Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We're Not Doing Well…


Vanguard is a tale of high expectations and the giant corporate belly. In fact, it only took four months after Vanguard’s release for Sony to gobble up the developers, Sigil. When Vanguard released in 2007, it was awarded the “Biggest Disappointment of the Year” award by Gamespy, noting the title’s lack of content, buggy performance, and the fact that the title was shoved out the door before completion.

It’s been a rocky two years for the title that was once touted as the Everquest 2 Killer. On the plus side, if anything just to get the good news out first, there will be more frequent (yet smaller) updates this year. Vanguard is looking at 2010 as a year to fix bugs, crush bugs, and fumigate the house. The developers are also looking at focusing on the story elements of the game, starting and ending chunks of storyline.

But the bad news, and there always is some, is that some planned updates have been shelved indefinitely:

Continue reading “Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We're Not Doing Well…”

Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We’re Not Doing Well…


Vanguard is a tale of high expectations and the giant corporate belly. In fact, it only took four months after Vanguard’s release for Sony to gobble up the developers, Sigil. When Vanguard released in 2007, it was awarded the “Biggest Disappointment of the Year” award by Gamespy, noting the title’s lack of content, buggy performance, and the fact that the title was shoved out the door before completion.

It’s been a rocky two years for the title that was once touted as the Everquest 2 Killer. On the plus side, if anything just to get the good news out first, there will be more frequent (yet smaller) updates this year. Vanguard is looking at 2010 as a year to fix bugs, crush bugs, and fumigate the house. The developers are also looking at focusing on the story elements of the game, starting and ending chunks of storyline.

But the bad news, and there always is some, is that some planned updates have been shelved indefinitely:

Continue reading “Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We’re Not Doing Well…”

SOE 2009 Address


Sony Online Entertainment did their Fan Faire Press release this year, and seeing as how they have the largest collection of MMO’s in the list, I just had to have a look at what is on the horizon for their titles, and for the company itself.

I’d like to note on Sony themselves. Despite what I may think about the rest of Sony, I give SOE a lot of credit for the dedication they have to their games. Unlike NCSoft that more closely resembles the guy sitting on his porch with a shotgun waiting for someone to slip up, SOE has a strong dedication to their products, and does everything in their power to make sure that the remaining population, as small as they may be, continue to enjoy what they enjoy, and supports their products long after any other company might consider them to be “dead”.

So I have a lot of respect for Sony Online Entertainment, even though at the same time I have a lot of contempt for the boneheaded mistakes they’ve made in the past, namely the NGE updates for Star Wars Galaxies, and implementing legal real world trading in the Everquest titles. They didn’t talk about many of their existing games at this conference, mainly Everquests and Free Realms, with some Star Wars Galaxies thrown in. So without further ado, here is Sony.

Continue reading “SOE 2009 Address”