Filed under: Vanguard

SOE announces dates for Fan Faire 2010

by Krystalle Voecks Mar 4th 2010 at 5:30PM

Filed under: EverQuest, EverQuest II, PlanetSide, Events, real-world, The Agency, News items, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, Everquest Online Adventures, Free Realms, DC Universe Online, PoxNora

For fans of Sony Online Entertainment's stable of MMO titles, the time has come once again to start making plans for Fan Faire. It looks like we'll all be heading back to Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas from August 5-8 for a weekend chock-full of all manner of crazy gaming fun with MMO friends.

This year, they're offering everything from day passes at $35 on up to a Platinum badge which -- for $135 -- will net you access to all events, plus an additional in-game item, a special swag bag boasting more than just regular Fan Faire goodies, access to a VIP lounge, and even private VIP events. Add to that the room discounts starting at $65 a night for a swanky hotel right on the main Vegas strip, and this could well be a great vacation that just happens to include the awesome fun of this year's SOE Fan Faire.

For now, there's no details on the schedule of events, but we wouldn't be surprised to see Alan "Brenlo" Crosby wedging people into t-shirts three sizes too small, as well as an appearance by of one of our favorite Dwarves. If previous years are any indication, this is a should-not-miss event for any serious SOE fan.

Vanguard celebrates three years of Telon

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 1st 2010 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, News items, Vanguard

It's been over three years since Vanguard: Saga of Heroes launched to a very rocky start. Many didn't think the game would last far beyond one, but here we are, celebrating the third anniversary of Telon! The last three years have seen many improvements to Vanguard, from new dungeons, to performance enhancements, to even letting the players choose which bugs the developers should fix.

Sure, the game's future may be a little cloudy, but let's live in the here and now! Enjoy the things we have while we have them! The game has survived for a third year, which is three more years than most gamers gave it credit for.

So, to celebrate the third anniversary, current players can jump into the game to visit the Historian of Telon in New Targonor, Ahgram, or Tawar Galan for a special anniversary gift package. If you're stuck at work, then swing by the Vanguard Players website and take a look at some of the fond memories of the game's player base. If you want to get a deeper perspective, however, check out Beau Turkey's look back at his time in Vanguard on Spouse Aggro.

One Shots: Amidst the trees

by Krystalle Voecks Jan 13th 2010 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Vanguard, One Shots

While we don't often hear about Vanguard, there is still a passionate community that really likes this game. With opening areas like the one seen in the above image, you can guess at least one of the reasons they're fond of their chosen MMO. This lovely image comes to us from Sergei F. who gave us his thoughts on Vanguard and this area, so we're going to turn over today's One Shots to him. Remember, if you'd like to contribute your images and thoughts, send them in to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and the name of the game. On that note, we'll turn it over to Sergei:

I've been playing Vanguard: Saga of Heroes previously. Explored a little bit here, a little bit there. I've seen harsh dwarven lands in Thestra continent, barren sands of Lomshir and red rocks of dark elven land in Qalia continent. But I never visited Kojan landmass, except for the small piece of it in Isle of Dawn. So I started [an] all-new Wood Elf ranger named Antalisia (Halgar server) and decided to choose her home starting place at Ca'ial Brael. (Thanks [to] the devs there are 14 completely different starting locations apart from Isle of Dawn exist in the game!)

Gallery: One Shots

Avoiding a sinking game

by Eliot Lefebvre Dec 25th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Business models, Culture, The Matrix Online, Opinion, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard

With the holiday season usually comes a healthy dose of gift money, and what comes with extra money for many people reading the site is new games. It's not as if the past year has been exactly spare on game releases, although the success of several is a bit up in the air. But be forewarned -- if you needed the reminder, 2009 could very well be the year we learned that no title is immune to being shut down, with Tabula Rasa and The Matrix Online being among the highest-profile games to finally be shut down for good due to sales figures.

Bio Break has an excellent post on what is termed "avoiding the Titanic" -- in short, making sure that you're not signing up for a game that's going to just leave you high and dry. The recent announcement from Vanguard is among the examples cited, although some fans would be quick to point out it's not a death knell for the game. But it doesn't sound like the game is going to advance far beyond its current state, and for many games, that means a slow bleeding-out. Of course, avoiding titles that are perceived as hopeless can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it's worth keeping in mind that perhaps that money might be better spent if you question a game's near future.

Vanguard paints a rocky road to come in the year ahead

by Seraphina Brennan Dec 22nd 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Vanguard

While the holidays are a time full of cheer and special events, things in Telon aren't looking as bright as usual.

In a recent announcement to the Vanguard community, the team has decided to be as frank as possible and outline the road map for the game in the year ahead. Due to limited resources and a new focus on bug elimination over ambitious content releases, some of the game's anticipated updates are being shelved indefinitely. Those features include the Halls of Shattered Souls, Pankhor Zhi, Nexus, and the anticipated "alternate advancement" system.

