I spent a lot of time in this game and no matter how many times I left I would always end up back in VG. The things I will remember most about this game was that:
I never ever ever was able to memorize the complete NT map EVER!!!!!
Harvesting did not suck
I just solo that 4 dot! only to be one shotted by a grey 1 dot?!?!
Do NOT land flying mounts on mountain sides... you might drown
is that mob over level 50? Better watch your chat window!
At times the mobs had a very long memory. To the point where you can kill a mummy deep inside a dungeon and when it respawns some time later it STILL has an agro lock on you and trains the entire place on top of you.
and I still need to find a group to get my final piece of swamp armor.
Vanguard, you will be missed and sadly I never found anything that can replace you when I have strayed but now I have no safe harbor to return to.
SOE is going further, actually. They're not just shutting down Vanguard. Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Free Realms, and Wizardry Online are also gone:
Looks like they're clearing house of everything that's not EverQuest related.
lol..
"Hey guys, we're implementing this great new "All Access" subscription option.. Pay one fee and play all our MMOs! Oh... but by the way, before you get too excited, we're also shutting down half of them..."
Typcal SOE/Smedley. The kings of empty hype and unfulfilled promises.
I understand if the games are under-performing or whatever, that they'd want to "trim the fat", so to speak. But their timing never ceases to amuse. It's almost like they deliberately aim to embody every "evil corporation with ulterior motives up the wazoo" stereotype people attribute to them.
Even the latest update from Smedley on Reddit, about "SWG refugees having a place to call home in an upcoming, as yet unannounced MMO" just reeks of opportunistic PR to get people hyped before they even know what they're being hyped about. It's like he's taking the vague hype around EQ:N/Landmark before anyone really even knew what it was, and taking it a step further. I can't help but feel like I'm being "punk'd" every time that guy makes an announcement, and it's just a matter of time before he goes "Sike! Gotcha again!"
Anyone who blames SoE for Vanguard is either extremely ill informed or a McQuaid extremist. Make no mistake Vanguard would not have launched for a single day without SoE. The blame rests 100% on Brad's shoulders.
Microsoft gave him complete control over the game and he pissed it away with lack of deadlines and a rehashed outdated game engine. Brad was not in the office for 90% of Vanguards development even though he was the CEO with the "vision." He hired mostly underqualified friends and family to develop a game for the first time and it certainly showed with VG. At the first sign of trouble instead of sticking around to try and fix the game he sold it and ran while half the friends and family got fired in the parking lot. Think about that for a moment.......
This time around he's still trying to lead everyone with little hands on involvement(said himself in a Q&A question I asked). He's still pushing some vision. He doesn't have friends and family as staff thankfully(likely because they disowned him) but he has a skeleton crew instead. Honestly the guy that designed most the EQ classic dungeons should be leading with Brad in the background as some flunkie.
Never heard anyone say anything good about Vanguard when it launched and saw very few people talking about it a few months after launch. Never tried it myself.
Vanguard is one of the games that people really loved, but the people that loved it didn't play it. Just like SWG when it shut down, just like COH when it shut down. People will consistently complain that companies are shutting down game after game but when you aren't playing the game they shut down (due to low population and little to no income garnered from said game) then it is partially your own fault. I liked Vanguard but not enough to make it my main MMORPG, and certainly not enough to care that it is currently being shut down, but I sure do feel bad for the people who were playing it. I think SOEs decision to shut it down makes perfect sense, the game wasn't getting more people playing it and when it did it was very small amounts of players, they had the game on life support for 3 years now, it just makes sense at this point.
Anyone who blames SoE for Vanguard is either extremely ill informed or a McQuaid extremist. Make no mistake Vanguard would not have launched for a single day without SoE. The blame rests 100% on Brad's shoulders.
Microsoft gave him complete control over the game and he pissed it away with lack of deadlines and a rehashed outdated game engine. Brad was not in the office for 90% of Vanguards development even though he was the CEO with the "vision." He hired mostly underqualified friends and family to develop a game for the first time and it certainly showed with VG. At the first sign of trouble instead of sticking around to try and fix the game he sold it and ran while half the friends and family got fired in the parking lot. Think about that for a moment.......
This time around he's still trying to lead everyone with little hands on involvement(said himself in a Q&A question I asked). He's still pushing some vision. He doesn't have friends and family as staff thankfully(likely because they disowned him) but he has a skeleton crew instead. Honestly the guy that designed most the EQ classic dungeons should be leading with Brad in the background as some flunkie.
