I think its funny that as of the 1/11 patch notes they JUST added Right Clicking NPC's to hail them ...

I understand not wanting to throw good money after bad, but launching early, with the possible exception of during November, is giving up on the product. Particularly for an MMORPG.

PC gaming is littered with games that have launched early and failed for it. The first few weeks are the busiest time of buying, when word of mouth spreads quickest, and when reviews hit. If your game is buggy and a mess then you're done. You will never recover from it. The damage will be too steep. Even if you work out the kinks everyone else will have moved on.


It's even worse for MMORPGs. What happens if, three months in, a major bug is discovered that causes so much unbalance that a character wipe is needed? How will paying customers react to that? A few months of hard grinding stripped away?

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Doomriders: the first new band worth a signature - http://www.deathwishinc.com/

I agree the game is not going to make it far in today's over-crowded market. With bland graphics and stiff game-play only the real WoW/EQ2 haters will be paying to play this continued beta as the ship goes down later this year.

"While WoW may not be everyone's cup of tea, I still think their character start is the best I've seen in a MMO. From the flying intro to show ya a bit of the land, to the person telling you a bit about your race/side you've choosen etc it's very easy to get into."

If you liked that wait until you try that MMOG due to hit retail shelves in a few months.

That baby is ready for prime-time now but isn't going live for several month yet. And from what I have played it will be the second biggest game this time next year.

Won't come close to WoW unless they add a little something special into it soon but it blows WoW away as far as graphics go. Wish I could share some of the screenshots but the damned agreement I ok'd has me thinking better.

I just hope Blue doesn't give them my e-mail address if they contact him.

People are crunching and working long hours but the financial reality is we need to launch commercially, and soon.

Sounds like someone's broke.

Have fun paying for a beta test!

WoW: Darsius (Earthen Ring) / GW: Denarr Trueblade / BF2: Slinky317 / CoH: Spectris (Justice)

I'm no fan of SOE... but it has NOTHING to do with SOE.

I wouldn't say it has nothing to do with SOE. Some would say Sigil is just a SOE spin off. An independent company, yes, but with many of the same people who are responsible for many SOE decisions in the past. I'm not sure why people expected something that signifcantly different than EQ from people who made EQ. Hell, I'm not keeping track of all the personel changes, but it might even be that Sigil is more SOE (of EQ days) than SOE is.

Personally I could care less where the pressure is coming from. The result is the same: a premature release in a market where MMORPGs can't afford to make serious mistakes anymore due to the competition. WoW is going to eat them for lunch.

Why, oh why, do developers try to tackle MMOs when they clearly don't have the financial support to do so? Creating and supporting a successful MMO is no small endeavor and you'd think that all these small developers would figure that out. They should also realize that a bad launch does wonders for an MMO's popularity.

I'm no fan of SOE... but it has NOTHING to do with SOE.

Sigil is out of money. PERIOD.

All SOE is doing is CO-publishing... meaning they host the servers, do the billing, and get the fricken game on the shelves. They have NOT injected any money into Sigil, NOR are they in ANY position to make demands of pushing the game out early.

It's Sigil. They're out of cash. That's it. No conspiracy. No SOE pressure. It's put the game out or go bankrupt.

Sheesh!
This comment was edited on Jan 11, 21:09.

Woah, I'm surprised to see such an admission. Brad basically confirmed every tester's worst fear. Not good at all. 2nd most expensive MMOG to date? And the worst possible timing to boot. Me thinks they're screwed.

I have been playing the beta test since they opened it to File Planet members a few days ago. While I am having fun playing, and I think the game has potential, I too feel the game is nowhere near ready for release. However, this is a quote from the producer Brad McQuaid...

"People are saying Vanguard is being rushed out before it is finished, is that true?


We don't want to rush things but like I said we have a solid launch date. People are crunching and working long hours but the financial reality is we need to launch commercially, and soon.

I know that is not the answer you want to hear, nor I, but it is what it is and I've always been straight up with you guys. We will have a lot of work to do post-launch and the first couple of months post-launch will be just as busy as beta 5 with lots of patches, bug fixes, new features, etc. In that sense, things won't change.

I promise you we are doing the best we can with the time we have, even though we all, the players and Sigil wish we had more time, but like I said, there are financial realities. We are still I believe the 2nd most expensive MMOG to-date after WoW and that is something, despite the desire to have more time, I have to be grateful to both MSFT and SOE for.
-Brad McQuaid, CEO "

I remember reading casual WoW players complaints on the WoW official forums calling for Vanguard to kill or otherwise hurt WoW's numbers. These whiny casuals claiming they were going to jump to Vanguard because WoW had problems.. etc..
basic whinter casual bullshit..

