Rumor - SOE to purchase VG?

[Twobit Whore]

The station pass lost value when they increased its price to equal 2 full MMOs when they barely have 2 MMOs worth playing in their stable.

It's more beneficial to most people to cancel station pass, sign up for one SOE MMO and be free to pick and choose any other MMO on the market for the same cost.

[Cuppycake]

Maybe SOE will buy Sigil in its entirety? Sigil will remain the 'developers' of the game, but they'll keep all the employees and not change much. Sigil Games Online™, a Sony Online Entertainment Company™ =)

[Vatoreus]

I'd laugh and weep for Brad if that happened.

[Itzena]

'All the employees' is pretty unlikely. "Cherry-pick the decent ones, shitcan the rest" is significantly more probable, or possibly even "Cherry-pick the decent ones, move them across to EQ/EQ2/whatever teams, VG struggles along with the rejects and interns" (See: EQ while EQ2 was being developed).

[Fammaden]

So some of the people in this thread were defending VG a couple months ago and now they are jumping ship. Is that chart based on some sort of census like information gathering? Is it safe for Utanyan to come say "I told you so" yet, or are there some staunch adherants still remaining to carry the torch?

[UnchainedAcolyte]

Originally Posted by Vatoreus

I'd laugh and weep for Brad if that happened.

As would I. I think Brad should be very thankful that the problems with VG don't end his chance at participating in developing MMO's in the future, and hopefully he will learn from the mistakes. Few get another chance after a failure, however you want to define it, most don't (even if some are deserving).

Despite all of the problems, bugs, questions/issues of financial and design mismanagement, one has to admit that without SOE Vanguard would never have seen the light of day, nor had much chance for a relaunch, even if there is a "new Vision" according to Silius.

Being a SW:G pre-CU refugee, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

[Kevincheese]

Originally Posted by Cuppycake

Maybe SOE will buy Sigil in its entirety? Sigil will remain the 'developers' of the game, but they'll keep all the employees and not change much. Sigil Games Online™, a Sony Online Entertainment Company™ =)

Cuppy, you're kidding right?

You know why EQ went downhill after Velious, right? =(

[Cuppycake]

I didn't say that is what I WANT to happen, I just said its a possibility

[Kodylan]

Originally Posted by Kevincheese

Cuppy, you're kidding right?

You know why EQ went downhill after Velious, right? =(

Good god, the design doc and initial design of Luclin was done by people that left for Sigil. They're just as much to blame for that atrocity of an expansion as anyone else.

Regardless, game companies are a business, so it's not out of the realm of possibility for Sigil to be purchased by SoE.

That said I'd be more inclined to believe that they want the rights to Vanguard, more than anything.

[Soriak]

Originally Posted by Kevincheese

Cuppy, you're kidding right?

You know why EQ went downhill after Velious, right? =(

Did it go downhill?

Sure, Luclin was pretty buggy and incomplete when it released, but I think it turned out to be a fairly good expansion. Expansions after that had a tough time to introduce new and exciting content to an old game - I'm not playing it anymore, but last I heard they have ships now with combat at sea. No doubt some changes made the game easier (PoP portals...), but I think most will agree that they were necessary. Huge world, few people starting up - bound to cause problems if they can't get together easily.

I think SoE has been doing a fairly good job with their MMORPGs, especially since the launch of WoW. Guess that was a wake-up call and from the greatly improved communication that I've seen in EQ2 it seems to have worked.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Fammaden

So some of the people in this thread were defending VG a couple months ago and now they are jumping ship. Is that chart based on some sort of census like information gathering? Is it safe for Utanyan to come say "I told you so" yet, or are there some staunch adherants still remaining to carry the torch?

Eh. I'm still playing (when my computer isn't crashing on me - nothing to do with VG everything to do with a fucked laptop power connection). The biggest issues right now (excluding my vision comment on the other thread which is the biggest issue) are (and they've been discussed to death so no need for detail):
(1) lack of raid content -- 50s are rarely logging on since they don't have much to do, (2) need for server mergers, (3) need for something like gloomingdeep for new players and (40 some kind of uber-LFG/WTG (Where to Go) tool. Telon is just too fucking big for new players -- in addition to a LFG they need somethinig that really lays out (1) What areas are level appropriate, (2) what dungeons are in those areas, (3) How many peeps are in those areas and how many of those are LFG.

