ardwulf

@MMOaddict No, not at all, it's just that Vanguard is still under-loved even WITH the f2p happening.

EQ2 and Age of Conan, both of which are well-supported by their publishers, and both of which are more popular than the amount of press they get would imply.

But the big one is Vanguard.

Maintenance mode is better than sunsetting. All those players who loved SWG and Tabula Rasa and Asheron's Call 2 would agree. MMOs as virtual worlds encourage affection by players. That's one of the reasons I'm always saddened when an MMO goes under, even one I didn't care for myself.

Now that I've listened to the whole show (not just the Vanguard part) I can offer the comment that in my experience there *were* a comparatively large number of women involved in World of Darkness, particularly in the LARP end of things. On the other hand, this was in comparison with, say, tabletop D&D, which back the the day was mostly guys. The face-to-face gaming demographic has changed significantly in the last decade or so. I think this is in part due to a broader cultural shift, but I also think WoD deserves some credit as well for bringing in more women than were there before. Note that this was years and years before Twilight.

Now, as far as the MMO goes... I dunno. I guess it's a novel thing to market.

Depends what week you ask me. This week, it'd be Vanguard.

@Vunak They've said they're taking a "wait and see" approach when it comes to new servers. It's not a stretch to assume they'll add one or more, though, if the switch garners the response they (and I) are hoping it will. Unlike EQ2 with its instancing of zones, they can't fit a basically limitless number of players onto a single server.

One of the points about Vanguard is that there is already a great deal to do; comparisons with SWG at launch are not really relevant. Now, at the level cap, where people have been sitting for 2+ years with now new content, there's a huge drought. But somebody new coming in will have years of content ahead of them.

More Vanguard talk!

@Tizmah The idea that "Vanguard" and "cash grab" might somehow fit into the same sentence is pretty laughable. What I think is happening is that SOE is transitioning the whole company away from the sub-only model.

@notinterested Do your own homework. I'm reasonably happy with the implementation in EQ2, and I doubt this will differ all that much. If I were hardcore, the story might be different, but if you're hardcore then you ought to subscribe anyway, eh?