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Slashdot: Vanguard Beta In Trouble
jonaku
Member Posts: 281
As reported on Slashdot http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/25/1548236 someone has spilled the beans on the Vanguard beta at http://hgamer.blogspot.com/2006/05/vanguard-beta-in-trouble.html
Comments
http://twitter.com/xmcgraw
First, don't believe everything you read on the internet.
Second, did anyone else read far enough into that thing to see that the guy actually tried to make out WoW to be a lot like EQ?
I don't know about you guys, but I and alot of my friends ordered the magazine subscriptions because of all the hype and promise to beta before release. According to all the hype, we were to have access to the game right away. It's been a month and a half now and nothing and I've heard release is set for July. Something doesn't smell right here and we'd better get what we were fucking promised or what they hyped and advertised. That's the only resaon we subscribed. Who needs another freaking subscription to a magazine?!!!
"I'm not a racist...I only hate stupid people..."-SinisterCB
No where was anyone promised access to the beta right away. Rather Brad said it would be a long time before any of the magizine purchasers would ever get in. Brad said they would most likley get in near the end of beta or in open beta. But that he would promise nothing otehr than they would get into beta at some point.
Release is not set for July nor has it ever been. Brad said they plan on a winter release. Most likley that means it will release sometime between spring and summer of 2007.
Read the small print
*Giggles* oh the power of the media
This link acts as if no one has spoken from inside the beta before. There have been negative complainers, and there have also been NDA breakers who hype the game.
However, one thing is clear: people who are in the beta and enjoy it are FAR less likely to break the NDA and risk getting kicked out than for those people where Vanguard just doesnt do it for them so they could care less if they are booted. Maybe this guy likes playing his MMORPG's on rediculously easy training wheels like WoW, its just one guy's opinion.
None of these reports are credible untill the NDA is lifted. Heck, we dont really even know if this guy was really in beta, I could make a bunch of random junk up pretending to have insider beta infos, doesnt make it true.
06.05.27
orrig the magazine people were to be in a separate supplemental invite pool for the final Saga beta4 phase where Sigil needed 10s of thousands to stress test the (SoE) servers.
Later it seemed the magazine people instead were getting access to the longest and prized beta3 phase. Much to the fury of the Sigil forum members, claims of selling out, buy the magazine and buy your way into beta threads (most all locked nearly immediatly.)
Now, Sigil has posted their beta is largely suspended while they figure out the future hosting status of the beta.
"May 25th 2006 Beta Codes in Computer Games Magazine
Vanguard was recently featured on the cover of Computer Games Magazine and in that issue we included codes that will allow for closed beta access to the game. We add new beta testers in regular batches however we have not yet added any CGM codes. Because of the publisher change for Vanguard, we are discussing where the beta will now be hosted before we add any new people into the process. Just as soon as we have a solid date for a beta hosting change, we will announce it here." http://www.vanguardsoh.com/ News notice .
Suposedly in last month's beta2.5 phase 10,000 to 15k new people got invites, and there were leaks that only 100 or fewer were actually showing up to help beta test the content.
And further one has to wonder about the professionalism of their site with it's repeated lock-ups and inability to post in their forums... much like here at mmorpg.com before they 'fixed' this system (SEARCH is STILL busted) ... site under maintenance. AND the insistance the Sigil site forums will be purged/wiped after V:SoH retails and gamers would have to turn to fan sites for future forum access !! That's like the game is in retail, we are through with you guys. buuu biiii .
Still no 'official' word if or when beta3 starts. Likely do to changeover from M$ backing out and thereby abandoning helping Sigil manage the beta tester selection, and further, the ability of upcoming beta testers being able to d/l the +5GB beta client through fileplanet. Now there are problems about the location of where the beta will be hosted (my $15 SoE access fee to beta test Saga thread here [Vanguard forum] was deleted w/o explaination by staff here, now that that has alot more merit the staff here may have to justify the explicit deleting of threads, though they are still locking a huge number now to support their curry favor agenda with upcoming MMO providers [eg. violate NDA of betas and we will narc you out to those devs, ect as is the current mindset here!]) and the future of Vanguard:Saga of Heroes is sort of on hold.
With only two of the orrig old EQ devs left, there are serious problems at the top in Sigil.com.
My suggestion is to close beta entirely. Shut it down and use the excuse that time is now needed due to the change of publishers from Microsoft to Sony Online Entertainment. Say that hardware restructuring needs to be done and don't hold Vanguard to any reappearance date. Shut down the forums with a simple message that you will be back up after the transition is complete.
Dump all your beta testers to date and start fresh after you're back online and have something done to offer them.
Put in the ideas you have wanted to add and improve without having to get "permission" from your existing, suicidal fan-base.
~~~
The gist of this rant -- and make no mistake, this NDA-leak IS a rant -- is that there is a "conspiracy" (I hate it when somebody's medications start wearing off) of "old-schoolers" who are so vocal on the Beta Boards as to have somehow seized control of the game from Sigil and are shaping the game to their own ends, shouting down anybody (hmmm, rant-poster most likely got flamed for making stupid suggestions AND hates SOE as well) who disagrees with their old-school "vision" of the game (like making the death penalty less harsh). The poster attempts to suggest that Brad McQuaid is in a deep depression and on a verge of a breakdown (somehow I doubt this highly) due to the old-schoolers hijacking his game.