Well that's awfully generous of you. You give SOE a complete pass on the current state of VG, even though they acquired all rights to it 7 years ago, and have sat on it since, making only a couple half-hearted attempts at doing anything with it. Despite promises made about its future, which were never fulfilled.
It would be like a couple adopting a child that was poorly raised for the first 5 years of its life, doing absolutely nothing to improve or adjust the child's attitude/problems for the next 12 years, and then when he ends up being thrown in jail, saying "Hey.. it's not our fault he turned into a thieving, drug-dealing/abusing miscreant... His biological parents are to blame for that. We had nothing to do with it".
It would be like continuing to blame Tanaka for any problems ARR has, even though his involvement ended when he left and Yoshi-P stepped in, back while 1.0 was still running.
SOE has had control of Vanguard for longer (2007-present) than even Sigil did (2002-2007). But somehow, you believe, they are blameless for its current state. That's quite amazing. I don't think I've ever seen such an impressive display of intellectual dishonesty.
Buying up games and then sitting on them and letting them rot until they're finally shut down is something SOE kinda has a history of. They did it with with Matrix Online. They did it with Vanguard as well.
Judging by the rest of your post, it's quite clear you have a strong anti-Brad McQuaid leaning, and so your post was basically just an excuse to take some pot shots at him and his new project. Regardless, your "version" of history just doesn't hold up.
Again, since the true motivation of your post is quite transparent, there's already a forum section specifically for Pantheon here on mmorpg.com. Seems your opinions of McQuaid and his new project, such as they are, would be better suited there.
If not for SOE Vanguard would have never even have seen the light of day and now you are all blaming SOE.
Proof? They were the first person to bite to take it over, but given how many MMOs are funded, especially back then, someone else would have stepped forward that probably would have tried a lot harder.
Originally posted by Nephaerius U know they shutdown amazing games all the time..... saying vanguard was a good game is just the hipster thing to do
What, pray tell, was bad about it? I've played MMOs for 13 years and it was probably the best PvE MMO to date.
If SoE would of did this in 2009, I would have ZERO complaints with this move. I've trolled the forums because of the utter ish that was released on launch. I updated my PC in 2007 because of this game and it still didn't play correct. So with 2k down the drain I hated this game, But with F2P I've come back and though it still has its bugs it was actually playable. With that said, I'm not sad to see it go because of those memories from '07, but sucks as I was hoping they would release the inquisitor class and it seem SoE was actually trying to get this game to work.
I'll never forget this game. It was a lot of fun despite the early (and current) bugs. It was a game made for those old school 'open world' lovers that just couldn't deliver early enough to reach the masses. Is really a shame.
Acolytes Gaming (forums.acolytesgaming.com)
Sheep or Shepard- Make up your own damn mind.
It is true, the older you get, the less patience you have for those who watch a Youtube video and from that believe they know it all.
Some of my best mmorpg memories are from Vanguard. We didn't care about the launch bugs with my friends. Everything was so exaggerated anyways and game was still very fun and easily playable.
But when EU servers kept having so bad ping all the time and SOE wasn't doing anything to fix tit, the game never got another chance after the initial 3-4 months.
Sad to see it go though. Maybe they'll replace it with another watered down single player game with online mode, then call it an mmorpg. Those seem to be popular these days.
One of the best MMORPGs out there to date. Had good Varking memories for sure. Devs are too lazy nowadays to make anything remotely like it or as deep and exciting now, so I don't expect anything as good for a very long time.
I just logged in to the game after a few months break and find out the game is ending. Very sad to see this great game go away. The only mmorpg worth my time these days. RIP!
This sucks. From what I've seen it's still one of the best themeparks out there and was on my list of games I am planning to give a proper playthrough to (guess I'll have to hurry up now).
I really think it is a game that deserved more players than it has, especially when I think of all the junk MMOs that have way more. But I guess the launch problems and the lack of expansion or update from SOE killed it.
If Mr. McQuaid would make his KS just to buy back Vanguard, fix it up and relaunch it I'd be way more likely to donate
Fact of the matter is Vanguard is old. Do not blame Brad for this... Vanguard got messed up by the Producers Microsoft and Sony for rushing it. I Beta tested Vanguard and bought it at launch noone knows anw was more pissed than me as it felt like a true sequel to EQ. If you want a sequel to EQ support PAntheon, do not diss it.
Also Brad cannot make Sony sell him the rights to Vanguard. It might cost more than making a new game.
