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[Interview] Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: Free to Play Round Table Discussion
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Yesterday, one of Sony Online Entertainment's venerable titles, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, began utilizing a hybrid free to play-subscription model. We had the opportunity to sit down with Creative Director Salim Grant and Director of Development Andy Sites to talk about Vanguard and what the future holds for the game. Keep reading!
Since February, the team has been regularly updating Vanguard to, as Andy put it, "smooth out the rough edges". Most of the current areas have been revamped and optimized to take advantage of the game engine. They even surprised players by bringing much of the F2P functionality into the game in stealth mode about a week ago. In addition, Andy mentioned that in the past, game updates had come along every four or five months. From today forward, however, the team has laid out an assertive update schedule that should see major updates on a monthly basis as well as smaller updates on a bi-weekly basis.
Read more of Suzie Ford's Vanguard - Free to Play Round Table Discussion.
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Comments
SOE's last ditch effort to ressurect this montrosity from the grave fails to bring in VETS from hibernation....I'll tell you why.
#1 First 2 Plat on coin....really 2 plat? I can sell precious metals and make easily 10PLALT in one day if I wanted too.
#2 25 bank slots?
#3 restricting classes and races for F2P players....
SOE fails to realize that the F2P players are in Vanguard as a commodity to support to other hardcore players....to POPULATE the servers. Instead their restrictive pricing plans are keeping us away. There is a reason why we don't want to pay 15.00 a month anymore IT"S JUST NOT WORTH IT. But, spending some cash on a mount, XP potions, cosmetics, and some armor might be alright but if you look at their pricing plans it's way too aggressive and all VET players and some new players see is GREED....a Pay2WIIN system will not work SOE....EVER.
Sorry but I have to agree with the first poster. I'm actually pretty new to Vanguard and I have no issues with paying a monthy sub fee. However, the game is old. When I played it for an hour and a half on the live servers I honestly felt like it was on some private server. The combat animations weren't very good, and it's just not the quality of mmo that I would think is worth a sub fee. They would honestly probably get a much larger player base, and more money from this game if they simply lifted all of the ridiculous resitrctions that the f2p players are limited too. Their item shop is pretty full of things that people would definitely buy.. so why not let people fully explore the game?
yes I know SOE needs to make money and its a business I have no problem with that....
raise some the restrictions and I'll jump in and buy a mount for 10 dollars or so....even a bank slot.
But restricting "high end items?" Okay so you can level all the way to 55 and your in a dungeon and you can't loot a goldl?
Like I said F2P players will not keep Vanguard alive..it's the subscribers that will keep it alive but there aren't enough of them that's where the F2P players come in what keeps VETS away from the game is the low population.....I was in Leth Nurae last nite for 2 hours I only saw 1 other player and this is A MAJOR city in the game....Leth Nurae in peak times in it's first year was busy with crafters and players all over the place....this is on the first F2P day....
What this tells me is that old players are still staying away from the game atleast most of them, yes I know some came back because I was chatting with them last nite and we were all discussing the F2P plan and all we see is GREED because SOE has no confidence that Vanguard has what it takes to bring in players....it does. If Guild Wars 1 can afford to keep servers open for 6 years for FREE with thousands of players still playing it, you can log in to Guild Wars 1 right now and find thousands of players in there right now WHY because Guild Wars 1 is a GREAT game with GREAT support. Vanguard has been neglected for years and now they just want to FLIP the switch and watch the magic happen??? doesn't work that way.
Vanguard is dear and very memorable to some of us players that were there day 1 and helped SIgil with Bugs and what not, but in the two years I played it they ignored some of the biggest problems and some are still there.
I see this as Vanguard's last breathe and honestly I don't think it's gonna make it....competition is tough this summer..
GW2-Completely Free2Play after box purchase.
