Weekly Newsletter 10_20_08: Buy Yourselves Some Time

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Updated Fri, Jan 02, 2009 by Dalmarus

Buy Yourselves Some Time

October 20th, 2008 - By Dalmarus

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes continues to garner attention and attract new players. The majority of players I talked with this weekend had one set of questions on their minds though. Why is the population still too low? Why haven't they seen any advertising for the recently released Isle of Dawn? Do the majority of gamers out there know that to go from the trial to the full game, all you have to do is start a subscription and don't have to buy the game? Where's the game going? These were all questions that I got when I hopped on today to ask what was on people's minds. These are all questions I hope to have answered in the future, but for now, there is one item of interest I'd like to focus on.

One suggestion I saw more times than I can count, and one that I completely agree with, is that Vanguard desperately needs an AA (Alternate Advancement) system of some sort sooner rather than later. One of the issues facing a large number of players in the game is that they either don't want to raid or simply don't have the time necessary to do so. At level 50, this leaves them with very few options to continue enjoying the game unless they start yet another alternate character. What happen to the days of falling in love with one character and putting all your time and effort into improving them?

Vanguard cloth map

The character model revamp was done for a variety of reasons, one of which was to make the characters appear more heroic. This implies that each character should also be heroic in the sense of being able to improve them as time goes on, without necessarily hitting a plateau. I understand the development team has a limited amount of resources, time, and basic manpower. They've made it clear there are other priorities for the game and they're working on them in the order designated. I think we can all agree that this path has paid off for the team in certain ways.

The Vanguard of today is a far cry from the game that released back in January of 2007. Some will cry over that statement and start burning small effigies at their altars in front of their blown up and framed images of "The Vision". For those players, while I can understand your frustration, I think there comes a point where you just have to say the game may not be what you wanted and you just have to ask yourself if you still enjoy the game. If you do, accept the changes and enjoy your time in Telon. If not, it may be time to move on, for your simple health if nothing else. For those players like myself that still enjoy the game but want to see our characters develop further without having to raid, a set of AA's to go after would make all the difference.

I understand the team has a set of priorities. Without trying to sound too audacious though, I would suggest getting an AA system into the game be put near the top of that list. A deep and well-developed AA system would add in enormous amount of playability back into the game for those players that are level 50. It would also buy the development team a lot of time to start focusing on new content without the player base continually freaking out over the fact that it takes a long time. The team will never be able to come up with content fast enough to satisfy everyone, but an AA system would go a very long ways towards making it bearable.

Through all of my ramblings here, be sure to understand that I have faith in the development team. I met the team in Las Vegas at this year's FanFaire and they were a great group of folks. They took more time out of their day than anyone had any right to ask. At times, it seemed like they were even tracking players down to talk about the game. If you can find a group more enthusiastic and passionate about this project, more power to you. Personally, I don't think such a person exists. In other words, think of all this as some un-asked for advice because even though I think the game needs an AA set as soon as possible, I still believe in the commitment of this team.

Now that you've had to put up with my ramblings, let me tell you what the pay off was. How would you like to have a Vanguard cloth map, signed by the development team? I know I certainly would and I can't imagine my fellow gamers reading this are quite that different from me. Over the next two weeks, the things I post on the Vanguard site, and on our forums will contain hints to an area in the game that I'll be hiding on a date yet to be announced. That's all I can give you for details right now, but just consider it thanks for reading the whole letter, haha. Until next week!

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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.