Perception

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Yesterday, I posted my first impressions of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. For the most part the comments were positive.

Any title that ships is going to have pundits who take it apart piece by piece, dissecting the game into its elemental parts. Invariably, this scrutiny breaks down because as anyone who has played MMOG knows, the total game experience is more than the sum of its parts. Reviewers fall back on comparisons and scoring systems, but in the end no reviewer can truly capture what matters, the personal perceptions and expectations of the potential player.

The perception at large pre-launch and pre-Beta 5 was that Vanguard was going to be a game that was different from the rest in extraordinary ways. At later levels, and even to some extent for the new player this appears to be the case. What is perceived as true, and what is true are often not the same thing. Vanguard currently has a perception and expectation problem. It is a problem caused, I believe, by the need to put the game in the hands of the public before the developers were completely comfortable doing so. The change in publishers from Microsoft to SoE and the unexpectedly early launch date suggest a funding issue. Whether this is fact or not, it is the perception on the virtual street and it should probably be addressed if the good folks at Sigil want to see an expanding number of subscribers.

Vanguard has a lot of potential. Anyone who has played it can see that. The game is enormous, not only geographically, but in scope. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the public perception of the game. If you have played it, was it what you expected? If you haven't played it, what do you "think" it is?

In other MMOG news, Mark Wallace has an excellent article up about meta-guilds and how they share their game experiences. It also touches on the interesting aspect of how meta-guilds take their "culture" from one game to another.

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