Vanguard at Gamergod

Gamergod has an interesting article on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Unfortunately the interesting part is that it answers the question "What if dinosaurs could design MMORPG?". Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler, who have both worked on the first Everquest, are trying to stem back the tide of modern MMORPG development. Their new company, Sigil, is trying to put the genie back into the bottle, by making Vanguard: Saga of Heroes go back to the hardcore roots of Everquest, but with modern day graphics.

Some choice quotes: "Jeff marveled at the artistry and polish of WoW, yet lamented the fact that the leveling was much too fast, leaving many players with nothing to do at the level cap. We discussed our mutual game play experiences conquering beautifully crafted outdoor areas like Desolace in WoW in a day or two. Content like this would have occupied a player for weeks if not months in EverQuest. He vowed that Sigil will not make the same mistake."

and

"Jeff Butler mentioned at the demo that downtime will be making somewhat of a comeback as it's an important factor in socialization and community building."

Ouch! One doesn't know if one should applaud their courage to make a game so solidly target at the hardcore minority, or whether one should laugh about their stupidity.

Sorry, but even if they delivered a game with the same polish as WoW, as long as they stick to their plan to make leveling slow, make one zone last "for weeks if not months" by having player kill the same mobs over and over, and put several minutes of downtime between fights for "community building", they will only get a tiny number of players. Also a game preview which mentions the word "community" six times, and the word "solo" not at all, will probably have forced grouping for much of the game.

They *do* have some good ideas for Vanguard, like the rumor system where innkeepers give you hints to where you can find quest NPC for your level, and an interesting sounding diplomacy system. So if the game ever comes out (it is designed to run on Microsofts *next* operating system, Windows Vista), I will probably end up buying it and testing it for a month. But the chances that slow leveling will induce me to stay with a game for years are slim.
- posted by Tobold @ 9:14 AM Permanent Link