SOE's Vanguard rushes to retail Jan. 30
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Jan 11th 2007 at 1:55PM }
SOE and Sigil have upturned some eyebrows today with the announcement that their MMORPG Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will be released on January 30; just two weeks after Blizzard drops the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion. While it seems like poor timing for any new MMO franchise to enter the market, there's also pervading doubt that Vanguard has been thoroughly beta tested.SOE has already become (somewhat) infamous for a string of ill-received alterations to its big brands, notably EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies. If Vanguard is indeed rushed, such a careless release would only deal further damage to the studio's image.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Causality @ Jan 11th 2007 2:14PM
From all reports, the game is a major disapointment. Sigh.
nick @ Jan 11th 2007 2:15PM
I've been betaing this one. It has some interesting ideas in it and innovative battle mechanics. But, at the end of the day it seriously lacks polish and is no contender for the likes of WoW. I'd say this is going to end up one more nail in the coffin of SoE.
Trent @ Jan 11th 2007 2:18PM
Who is doing marketing over at both Sony and SOE? Whomever they are, they all need to be fired. Mistake after mistake after screw over the customer after mistake.
Not a good trend.
KiTA @ Jan 14th 2007 1:17PM
Personally, I'd like to see this delayed till late Feb / early March. I know I will personally be too busy burning through BC later this month, although 2 months from now I'll probably be burned out on WOW again and ready for something new.
DC @ Jan 11th 2007 2:32PM
I'm in the beta too. This is SO not ready to launch...
Nad Stretep @ Jan 11th 2007 2:30PM
Beta tested it, it has many great ideas but is very much NOT ready for retail. Sad to see it not living up to its potential. It will be EQ2 round 2.
vince @ Jan 11th 2007 3:01PM
i was quite convinced that not even Sony could mess this game up, but it looks like i was mistaken.
CrimsonJester @ Jan 11th 2007 3:09PM
Beta is scary... even movement and animations do not look close to release. Very unstable code. The thing that bugs me more then anything is even with old graphics that WoW has it has character. The more "real" they try to make these the less character they have.
Milo Hobgoblin @ Jan 11th 2007 3:04PM
The game is getting better with each patch.. still needs A LOT of performance tuning. At this point of Beta WoW ran much smoother so Sigil/SOE have some work to do. The game is much more complex than WoW so many of the new MMO players ready for something deeper might show interest..
BIG problem is a real lack of solo and small group content. WoW has really set a presedence for the mature gamer with a life and a job, they want challenging solo content due to time constraints and after level 20.. VG REALLY falls short here. Lets hope they wisen up .. or they will see a much smaller crowd than they expect.
thecheesypoofs @ Jan 11th 2007 3:31PM
Blizzard's way
___________________
We're not ready, push the relase date after Christmas guys.
SOE's way
___________________
We're SO not ready, I mean we're light years to be near ready so ....... let's do the logical thing and rush the product even though we had no chance to make it for christmas anyway.
We might be lucky and steal a few customers of WoW with a broken deja vu "EQ" product with a rushed Vanguard!
I was so hoping that Sony SNAFUs would end in 2006. Looks like the software gaming division didn't receive the memo.
Felmoose @ Jan 11th 2007 3:41PM
Funny how everyone is dissing Vanguard and saying it's not ready, do you guys even remember World of Warcrafts launch cause I do and it was also bad (VERY bad) so if they need to launch this game now so be it I'm sure they will fix whatever needs to be fixed fast post launch MMO's are never complete WoW still has annoying bugs and it's been out for 2+ years.
diskoboy @ Jan 11th 2007 4:25PM
Who destroys the Gond?
You older folks will get that...
Ralod @ Jan 13th 2007 2:50PM
I had some hope for vanguard but that was all dashed when Sigil, like the white trash whore they now are, went back to there abusive husband in SoE.
I too am in the beta and have to say this game is honestly 6 months from a launch. As has been said with WoW now topping 8 million subscribers(Funny enough in doing so becoming the 12th largest Economy in the world)To have a shot Vanguard needed to be perfect, there not even close to that.