I haven't checked out the new teleporters in Thestra -- but that solves one problem (travel).

Beyond the biggies:

(1) Retuned content. Big, difficult bosses that drop nice loot. There are far too many craptastic bosses that drop okay loot. Leaving the best stuff for the crafters to make. Needs to be a good balance between crafted and adventuring -- one way to balance put recipes out in the field. The really good loot bosses are few and far between. Too much content supposedly for groups is doable by small groups (or soloable by Necros & etc.).

(2) Fill in the gaps in the lore -- lets foreshadow the endgame stuff much earlier and lets have more followthrough. Hell steal from LOTRO and when AAs are put in -- instead of just getting a title from a quest or some special loot (e.g Starspark Adept) get a special trait for completion. Make it mean something to run all the KH or TJ or Xenn quests beyond loot.

(3) Communication. The update#1 info was nice but endgame guilds need to know when the raids are coming.

[Twobit Whore]

Man, a whine about Luclin-PoP ruining EQ belongs on the OVF, er I mean Silky Venom forums or something.

On a related note, I still can't believe no official denial of this rumor has been offered.

[Thug]

Don't worry, it's still in beta. When the game is released I'm sure thin...oh wait...

Jokes aside, I hope this isnt true, I dont play the game (the performance issues and crappy grainy graphics are what turned me off, ok and maybe a lot of other things), but I was really rooting for Brad and team. I wanted to see them succeed and I still do!

I've not played/tested the game since beta, if you could call it "playing" back then, so I dont know how things have improved and what issues are still there. Judging by the shit Sigil is still getting I'm guessing things are not as good as one could hope.

I wouldnt mind them getting bought if it meant being able to turn the game around, but SOE would be the last people I'd want to buy it. Pissing away EQ like they did and the crap that EQ2 was when it came out left a bad taste in my mouth.

-=[ Thug ]=-

[UnchainedAcolyte]

Originally Posted by Fammaden

So some of the people in this thread were defending VG a couple months ago and now they are jumping ship. Is that chart based on some sort of census like information gathering? Is it safe for Utanyan to come say "I told you so" yet, or are there some staunch adherants still remaining to carry the torch?

The problem in my opinion lies with the inherent potential in Vanguard, but there is *so* much to fix/add/develop/polish that it's just not going to be done anytime soon, and people only have so much patience. It's a diamond in the rough, but right now looks a lot like a lump of coal.

One thing I'll say from personal experience is that in starting a Qaliathari disciple, the quests, content, and "feel" of that region is much better developed than Tursh. I found a few gems, drop-quests, and hidden monsters in playing through the content that are very enjoyable.

However, the lore in general is not fleshed out enough for most players who *don't* want to have to do diplomacy. Immersion is a weak point in the game apart from diplomacy - even then there is not really an overarching storyline for the continents. A lot is given small piece by piece in successive quests, but there really isn't even conjecture from the NPC's as to what these "crises" foretell, or tales really linking region to region, though local lore from diplomacy and tie-ins between locals quests I think are done well.

As Ut and others have pointed out, the basis for developing community is pretty weak as well. Travel times, distances, zoning, city bugs, group bugs... all of these have punished people who have tried to travel distances to reach more populated areas and group together. Due to the leveling curve at certain steps, people don't stay in one general area for any length of time, aggravating the travel issues. A big reason why those new attuning stones appeared in the last patch.

No (obvious) raid content, really - some 6-dot mobs, but no quests I've found for any of them yet.

The most social sphere other than adventuring is group-harvesting to reap more/more rare materials from nodes.

Lack of group content in crafting and diplomacy, where it could really shine

In general, performance and massive bugs remaining in the game (as well as being reintroduced after patching or made worse) have driven people off. Not having a strong, more obvious hook has really hurt as well.

[Dildo Faggins]

Wow, stake in the fucking heart of vanguard.