The poster says there are "less than a hundred" beta testers online at any given time -- and I suppose this is proposed as "evidence" that the game is "a failure." Hardly. Sigil has a list of potential beta testers that numbers in the tens of thousands that they can invite to join any time they choose. And they will. Thousands would love to get into the beta so they can replace the current bunch of beta malcontents who seem to be thinking, "Hmmm, Vanguard is not on easy-mode like World of Borecraft so I don't like it."
And, of course, his "helpful" suggestion is to close down the game completely and indefinitely offering up some "excuse" about hardware restructuring. Then boot out ALL beta testers and keep the game closed until Sigil grows the balls to "put in the ideas you have wanted to add and improve" and has "something done to offer them" (apparently the "them" is all the beta testers that they just booted out).
This rant also contains all the standard rant-material like "the game has no content," which suggests to me that the freaking gridlines of world geometry can still be seen or something like that. I suppose we should just consider Sigil's statement that they have SEVEN YEARS worth of content additions already documented and ready to add at the appropriate points as mere hyperbole.
Odd, don't you think, that ALL this ranting and now even suggesting the game close down started with and continues AFTER the announcement of partnering with Sony Online Entertainment (I smell an SWG-refugee).
Well, you can attempt to cloak a SOE-hating rant in terms of a "suggestion" to close the game down for its own good, but I tend to think the primary component of the "existing suicidal fan-base" is none other than the rant-poster himself.
~ Ancient Membership ~
False, relatively few people have been invited.
Yea except everything people are hearing are pointing to exactly what this guy said. I linked this article to a guildie of mine who's in beta and he said it was pretty much all true, the beta boards are really really bad right now.
Well, I saw the demo of this game at E3, and I've seen a "home demo" from a friend who is in the beta. The guy who wrote this doesn't actually talk about the specifics about why the game sucks (though many people from E3 have shared the opinion that it is a boring, featureless shell that is so punishing that only masochists would play it) - but how the community sucks, and how this may be contributing to the very slow progress of the game.
And in the same way I could say a VW Beetle is a lot like a tank. After all, they are both vehicles. If the VW was just a little beefier and had a big gun, it would be a tank too.
And in the same way I could say a VW Beetle is a lot like a tank. After all, they are both vehicles. If the VW was just a little beefier and had a big gun, it would be a tank too.
So using cars as an analogy for MMO's? Saying you can compare any MMO to another....that's about as deep as your syllogism goes and didnt really refute anything i said. WoW and EQ are more alike than they are different, if you dont see that then i doubt you've played both games. It's just that WoW removed or replaced alot of the "tedious" features of EQ.
And in the same way I could say a VW Beetle is a lot like a tank. After all, they are both vehicles. If the VW was just a little beefier and had a big gun, it would be a tank too.
So using cars as an analogy for MMO's? Saying you can compare any MMO to another....that's about as deep as your syllogism goes and didnt really refute anything i said. WoW and EQ are more alike than they are different, if you dont see that then i doubt you've played both games. It's just that WoW removed or replaced alot of the "tedious" features of EQ.
WoW removed any and all challenge to the game (and yes, I have played both). The only thing similar about them is that they are both fantasy MMOs.
Can't wait for Vanguard.
eqnext.wikia.com
eqnext.wikia.com
Yea except everything people are hearing are pointing to exactly what this guy said. I linked this article to a guildie of mine who's in beta and he said it was pretty much all true, the beta boards are really really bad right now.
If you look at the discussions taking place because of this article on several forums, you will see that most of the people who say they are in beta are also saying that the article is true in portraying the beta as a disaster.
lol the game is 5 months from release at least and people are saying theres bugs in beta? wow i expected it to be polished , finished , boxed up and on its way to the store ...NOT!
Make a difference!
I have no time for people like that... and especially how they can get into Beta's and I cannot!
I do agree though that Sigil should stick with the vision of the game that they want to develop because it is what has attracted me to Vanguard in the first place. I never played Everquest. I played Asheron's Call and it was fun. I played WoW, I did enjoy it but the end game instance runs for hours and hours on end just killed it for me.
Of course, no matter what happens, the article puts Vanguard in the 'line light' and to the attention of people that may not have read anything about the game. Now they might read the FAQ or Sigil's website and go 'This game looks interesting. I will make my own judgement!'
You never know....
Currently Playing:- nothing
Yea except everything people are hearing are pointing to exactly what this guy said. I linked this article to a guildie of mine who's in beta and he said it was pretty much all true, the beta boards are really really bad right now.
If you look at the discussions taking place because of this article on several forums, you will see that most of the people who say they are in beta are also saying that the article is true in portraying the beta as a disaster.
Please give me exact links where there are "SEVERAL" forums with people are saying beta is a "disaster". I want multiple examples also. Not just the one from the OP, and not the one from about 2 weeks ago. You said "several". I have looked far and wide and can't find that kind of information. Just heresay and rumors.
Some WoW fan who felt dissed because the beta community didn't want to make Vanguard more WoWish. Read it again.
Sorry, I loved WoW while I played it, but I don't want Vanguard to be anything like it, either. I do want a challenge and a reason to fear death, or at least be a reason to be a BIT wary of it. Make it beautiful and a real pain in the ass to level up in. Been a long time since I felt some sense of accomplishment just from levelling up in a game. Slow down the combat to a realistic tilt and make the weapons realistic not cartoony.
Whatever it ends up as, I can't wait.