SOE to own VG - Sigil fires employees

[Kaylena]

Originally Posted by Jabberwhacky

Is that sarcasm, or are you serious? Here are the choices Eomer had:

1. Quote what the guy said
2. Paraphrase it (you know, hearsay)
3. Don't talk about it

I guess you're right, going with #2 is a much better option. Let's maintain the high level of speculation and conjecture on this board; why bother with things like "facts" or "restraint."

Not sarcasm. I wouldn't have said anything myself. Mostly because right now it's a tense time and people may say things they might regret later.

Too much gets read into things as it is. People are implying Nino works for SOE and he hasn't even made a statement yet.

Better to just wait and hear it from them is what I meant.

[Wolfen]

Originally Posted by Mkopec1

I want refunds for the countless shitty games Ive purchased over the years. Ever since Atari 2600.

Just like black people want slave reparations, we want shitty game reparations!

Where my money, bitch??

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by Wolfen

Just like black people want slave reparations, we want shitty game reparations!

Where my money, bitch??

I want my money back from madden 05 and 06. I learned by 07 lol

[kedwyn]

Originally Posted by Danth

Consider this: The bleeding can't be comming mostly from the high end because they don't have that many high end players to lose. According to VGplayers (which seems to show characters on cancelled accounts), there are only about 1750 level 50 characters total and only about 4100 at 45+.

I agree that Vanguard is likely hovering around ~70K active accounts, which would mean the vast majority of those who left (if they sold 200K boxes, do the math) got fed up and threw in the towel long, long before they got even remotely close to the high end. Sobering thought....fixing the high end won't matter if most people never reach it.

In the short term, I figure Vanguard will continue losing players until it reaches the level where it's mostly the die-hards remaining. Just what subscriber level that represents is anyone's guess.

Danth

No its definately not just a high end issue although that is a big problem. Its the shitty server pops and the difficulty in getting a group. I leveled with a guild so it wasn't a big deal, we had static groups of good players. The few times I tried to do PUGs I wanted to gouge my eyes out. Not as bad as WoW but in a group based game its hard to level without static members.

Combine that with shitty travel speeds and low server pops and you will see the majority of people take the path of least resistence and quit.

[Kodylan]

Originally Posted by Witoubo

I read it more as.

"We bought VG because it was incredibly cheap and could add value (or perceived value) to the Station Pass. This came at the right time as we were already contemplating a price increase."

Hi, Vanguard is already a part of the Station Pass.

[Itzena]

SOE needs to put in a decent, polished tutorial/shared newbie zone a la Mines of Gloomingdeep/that EQ2 island/etc. as a priority.

Hook people with the first half-dozen levels, and you'll get more subscribers.

[Rayne]

Creative advisor? Is that some kinda sick joke or something?

You wanna give him a job? I'm sure theres a broom and mop in a closet somewhere in SOE's offices. Have at it.

[Twobit Whore]

Originally Posted by Itzena

SOE needs to put in a decent, polished tutorial/shared newbie zone a la Mines of Gloomingdeep/that EQ2 island/etc. as a priority.

Hook people with the first half-dozen levels, and you'll get more subscribers.

I don't think they need that as much as they just plain need fewer starting areas and a way to funnel people together earlier. Kinda like Ogres and Trolls are one zone apart in EQ and Qeynos, Erud, Surefall and Halas were all in close proximity. Same with Butherblock, Steamfont, Kelethin and Felwith with Freeport being not too far off.

The natural progression made it so by level 10 or so you were encountering many different people and all working in the same areas.

Vanguards world is simply too large too soon. No way around it.

[Kodylan]

Originally Posted by Itzena

SOE needs to put in a decent, polished tutorial/shared newbie zone a la Mines of Gloomingdeep/that EQ2 island/etc. as a priority.

Hook people with the first half-dozen levels, and you'll get more subscribers.

Sorry, but the EQ2 newbie island sucks. What gets people hooked on EQ2 now is the fae starting area(and hopefully the arasai area).

I do agree though that they need a better newbie experience in Vanguard; there's not a lot of explaining going on at all really, which they do excellently in EQ2.

[Antarius]

Sad

As one of the attendees of the first "Fanguard" I was so expecting VG to be successful. From the Demo we played at the Hotel in Vegas to hearing Brad talk about the things he planned on having in the game, there was definatly alot of excitement about what else was planned.

Figuring that the game still had a "long" amount of development time left, I drank the kool-aid, and I remember saying along with everyone else that I'd probably subscribe to the game even the current state the game was in.

And then I got in beta... and development was even slower than what I already was getting from the game I was playing - WoW. The game stagnated on my Hard Drive and then one day I just stopped logging into the Beta.

6 months later the game launched and I didn't even buy the game that I had been so excited about so many months before.

The loss of Microsoft as a publisher really seemed to have been a deathblow to Vanguard, Not sure what happened, but for all those months in beta, nothing was changing in game, wish I knew the inside scoop.

Or maybe it was the huge amount of ramping up of employees, I know they went from a very small development studio to a massive number of people on the payroll in a very short amount of time. So many people getting hired at once maybe meant that people who "had" been working on the game, instead were spending more time training other people "how" to work on the game. I don't know...

[Nairbog]

"By way of comparison, this team is approx. the same size as the EQ2 team"
- Smed

Not something anyone has commented on thus far, this fact and the mention of future expansions means SOE definitely isn't giving up on VG, yet.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Itzena

SOE needs to put in a decent, polished tutorial/shared newbie zone a la Mines of Gloomingdeep/that EQ2 island/etc. as a priority.

Hook people with the first half-dozen levels, and you'll get more subscribers.

I've been saying the exact same thing for a while. Just use the Kojani H/HE as the basis. But they need to fill out the lore across the board.

[Rayne]

Originally Posted by Nairbog

"By way of comparison, this team is approx. the same size as the EQ2 team"
- Smed

Not something anyone has commented on thus far, this fact and the mention of future expansions means SOE definitely isn't giving up on VG, yet.

Considering they likely paid off all debt incurred by the games development to facilitate the acquisition, they'd be quite foolish to not give Vanguard as much attention as they have thier other games. I'm most interested to see the game finally get some real direction, and the outcome of the same in 6 months or so. I bought the game at launch, so its not like it'll cost me much to see where it goes. Perhaps SOE can excite me as much as Sigil did 4 years ago, before it all went to shit.

Judging from the things they were able to do with EQ2, i'd say Vanguard has a much better shot at becoming as successful a game as any.

[Quineloe]

Originally Posted by Tabris

The threat and the promise of that thread have finally born their bitter fruit?

Do you know what thread I am talking about?

[Fury]

I wonder how long until we see one of Brad's gigantic posts on this? I need to go find my secret Itzena decoder to be ready for it.

Edit: Actually, I bet they put a gag on Brad as part of the deal... Doh!