SWTOR- Free2Play
Secret World
Planetside
Sony is fighting an uphill battle...this is a very stubborn company with a track record of doing things 100% there way and not listening to their audience and it's gonna cost them.....servers will get congested and support tickets will ramp up and subscribers will rise then fall like always....I wish Vanguard the best but if you read here and on other forums people are just not happy with the F2P model ony the hardcore players I wish them luck really but I am moving on to better games....to new players let me give you some advice....don't waste your itme.
Irregardless of the rescrictions, I have been playing VG since it went stealth F2P.. Been having a blast and i have yet to spend any coin in the cash shop. Yes there are some lame restrictions in place but you can remove most if not all via the cash shop.
Amazing game! Probably one of the last great MMO's to be released. I highly recommend trying VGSoH!
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
For many of us that enjoyed Vanguard, the only reason we weren't paying 15 was because the game wasn't getting updates and didn't have enough people. Both problems are now solved. So for many of us, it IS worth it. It's still the best PvE game on the market.
But sure, lambast the FTP model all you want. They should just give everything away for free, according to you? They already have all quests, classes, zones, and almost every feature unlocked for free. It's more than games like LotRO which seems to get no criticism at all.
They'd get more money...by not charging for anything?
So you'd pay 10 dollars for a mount, but you won't pay a couple bucks to unlock gear?
And GW2 is not "free to play", it costs 60 dollars. For 60 dollars you could unlock everything you'd ever want in Vanguard, or pay for 6 months subscription.
Just use the cash shop item to unlock the gear. I've blown through 20 levels and have only come across ONE item I couldn't wear.
You'd seriously rather break apart and instance the game world, than have to pay a pittance fee to put on rare armor??? Loot isn't what makes this game.
That's my thought. The cash shop has unlocks. spend a miniscule amount of money and unlock what you want.
It's much less than paying a sub if you don't want to invest that much time and money into a game and all games are made to make money.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Exactly. It's not like you can't pick the items up or get the quest reward. You just can't use them. It's such a miniscule thing when compared to the vast amount of content in the game that you get for free. I haven't played a FTP game that was more open.
The only thing I can really think of is if they gave you a way to earn station cash in game. But thats almost never fun, it's just tedious grinding when other MMOs do it.
But really, what else could they make money on if they lifted all restrictions?
well with the subb offers till the 28th the subs a chep has hell
for a 6 mouth sub £29.70
£4.87 for 4 weeks.
£1.25 around there a week chep has chips
).
what can you buy for £1.25 a week.
"I am not in a server with Gankers...THEY ARE IN A SERVER WITH ME!!!"
Which continent? Because none of the Thestra starter quests give rewards you can't use. And only half the classes are restricted. If they get to level 20 and REALLY like the game, then don't you think they can just pay the 4 bucks to permenenantly unlock the class? Other games don't even let you try the exclusive classes.
It's nothing important really just 2 little bags that hold like 6 or 10 things. Still I am completing new player content and can't even use the items.
"I am not in a server with Gankers...THEY ARE IN A SERVER WITH ME!!!"
I'm not sure if this is a bug or just a feature oversight... but you CAN actually use those bags. You drag them onto your bag bar, instead of left clicking from your inventory. My friend made the same understandable mistake. That's something they should probably fix.
Why can I only play 6 races and 7 classes to end game? Why can't I just pick what I want to play ("free to play your way") and go with it? It is the same deal with EQ and EQII. The way they have it set up, I really have no desire to "jump through their hoops" in order to play what I want to play, character-wise. Their model is very unfriendly and counter intuitive to attracting new players.
Does it have to be ALL for free? Of course not. That is silly. They are a business. There are plenty of items in the cash shop that players may buy. No need to restrict characters right off the bat to get some cash in their pockets.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
If you're encountering quest rewards in the newbie quest lines that aren't F2P usable, /bug report them. All of the items should be at this time.
As far as the rest - no, it's not a fully F2P system, because they intend on doing future development work and that takes money. It is, however, arguably the best PVE-centric MMORPG out there in terms of content depth. If you're tired of the shallow, on-rails experiences we've been spoon fed for the last eight years, Vanguard very well may be the game for you.