As some of you may know (ie: all of you, if you somehow know about this site 
) that I’ve been playing Vanguard: Saga of Heroes recently. By recently, I mean, since around early Beta 3 in August of last year. Thisi s actually a surprisingly long time for me to stick with any single MMO. Generally speaking, when I play an MMO, I usually stick around with it for a few months, and then drop it for one reason or another. It’s been somewhat of a pain over the years, but at the same time, I’ve also been able to get a very broad taste of the genre as a whole. I’ve been able to play quite a few games during this time.
So, what is it about Vanguard that has enabled me to play for so long?
Well, currently not a thing at all.
Well, that’s a lie. There’s actually two very distinct reasons why I am currently playing Vanguard. One of those, of course, is Vanguard WarCry which I currently still run. The other reason is because of my guild. Basically, I play because I feel obligated to play. I can’t in good conscious run a fansite for something that I’m not playing – that just isn’t right. I also don’t want to see the site die, which I’m afraid it would do just that. I also can’t leave my guild that I put so much time into setting up in the first place. More so because I’m fairly certain that only a very specific portion of it would survive. And that group is like a bunch of roaches – they could survive a nuclear winter.
Of course, it isn’t like I’ve been able to just keep myself going all of those months playing just due to those reasons. I have, both in the past, and really still now, enjoyed the game for particular reasons. The world is gigantic and filled with lore to seek out and uncover. There’s the potential for great community interaction and for player created content. It could be a great community game. In fact, I’ve been able to play Vanguard rather happily.
That’s… sort of the problem though. I get to see about as much community playing Vanguard as I could popping in Oblivion, or at best, Neverwinter Nights Multiplayer. Actually the latter would be better – it supports up to 64 people!
Now, Sony Online Entertainment is planning on merging these servers again – as seen in my last post. This is a good thing. This is a very good thing. However, now I have to wonder… Will this new merge actually draw me back in? It will fix my biggest problem with the game, an utter lack of other players to interact with.
I actually did run into a similar problem a few months back with Vanguard as well. Although it was less a reaction from a small community (the game was a bit better off at the time), but rather I just had gotten back from the Game Developers Conference, and I was damn irritated with generic MMOs. And Vanguard is about as generic of an MMO as you can get (save Diplomacy anyway). Regretfully, this little stint of uninterest has generated a bit of that to rise up again.
Luckily for me and you, though, this is a fantastic segway into really getting into the meat of what this site is about!
