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Vanguard producer's letter talks diplomacy, Pankor Zhi, and more
SOE producer Harvey "Rahtiz" Burgess has penned a Vanguard update letter. In it, he says the dev team is still "cranking away" on both content updates and bug fixes despite the defection of a couple of team members to other projects. The most recent game update features new Diplomacy NPCs in the City of Brass, and Burgess also explains why the Pankor Zhi revamp is taking a bit longer than expected. You can read the full letter at SOE's Vanguard website.
Vanguard merging down to one server
SOE announced today that it will be merging Vanguard's two remaining servers, Halgar and Telon, on April 4th, at approximately 10am PDT. This will mean an end to the European Halgar server for good on April 9, 2013. Any character over level 10 will be moved over automatically, while those characters under level 10 will only be moved if they've been active since October 3rd. Character names will be saved based on a naming priority that is dictated by when the character last logged in. So in other words, if you want to save your stuff, log in now! Head on over to the complete server merge FAQ for more information.
Vanguard revamps its Lomshir region
Vanguard's post-F2P development continues to truck along. SOE recently released an update that revamped one of its starting zones, Lomshir. Lomshir is a level 10 to 20 region that any player can zip to via the riftway. So what's included in the Lomshir revamp? It's basically a pass to tighten up the flow, bring the area up to date, and provide new quests and bosses for players to tackle. The Lomshir changes are part of the Vanguard team's commitment to fleshing out the world with more content and providing additional leveling paths to new and veteran players. [Thanks to Zjeven for the tip!]
Free for All: How to be OK with not knowing how to play
I've written before about how to accept your fate as a permanent newbie, international game explorer, or constant PvP victim. It has always come down to accepting the fact that many MMOs require hours of dedication in order to become skilled. Sure, we can break down what "skilled" really means and examine what sort of timetable is realistic for most human beings, but let's just say that we're past that. We're well into the territory of accepting our fate as a digital traveler, someone who simply cannot say no to a new MMO. This time I thought it would be better to list some lessons on how I learned to love the MMO explorer lifestyle. It worked for me! (Cheesy theme music starts in the background.)
The Perfect Ten: Creative MMO minigames
Few people are without opinions on minigames in MMOs. Some love 'em, some hate 'em, and some just ignore 'em. Some even despise that I won't type "th." Takes all types, really. Personally, I'm all for including new types of enjoyable systems that can be repeated, particularly if it benefits my character in some way. There's also this perception that minigames are just for kids. It's true that more kid-centric titles like Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures thrive on minigames like you thrive on deep-fried butter balls, but these little diversions exist all over the place in "grownup" titles too. Holidays are a favorite time to trot them out, although there are plenty that exist year-round. Today we're going to look at 10 creative minigames that have tickled my fancy over the year. Yes, I used the word "fancy." Whatcha gonna do about it?
One Shots: Standing room only
I love Bards and Bard-type classes. Always have, always will. There's something wonderfully against-the-typical-fantasy-grain about them in how they prefer a good solo on a harp to cleaving things in two with axes. Reader Rebecca sent us in her Bard doing an impromptu woodland concert: "Here my Bard Rozily is strumming a tune in Northern Highlands as the snow begins to drift down. Sometimes in Vanguard you have to stop and enjoy the scenery." Absolutely! Also, you may want to look into the fact that the lute seems to have severed your forearm. Check out the full picture and so much more after the jump!
Jukebox Heroes: A few of my favorite MMO soundtracks
I could hear some of you thinking in disbelief last week, "If Age of Conan isn't one of your top MMO scores, what is? And just how much am I not sending you a Christmas card this year, you loser?" You were kind enough to just think it and not say it, but I could hear it even so. As we've mentioned countless times in this column, musical tastes are subjective. What's appealing to you may not be for me and vice-versa. What more is that musical tastes -- and favorites -- are always shifting around. I listen back to the jams that I enjoyed in the '90s and absolutely pity my younger self for such a deficiency in his musical diet. So I thought that I'd take a week off our normal soundtrack reviews to bring to you my current top six favorite soundtracks. This list comes with the caveat that it's always subject to future changes as I continue to listen through more soundtracks for this column.
Vanguard throws sixth anniversary giveaway
It's Vanguard's sixth birthday today, and if you haven't read our recent dev tour of the game's progress since free-to-play, we're going to have a strong word with your mother. As for SOE's part, the studio is giving away five 'schwag bags' full of awesome Vanguard goodies -- but you'll have to sign up quick to get your chance at winning something. The prize package contains a signed copy of Vanguard's collector's edition, a backpack, a $15 Station Cash gift card, a mug, a mobile stylus, and a phone case. It's open to everyone 18 and older, but all entries must be in by tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. EST. You can head over to the official contest page for more details and your chance to win.
