Happily Homeless

No Official Vanguard Forums at Launch

by Shayalyn

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Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will
launch some time this winter and provide fans with a new home in the
medieval fantasy land of Telon. Most gamers who’ve followed Vanguard
know that fact, and they’re looking forward to it. But in another
sense, Vanguard fans may feel homeless. Sigil Games Online, the
developers of Vanguard, will not host an official community forum at
launch; their forums will be for technical support only. That means no
class forums, no server forums, and no off topic chatter. That thought
may sound a little bit daunting for some. After all, where will all of
those gamers go to discuss the game, ask questions, and share answers
and opinions?



All is not lost, Vanguard faithful. No one will end up forumless,
living in what amounts to an cardboard box under some off-ramp of the
Information Superhighway. Sigil has wisely created a program through
which community sites can become “affiliates.” Affiliate sites are
those hand-picked and approved by Sigil. According to the official
Vanguard website, affiliate sites “...have agreed to the guidelines we
have established and have proven themselves to be assets to our
community.” Vanguard Ten Ton Hammer is an official Vanguard affiliate
site. You’ll find others listed href="http://www.vanguardsoh.com/fansite.php">here.



Why would Sigil choose not to host an official forum after launch? Is
it a cost-saving measure? Is it because they don’t want to pour extra
resources into policing a site and keeping its online neighborhood
habitable? Perhaps both of those things play into the decision, but
it’s more likely that Sigil’s decision has to do with their desire to
foster community, both inside the virtual world of Telon as well as
outside it and on the Internet.



I think that not having an official forum for Vanguard is actually a
pretty revolutionary idea, if for one simple reason--official game
sites can be scary places. I've never been to an official forum that
wasn't full of sniping and flaming. And it's no one's fault, really. No
matter how well the moderators do their job, when you put that much
digital humanity in one place at a time you're going to end up with, to
quote Obi-Wan Kenobi, "a wretched hive of scum and villainy." I mean,
compare an enormous city with hundreds of thousands of people within
its limits to one with a population of about 10,000. Which one's going
to have the higher crime rate? Sure, awful things can happen in a
smaller town...but people don't expect them as a matter of course.



Some Vanguard fans are probably concerned that they’ll be unable to run
to an official forum to seek quick answers to game questions. But just
because a community has hundreds of thousands of people doesn't mean
its members will be any better at providing the answers they're looking
for than a site with 10,000 registered forum members. I’m betting that
the good players, the ones with all the answers, will hang out at the
top affiliate sites. And look at it this way--the affiliates should
provide plenty of content for you to browse, and you won't have to
brave shark-infested waters to ask a question.



Folks also worry that they won’t have one convenient catch-all site to
visit when they have questions or want to learn more about a specific
aspect of Vanguard. But I predict that various affiliate sites will
become good resources for specific things. There'll be the
class-specific sites, the international sites, sites that keep their
news current, and sites that offer tons of guides and information.
Vanguard Ten Ton Hammer intends to focus on news (including dev
interviews), guides, and quest information. And we update with news and
new content 6 days a week. You'll also never see a gold seller ad on a
Ten Ton site, and our company is not owned by a gold selling company
(Allakhazam’s, Thottbot, and OGaming are all owned by the massive gold
seller, IGE).



As with everything, I think the cream of the community site crop will
rise to the top once the official forums cease to be. There are some
great and growing Vanguard communities among the affiliate sites, and
the ones that keep their sites current and provide the information
players are looking for will stand out and earn a bookmark.

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