[Pinchandroll]

It seems fairly clear that the people with the most heated opinions against VG and it's designers are not currently playing the game, and if they are, they are doing their best to nitpick the worst aspects of it. I say this because

a. the population isn't really that bad. There's no player tracking in the game, yet just running around leveling I can kill people constantly that I just run across. Also, the zones containing leveling hubs are often very camped and /ooc is chatty, so from my experience, I haven't felt a real lack of players like I did in shadowbane or eq on sullon zek towards the end.

b. Current game bugs are in no way game-breaking. Yes, it's annoying if you are grouped over several zones and get glitched. Yes, it's annoying when you respawn stuck in geometry and have to /stuck out of it. Yes, it's annoying when you CTD (which, at least for me, is improved vastly since release. However, in my 44 levels of fairly hardcore playing and traveling, I have yet to encounter a bug that is any more frustrating than things I've seen before in pretty much every other MMORPG I've played.

c. Most arguments recently against VG are either based on opinion (EXP is too slow! Everyone should be able to solo well! Instances are better! etc), or are unsubstantiated (hello random chart of active players, as well as this entire thread's premise).

To be honest, it's just getting annoying. There is a place for rants against a game, and those *really* should come from people who are playing a game, and have found a reason to complain. Instead, I get the impression that many people stopped playing after beta / early after release, and are hovering around waiting for any inkling that VG is struggling so they can make a new post about how much VG deserves to fail.

This isn't to say that I disagree with people complaining about the game; that's fine, and if you have complaints about the game, feel free to voice them. However, since I stopped playing WoW I don't go to every WoW thread and post about how repetitive their instances are, how similar all the evil temples look, how ridiculous the pvp is, and how much they deserve every ounce of flak that comes their way. Why not? Because it's stupid, it's rude, and it's pointless to pollute a discussion about a game with biased opinions of non-participants.

We get it, good for you, you hate Vanguard, and you're glad you quit. That doesn't mean you need to police the forums so you can pat anyone on the back who posts negatively about it. If i were to make a thread about recent changes that make some items bind-on-equip in VG, stating that it was a needed change and even though it wasn't part of the "vision," it was necessary... I KNOW I would get a host of non- or ex-players clogging up the thread with fists raised, proud to do their part as they type "I TOLD YOU SO, ."

I'm posting here because I have some time on my hands, and I know this is a hotspot for Vanguard haters right now. I know it won't change anything, because the people I'm referring to are too proud of their crusade and feel like they're sticking to to the bad guys every time they post, but anyways, there you have it. Bye.

edit: formatting issues