Nirrtix ALPHAs: -Pantheon -Shroud of the Avatar -Camelot Unchained BETAs: -World of Warcraft -City of Heroes -Star Wars Galaxies -Saga of Ryzom -Homeworld -Starcraft II -Warcraft III -Hearthstone -Star Wars The Old Republic -Vanguard Saga of Heroes
Sad that Vanguard came to this. I beta tested Vanguard and wanted it to succeed it had that old-school feel to it and Brad McQuaid did well on it. Unfortunatly the Producers wanted to rush it so in its "end" state there were vast zones that were empty and incomplete. Brad and the other Devs had to complete the game after it was launched.
Obviously I quit with disappointment, the game was fun, but it was not complete.
I think those who are dissing Brad McQuaid are very ill informed about this game and his history. SoE rushed him to finish the game. The game was epic compared to EQ2, and had a true feeling of EQ to it.
If you guys want a true sequel to EQ support Pantheon's kickstarter...
Nirrtix ALPHAs: -Pantheon -Shroud of the Avatar -Camelot Unchained BETAs: -World of Warcraft -City of Heroes -Star Wars Galaxies -Saga of Ryzom -Homeworld -Starcraft II -Warcraft III -Hearthstone -Star Wars The Old Republic -Vanguard Saga of Heroes
Originally posted by elocke Some of the best classes I've ever seen in an MMO and one of the largest seamless worlds, too. I wish they would make a Vanguard 2. This is one I hope they learn from, to be honest. They meaning all of MMORPG developers.
AGreed, but for the same reason, Brad McQuaid cannot make his new project Everquest 3 or Vanguard 2 becuase Sony owns those rights.... even if they do not use them...
Nirrtix ALPHAs: -Pantheon -Shroud of the Avatar -Camelot Unchained BETAs: -World of Warcraft -City of Heroes -Star Wars Galaxies -Saga of Ryzom -Homeworld -Starcraft II -Warcraft III -Hearthstone -Star Wars The Old Republic -Vanguard Saga of Heroes
Why would Sony Online Entertainment help Brad Mc Qauid who does not help Sony and is not funded by them.
Pantheon is an independent game. Brad is doing it this way to avoid the crap that caused Vanguard to become into the mess it was. Vanguard would be even more epic if he had not gotten into bed with Sony Online Entertainment.
Nirrtix ALPHAs: -Pantheon -Shroud of the Avatar -Camelot Unchained BETAs: -World of Warcraft -City of Heroes -Star Wars Galaxies -Saga of Ryzom -Homeworld -Starcraft II -Warcraft III -Hearthstone -Star Wars The Old Republic -Vanguard Saga of Heroes
It kinda is. But at the same time its not that black and white. Its astonishing how many have stuck around and played that game for years and years with barely any support and no new content. Thats a good reason for people not playing, because why would you play a game that never gets more content?
This is going to be one of those everyone is sad to see it go but no one was actually playing it. ( obviously a few were )
It ran a hell of a lot longer than I ever thought it would.
Yep, this is what happens when people don't put their money where their mouth is. Everyone talks about wanting oldschool, but people don't support that.
It is sad for those who actually did play and pay. It always is.
SOE never took this game seriously. Why would you expect players to?
If SoE never took it seriously why did they spend so much time trying to get it playable? Why toss away so much $$ into something you arent serious about?
People have this very incorrect recollection of what happened. Game launched -> awful sales due to word of mouth/beta state -> quickly dropped below 50k -> SoE spends 18 months debugging, fixing, adding content -> subs down even further, below 25k -> SoE finally gives up until they tried it f2p years later
There was nothing to indicate to SoE "hey if you actively develop the game more people will come!". In fact there was 18 months of evidence against it.
First you say this RED
And then follow it up with this ORANGE.
Anyone else see the complete fail in this? Cherry picking facts to support your view is a misrepresentation of the truth. Do more research then get back to us.
I love my Paladin, I love my Ranger, I love my Mounts, I loved that you were somewhere between old school, and a clone of something new Vanguard, but most of all I love the endless nights sober or not exploring with friends, talking rubbish on voice chat, from politics to gossip in a fantastic game with wonderful crafting. Farewell good times. Greetings glory days.
Comments
Well maybe, just maybe, some day someone will buy it and bring it back to life.
Wishful thinking but 3 things would have to happen :
1) someone would have to buy it.
2) they would have to promote it.
3) stop the crap F2P.
As it stands now I would never go back anyway because its F2P ............ so good !
So sad.
