Vanguard: Sage of Heroes going F2P this summer

[SunnyD]

FINALLY.

Not a very well known game, but it was supposed to be Sony's WoW killer and ultimately displace the Everquest series completely. Unfortunately, lofty goals, technical issues, and relative lack of computing power at the time along with a rushed launch made the game a relative laughing stock at the time, combined with a very untimely release date (went up directly against a WoW expansion on the same day).

A lot of bugs have been ironed out in the last several years. Technology has let the developers do a lot of what they envisioned in the first place. The world is one huge place. There's a semi-interesting diplomacy system in the game. And Vanguard boasts probably one of the most intricate crafting systems ever made.

Hopefully Vanguard will get the attention it deserved after going F2P this summer.

 

[SZLiao214]

I was so excited about this game when it first came out and even got to try out the beta. It was such a huge disappointment.

I loved the classes they had in the game. I will have to look into how it has changed.

 

[KeithTalent]

I played that game for a few days in beta. Never really got into it and I'm actually amazed it is still up an running.

KT

 

[Worthington]

Played this up until right before the first server merge. It really had very original ideas what I wish other games would pick up on. The Crafting and Diplomacy alone were stellar (more so the crafting).

 

[Bateluer]

Play this at launch for a couple months, and I was in the last phase of the beta too. During that last week of the beta, they were pushing out patches daily and making great strides to cleaning it up. So I preordered it. And then they stopped pushing patches and updates after it launched, leaving it in a highly buggy and unstable state. I stopped playing and haven't been following it at all.

FYI though, Vanguard was supposed to be a return to the more challenging style of EQ1, less dumbed down and 'kiddie' than WoW. Near the end of the dev cycle, SOE bought out the developer studio and 'Wow-afied' the game.

Now that its F2P though, we can assign the coffin has been fully sealed and buried like all P2P games that go F2P. Shame, there was a lot of potential in Vanguard that was squandered.

 

[HarvardAce]

I played a free trial they had sometime last year between RIFT betas. I liked the idea behind the crafting system, but the UI was very hard to work with and I really had no idea what I was supposed to be doing or how to do it. I have no problem with a game not holding your hand, but my difficulties were with the UI. A difficult UI combined with a game that doesn't hold your hand spells trouble.

 

[SunnyD]

Now that its F2P though, we can assign the coffin has been fully sealed and buried like all P2P games that go F2P. Shame, there was a lot of potential in Vanguard that was squandered.

Weird... DDO, LOTRO, STO, EverQuest, EverQuest 2, City of Heroes (just to name a few) are all dead? I never knew that.

As was said before, and will be said again, F2P is hardly the deathknell that you think it is.

 

[Sentrosi2121]

I remember this game somewhat.
Was looking for something other than WoW. Even with the expansion coming up I just wanted a change of pace and thought Vanguard was the game. So I did the beta test for it and even bought the game. I played that fox/dog race as a monk and didn't get much past levels 10 or 15. Just got way too buggy and I couldn't really get into their diplomacy game. Made it feel more like Magic: The Gathering than you're actually doing diplomacy.

 

[OCNewbie]

I played this a while back and enjoyed it a good bit. I got the Hunter's League weapons on a couple of my toons and enjoyed that quest series. I agree with SZLiao about the classes being really cool. The Blood Mage and Dread?Knight were fun.

 

[Craig234]

I bought this years ago and never installed it. I might need to get around to that. Heard good things about it.

 

[Mem]

I played that game for a few days in beta. Never really got into it and I'm actually amazed it is still up an running.

KT

I purchased and played Vanguard when it went live the first month or so,it was not that bad but had too many bugs back then,now its probably very polished and going F2P will bring some of the fan base back,I'll give it another shot.

I think TOR will be another going F2P down the road,seems they are all going that way sooner or later.
Up coming games like GW2,Firefall,Planetside2 are F2P as well so seems to be way MMORPGs are going.

 

[Feneant2]

Out of all this I am wondering if there is still such as a thing as the Station Account. Where you used to pay 25$ a month and get access to every game they had. If they could take that and revamp it for all the F2P title I think it would give them a nice advantage, especially if you had a single launchpad for every game.

I may give this a look, I had played on the beta shortly but it hadn't appealed to me in the state it was but I know they've improved it massively since then.

