The Newb
Experiment:
The Beginning

October 16th, 2008 - By
Dalmarus

The target="_blank">Vanguard:
Saga of Heroes trial went live in recent weeks with the
introduction of the href="http://www.joinvanguard.com/isleofdawn/" target="_blank">Isle
of Dawn.
Shortly before the Isle went live, I
wrote an article in which I talked about how well I thought the
development team had improved the initial experience for players new to
the lands of Telon entitled,  href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=1003"
target="_blank">Isle
of Dawn: An Overview. All of this
was, of course, taken from the point of view from a very experienced
MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) player since I've been
involved with these types of games almost 10 years now.



I stand by the words I wrote then, but for a while now, I've wanted to
put those impressions to a test. Unfortunately, all of my friends have
been playing MMOG's nearly as long as I have, with some of them having
played just as long. That left me in a bit of a quandary until I came
up with an idea to also introduce my wife to the genre.



For gamers across the country, perhaps even the world, getting your
spouse or significant other to play the games you love can arguably be
compared to Sir Lancelot's quest for the Holy Grail. Over the course of
the last 10 years, I've made progress, but getting my wife interested
in the MMOG genre has always proven more elusive than an eel greased
with warm butter. Thus was born the article you're reading now, one I
hope to turn into a series as the weeks go by.

While not a complete novice to all games, this was my wife's first step
into the MMOG arena. She's played (and loved) Sacred, Diablo I
& II, Gauntlet: Dark Legends, and numerous other RPG
(Role-Playing Game) Hack & Slash games. I thought previously
getting into other games and later Vanguard would have been a natural
progression, but so far, I’ve been wrong.



The other week, I finally came up with a plan to satisfy both issues
I'd been trying to resolve. With a request to try out the game to give
me (and my readers) a perspective on the Isle of Dawn experience from a
player new to MMOG's, I had a chance to not only see if my impressions
of the Isle were correct, I may also have found the Holy Grail. Time
will tell.



Over the next few weeks (and possibly longer), I hope to bring you
these articles on a regular basis. I have to admit that the answers
gathered below surprised me. Not that anything about them was actually
strange, but in the fact that I've seen the same theme from other
interviews in the past and never really thought of my wife as a gamer.
It made for some interesting reading on multiple levels, so I hope you
enjoy it.



As a quick note, if anyone else would like to try this experiment with
a spouse, significant other, or friend, just follow these steps:

• Have them href="http://www.joinvanguard.com/isleofdawn/" target="_blank">download
  the
  trial on their computer.
• Let them play for a couple hours with instructions that
  they are only
  to ask you questions if they find themselves stuck and begin getting
  highly frustrated. Remember, this is supposed to be a point of view
  from a new player, not one with a guardian angel hovering over their
  shoulder.
• Leave the room for a couple hours. I'm serious. Use it as
  an excuse to
  play that console game that's been sitting there teasing you with your
  lack of time, get caught up on some reading, television, or any other
  myriad number of things you've been meaning to do.
• Once they've played for a while, ask them to fill out this
  set of
  questions.
• Finally, send a screenshot of their character and the
  answered
  questions to me HERE!

Here's a brief
Interview with my wife, completed shortly after her play
session this past Saturday. Enjoy!
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