alt="Newsletter Header"
src="http://media.tentonhammer.com/vanguard/gallery/albums/Tuesday-Tips/Newsletter.jpg">

Can Player Versus
Player Survive?


September 1st, 2008 - By
Dalmarus

While the target="Blank_">Vanguard:
Saga of Heroes team is going full steam in an attempt to get
the upcoming trial, href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=1003"
target="Blank_">Isle
of Dawn, ready for public consumption, the game continues to
garner the attraction of gamers everywhere. Every day I log in, I see
more players in various areas, and the regional chat channels are
always in use, with 90% of the content within them actually
being game
related - amazing! Sadly, while the new players continue to stream into
the game, batches of older players are becoming more vocal with some of
their complaints, feeling there are some important pieces of their
beloved game that are being ignored.



You've all heard me give the argument of this game being a business,
having a limited amount of resources, and more in the past, so I'll be
kind and skip over those tried and true reasons of the past. The
development team is focusing virtually every resource and ounce of time
they have toward the development of the Isle of Dawn trial. I can't
stress how important I think this project is for improving the
population of the game in general.


href="http://media.tentonhammer.com/vanguard/gallery/albums/Vanguard-Item-Pics/ride.jpg"
target="blank_"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 178px;"
alt="Off to Battle!"
src="http://media.tentonhammer.com/vanguard/gallery/albums/Vanguard-Item-Pics/ride_thumb.jpg">

style="font-style: italic;">Off to Battle!

Recently, a number of players on the Sartok server have been voicing
their concern that the PvP (Player versus Player) server is on it's
last trickle of life support and if some drastic attention isn't paid
to it in the immediate future, it's finally going to die a tragic
death. With the open beta of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/war" target="Blank_">Warhammer
Online
starting in one week, with the release of the game coming shortly after
that, they fear the PvP days of Vanguard are in serious danger. They
feel the balancing of the classes has been completely ignored in
regards
to PvP and that the current class revamps continually change and
dictate which class is the king of the mountain, with that status
changing from patch to patch.



I've never made any secret about the fact that I'm not a PvP player.
When it comes to MMOG's (Massively Multiplayer Online Games), I never
have been. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy a good round of Unreal
Tournament, Halo, or Rainbow Six mayhem with my friends just like the
next person. First Person Shooter (FPS) games are where I've always
felt PvP play should remain since long before MMOG's came into
existence (in a graphical sense at least), when a little game called href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_%28video_game%29"
target="Blank_">DOOM
shocked the world. That being said, however, in one way I do feel for
the PvP players in Vanguard. They've taken the time and effort to make
Sartok their home, spending countless hours developing loyalties and
allegiances on that server.



While I sympathize with those on Sartok, I don't believe things will
change for them any time in the future, and for this, I think the blame
lies in two places. Firstly, and this is 100% completely my (and only
my) opinion, PvP never should have been advertised for Vanguard in the
first place. When the game released, it gave every indication
imaginable that PvP was tacked on at the very last minute. You'll
notice in my href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=749"
target="Blank_">review
of the game almost a year ago, I said the very same thing. I
thought it then, and I still feel it's the truth. Unless the time and
resources were going to be directed to the development and balancing of
the PvP game within Vanguard, it simply never should have been added.


href="http://media.tentonhammer.com/vanguard/gallery/albums/Vanguard-Item-Pics/pet1.jpg"
target="blank_"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 169px;"
alt="Dark Elf Pet"
src="http://media.tentonhammer.com/vanguard/gallery/albums/Vanguard-Item-Pics/pet1_thumb.jpg">

style="font-style: italic;">Who Says Dark Elf Pets Are Tiny?

The other part of this argument ties into the first. Vanguard is a
PvE-centric (Player versus Environment) game. I could be completely
wrong, but from what I've seen, it was always intended to be such and
that's not likely to change. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
The majority (by a seemingly major percentage) of the games' denizens
reside on the three available PvE servers: Halgar, Seradon, and Xeth.
As such, the majority of the Vanguard teams' efforts should be
dedicated to the fixing and continued development of content for the
PvE servers to better serve the community.



This doesn't mean I don't feel sorry for Vanguard's PvP players,
because as I took some time to think about it after this week's
discussions, I actually do. Even though it's not my play style, it was
an option available for the players that chose to do so. They went down
the path of PvP enjoyment because they wanted to and it was an aspect
of the product promised to them from the makers of the game. They're
not the only ones that would be extremely agitated (to say the least)
if the roles were reversed and the PvE side of the game had been
getting a small percentage of the pie.



Needless to say, I certainly don't have a solution though. Just because
I skipped over all the reasons everyone has heard before on why things
are the way they are in the game (reality of a business, limited
resources, etc), doesn't make any of it less true, no matter how much
it may suck for individual players. I think the best we can do at this
point is spend some time testing on the Isle of Dawn, get it to a live
state soon, and hope it helps gather the subscription numbers we all
know Vanguard should have. At that point, and that point only, I think
the PvP in Vanguard may stand a chance to live up to its potential.





What do you think? Leave a comment href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=33647"
target="_blank">here!




Have you missed any of Dalmarus' Vanguard Chronicles? Check out href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=969"
target="_blank">The
Archives to get caught up!



Disclaimer:
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of
the Ten Ton Hammer network or staff.


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To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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