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McQuaid: 'Vast majority' of early Vanguard players quit by level two or three
If you can't get enough of the sad saga that is Vanguard, IGN has published an interview with creator Brad McQuaid that might pique your curiosity. There are some interesting nuggets relating to McQuaid's early days as well as the relationship between Sigil and SOE that allowed Vanguard to release, albeit in an early and extremely buggy state. "The game sold very well at retail. Around 250,000 units just blew out of the stores. But the game wasn't optimized, the client wasn't optimized, and the server wasn't optimized," McQuaid explains. "The vast majority of people who played it early on left by the time their characters hit level two or three."
The Game Archaeologist: The rise, fall, and rescue of Vanguard
I have been wanting to do an article on the whole saga (small pun intended) of Vanguard for some time, and now that Brad McQuaid has returned with plans to make what appears to be a very similar game, I need no more prompting to do it. The significance of Vanguard's development, release, ongoing drama, and its recent mild renaissance is of great interest not just to game historians but to everyone who plays MMOs, period. What happened with this game caused a huge fallout in the industry, and we are still feeling some of its effects even today. As our own Bree put it in her blog, "Vanguard's implosion was a big deal at the time and marked the beginning of the post-WoW destruction of the industry that hobbled Age of Conan and Warhammer Online a few years later." While the crash and burn of Vanguard was a very well-known tale several years ago, I'm wondering if in 2014 there might be many who are quite unfamiliar with what happened to this unassuming SOE game eight years ago. Let me put on my old fogey glasses and we shall begin!
The Daily Grind: Does Vanguard's diplomacy system deserve another shot?
While I've never played Vanguard, I'll admit that I've always been fascinated by the game's diplomacy system. It was rather ambitious at the time it was first announced, as the devs boasted about how they were creating a whole new "sphere" of play by turning dialogues between you and NPCs into a deep, involved minigame. Some people loved it -- and still do -- while others ignored it entirely. In any case, Vanguard's well-known struggles to stay afloat have kept the larger MMO community from experiencing the diplomacy system, which I feel is a shame. I've always hoped that other MMO devs would take this idea and run with it, creating a "next generation" version that would work well in contemporary games, sort of how Warhammer Online's public questing was picked up and revised for games that would follow (just as WAR picked it up from Ultima Online). So my question to you today is, does Vanguard's diplomacy system deserve another shot? Should MMO devs take a closer look at the typically skimpy interactions between characters and NPCs to see if they can be improved? Or should this system best be left alone? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Choose My Adventure: Voted off the island
OK, so that title is something of a misnomer, but it does carry through based on the vote from last week. Overwhelmingly, people wanted to hear about adventuring, so I'm glad to report I had a rich week of questing and dealing with the threats found on the starting island in Vanguard. I'm actually poised to leave the Isle of Dawn, but due to the number of comments recommending I finish out the diplomacy and crafting lines, I'm going to spend the time before the vote closes this week to get those out of the way. After all, one doesn't want to start out behind the curve when hitting the mainland. Curious as to how this week's adventure fared based on the voted desire for adventure? In the mood to watch me fly around uncontrollably on what must be the most annoying elevator ever? Or are you just all about the vote? Well join me after the break as I recount the trials and tribulations I experienced and outline my trip to the Temple of Ancestors! %Gallery-104309%
Choose My Adventure: Second verse, same as the first
It's been another interesting week in Vanguard, to say the least. Remember that thing I said last week about crafting and diplomacy being deep? I can now say with absolute certainty that they are so double-rainbow intensely deep that I've spent the last several days primarily working on those two skills as opposed to moving on to the next village. Indeed, attempting to finish all the quests in Sun Village has sent me back to Tentrees Farmstead (the first starter town) to pick up even more crafting and diplomacy work! Will I ever escape, or will I be sucked into an ever-swirling loop of crafting, diplomacy, harvesting, or whatever odd side-skill lurks just ahead, ready to whomp me over the head and make off with my magical cookies? Well, this week you'll get to decide, as I put the future of my fuzzy little Raki to a vote! But first, join me after the break as I recap the last week's adventure in Telon.
Choose My Adventure: The isle of noob
This week found me diving into the Isle of Dawn to check out the newer starting area in Vanguard. What I found there wasn't entirely surprising, since I had heard about the learning curve in the game, but it still managed to throw me enough curve balls to keep me on my toes. Between trying my hand at crafting, dabbling in diplomacy, and attempting to switch my brain from my normal stabby-rogue-self to playing a melee healbot for more than just myself, there was a lot to get my head around in Vanguard. Curious as to how this first week of Choose My Adventure played out? Wondering what kinds of things I experienced during my travels? Well, join me behind the break as I take a look at my first steps in Telon!