I spent a lot of time in this game and no matter how many times I left I would always end up back in VG. The things I will remember most about this game was that:
I never ever ever was able to memorize the complete NT map EVER!!!!!
Harvesting did not suck
I just solo that 4 dot! only to be one shotted by a grey 1 dot?!?!
Do NOT land flying mounts on mountain sides... you might drown
is that mob over level 50? Better watch your chat window!
At times the mobs had a very long memory. To the point where you can kill a mummy deep inside a dungeon and when it respawns some time later it STILL has an agro lock on you and trains the entire place on top of you.
and I still need to find a group to get my final piece of swamp armor.
Vanguard, you will be missed and sadly I never found anything that can replace you when I have strayed but now I have no safe harbor to return to.
<div><span style="width:120px; height:120px;float:left;overflow: hidden;"><a href="http://www.zowned.com/Opef"><img src="http://www.zowned.com/file/pic/user/Opef_120.jpg"; style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px; width: 120px; height: 120px;"></a></span></div>
lol..
"Hey guys, we're implementing this great new "All Access" subscription option.. Pay one fee and play all our MMOs! Oh... but by the way, before you get too excited, we're also shutting down half of them..."
Typcal SOE/Smedley. The kings of empty hype and unfulfilled promises.
I understand if the games are under-performing or whatever, that they'd want to "trim the fat", so to speak. But their timing never ceases to amuse. It's almost like they deliberately aim to embody every "evil corporation with ulterior motives up the wazoo" stereotype people attribute to them.
Even the latest update from Smedley on Reddit, about "SWG refugees having a place to call home in an upcoming, as yet unannounced MMO" just reeks of opportunistic PR to get people hyped before they even know what they're being hyped about. It's like he's taking the vague hype around EQ:N/Landmark before anyone really even knew what it was, and taking it a step further. I can't help but feel like I'm being "punk'd" every time that guy makes an announcement, and it's just a matter of time before he goes "Sike! Gotcha again!"
Anyone who blames SoE for Vanguard is either extremely ill informed or a McQuaid extremist. Make no mistake Vanguard would not have launched for a single day without SoE. The blame rests 100% on Brad's shoulders.
Microsoft gave him complete control over the game and he pissed it away with lack of deadlines and a rehashed outdated game engine. Brad was not in the office for 90% of Vanguards development even though he was the CEO with the "vision." He hired mostly underqualified friends and family to develop a game for the first time and it certainly showed with VG. At the first sign of trouble instead of sticking around to try and fix the game he sold it and ran while half the friends and family got fired in the parking lot. Think about that for a moment.......
This time around he's still trying to lead everyone with little hands on involvement(said himself in a Q&A question I asked). He's still pushing some vision. He doesn't have friends and family as staff thankfully(likely because they disowned him) but he has a skeleton crew instead. Honestly the guy that designed most the EQ classic dungeons should be leading with Brad in the background as some flunkie.
Never heard anyone say anything good about Vanguard when it launched and saw very few people talking about it a few months after launch. Never tried it myself.
So uh, I guess I'm surprised it lasted this long?
RIP Vanguard, I had a blast playing this game. After end-game raiding for a while, I quit, feeling like I had "finished" the game.
Still has some of the best crafting and probably the best pet class.
------------
2024: 47 years on the Net.
Well that's awfully generous of you. You give SOE a complete pass on the current state of VG, even though they acquired all rights to it 7 years ago, and have sat on it since, making only a couple half-hearted attempts at doing anything with it. Despite promises made about its future, which were never fulfilled.
It would be like a couple adopting a child that was poorly raised for the first 5 years of its life, doing absolutely nothing to improve or adjust the child's attitude/problems for the next 12 years, and then when he ends up being thrown in jail, saying "Hey.. it's not our fault he turned into a thieving, drug-dealing/abusing miscreant... His biological parents are to blame for that. We had nothing to do with it".
It would be like continuing to blame Tanaka for any problems ARR has, even though his involvement ended when he left and Yoshi-P stepped in, back while 1.0 was still running.
SOE has had control of Vanguard for longer (2007-present) than even Sigil did (2002-2007). But somehow, you believe, they are blameless for its current state. That's quite amazing. I don't think I've ever seen such an impressive display of intellectual dishonesty.
Buying up games and then sitting on them and letting them rot until they're finally shut down is something SOE kinda has a history of. They did it with with Matrix Online. They did it with Vanguard as well.
Judging by the rest of your post, it's quite clear you have a strong anti-Brad McQuaid leaning, and so your post was basically just an excuse to take some pot shots at him and his new project. Regardless, your "version" of history just doesn't hold up.
