Weekly Newsletter 09_29_08: No Need For Mourning Just Yet

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Updated Fri, Jan 02, 2009 by Dalmarus

No Need For Mourning Just Yet

September 29th, 2008 - By Dalmarus

Is PvP (Player versus Player) dead in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes? Will the Isle of Dawn live up to its potential and bring in new subscriptions? Where are the advertisements? How many players coming back for the account reactivation period will remain? These are all questions the Vanguard community would like to have answered. Some of them would require a crystal ball, while others need little more than some observational powers.

With the successful release of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, there are a number of players concerned this is finally the last nail in the coffin for PvP in the land of Telon. Others argue that since Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures didn't manage to kill it off, Warhammer won't either. If you believe PvP in Vanguard is inherently doomed, then there is some truth to both statements. Age of Conan may not have been the PvP monster many players were hoping for, but Warhammer is a game cut from different cloth. The big daddy of RvR (Realm versus Realm) combat, Mythic Entertainment, has a little experience with this type of gameplay and appears to be doing quite well. I'll even go out on a limb and state that Vanguard and Warhammer has the potential to satisfy everyone's gaming needs at the moment.

Lord Bamf

"One of these days, I'll take him out..."

I'm not a PvP player in general, but with RvR, it makes perfect sense even to a carebear like me. I've been having a reasonable amount of fun in Warhammer while working on the spell lists for the Warhammer Online section of Ten Ton Hammer. Since the game is designed around PvP with PvE (Player versus Environment) playing second fiddle, it's not the complete game for me.

Vanguard, on the other hand, is the best PvE game in existence today. This is, of course, nothing more than my opinion, but I stand by the statement anyway. For those looking for a deep and impressively expansive world to satisfy their PvE needs, you can't get much better, so if you have the time and resources to spare, playing both may be the temporary answer we've all been waiting for. For those that remain on Sartok in the hopes that things will eventually improve, more power to you!

Speaking of things we've been waiting for, the Isle of Dawn has been a hotly anticipated goal in Vanguard's journey. The free trial is available for players to download, so don't hesitate to pester all your friends that aren't currently playing to get in there and give it a shot. Also keep in mind that if you had an account that had been inactive for at least 60 days prior to the 18th of September this year, then your account has been reactivated and will remain so until the 18th of October. This is, of course, assuming your account was left in good standing and you hadn't been smacked with the Baninator!

With the proverbial iron so hot to strike, I'm curious why I have yet to see an ounce of advertising in all of this. I'm not talking about TV commercials as others have implied on the forums when advertising was mentioned. I'm talking about banner ads on various gaming sites and the like. Perhaps a massive emailing to all SOE's (Sony Online Entertainment) current and past customers? The development team is hopefully just holding the marketing team back a bit until they've finished ironing out some hitching issues and memory leaks that have been introduced with Game Update #6. If that's the case, then bravo to them. If Marketing has decided they're not going to do anything at all though, I think that's a bigger shame than I can express.

What do you think? Leave a comment here!

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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.