Choose My Adventure: Apseth, the Raki disciple
Last week's votes have been tallied, and this week we've got a shiny new Vanguard edition of Choose My Adventure to start! With 12.5% of the overall votes, Raki managed to take the lead as our character's race. With that said, while 110 votes were cast for blood mage, that is not a viable class option for a Raki. Thankfully, the second place winner at 86 votes, disciple, is something a Raki can be, so that's our winner! So, without further delay, allow me to introduce you to Apseth Navarre, Raki disciple -- my shiny new Vanguard character that you'll get to help direct (and even play along with, if you'd like) through this series of Choose My Adventure posts. Interested in finding out more or taking part in this week's adventures? Well then, join me after the break as we start down the path into reader-driven adventure, Vanguard-style!
Choose My Adventure: Off to Telon!
Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of posts and galleries here on the site. Then, after our two months are up, we'll do it all over again in a new game! Well, the masses have once again spoken, and this time I'm headed off to spend the next six weeks running around in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes! I'll admit that this is one title that I've never played. At the time it was released, my computer's stats were nowhere near the level required to play it (surprise), so I gave it a pass. Since then, I've been intrigued by the world (largely due to many of the lovely One Shots I've seen on it), but I simply haven't taken the first step to check the game out. Thanks to the vote being rocked by the Vanguard community, it looks like I'm going to get that chance to see Telon after all! Unfamiliar with Vanguard? Know all about it and would rather skip straight to this week's polls? Join me behind the break for both!
Vanguard paints a rocky road to come in the year ahead
While the holidays are a time full of cheer and special events, things in Telon aren't looking as bright as usual.In a recent announcement to the Vanguard community, the team has decided to be as frank as possible and outline the road map for the game in the year ahead. Due to limited resources and a new focus on bug elimination over ambitious content releases, some of the game's anticipated updates are being shelved indefinitely. Those features include the Halls of Shattered Souls, Pankhor Zhi, Nexus, and the anticipated "alternate advancement" system.
Vanguard's past, present, and future with producer Thom Terrazas
It's been two years since the world of Telon opened its doors to a rocky launch and unstable future. The team of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes had much to overcome after launch with a whole plague of technical hurdles, incomplete content, and a dwindling player base.Yet, two years later, Vanguard managed to stay on its feet thanks to an aggressive development team and a steady schedule of tackling performance issues and bugs until they could open the doors for new content -- one of the few games to make it through with such a rough launch and begin to see a new growth years after opening.Massively was able to sit down with Vanguard producer Thom Terrazas and talk to him about where Vanguard's been, where it is now, and what the future looks like for the expanding fantasy title.
Was Microsoft's vision for Vanguard Vista exclusive? [Update 1]
Sigil Games, developers of the upcoming MMORPG Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, shocked quite a few people by announcing that they were buying the publishing rights from Microsoft so that they could co-publish the title with Sony Online Entertainment. We've already provided some speculation about what the "varying visions and direction for the title's development" between Microsoft and Sigil were, but a tipster (who asked to remain unnamed) from E3 provides another possible reason for the split. Our tipster claims to have spoken to several developers working at Sigil and at another development company that has Microsoft as a publisher -- we'd say the meat of the tip is on the same level of credibility as someone saying that the Government is tapping your phone (yes, I made a political joke -- the first comment to judge my political affiliation wins my apathy!).According to our tipster, Microsoft intended to make Vanguard a Vista-exclusive title and Sigil didn't like it. The fact that XP users wouldn't have been able to play the game (limiting the user base quite drastically) and Windows Vista's notoriously slippery release date being the obvious disadvantages of such a move on the part of Sigil. If true, the motivation for Microsoft would have been that the title would be the first MMO to take advantage of Live Anywhere, Microsoft's online games platform which blends Xbox 360, PC and mobile phone devices: more Vista sales = profit!It's credible that Microsoft wanted to use Vanguard as the first MMO to work with Live Anywhere but that Sigil didn't want its game to be Microsoft's guinea pig and therefore bought the publishing rights. With Vista around the corner, Microsoft wants to provide as much incentive for gamers to upgrade and by making big name games playable exclusively on Vista it can gain that incentive. At the very least we get a kick out of discussing the vague PR explanations of the reasons behind leaving a game's publisher during the beta stage. It's impossible for us to believe that simple, meaningless "varying visions" caused this massive, late in the game move.Update 1: Brad McQuaid (Sigil CEO, creator of MMORPG Everquest) responds by saying "false rumor", but Joystiq commentator Jack Slater cleverly rebukes: "personally I would just deny everything if I was him, as there is no legal obligation for me to tell the truth on the forums but there is likely a legal obligation to keep the reason for leaving Microsoft undisclosed." Meanwhile, Ctrl+Alt+Del daydreams about how the meeting between McQuiad, Microsoft and Sony went. Funny stuff.