Again, since the true motivation of your post is quite transparent, there's already a forum section specifically for Pantheon here on mmorpg.com. Seems your opinions of McQuaid and his new project, such as they are, would be better suited there.
Steam: Neph
Proof? They were the first person to bite to take it over, but given how many MMOs are funded, especially back then, someone else would have stepped forward that probably would have tried a lot harder.
What, pray tell, was bad about it? I've played MMOs for 13 years and it was probably the best PvE MMO to date.
Acolytes Gaming (forums.acolytesgaming.com)
Sheep or Shepard- Make up your own damn mind.
It is true, the older you get, the less patience you have for those who watch a Youtube video and from that believe they know it all.
Some of my best mmorpg memories are from Vanguard. We didn't care about the launch bugs with my friends. Everything was so exaggerated anyways and game was still very fun and easily playable.
But when EU servers kept having so bad ping all the time and SOE wasn't doing anything to fix tit, the game never got another chance after the initial 3-4 months.
Sad to see it go though. Maybe they'll replace it with another watered down single player game with online mode, then call it an mmorpg. Those seem to be popular these days.
Fact of the matter is Vanguard is old. Do not blame Brad for this... Vanguard got messed up by the Producers Microsoft and Sony for rushing it. I Beta tested Vanguard and bought it at launch noone knows anw was more pissed than me as it felt like a true sequel to EQ. If you want a sequel to EQ support PAntheon, do not diss it.
Also Brad cannot make Sony sell him the rights to Vanguard. It might cost more than making a new game.
Nirrtix
ALPHAs:
-Pantheon
-Shroud of the Avatar
-Camelot Unchained
BETAs:
-World of Warcraft
-City of Heroes
-Star Wars Galaxies
-Saga of Ryzom
-Homeworld
-Starcraft II
-Warcraft III
-Hearthstone
-Star Wars The Old Republic
-Vanguard Saga of Heroes
Sad that Vanguard came to this. I beta tested Vanguard and wanted it to succeed it had that old-school feel to it and Brad McQuaid did well on it. Unfortunatly the Producers wanted to rush it so in its "end" state there were vast zones that were empty and incomplete. Brad and the other Devs had to complete the game after it was launched.
Obviously I quit with disappointment, the game was fun, but it was not complete.
I think those who are dissing Brad McQuaid are very ill informed about this game and his history. SoE rushed him to finish the game. The game was epic compared to EQ2, and had a true feeling of EQ to it.
If you guys want a true sequel to EQ support Pantheon's kickstarter...
Nirrtix
ALPHAs:
-Pantheon
-Shroud of the Avatar
-Camelot Unchained
BETAs:
-World of Warcraft
-City of Heroes
-Star Wars Galaxies
-Saga of Ryzom
-Homeworld
-Starcraft II
-Warcraft III
-Hearthstone
-Star Wars The Old Republic
-Vanguard Saga of Heroes
AGreed, but for the same reason, Brad McQuaid cannot make his new project Everquest 3 or Vanguard 2 becuase Sony owns those rights.... even if they do not use them...
Nirrtix
ALPHAs:
-Pantheon
-Shroud of the Avatar
-Camelot Unchained
BETAs:
-World of Warcraft
-City of Heroes
-Star Wars Galaxies
-Saga of Ryzom
-Homeworld
-Starcraft II
-Warcraft III
-Hearthstone
-Star Wars The Old Republic
-Vanguard Saga of Heroes
I do not follow...
Why would Sony Online Entertainment help Brad Mc Qauid who does not help Sony and is not funded by them.
Pantheon is an independent game. Brad is doing it this way to avoid the crap that caused Vanguard to become into the mess it was. Vanguard would be even more epic if he had not gotten into bed with Sony Online Entertainment.
Nirrtix
ALPHAs:
-Pantheon
-Shroud of the Avatar
-Camelot Unchained
BETAs:
-World of Warcraft
-City of Heroes
-Star Wars Galaxies
-Saga of Ryzom
-Homeworld
-Starcraft II
-Warcraft III
-Hearthstone
-Star Wars The Old Republic
-Vanguard Saga of Heroes
Yup. Too many people go on and on about how great the game was, but if that was really the case, then why did so few people play it.
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, the greatest game that no-one played.
First you say this RED
And then follow it up with this ORANGE.
Anyone else see the complete fail in this? Cherry picking facts to support your view is a misrepresentation of the truth. Do more research then get back to us.