Brad, what happens with Vanguard?

Earlchaos · 04-26-2007, 05:26 PM

Dear Brad,

let me first say a few words - i joined on Beta 4 because all my guild mates told me to have a look at vanguard. They were so enthusiastic - and after reading to all the webpages, the devs forum and creating my first toon on test server i was really impressed of the ideas behind Vanguard.

I was very addicted with the monk in beta so i told my guild, i will play a monk. I thought, there's nothing which can change my mind, the class was so unique - never seen such a class in a MMORPG. Then, just a few days before release (the really, really early Late-Beta release, the game needed at this point at least 4-6 months more developing/adjusting/balancing/bugfixing and 2-3 months of beta testing) - the monk was changed - from a unique, strong class to a unique, weak class. Ok, no worries, i decided to have a look at the sorcerer (tested other classes too) and i was addicted to it too. I loved all the AoE stuff and then i decided to start with a sorceror.

I couldn't wait that the game went gold (crappy CE lies here...) and then i played my mighty sorceror - it was about 2 weeks - then somebody decided to make the AoEs of the sorceror costing 10times more endu then mana. What the heck? For just standing around and lifting my arms i need endurance like i build a house?

Ok, no worries, i choose the disciple which was the "better monk" at this time. You know what happened to the bugged-like-hell, micromanagement, overpowered disciple. It was nerfed below ground compared with his (overpowered) abilities before. Ok, i decided to stay with my disciple as i was very addicted to him (and i'm still playing it, nearly 43 now). Well, not to mention, that the disciple is the most bugged class in game (see sickpuppies bug list) and the weakest (melee)-healer of all and has a mitigation like a chinese rice paper. I decided to play him, no matter what happens.

But then (Sigil and Sony and all the players were aware, that there's not much to do at level 50, raids still doesn't work, caravans not to mention) you gave us a bloody Double Whopper Extra experience weekend. I was really astouned what happened? Did Sigil throw away all their fantastic plans, the unique concept of the game away?

Yes, they did, another dbl exp weekend, porters everywhere, less debt, less armour costs, faster and easier experience gaining in all 3 spheres - finally i came to the conclusion that you, Brad, have sold your soul for money to Sony.

No offence SOE but after the EQ2 deseaster again the same wrong decisions? Simplify everything, the people love it? No way Sony, that works for World of Warcraft but thats an other story.

After levelling 42 levels with my mates, finding out that nearly everything after level 40 is just some bloody faction grind, drop grind, experience grind and all the new concepts are thrown away i have to say, that i'm very, very disappointed. It looks like you, Brad, broke all the promises you gave the community. Obviously Sony has taken the control and drives the next game at the wall with maximum speed.

Mates are quitting, are disappointed or in a bad mood, every day in Teamspeak somebody is pissed of by grind content and missing content like with the Florindyl etc. quests.

Fun is coming down past 40 - well, some people like all the grind but when all players are 50 and there's still no content, no raid functionality - you may loose some customers.

I'm still playing but i don't know how long i stay. I'm disappointed. I'm angry. And i lost all faith in you Brad. I know it's hard to do a game without mony or with the wrong publisher but basically, i've to say that, i'm paying for this game. I'm willing to pay when i get a reward which is different from the millionst Asia Grinder. I'm willing to wait for changes.

But time is running and you're competitors are not sleeping.

kind regards, Frank

Kelenvor · 04-26-2007, 05:32 PM

Why do you call EQ2 a disaster? It seems to be one of the more successful MMOs on the market currently.

Earlchaos · 04-26-2007, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kelenvor

Why do you call EQ2 a disaster? It seems to be one of the more successful MMOs on the market currently.

Because i've played it a few months. Maybe the playing experience was better, if you don't have to use the german client.

And: http://eq2players.station.sony.com/n...s&locale=en_US

cheers

FallingMoon · 04-26-2007, 05:39 PM

EQ2 started off bad. But is now a great game. If you log in EQ2 you would see players runing around everywhere and can't keep up with the chat channels. I play VG but EQ2 is still my main mmo. (will be for a while)

Fingis · 04-26-2007, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallingMoon

EQ2 started off bad. But is now a great game.

EQ2 isn't great, it's good though.

Combat is too easy, with the linked mobs highlighted, locked encounters, lack of different skills.

I do like the ambiance in EQ2, but even on the most busy rp server, it often seemed empty.

Tark · 04-26-2007, 05:52 PM

How does eq2 keep popping up in these threads anyway?

Fingis · 04-26-2007, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tark

How does eq2 keep popping up in these threads anyway?

It's nearly identical to VG.

Lord_Phoenix · 04-26-2007, 05:55 PM

Last I checked, both EQ and EQ2 are in some subscriber trouble. WoWs really hurt their subscriber numbers. Though my numbers are out of date by almost a year. EQ2 and WoW came out around the same time. It signaled a very sharp decline in EQ subscriber numbers, with over half it's population leaving, from 550k to down below 200k, with most probably going to EQ2, which caused a sharp spike in it's population, up to nearly 350k, which then promptly fell to half that number.

Aroua999 · 04-26-2007, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord_Phoenix

Last I checked, both EQ and EQ2 are in some subscriber trouble. WoWs really hurt their subscriber numbers. Though my numbers are out of date by almost a year. EQ2 and WoW came out around the same time. It signaled a very sharp decline in EQ subscriber numbers, with over half it's population leaving, from 550k to down below 200k, with most probably going to EQ2, which caused a sharp spike in it's population, up to nearly 350k, which then promptly fell to half that number.

Although your numbers are true, I don't think they are in "trouble". 200k subs for an 8 year old game that has no debt is more than fine. Plenty to pay the people who are working on it and still have lots' of profit. Same for EQ2. Granted it hit their proffit margins hard, and they may even need to merge servers again eventually, but the games are both still very healthy in numbers and in money.

Eq2 struggled a bit a number of times, but it is past it's payback time now, and anything it brings in covers overhead easily and the rest is just profit now.

I mean, if Horizons still has people working on it and patching now and then, and it is making a small profit for it's people with only 10k subs, I expect a game with 150k or 200k subs will be aok!

Squishy · 04-26-2007, 06:06 PM

I was about to say that you should change that it from 'Dear Brad' to 'Dear Smedley', but then I actually read your post, lol. Personally, I'm going to wait it out and see what happens - I don't know how long - maybe another month or two. Now that Brad has left and SOE has controlling interest, they might be able to turn the game around. Sure, it's not Brad's vision anymore but I don't think SOE ruined EQ2. It's actually a pretty decent game. I don't know. VG just seems kind of lackluster right now. I'm hoping SOE makes it better. They also have the potential to screw it up. It's a waiting game at this point. I'm very disappointed that Brad sold out so quickly. He didn't even give it more than 3 months!