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Vanguard US server merge complete [Update]
It's been a rough ride for players of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes over the past few months, with the dreaded "maintenance letter" back in December that left players uncertain about the game's future. That uncertainty wasn't helped when rumors began circling that the game would be merging servers, followed by a confirmation of same. As of now, the server merge is complete, with the game's population all concentrated on a single server dubbed Telon. The good news for players is that the merge, on a whole, went fairly smoothly. There was a slight extension of the expected operation time, which is really normal when dealing with a large-scale operation. It should also help the game's players enjoy the game with a larger population to draw from. The bad news is... well, a server merge is never exactly a comforting fact for any game, and we can only hope that the long-term benefits for Vanguard outweigh the negatives. [Update: This does not affect the EU server which is set to merge at a later date. Thank you to everyone who tipped us on this!]
Anti-Aliased: You've been Auto-Assaulted, part deux
I'm one of those people that likes to think that NCsoft has enough money to get by on. It's just my gut reaction that if you have a few successful games then you probably have some spending money in your wallet. So, I like to think that NCsoft, even though they certainly took a pretty huge hit when they invested in Tabula Rasa, could have easily kept the development process going. Perhaps it would have been much slower than it currently was, but there was no reason it couldn't keep going on some type level.They have, at least, provided some compensation for players who are currently subscribed to the game; the chance to try out games like City of Heroes and Lineage 2 are offered in the stead of TR gameplay time.
Vanguard's dead horses and phoenix ashes
A lot of hot topics come up again and again on the Vanguard forums. Will the rumored Vanguard free trial replace the existing racial homelands? Will Age of Conan and other upcoming games kill Vanguard? Is SOE going to make a "hardcore" server for the trufans, and what will that do to normal servers if they do? Ten Ton Hammer's Dalmarus says, enough with these dead horses. The free trial won't avoid the traditional starting areas. Players don't seem to be flocking to Age of Conan. There is no hardcore server in the works. All dead horses who have been beaten long enough, and deserve a rest.But there's better news, a sort of bright light coming from that heap of ashes over there. New players are coming to Vanguard; old players are returning. Server populations are increasing, and the game is finding its place in the world. Why focus on dead horses when there's live ones standing all around? Dalmarus makes excellent points. Vanguard has had troubles, but it's far from dead.
A Vanguard Retrospective
Genda of The Grouchy Gamer was a gamer with a dream; to hitch himself to Sigil's rising star. He created a one-stop shop for all news and information about Vanguard's crafting sphere, joined the Vanguard affiliate program, and gained a unique outsider's perspective to what would become one of the MMO world's most legendary disasters. It's a story of how lack of leadership and vision could turn EverQuest's spiritual successor and the hard work of dozens of talented designers, artists and programmers into tears in a parking lot in Carlsbad, California.The retrospective is in three parts. In the first, Genda tells about Brad McQuaid's departure from SOE and the first news about the game that would become Vanguard, his lunch with the late fantasy artist Keith Parkinson, and Brad's increasing absence from the Sigil offices. The second part tells how many of the best innovations in Vanguard died on the vine because the programmers were busy rewriting all the scripts from the Unreal 3 engine and the increasing trouble within Sigil. The last part brings Vanguard from its troubled beta, through its disastrous launch and acquisition by SOE.
