in alot of new players by doing what others have done sucessfully: go free-to-play. SOE already has everything in place to do this. They have expereince with microtransactions from Free Realms and even recently with EQ as well as a cash store. Vanguard also could support all kind of store items like mounts, housing items and plots, etc. Should Vanguard ever be able to generate money, only then there might be new content and a future coming.

Anyway, some time ago Brad posted an extensive VG post-mortem on his blog which is a very interesting read for anyone interested, especially the comments.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

[stormlord]

Originally Posted by Ardenya [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Vanguard was indeed a great game and definitely the best PvE MMO I have ever played. Its a real shame it never came into its own after the horrible launch. They screwed people big time back then.

Still, I admire and respect Sigil's plans and "vision"(tm) for Vanguard since they implemented alot of ideas which we used to love in EQ and miss dearly in modern games. They had great, in part the best, people in the industry working on the game, Keith Parkinson and Steve "Aruspex" Williams being among them. It makes me kinda sad to see that their marvelous work dwindles down to meaninglessness.

If only SOE would have held their word and would have taken care of the game the way it deserved, they might have turned the boat around and kept Vanguard alive and floating. Right now, who in their sane mind would start playing a game like this seriously when there is no chance of new content comng out anytime soon?

In sight of recent events in the industry, I think the best chance for Vanguard to survive ist to bring in alot of new players by doing what others have done sucessfully: go free-to-play. SOE already has everything in place to do this. They have expereince with microtransactions from Free Realms and even recently with EQ as well as a cash store. Vanguard also could support all kind of store items like mounts, housing items and plots, etc. Should Vanguard ever be able to generate money, only then there might be new content and a future coming.

Anyway, some time ago Brad posted an extensive VG post-mortem on his blog which is a very interesting read for anyone interested, especially the comments.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

I feel happy for you that you're so optimistic about Vanguard but ... why is free-to-play always the answer brought up by people now? What's so great about it? I tried DDO and that uses micro-transactions to fund the game. Personally, I don't like it very much. Entropia does the same thing. They're both, technically, free-to-play. However, what I don't like about micro-transactions is they're often not capped on a per month basis. So the company can get the players addicted and then encourage them to spend vast amounts per month to get ahead of the pack. If there's no cap put in place, say a $40 per month cap or something of that nature, then I personally do not feel micro-transactions are an answer. They're, simply, a way for companies to get more money than they did on a subscription plan. (and i mourn for those that get addicted to spending)

[thefloydian]

Originally Posted by stormlord [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I feel happy for you that you're so optimistic about Vanguard but ... why is free-to-play always the answer brought up by people now? What's so great about it? I tried DDO and that uses micro-transactions to fund the game. Personally, I don't like it very much. Entropia does the same thing. They're both, technically, free-to-play. However, what I don't like about micro-transactions is they're often not capped on a per month basis. So the company can get the players addicted and then encourage them to spend vast amounts per month to get ahead of the pack. If there's no cap put in place, say a $40 per month cap or something of that nature, then I personally do not feel micro-transactions are an answer. They're, simply, a way for companies to get more money than they did on a subscription plan. (and i mourn for those that get addicted to spending)

I think the point is that regardless of how you feel about the free-to-play model, it has worked for other games that looked as if they were about to die.

[Ardenya]

Originally Posted by thefloydian [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think the point is that regardless of how you feel about the free-to-play model, it has worked for other games that looked as if they were about to die.

Exactly, thats my point. Personally, I detest micropayments, Station/Cryptic Store and the likes. I have played many games over the years but not once did I buy anything for a game with real money besides the montly access fee. Especially the combination of a subscription and a store like SOE does it smells very fishy to me. As soon as something store-bought would affect my gameplay in a way that it felt needed (the only way to respec, xp potions to speed up a boring and long grind to a bearable level) I would probably stop playing altogether.

Still, as seen with DDO, for a dying game switching from a sub to F2P with a cash store might be a great way to introduce new players to a game by taking away the entry barrier of a sub. Although I fully agree with you stormlord, F2P and item stores leave a bad taste, just as SOE's latest invention: EQ2 Extended. Every sensible customer will realize that hes better off just paying the monthly sub. Yet, its an interesting concept to introduce a more flexible way of paying for what you want in a product.

Lets face it, there are many people like me who would love to play VG and pay for it but simply wont put money into a dead product. I realize that content and dev support comes with subs and increased revenue rates but this train is long gone. I have payed and played it for over 1.5 years and seen APW (VG's raiding dungeon which was very fun actually) take a what, a year to be released, the promised follow-up raid zone Nexus and all other additional content which is not daily quests to grind to be postponed until further notice. It was about then when I canceled my sub. Now if the game itself was F2P I would at least play it which by itself is an improvement.

[Rayun]

I might give this game a try, if anyone is interested send me a pm