Touring Telon: Six years of Vanguard
Few MMO gamers can forget the legendary bad launch of Vanguard and the drama that surrounded its development. Even fewer MMO gamers can remember what the game was like, as the population started small and stayed small. For a half-decade, the title wallowed in relative obscurity compared to the rest of SOE's lineup, and in fact, many predicted that it would be canned. As we know now, SOE decided to go a different way. The studio threw its faith behind Vanguard last year by relaunching it as a free-to-play MMO and giving it an actual development team once more. While Vanguard isn't in the league of major sluggers in the industry, the title is now thriving and seeing a renaissance that players new and old are enjoying. To celebrate Vanguard's 6th anniversary, we got on the phone with Producer Harvey Burgess and Game Designer Corey LeFever to take a brief tour around the latest content in the game and to talk about the road from F2P to the future.
One Shots: Interior decoration
You can go after a game's mechanics, a game's sound, and even a game's grammar, but when you go after a game's looks, well, then you're treading on One Shots territory. And when that happens, you'd best tread lightly, my friends. Reader John took umbrage with Matt's take on Vanguard, especially in regard to its art design, and sent in proof to rebut it: "Having started a new character in Vanguard over the weekend, I set out to prove that, just perhaps, Vanguard isn't quite as ugly as Matt Daniel seems to think. It would be a shame if people got the wrong impression, after all." Personally, I adore Vanguard's aesthetic, but not everyone shares that opinion, nor should he -- to each his own, right? Hit the jump to see John's screenshot in its full glory as well as many other terrific player-submitted pictures!
Second Wind: Vanguard
Welcome ladies, gentlemen, and small, furry creatures from Alpha Centauri to the premiere edition of Second Wind, where we'll be taking you through the annals of time to revisit some of the past's greatest (and not-so-greatest) MMOs to see how they hold up today. In this installment, we'll be checking in on Sony Online Entertainment's Vanguard. Here's a quick backstory for you: Vanguard originally launched in January of 2007 when Massively was still months away from its inception, and it was a mess. Bugs as far as the eye could see! Believe me -- I know because I was there. I played Vanguard at launch and lasted about a month before I grew tired of the never-ending parade of bugs and glitches and left. In the six years since Vanguard's launch, it's been sort of the red-headed stepchild of SOE's stable of MMOs. Content updates have been few and far between, and most patches the game has received have been (sorely needed) bug fixes. And of course, the game ended up going free-to-play back in August of last year. Now, six years after my first foray into Telon, I decided to jump back into Vanguard to give the game a fresh look. Did I find a diamond in the rough or just a big lump of neglected coal? There's only one way to find out: Follow me past the cut!
Free for All: The second annual Frindie Awards
It's time once again for the Frindie Awards, my attempt to shine some light on the best indie, browser-based, free-to-play, and unusual MMOs that are all-too-often ignored by press -- and players. This one is for the little guys! Well, mostly. It's also for those games that seem to have passed under the collective radar of Massively readers or that seem to be very misunderstood. Picking the winners this year is just as hard as it was last year, maybe even harder. 2012 was an incredible year for MMOs, so I would rather have just put together an article that highlights every single favorite. In the end, it's more helpful to make myself pick out a winner. It's a rare thing for some of these games to even receive a nod on a major website, something I still can't figure out. Either way, it's best to think of all of the MMOs on this list as my favorites from 2012. Anyway, let's get to the awards!
The Game Archaeologist's top MMO stories of 2012
As another gaming year spins to a close, we here at the Institute for Digital Interactive Entertainment have been holding our archaeological department hostage with a trained buffy-tufted marmoset until it delivered a final report. After hours of begging and infected monkey bites, the head of that department, Prof. Justin Olivetti, Ph.D., handed us a scrap of urine-soaked paper with the following article inscribed. While the Institute strongly suggests that you ignore this report and instead work on your button-mashing exercises, the board of directors stated that all such papers must be posted for the public to see. This report is presented in the Yetbari typeface and contains a sequential series of items that number between 11 and 13.
Vanguard team shares initiatives for the new year
Creative Director Steve Danuser shared the philosophy of the Vanguard dev team in his latest design update when he wrote, "We can't change the past. What we can do is make our best effort to improve things going forward." How? Danuser and his team are focused on several key initiatives, including putting in modern tech to improve performance, polishing the existing content, adding new challenges for experienced players, working on better character progression, designing introductions for crafting and diplomacy, and broadening the title's free-to-play plan. Danuser also teased the next big content addition for the game: "The next zone we will roll out for high-end players is Pankor Zhi, which begins a storyline that will carry forward into future content. The team is really enthused about revisiting this under-utilized area and adding a compelling new experience to the game. Pankor Zhi will feature content for soloers, groups, and raids. Obviously this is an ambitious undertaking, but we feel we have a realistic scope that can be achieved with our team." [Thanks to John for the tip!]