Help a troubled lowbie in Vanguard by becoming a mentor

by Eliot Lefebvre Oct 9th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Leveling, Vanguard

Just like the tile says, there's a way you can help low-level players in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes -- become a mentor. With the most recent patch, Vanguard has added a mentoring system to help players of differing levels adventure and interact in a meaningful fashion.

Similar to most mentoring systems, the high-level player's abilities and stats are capped at an appropriate level for the mentored player, restricting them to abilities they would have been able to use at the lower level. In all other ways, however, they'll function as a perfectly normal player, including gaining experience at the rate of a lower-level character. As a result, the tool is both an excellent way for dedicated players to introduce their friend to the game and a method for them to earn a little extra experience in the process. The mentoring system is fully usable if your friends are in the free trial area as well, which is one of the best ways to encourage a player to stick with the game over a longer period.

The patch also included the usual plethora of bugfixes and minor balance tweaks that have come to be standard fare for the MMO industry. Take a look at the full patch notes for the details.

[ via WarCry ]

One Shots: Not a meanie genie

by Krystalle Voecks Sep 24th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Vanguard, One Shots

We don't often get to look into the lands of Telon, so we're glad when one of the adventurers who spends time in Vanguard decides to drop us a line. Today's One Shots comes to us courtesy of one of our regular MMO world travelers, Johanis, who spent some time in Vanguard not too long ago and sent in this image of a strange meeting that took place. He writes in: Urlay, my low level Necromancer in Vanguard was wandering around the area near Khal when she came across a rather large friend...thankfully he was friendly and actually offered her a quest. That's good to know, because we don't happen to see a lamp handy to put that big fellow into.

One Shots cannot live on a diet of our screenshots alone! We need reader submissions to keep the worlds we check out interesting and varied. So the next time you're out spending time in your favorite MMO, why not grab a screenshot and tell us a bit about your adventures there? It's easy and fun. All you have to do is email an image to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game it's from, and a note letting us know what's going on. (Also, please make sure your image is at least 1024px across and has as few UI elements as is possible.) We'll post it out here and let everyone share in your tale!

Gallery: One Shots

One Shots: Come sail away

by Krystalle Voecks Sep 12th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Vanguard, One Shots

Sure, you can get all manner of mounts, but in very few games can you get a boat of your own. Today's One Shots shows off a lovely shot of several ships, just ready for passengers to head off for adventure in Vanguard. Toad, who sent this in, describes the scene: Toad along with his friend Aenedor take a break from hunting elementals and stand together admiring the Tall Ships moored in the Sea of Kojan, part of the Kojani Archipilago. Player owned galleons were a relatively recent addition to Vanguard and are still quite rare so it was very cool to see these three along with two smaller vessels moored amongst the islands of Kojan.

Does your favorite MMO boast a cool-looking way to get around? If so, we'd love to see it. Just grab a screenshot and email it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it along to us.

Gallery: One Shots

Vanguard gets final 3 weapon sets: Druid, Necro, Sorcerer

by James Egan Aug 30th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, News items, Vanguard

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes doesn't get as much attention as other SOE games, but it clearly has a dedicated community of players. It's also a game that has seen a significant amount of change since it launched, and the developers are continually improving Vanguard through player input.

The latest announcement from the Vanguard developers is about the new weapon sets they're going to introduce, specifically for the Druid, Necro, and Sorcerer classes. They write: "You might have thought that we forgot about 3 certain classes when we were featuring some of the new weaponry. Never fear, this week we were able to wrangle the final 3 weapon sets up for everyone to check out in all their glory."

Part one of Brad McQuaid's Vanguard post-mortem

by William Dobson Jun 30th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, Vanguard

When most people think of Vanguard, they usually remember that the game had an extremely rocky launch period. A lot of things were changed and fixed after the game was sold to Sony Online Entertainment. The original developer Sigil Games Online (headed by former SOE superstar Brad McQuaid) was also sold in this deal. McQuaid's blog welcome-page mentions that he's been on a break from the games industry since the above events in 2007, but "as of late, he's starting to get that itch again...". It was probably this itch that prompted him to start a multi-part post-mortem of his time with Vanguard at his blog.

McQuaid said that he will be addressing topics in chronological order, and part one deals with what he calls the first big mistake that Sigil made: get everything in writing.

"The first mistake that would have a serious impact later in development was the verbal agreement with Microsoft that Vanguard was to be a first rate, AAA title."

It sounds like a change at Microsoft led to a completely different level of support for Vanguard; less funding, less time, and overall a different outlook on what Vanguard was to become.

"So the moral of the story is one that should have occurred to us: get everything in writing, get it into the contract, because even a company like Microsoft can suddenly undergo significant changes to its management and teams. And when those changes do happen, you might as well be dealing with a new company – anything and everything can change, and change quickly."

