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Vanguard profiled in the New York Times photo

Vanguard database site VGNecro.com (now authored by that Lifebane guy, you EQ people might have heard of him) spotted this interesting piece in The New York Times on the MMO's corporate hot potato, their userbase aspirations for the year, and on what SOE realistically expects this game to be in the shadow of WoW. Head honcho Brad McQuaid noted that:

"I don’t expect to get six or seven million players, but if we have 500,000 by the end of the year and keep growing after that, I’ll be happy."

Let's do the math, shall we?  That's 500,000 people buying the game at $50 and paying $15 for an average of let's say 3 months. Heck Brad, I'd say that if I made a game that grossed $22.5 million, I'd be happy too. If only we all had such humble expectations.

Do we have any Vanguard: Saga of Heroes players that aren't spending every waking hour trying to level grind past 30? Please do kiss and tell on how that's working out for you.


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22 comments | showing # 1 to 22

Gregor's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 16:50
Gregor
If I had any money, I would be all the hell over this game.

My friend has it though and he says the community is horrible, everything is very hostile apparently. A lot of people trying to hard to make it different from the WoW community, it works, but not in a good way I've been told.
BluDesign's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 16:53
BluDesign
I'm not allowed to play games that don't have guns, zombies, Miziguchi, guitars, or Terra in them, so I have no idea what Vanguard is.

xtofuconsumerx's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 16:53
xtofuconsumerx
My friend and I are sharing a trial key, its alright. Better than crappy ass wow.
Rainbowblack's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 17:08
Rainbowblack
Ah, im a few years removed from EQ. Do i miss the grind and the good times? yeah. Do i regret quitting? of course not

sooner or later i'll try another MMO. It won't be Vangaurd. although I would like it to be a newly released MMO. Warhammer sounds like the obvious choice, but that game has failed to make a whisper since E3. Im very skeptical on LotR online. and i'll keep my eyes on the Marvel/Dc MMO. It seems like that whenever I do decide to invest my life in another MMO a release should be right around the corner
kenoji's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 17:10
kenoji
Playing Vanguard, I like the game alot, reminds me of old eq. The whole no zone is kinda cool along with the diplomacy. However its kinda buggy, but its a new game which was rushed to release for whatever reason. Its got potential, 500k users maybe sorta possible...maybe.
Lethal Dosage's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 17:16
Lethal Dosage
Don't you mean 22.5 million in subscriptions?

48+ mil is still a hell of a lot of money. MMOs are where it's at, kids.
Anonononomous's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 17:23
Anonononomous
Math's a bit off there, friend.
Niero's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 17:35
Niero
Whoops, comma in the wrong spot. Thanks guys
Loque's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 17:45
Loque
Lvl 15 bloodmage.

Bloodmage is unlike any other class I've ever played in an MMO.

I'll probably play it, bugs and all. Because no matter how pissed I get at a certain bug screwing me over, the amount of fun it was getting to that point was worth it.

And besides, I'm lvl 15. At this point, I was 30-summod in wow. What a bore.
Rosten's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 17:47
Rosten
Vanguard is really, really bad. Now granted, if you're a SoE 'Station Pass' player (may God help you), it's better than the trainwrecks that are EQ2 and SWG, but that's the only reason I can see that you'd want to play it. Oh, and maybe for the furries if that's your thing.

Otherwise, the game MASSIVELY lacks content. Stray from the beaten path and you'll be greeted with /nothing/. Miles and miles of randomly generated mobless, itemless nothing. The fanboi will tell you this is because Sigil wanted to design in a sense of vastness, but Google will tell you it's because Sigil ran out of money to develop the game so had to release it as-is. And when do you 'run out of money' in development? That's when investors think your game isn't worth funding further.

Even if you're willing to play a game with nothing really in it in hopes that some day a miracle will occur and the game will have a reason to play it, you still have to deal what what IS in it, and it sucks. Like the infamous newbie mission introducing you to the "lol, you thought you could play this without grouping?" game concept, which has you attempting to kill several named NPCs in a cave. The problem? The cave isn't instanced. "No problem, instances are for newbs" you say? The NPCs are rare spawns. "No problem, I can handle camping for a bit" you say? I cleared the cave out repeatedly for hours with a group when it was nearly empty and still didn't see them all spawned. "No problem, I played EQ1, I can deal with it again" you say? I cry for your soul.

With another couple years of development it might have been interesting, but with no money, they wound up releasing something far, far less and worse than WoW was at release, nevermind what WoW is like now.
Loque's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 18:24
Loque
Rosten, play the game. Did you play beta? Because what you're saying, well, applies to a beta. Y'know, things like bugged mobs that won't spawn. Tends to happen.

but no content? What the hell?

The most content I've seen in a game. Ever. 10x more than WoW, even with the "Expansion" (if that's what you want to call it).