The thing that sucks is that there bard class is brilliant, but the rest is pretty horrid.
Emraith @ Jan 11th 2007 10:39PM
true, wow was incredibly laggy at release, but this was also because they needed about 10x the servers they initially had..somehow, i doubt this will be the issue with this game. Soe has a bad history of totally screwing over mmo's. Planetside and swg both took huge losses in playerbase, because of 'expansions/addons' that the fanbase didnt want, but soe pushed through anyway. I'd like to see sony sell of soe and the mmo games(not ea though, i dont need a new $20 expansion each month in addition to my monthly fee). Alot of their games have potential, but $0 development money(planetside, matrix online). How about ncsoft..they have some good games...
Ehrgeiz @ Jan 11th 2007 8:58PM
@10 WoW's launch was bad not becuase it wasn't ready, well it wasn't but it was because so many people wanted to play it. Did you forget that for about 2 weeks after launch it was hard to find a copy of the game? Simply put vanguard is not ready, not even close....I beta tested SWG and I've been beta testing vanguard and I can say that like swg it should not be released this early.
Konchu @ Jan 11th 2007 6:42PM
I got into the recent open beta and the game does have promise. I like the size and openess of the world that is really lacking in WoW. This game does have some potential to be some serious fun. But I agree with the above post saying this is not quite ready they need to address network related frame rate issues and polish the game more.
Some of the in game tutorials are pretty plain and don't really go into all the details that are needed which made crafting a little frustrating to get into at 1st. For me playing as a Ranger the quest where pretty easy to solo till I got to about level 7 then it threw in some quest that involved a cave full of what I assume are elites as though Im equal level they violated me hard. At level 7 you also learn the joys of recovering your body aka tombstone and all your gear. Sure you have to go back to your body in WoW but you are not forced to run naked to your body and hope the bad man does attack you. They probably have a mechanic in the game to protect people from loosing there gear that way but I havnt played that much yet.
Definately on a plus side the game promises player made boats to sail the seas and get attacked by pirates etc. I also like the concept of player owned housing even if it isnt new is nice to see a world big enough to facilitate it. And being able to get a Mount starting at 12 Silver 50 Copper is nice and in a fantasy setting should a horse really cost that much? Now a Unicorn or a Pegasus on the other hand that can demand a premium. Money is harder to get but I was able to get to 7 silver in my 1st sitting.
This is probably going to be a group game that punishes solo play like EQ back in the day.
Which makes me sad as I like to solo inbetween grouping with friends which can be long periods of time. Due to three animal races this is sure to be a favorite of Furry Role Players everywhere(/em Konchu shivers in terror at the thought).
Jeff @ Jan 11th 2007 9:26PM
I liked WoW but I stopped playing it and have been searching for a new MMO to play. Vanguard sounds great when you hear about it, but I've played the Beta as well, and like people stated before it's just not ready. Don't forget the system requirements are pretty high as well. I think it will be good, but they have a lot of kinks to work out and by the time they get it going there's going to be some other MMO's worth looking at first.
JJ @ Jan 11th 2007 10:58PM
also i know everyone is quick to blame SOE for SWG, but dont forget Lucasarts had the final say in whatever happened, in fact, since it was THEIR license, all SOE did was the programming, WHAT They programmed was up to Lucasarts.
and expansions are par for the course, its a way to bring in extra money. and for what its worth SWGs expansions at first anyway, were major additions. Like the addition of space.
but after that it was really just mini expansions if anything... but then they weren't that expensive so i guess it evened out.
But 1 or 2 games doesnt a ba dhistory make. After all SOE had the first mainstream hit MMO that to this day still has its diehard fans and they keep churning out new content for it.
I mean Dont get me wrong, WoW is a great MMO, but it just had no appeal or lasting playability to me. I guess i prefer a bit more than just hack'n'slash in my MMOs now a days (Pre NGE SWG spoiled me i guess)
Greyfin @ Jan 12th 2007 11:25AM
There are rough edges to be sure. I'm going to have to go buy about $1400 worth of upgrades to my two machines so my girlfriend and I can both play it at the resolution we want to. This is unfortunate.