Part two of the post-mortem will be dealing with the good and bad aspects of creating an all-star team, and we'll bring it to your attention when it surfaces.

Station launcher moves out of beta, adds voice chat support

by Seraphina Brennan Jun 29th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Pirates of the Burning Sea, PlanetSide, Launches, MMO industry, Patches, The Matrix Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard

So the beta launcher is finally un-betaed! Sony has officially pushed the Station Launcher into the "final version," dropping in voice chat, simplified menus, faster servers for downloads, and the ability to run the launcher without administrative rights as well.

The fun stuff, however, is really contained within the voice update. This new voice, dubbed "station voice," lets you communicate with friends from within the game or outside of the game. Creating a room from outside of the game is done with your in-game character, letting people who are on the station launcher join you, or people inside of the game join your room from the inside, no launcher required.

Plus, the other new features like the upgraded servers that will give more downstream bandwidth for game updates, are certainly nothing to sneeze at.

This doesn't mean that Sony is done with upgrading and changing the launcher, as they've already pledged to continue taking user feedback and pushing that into their product to constantly make a better launcher.

For the full patch notes, check them out on the EverQuest forums, located in this thread.

One Shots: Stargazing

by Krystalle Voecks Jun 29th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Vanguard, One Shots

We've seen various pop culture references in our various different MMOs, but this is perhaps the first time we can honestly say that we've seen a star lookalike in terms of the character's face in a game. Sure enough, our keen-eyed regular contributor, Johanis, was adventuring in Vanguard, and happened to notice that this character resembled a well-known face, so he sent this screenshot to us. He writes: Here is Urlay (doing her best Vanessa Williams impression) adventuring in Vanguard. Though she is a very low level Necromancer, I feel she is destined for greatness. Wish her luck!!!

Have you spotted a character that looks like, or is named for, someone from pop culture? We love those pop culture references in MMOs. If you find some, send those in to us at oneshots [AT] massively [DOT] com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief description. We'll post it out here and give you the nod for spotting it and sending it in.

Gallery: One Shots

SOE's 3rd annual Community Address to be broadcast live this Friday night

by William Dobson Jun 22nd 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Video, EverQuest, EverQuest II, PlanetSide, Events, real-world, MMO industry, The Agency, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, Everquest Online Adventures, Free Realms, DC Universe Online

Not being able to attend this year's SOE Fan Faire doesn't mean that you'll miss out entirely. Aside from the biggest news that we'll undoubtedly bring to your attention right here on Massively, you will actually be able to watch SOE CEO John Smedley's community address streaming live on Friday the 26th of June, at 7:00PM PDT. Although visiting the link for the event right now seems to prompt us to register, Amnerys' post on the EverQuest forums says that this isn't necessary: "You don't need to register or have a password! Just visit the page and view!"

This will be the third year of SOE's annual community addresses. To get an idea of what to expect this Friday, you can check out the presentation from Fan Faire 2007 on Youtube. The link to keep bookmarked for the live event is this one right here.

One Shots: A rainy night in the asylum

by Krystalle Voecks Jun 17th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Vanguard, One Shots

With the blog of Brad McQuaid springing back online after a long hiatus, many folks are once again talking about Vanguard - for better or worse. Of course, while McQuaid has been offline racing dirtbikes, the folks at SOE have been hard at work improving the game leaps and bounds from those early days. Today's One Shots shows off a dreary, stormy night, and a poor, sodden wanderer - CaptainZoli - who decided it might be better outside than inside. CaptainZoli writes: The thirty day trial lured me back to Vanguard, and here is my character, Lanidia, taking part in said return, standing outside the Asylum in preparation for a dark and stormy night of adventuring.

One Shots is in need of more screenshots, so if you've taken some time while out adventuring, why not gather them up for us and send them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com? Add your name, the game it's from - guild, server and description welcome too - and you're set. Couldn't be easier, eh?

Gallery: One Shots

Brad McQuaid returns to pimp Vanguard

by Shawn Schuster Jun 16th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, MMO industry, Vanguard

Remember Brad McQuaid? As one of EverQuest's original creators and eventually the man behind Vanguard, Brad is a legend in the gaming industry. Sure, his reputation spiraled downward after his time with Sigil and Vanguard, but he has now come out of hiding to tell us all that we should play Vanguard!

Wait, what? Is he now working for SOE again? Well, no one knows if that's the case or not, but the fact is, Brad seems quite keen on getting back into the industry. After taking a few years off to "ride street bikes and dirt bikes, as well as drive sports cars, as often as possible", Brad wants to start creating games again. So if you're a fan of Brad's work with EverQuest, Vanguard (or even WarWizard), head on over to his newly-revamped blog and show him some support.

[EDIT: Some are speculating that this is an impostor. You be the judge.]

[Via Common Sense Gamer]