[VG] Producer's Letter

[Sunder]

Leave it to Vanguard to fail twice with the same game. Epic I tell you. EPIC!

[etchazz]

what i really don't understand is why sony pulled resources from the game when the game needed them the most. they cut the dev team by a large amount and basically left the game on life support, which is why it took almost a full year for one raid dungeon to be released and why there are still a shit ton of bugs, broken quests, ping issues, still no flying mounts or 2 of the classes which were supposed to be ready at launch (beserker and inquisitor) etc... in the game. if anything sony should have doubled the size of the team and got this shit fixed asap. seems like that would be simple business 101 to me. if you have a product that is broken, put more people on it and get it fixed then when it's fixed you can decrease the size of the team working on it to keep it maintained.

they are working very hard to get this game up to snuff, it just seems dumb to me that they wouldn't poor more money and resources into the game to get it done a lot faster. as the old saying goes, it takes money to make money.

[Arrr]

I agree that it's shitty for us (the consumer). but, sadly enough, SoE is looking like they made a smart business move. VG's skeleton team is doing a good job at improving the game, and they could very well get VG back into a higher-revenue position in the market and justify a bigger team.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Sunder

Leave it to Vanguard to fail twice with the same game. Epic I tell you. EPIC!

Eh? Have you been reading the posts? The game is fine and if it has been released as it is right now it would have done quite well (by anything but WoW/Lineage standards). The free trial for FORMER subscribers isn't the relaunch -- twobit does not have a pipeline to Smed's brain or the SOE dev team. I don't have a pipeline either but I am sure that at the least a relaunch would have something like a 14-day free trial for NEW subscribers.

[etchazz]

Originally Posted by tad10

Eh? Have you been reading the posts? The game is fine and if it has been released as it is right now it would have done quite well (by anything but WoW/Lineage standards). The free trial for FORMER subscribers isn't the relaunch -- twobit does not have a pipeline to Smed's brain or the SOE dev team. I don't have a pipeline either but I am sure that at the least a relaunch would have something like a 14-day free trial for NEW subscribers.

i wouldn't go as far as saying the game is "fine". the game still has roughly 15k subs, so that is definately not fine. things are improving, but the fact that there are only 4 servers and none of those 4 servers are near max capacity makes it pretty obvious that the game is still on life support. who knows, perhaps some of the changes being made will increase subs and get sony to put more money into the game, but it just may be too little too late based on VG's horrendous reputation and the fact that AoC and WAR aren't that far off.

[Arrr]

my only real complaints so far:

my halfling (the best rogue race by far) looks like a member of George Michael's backing band. All of them do.

the halfling stealth animation. who the hell would stand like that? It looks like he's either ready to sprint or about to engage in gay love. If not both.

[Sunder]

Originally Posted by tad10

Eh? Have you been reading the posts? The game is fine and if it has been released as it is right now it would have done quite well (by anything but WoW/Lineage standards). The free trial for FORMER subscribers isn't the relaunch -- twobit does not have a pipeline to Smed's brain or the SOE dev team. I don't have a pipeline either but I am sure that at the least a relaunch would have something like a 14-day free trial for NEW subscribers.

You defend a failed game like you were the one who created it. Give it up, Tad. Vanguard failed. It continues to fail. It will continue to fail. And you will fail to defend it.

[Arrr]

Give it up, Tad. Vanguard failed. It continues to fail.

I know you're trolling, but it really isn't that bad anymore. They've made a LOT of positive changes. I say this and I was pretty harsh myself back at VG release.

[Nairbog]

Originally Posted by Sunder

You defend a failed game like you were the one who created it. Give it up, Tad. Vanguard failed. It continues to fail. It will continue to fail. And you will fail to defend it.

His defense of a game he plays seems like healthy human behavior. Your sadistic wish to prophesy a game's inevitable failure, a game you don't play but others certainly wish to continue to, is a bit disturbing and reeks of personal issues.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by Sunder

You defend a failed game like you were the one who created it. Give it up, Tad. Vanguard failed. It continues to fail. It will continue to fail. And you will fail to defend it.

Why the fuck do you even care? We all know what happened to VG. Get the fuck out.

