I can barely believe it myself so trying to show the rest of you that Vanguard could be making a comeback should prove to be really interesting. Vanguard went on life support a few months ago when it changed hands from Sigil to SoE – duh – We all know this so I won’t aggravate my carpal tunnel by trying to bring you up to speed (if you want information on this do a search here on our blog for “Vanguard”). It may or may not be news to you all that the Vanguard Servers have finally merged. It was a wonder to me from the start that Sigil chose to release Vanguard with as many servers as it did. They should have been far more conservative to begin with and we may have actually avoided some of these problems. Anyway, the servers are merged and apparently things could not be going better!
I’ve not been playing Vanguard for some time now. To give you the 10 second history lesson on my Vanguard experience: I played beta 4, 5, and release for 3 months. There you go! So you can see I’ve been away from the game itself for some time but that hasn’t stopped me from staying 100% current with the community. I am a moderator on the Vault Network message boards and one of the boards that I am assigned to just so happens to be the Vanguard boards. I have built good friendships with many of the posters there and I feel like I still play the game. So it was a huge shock when I heard that Vanguard might just be making a comeback. According to reports from sources I trust there is a wave of fresh players in the newbie areas. Grouping is easier for players of all levels and the world feels alive again. There was an enormous rush of players trying to be the first to grab that valued property in the Deeds and other popular housing regions which goes to show you that people still actually care.
I find myself torn yet again with this desire to return to a game I have left behind. I quit Vanguard back when it was borderline fun/boring. I quit because Graev quit and we both came to a mutual agreement that the game was buggy and had major issues. Well, these issues have since been fixed and the bugs are nearly all gone. I want to play the game again but I can’t bring myself to terms with the subscription fee. I can’t justify paying $15 when there is risk involved. The risk is that I will still be plagued with CTD’s (crash to desktop… the only game I’ve ever had a problem with…) and that all this good news won’t be true. The most I would lose is $15 but I absolutely hate hate hate buyers remorse. I do not like the feeling of losing money and I hate being a sucker.
Among the sea of horrid mistakes there are still things that Vanguard did right. Vanguard built a huge world of potential. It was enormous, beautiful, and functional. I loved mounts and boats and the crafting system was second to none. The combat was fun and the dungeons (when not buggy) were cool! I loved my characters and I truly wish that the potential Vanguard had would have been true quality greatness. It’s truly sad when a game with so much potential just can’t cross the finish line, no matter how hard it tries.
It’s my prediction that we will see a comeback from Vanguard sometime in the future. Right now it’s coming off the life support and it’s able to breathe on it’s own again. The server merger has brought players back and new players are signing up with hopes that Vanguard can hold their attention until 2008. There may be some of you out there laughing right now but I would be careful if I were you. Many of those laughing probably felt the same about EQ2 when it nearly flopped. Look at EQ2 now and you have a game that currently competes as one of the greatest fantasy MMO’s out there.
Best of luck to SOE and the Vanguard team. You guys have my best wishes! Show us that there’s more to Telon than potential!
There was alot of things I liked in Vanguard but in the end the negatives outweighed the positives for me. I was almost on the fense though so if they really want people to come back or look at it then they need to release a free 15-day trial. Shelling out the purchase price is not worth it for me (and those like me) to discover if it is finally good enough.
Still nothing I read in their latest patch notes would lead me to believe they have addressed my issues so I am doubtful.
Graphics performance was one (didn’t have CTDs just bad FPS) but the overriding factor in me not playing was the forced grouping to advance and the excuded content for solo/duo. (Please, don’t bother telling me that you could solo, yea you could if you didn’t mind spending ages to advance).
A free trial would atleast let me see if they had addressed some of my concerns.
I have to agree with Curious George. They need to step up and offer a 14 or 15 day trial to get people back. If SOE truly believes they’ve fixed a lot of the bugs and issues, then they’ll want to do this…it’s a powerful way to entice people. As a player, I’d probably think “they must have their shit together…ahhhh why not?”
Vanguard had the best of both worlds in my opinion…the FUN playability of EQ1, and the detail and graphics (if you could handle it) of EQ2…hell, the size of the world alone was mind-boggling!
I hope they can save it…not ready to flip back from EQ2 yet here, but I would definitely like to see it hold on and grow to what I think it could be.
A trail will probably be one of the best things that sony can do at the moment to draw back to old vg players without the risk of there $15.00.
Currently I went back, and started a fresh. Population is way up and a joy to see chat channels busy and major quest hubs busy. Out in the sticks it is quiet but there again you are out in the sticks so it is as it should be …
Time will tell if soe can wave there magic wand and revitalize vanguard like eq2. The potential is there for a great game ….
I too would like for SOE to offer a free trial. I was so anxious to play this game at launch. I monitored the game throughout its development and was very disappointed to see it fail. Keen, I really, really hope that you are right about its comeback.
[…] Seriously guys. It’s happened so much now with Everquest 2, WoW, and LotRO, and now it is rearing its ugly head with Vanguard. Bloggers: before you write glowing reviews and suggest to everyone that “OMG the game has changed, resubscribe ASAP!” you should play the game for longer than a week. Every game seems new and exciting when you’re first coming back to it – but we all know this genre is about staying power. Sure, there has been great changes to the aforementioned games – but just because things are improving doesn’t mean everyone needs to jump back on the bandwagon. […]