I'm sorry you want an easy-solo friendly game. I'm sorry you want named mobs handed to you on a silver platter in your very own instance. Vanguard isn't for you, and the devs would agree.

People who play vanguard don't want any that. At all. We want a mmorpg that is challenging, so that when we look back at it, we say "Damn, that was hard." And we have the rewards to show it. We get horses at lvl 10 because we don't get griffins to town jump with. We get groups together to carve through dungeons, to end up with a net loss of exp (death penalty ftw) to complete that quest to get that godly item. Don't like it? Go back to the casual MMOs. It's not an insult. Vanguard doesn't appeal to everyone.
Rosten's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 19:08
Rosten
"The most content I've seen in a game. Ever. 10x more than WoW, even with the "Expansion" (if that's what you want to call it)."

Besides '10x more than WoW' sounding like a Vista ad, I've got to wonder what you're considering content. Are you sure you aren't being just a tad defensive?
kenoji's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 19:23
kenoji
@Rosten

Have you played this game past beta? Its not really as bad as you make it seem, I am not saying its better then WoW, but its a great alternative. I think it is quite enjoyable for both people looking for a group/solo/social experience.
Lethal Dosage's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 19:28
Lethal Dosage
On topic, I would give Vanguard a try, but I'm stuck in WoW (as a favor to friends). After playing Galaxies, PSO, PSU, City Of Heroes/Villains, Matrix Online, FFXI, and EQ: Online Adventures (for three days), I can't possibly start another MMO without wanting to weep profusely.

Well, until the Firefly MMO anyway, provided it's anywhere near as great as the show was.

Maybe Age Of Conan. >_>
Loque's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 19:28
Loque
I get defensive because it's always "Vanguard sucks compared to WoW."

The two aren't meant for the same playerbase, and I'm sick of comparing the two.

You've got a world bigger than Oblivion's, with more quests, towns, outposts, and dungeons. It's 20 gigs of pure-content.

The only time there was a content shortage was in the BETA, because the purpose was to work on bugs within the game, so not all the content was implemented. That's what betas do.

They addressed this on their forums, and now, I really wish I could go from point A to point B without training a line of creatures. They are everywhere.

Hell, right now, I think the world is TOO populated.
Niero's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 20:55
Niero
Seems like the comment replies in this post are a microcosm of what I have read and heard everywhere. Seems like the game is a slice of heaven for old-school MMO people and utterly hated by the rest. What is it about Vanguard that polarizes people so much for it? It doesn't seem to snap up the kind of love that other people have had with emerging MMOs like when Guild Wars came out. Why doesn't it resonate stronger with gamers?
doro's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 21:26
doro
I'm not sure if it's Vanguard that polarizes people or just something that happened with the "played MMOs before WoW" crowd and the "WoW was my first MMO so everything compares to it" crowd, Niero.
nerpin's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 22:00
nerpin
I did play the Vanguard beta and quit for the same reason I quit FFXI. Forced grouping. I hate dealing with lol'ing morons to gain any progress in a game. I have to get an education, so I'm forced to be somewhat casual or play at odd hours. At least with WoW if I wanted to accomplish something on my own I had a lot of options open to me. Vanguard...not so much.
Kosmo's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/13/2007 22:35
Kosmo
$22.5 Million is not that much money actually, not in the MMO business anyway. MMOs cost a huge amount of cake to make, the estimates for WoW have been going from $50m to $80m.

But I say that if you get that much money in 3 months against the say $60mil invested during the about 5 year development period, the investment is good. There are not many other industries to cough that much profit for investment in such a short time.
broham's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/14/2007 01:56
broham
Nerpin, that is exactly why I play WoW and why I think it is so successful. I don't have the time to travel huge distances, camp mobs, make corpse runs etc. etc. I also don't have time to wait for groups, if I even want to group at all. I like to jump on, play for an hour, jump off.

I don't understand the "too easy" complaint. I'm glad I can get a character to a high level quickly, that way, I can see all the content and not give Blizzard 4 or 5 years worth of subscription dues.
Rainbowblack's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/14/2007 03:34
Rainbowblack
So, WoW is now the FFVII of MMORPG's, lets face it. and just like FFVI it's going to start many a pissing match between WoW and "pure MMORPG" loyalists.

for the record FFVI > FFVII
Milofo's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/14/2007 06:30
Milofo
@Rainbowblack
Agreed, FFVI > FFVII. Cloud was too emo for my tastes and Shadow was one of the coolest characters ever.

I can say that grouping ruined it for me when I played FFXI because of having to wait for a White Mage, all of the crappy exp you would get from having to fight crabs, and how easy it was for groups to dissolve. Granted my FFXI playing friend said the part I quit at was the suckiest part of the game, the first desert, but I only saw a lot of the same happening later in the game.
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