Now they are backtracking like a muthafucker saying that they will wait, or jumping to warhammer.. anything to somehow dethrone or otherwise bump WoW a bit.
After readin tons of forums, and talking to beta testers ..it sure seems that Vanguard fails to deliver.

* REMOVED *
This comment was deleted on Jan 11, 17:48.

I have to agree with all these negative comments, particularly in regard to graphics. While being touted as having spectacular graphics, they come off looking as if they were made by fresh out art school kids, trying to utilize every technology available. Not something which embodies style or even any kind of direction.

The game runs great on my system, aside from server side crashes, at 1680x1050. I do have a decent computer (Core2Duo E6600, 2gb RAM and a 7800GTO), but I haven't personally had any performance problems.

The game itself, though, feels like pre-release EQ. I love the starting area for the half-elf I made, shaking down villagers for the emperor and stealing their gold... but others I've tried have been either completely unfinished or just plain bland and boring.

This game would have been a killer if it had been released at the same time as DaoC. As it is now, it just can't compete with not only WoW but with EQ2. Graphics are fine, but the animations destroy them... a problem that way too many developers have overlooked. It makes no difference how good a screenshot is if your characters move like they have no joints.

It has potential, I guess, but it'll never get to where anyone sees it.

[I am a WoW fan...just wanted to preface with that] I got the beta, installed, launched, created one character, entered the world, threw up in my mouth a little bit and then uninstalled. This game is a big steamer...

First let me just say: Pennilenko, you're a lying bastard.

With that out of the way, let me just say that I joined the beta a few months ago and was flabbergasted at how bad this game was. The graphics are horrible. The original EQ, which launched nine years ago, had more charming graphics than this piece of garbage! Some people say it has potential, but I don't see it. Animations, stiff. Quests, boring. The original EQ pulled you into a world that you didn't want to leave. Vanguard had me running away for dear life after 10 minutes.

This comment was edited on Jan 11, 16:25.

In my case, I'll probably get it only because I have Station Access. Just have to get a better graphics card and a bigger HD first.

They invited me to beta test it, but my graphics card isn't supported by the game. Oh well, it's a 4 year old POS anyway.

Would YOU purposely get killed by every mob

No not on purpose, it just seems to happen that way

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Diablo & Diablo 2 for the DS, it makes sense Blizzard!
http://www.1000to0.com

Pennilenko,

How much are they paying you to say that?
Everything you've said goes against **EVERYTHING** I've heard and experienced.
I've been beta testing since Nov 1st and there is no way this game is going to run 27-32fps in crowded areas on a mid-ranged PC with any decent graphics settings.
This game is a HORRIBLE graphics power hungry monster... and for all that, it doesn't even look that good by any means.

The point everyone is trying to make is not that it's such a horrible game but rather Jan 30th is a horrible date. The game has potential, but they MUST delay it or else it will be buggy, sluggish and annoying to play.

No offense, but I have beta tested dozens of games in the last couple of years. It's practically a professional hobby of mine and I love it. If you don't know how to beta test you are going to overlook things that are indeed bugs. Would YOU purposely get killed by every mob you could to see if there are death bugs with those mobs? That's just one example of what a real beta tester does.
Anyways, you need to check yourself before you make an ass out of yourself. Sigil has a potential winner here and SOE is screwing them out of any chance of success by forcing a release now.

Racing to beat WoW was like WoW racing to beat Guildwars with its pvp. It was rushed and horrible and didn't get fixed for at least a year.

Honestly only reason i was in the beta is cause the Ex wanted to see if it was any good. He's the typical EQ/EQ2 fan boi and during character creation and the first 10 mins he flat out stated that it was crap.

Now for me personally.. I'm a graphics whore, I simply cannot deny it. But how this game plans on surviving even with 'The Vision', is beyond me. Graphics are horrible, started up a character and was thrown right infront of a quest guy and said 'go kill stuff'.

While WoW may not be everyone's cup of tea, I still think their character start is the best I've seen in a MMO. From the flying intro to show ya a bit of the land, to the person telling you a bit about your race/side you've choosen etc it's very easy to get into.

If anything this screams of Everquest 1.5