However, I am highly motivated to do this.
I've been in beta for awhile now, and the crashing was every 15 minutes at one point, so I can understand frustration and fears. The last 3 patches or so have become much more stable.
And I got a gryphon last night (no-rent). (insert expletive here) it was cool. I flew the whole continent from end to end... up mountains, down valleys, over bays. It was absolutely breath-taking. This is something I'm fairly confident won't be affordable until much later in the production game, but its SO cool you can bet I'LL be there for it. It was that cool.
The features they have, while not fully realized yet, make me confident that Vanguard will be my home for years to come. Sure, people who aren't sold on the feature set, withhold your judgement and wait. I can understand people wanting to avoid the hassle of a work in progress, but try it in a few months. For me, I look forward to embracing the game, blemishes and all.
Bob @ Jan 12th 2007 5:05PM
The thing I hate about Vanguard is Sigil expects you to work to get to anything fun. The thing that WoW managed to do was make the game fun and never expected you to put in many many hours to enjoy yourself. Vanguard's grind-fest doesn't do me any good. I don't play games all that often anymore and if I have to put ni 2-3 months to get to the good stuff, I'm not going to bother in the first place. Vanguard is far too hard-core for its own good (stability problems aside). They don't bother with atmosphere, like an attractive graphics engine or even simple things like bothering to put vendors in actual shops instead of having them stand around on open platforms or in hallways. McQuaid may have made the first "hit" MMO, but we have to remember that 500k peak subscribers isn't going to cut it these days, especially since Sigil has spent upwards of $100 million of Sony's money to build this mess.
BETA or no, there are so many critical problems these guys should not have had. They've been in the MMO industry for 8 years now and they STILL can't figure out how to make key, low level quests work properly and are having trouble with server stability with a measly 1,000 players. A brand new MMO startup in 1999, that is understandable, but with all the experience and data out there on how to run a server (free MMOs from inexperienced groups are doing better), the poor Vanguard performace only foretells the future here.
Ultimately, asking me to put in 40+ hours just to fly a griffin, most of that mindless monster-hack grinding, won't get my money. Flying a griffin or sailing around in a boat isn't that cool, not worth 40+ hours of my time. I work to make money, I play games to have fun and Vanguard doesn't pay me. They may get 500k like EQ or EQ2, but that is about it, not the 8 million WoW has or even anywhere near the required subscriber levels to break even on the $100 million investment.
Carnivore @ Jan 24th 2007 7:59PM
Vanguard is getting released rather early, but who is to say that is a bad thing? They are doing it because they are broke, not because they WANT to compete with WoW...Once they get some cash flow going they can buffer out the fine lines and polish the game to make it look and run like intended.
As for the whole "wow this game is fun because I can solo and not put a lot of hours to get good gear" crap, I played WoW for a year and a half and we all know that the only way to get GOOD gear, is to raid for 4-5 hours a day for 5 days a week.
I think Vanguard is going to put WoW to shame in size, quality, and gameplay. I like playing with freinds, and in my opinion, it is hella boring soloing by yourself for more than 5 minutes.
SunTzuX @ Jan 30th 2007 5:33PM
I see so much negativity being posted here, and I can't help but wonder if people are playing the same game that I am?
I have been apart of some horrific MMORPG launches.. Anarchy Online anyone? Vanguard is vastly more stable and far more enjoyable then other MMORPGs I've played.
I do agree that the rushed launch is unfortunate, for the following reasons. First, the game could have used additional polish and it needed a higher player count beta. Most of these issues will be overcome very quickly though, and it's not a show stopper by any means.
The real reason that Vanguard should have not have launched is that Burning Crusade JUST came out. This is horrible timing. If you look at nearly every online game review website, Vanguards launch is still vastly overwhelmed by the wake of BC's launch.
If your looking for a fun mmorpg with awesome graphics and designers who quickly make fixes and additions to the game, this is for you. Don't let people turn small bugs that will be rapidly fixed into mountains that keep you from playing. They are wrong, this game is a blast.