 

[KeithTalent]

I purchased and played Vanguard when it went live the first month or so,it was not that bad but had too many bugs back then,now its probably very polished and going F2P will bring some of the fan base back,I'll give it another shot.

I think TOR will be another going F2P down the road,seems they are all going that way sooner or later.
Up coming games like GW2,Firefall,Planetside2 are F2P as well so seems to be way MMORPGs are going.

It does seem inevitable. I'm fine with it as long as they do it well. I've only tried a couple of them, but they don't seem to lose too much. I wonder how profitable the model is? Are many of the games close to unplayable without buying things in their market? I'm a lifer in LOTRO, so I did not see how the purchases impacted or did not impact play, but if they get to the point where you can't progress without spending like crazy on stuff, then that's a problem.

KT

 

[IndyColtsFan]

This game went through quite a bit early on. Remember, this was the MMO that was to be Microsoft's first published MMO, but they backed out and Sigil ran to Sony to publish it. IIRC, Sony either bought Sigil or took the game over and in one of the most shocking developments in MMO history, Sony actually improved the game. That's probably a first for Sony.

I'll probably try it out when it goes F2P. I'm MMOless right now since I quit TOR and can't get anyone to play AoC or LOTRO with me. Hopefully with SWGEMU going alpha next month, I'll get my old crew together and land there.

 

[SunnyD]

Out of all this I am wondering if there is still such as a thing as the Station Account. Where you used to pay 25$ a month and get access to every game they had. If they could take that and revamp it for all the F2P title I think it would give them a nice advantage, especially if you had a single launchpad for every game.

I may give this a look, I had played on the beta shortly but it hadn't appealed to me in the state it was but I know they've improved it massively since then.

Yes... there still is Sony All Access. Pretty much all of the games they have, even the F2P ones still have a Premium/Platinum subscription tier that gives you access to everything in the game. Everquest 2 for example severely limits your access to races and classes in the F2P version, whereas the Premium subscription accounts still exist giving you access to everything.

Sony All Access gives you access to the Premium/Platinum levels for all the titles, and for some of the pure F2P titles they have (Freerealms, etc) they give you a Station Cash sort of monthly stipend so you can "buy" the F2P content/addons technically for free (via your continuing all access pass contribution)

 

[HumblePie]

Played game in beta, pre-ordered, and promptly quit to never play again after my free first month. Game was so buggy, shotty, and run by stupid people. It had great ideas, and I liked quite a bit of the game, but it was severely lacking. There were huge parts of the world with nothing there. I ran through all of it, including the high level areas that had nothing there at all but scenery. Well those parts I didn't somehow fall through a chunk line in the world and get trapped for days waiting for a GM to fish me out.

Or when my entire character got reset from level 42 to level 4. That was fun.

I played a disciple and loved the class for what it was at the time. A monk that heals as he attacks. Was a great idea and was decently implemented at first. Until they nerfed the shit out of it. Before nerfage I could solo 3 mobs of equal level fairly easy. Most classes could. After nerfage I couldn't solo a single mob 10 levels below me. It was that bad. I wasn't even able to get a group because the class became a laughing stock.


Sorry if you won't find me rushing to play this PoS again. It may be better than it used to be, but I'll never again give my money to SOE. NEVER AGAIN.

 

[Worthington]

Lol I remember when one of the major low level quest hubs, some big dwarven bridge over a ravine was just.... gone. Something about the textures used not liking something in patch but whatever it was the entire thing was just missing. no quests, no way over the river, no nothing.

 

[Bateluer]

Weird... DDO, LOTRO, STO, EverQuest, EverQuest 2, City of Heroes (just to name a few) are all dead? I never knew that.

As was said before, and will be said again, F2P is hardly the deathknell that you think it is.

Uh, yep. Those are all pretty much EOL MMOs, washed up and on the way out.

F2P is a death knell, it chances out the good, high class players, and attracts all manner of idiots. So even if the MMO's subscription base rises in the short term, with all the good players gone, its effectively dead and on life support.

 

[SunnyD]

Uh, yep. Those are all pretty much EOL MMOs, washed up and on the way out.

F2P is a death knell, it chances out the good, high class players, and attracts all manner of idiots. So even if the MMO's subscription base rises in the short term, with all the good players gone, its effectively dead and on life support.

lolK. I'm sure that's why Planetside 2 and several other titles are being and have been released F2P recently too. Musta been DOA or something.