One Shots: Battlefield oasis
Even in the midst of bloody war, the resplendent may persist. Even though our MMOs are endless battlefields that have seen no end to death and corpse desecration, they also can be places of stunning sights. Reader Connor, fresh off a tour in PlanetSide 2, found that a particular location made him pause and reach for the screenshot button. "I saw this while maneuvering my Sunderer into position. Beauty on the battlefield!" Check out Connor's oasis as well as plenty of other gorgeous war-torn locales after the jump!
Vanguard expands F2P perks, introduces lockboxes
Vanguard has become even more accommodating to free players as today's update lifted the restriction against such players using uncommon items. SOE says that this now opens the door for free players to equip almost 20,000 additional items and weapons. It seems that Vanguard isn't able to escape all the trends of free-to-play, however. As the Festival of Gloriann rolls in next month, so do new lockboxes to the game. These lockboxes have a chance of containing a rare item like festive horses and cool pets, but are only openable by using cash shop-purchased keys. The patch also contains tweaks to the newly opened City of Brass, a resurrection gem in the marketplace, and performance tweaks.
SOE releases Vanguard's City of Brass update
It's already been quite a week for AAA MMO updates. We've had expansions from RIFT and EverQuest II and a meaty patch from The Secret World. Fashionably late to the party is Vanguard, another SOE fantasy title that has just released its City of Brass patch. We previewed the new content at last month's SOE Live, and you can also check out today's patch notes to see what exactly the devs have in store. The short version goes something like this: There's a dozen new boss mobs and accompanying loot drops, a 12-player encounter featuring The Keeper of Lesser Wishes, and the city of Jhor Razkur, which is a new adventure area designed for players at or approaching the level cap. Quests to enter the City of Brass can be obtained outside Khal's eastern walls. Today's patch also introduces the Thanksgiving-themed Harvest Festival and tweaks the Druid class as well as the game's market window.
Some Assembly Required: Player-generated content at SOE Live
By now, everyone has made it home from SOE Live... yes, even that one fellow who kept disappearing, seduced by the one-armed bandit. As my first foray into the annual self-described "family reunion," I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd hoped there would be some news to pass along. If nothing else, a tidbit or two about any title -- be it EverQuest II, PlanetSide 2, or DC universe Online -- would justify my trip out there to me. But what I got wasn't just some news; it was great news! Although the lights of Vegas are fading from memory, the hope for player-generated content burns brighter than before. From keynote addresses to panels to interviews, Sony Online Entertainment's focus on emergent game play and various sandbox features showed a dedication to gaming beyond just the hack-and-slash treadmill grind. Can we hear a hallelujah? With so much news coming out of the convention, there wasn't time or space to do much more than just report on the facts. Here, I have the opportunity to sum things up and even add my own impressions of the event! I might even toss in an anecdote or two to illustrate what made this such an incredible experience that I am hooked and will return each year.
SOE snags Project Copernicus lead dev for Vanguard
Former 38 Studios Lead Developer Steve Danuser is back in SOE's fold, this time working on Vanguard as a Creative Director. Danuser was originally a community manager for EverQuest II, but left SOE in 2006 to work on Project Copernicus. SOE recently announced his return and posted a developer spotlight on his history with MMOs and the company. Danuser is seemingly delighted with his new post: "I must say it's great to be back. Seeing so many old friends and colleagues again, it feels like coming home!" He mentions that some of the video game influences in his life that led him to development included Atari 2600 games and the Ultima series. In fact, one of the reasons he states that he enjoys Vanguard is that it captures "the qualities of classic RPGs." The biggest priority for Danuser and the rest of the Vanguard team is to improve the overall experience across the board, including bug fixes, hardware performance, and to revamp older content. [Thanks to John for the tip!]
SOE Live 2012: To City of Brass and beyond for Vanguard
Though off the radar for a long while, at least where updates were involved, Vanguard has enjoyed a resurgence of late. Inspired by the recently rebuilt (and still growing) development team and increased support from Sony Online Entertainment, excitement has burgeoned for the rebirth of the five-year-old game. So while Vanguard may not have presented the as many panels or pulled in as many fans as the bigger titles at SOE Live, player and developer dedication and enthusiasm was abundant. Besides attending the "The Future of Vanguard!" panel, I sat down with Producer Harvey Burgess to get his thoughts on how the game has performed since the move to free-to-play and to learn both what's around the corner (City of Brass, finally!) and what's on the horizon for the fantasy MMO.