[Utnayan]

There isn't a big enough roll eyes Icon for this. His right to say the game sucks ass (Which it does and will continue to do) is just as big as a right for Tad to defend it. And if you want to start talking personal issues, I could say the same thing for anyone still playing this game. I could sit here and make assumptions and say they must be 1> Addicted to Meth. 2> Like beating off with a cheese grater in their spare time. 3> Do both while playing Vanguard because it is broken as shit and putting their time into 1 and 2 would probably be more productive.

But I won't.

[Grumpy Old Fart]

Originally Posted by Sunder

You defend a failed game like you were the one who created it. Give it up, Tad. Vanguard failed. It continues to fail. It will continue to fail. And you will fail to defend it.

I should have sent my 10-day Buddy Pass for VG to you, instead of the other guy here that got it. Maybe if you actually *PLAYED THE FUCKING GAME* and checked out what it's like nowadays rather than trying to score some forum e-peen, you might enjoy yourself.

I'm as much of a critical, whiny bitch about MMORPGs as anybody here. From reading 8,342,956 posts here about Vanguard's horrid state in late beta and launch, I avoided it like the plague. But, being bored as hell with the other current MMORPGs - and certainly more open-minded than you - I went out and bought it and have actually *PLAYED THE FUCKING GAME*.

Vanguard today is a fun experience, even though a lot of the annoying crap is still there (animations, bugs, lag, etc.). It's not even remotely in the same league as WoW, of course, but 98% of the posters/readers of this forum have been playing WoW for over 3 years now. Vanguard is a good option for we bored folks.

And Smed, add another zero on the end of that check when you send my shill payment this month. Thanks.

[UnchainedAcolyte]

Originally Posted by etchazz

i wouldn't go as far as saying the game is "fine".

Neither would I, and neither would the number of people who left the game due to spectacularly lazy/poorly thought-out changes like "see-stealth" for mobs that took effect worldwide, even though it was primarily for APW and raid mobs.

The problem could have easily been fixed by increasing the perception abilities of individual mobs in those dungeons, not nerfing stealth, which was one of the few "strong" points of being a rogue (they could barely solo), though utility, stuns, and the ability to off-tank in a very limited fashion made them fun to play.

A number of rogues yelled about it on Safehouse and the official forums - for days - and got no response.

Finally, the rangers griped about it, though it would affect their class much less dramatically. The ranger lead got information on an adjustment to the stealth change, the rogue lead didn't, and magically, there was discussion on the subject, and comments on the boards.

Any dev group that will completely ignore an entire broken class of players, then roll over when the rangers bitch about something need to be axed.

Nothing against rangers (especially since hearing about them now using mana for their ranged attacks , and no tracking), but choosing one class' complaints over another is a recipe for disaster.

Not to mention the fact that while local lore/information was great via diplomacy (thanks Steve/Aruspex ), overall lore was poor and spotty at best. Quest lore and information was quite poor. especially considering the potential for some of the dungeons (Vault of Heroes) that was wasted.

I left, disgusted, and will NOT return. Period.

EDIT:

Originally Posted by Grumpy Old Fart

It's not even remotely in the same league as WoW, of course

Which is why some of us who avoided WoW like the plague due to discussions about the poor community are now enjoying the hell out of it.

I don't blame anyone for trying, even enjoying Vanguard to a decent degree, because it does have some great features (crafting system, group harvesting, diplomacy, certain class designs), but the weaknesses I've mentioned and the lack of SOE's commitment to try to develop the game (and the devs' crappy approach to certain things, see above) turned me off.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by Utnayan

There isn't a big enough roll eyes Icon for this. His right to say the game sucks ass (Which it does and will continue to do) is just as big as a right for Tad to defend it. And if you want to start talking personal issues, I could say the same thing for anyone still playing this game. I could sit here and make assumptions and say they must be 1> Addicted to Meth. 2> Like beating off with a cheese grater in their spare time. 3> Do both while playing Vanguard because it is broken as shit and putting their time into 1 and 2 would probably be more productive.

But I won't.

Yet, you just did. Though, i know your trolling as well.

[Dashal]

I got a station pass and logged in and it was more laggy than I remembered. Probably because I was in Khal and there were a lot of people around? Or did I read somewhere there was a lag issue with the latest release.

Anyway, I'll try it again at some point. We'll see. It was a fun game with a good group. I got to level 50 after all so it couldnt have sucked that bad right?