Atnor

I was really happy to see this news, until I realized that I'd be interacting with SOE again.

VG is one of my all time favorite MMOs. It held such promise, and it delivered on so many counts. Sure, it was mismanaged and not-ready-for-prime-time at launch, but the dev team really worked hard to overcome those flaws, and the player base was one of the best I've ever played with.

The class design was excellent, the world (other than some of the player models) was beautiful, group PVE content was great, lore was pretty smart, I loved the wide-open beginnings of player housing, diplomacy is fun, and the crafting is one of my favorite systems I've seen in any game before or since (much better than watching a little bar, and superior imho to EQ2s).

There was a point where I think the game could have finally come into it's own and happily served the niche of players it was meant to.

But, SOE decided instead to put it back up on the shelf and let it run on life support.. Since that lack of funding and resources pretty much starved VG of any momentum or direction and left it to the sorry state it's been in (which just snowballed into an even worse state)... I have a hard time mustering up any motivation to interact with SOE. Which is too bad, because there once was a time when I was a pretty big fan of the company and their games.

Weird, I just had an "ohhhh yeah" type moment... since Skyrim and the SWTOR beta last weekend... I had completely forgotten I had even installed DCUO when it went F2P.

Sounds like a nice little pack of content though.

Cool promotion, the Trion team seems to be moving pretty well. Really enjoying the Rift betas, and looking forward to the game coming out soon.

I already pre-ordered, and consciously chose not to go with Steam though. It's really unfortunate, cause i've been a big fan, but their lack of any sort of "family plan", so that my wife and I can play 2 different online games at once on 2 different computers, has really put a damper on my Steam usage.

Nope. I'd gladly pay a subscription fee for an MMO. I'm currently paying them now, and probably will in the future.

My problem is with SOE. I was interested in DCUO for just a minute... until I saw the SOE label. Then my interest got sucked out of the room. I've honestly had little desire in following it since then. I tried, really I did... but I just couldnt convince myself to bother getting excited about this game.


While I dont really care that much about the SWG fiasco, and had already left the game before it happened, I didnt like how that all occurred. Pretty poor form, but *shrug*

I also didnt like the eventual direction they took in EQ2, taking a pretty fun game and watering it down into the ultimate short-attention span, casual, boring experience it became. Really... I dont need a reward ding every 30 secs. :)

And speaking of... Smed's direction towards the lower player investment, superficial, casual market has been a huge turn off over time.

But I'd have to say, despite all that... it's the dismissive neglect, total abandonment, and overall general disregard towards Vanguard that probably was the final straw for me. That experience soured me enough on SOE that I dont know if I'll ever feel like giving them any money for an MMO, subscription or not...

I dont care about the ethnic makeup of the westernization team, but I'm sure they will do a great job.

However, I think I'm at a point where honestly, the fact that a game "needs" to be westernized, and not "western" by default, from the ground up, is a HUGE turn off for me.

It's become a big plus in my mind, in my reaction to a new game, that a game come in and be designed and built with an American/Western mindset straight from the beginning.

As was mentioned above, I'm not sure why anyone who already has Station Access , or someone even who is considering adding SA, would be interested in eq2 extended when they will be hetting all of eq2 anyway.

I guess maybe there is something to do with expansion access or something, maybe?

Also, I was a little annoyed (ok, very annoyed) at the email I got about this from SOE. It was worded in the top headline to sound like I had a current station access subscription, which I don't. I found that to be pretty underhanded and deceptive.

Yeah, would definitely have to agree with Vanguard, followed by SWG, followed by EQ2.

Vg's crafting mini-game method was actually enjoyable and interesting for me. After EQ2 and VGs actual crafting processes, the one-click and forget it process becomes a bit of a let down, even if the rest of the sphere is pretty good.

I would add Eve after that, but simply b/c while I agree with the reasons given by other posters, I never got that far with Eve, so I cant say with first-hand knowledge. What I have seen and heard however, impresses me with it's depth.

Thanks Beau. Vanguard is/was a great game, and I'm always glad to see it get some mention. I've used several of those resources myself.

The Vanguard community was always very top-notch. I've played, for various time periods, most every MMO out there, and I've always been impressed by the level of helpfulness and dedication of VG players.

It truly is a shame how SOE management ended up treating what could have been a standout top-shelf game, instead of making it the huge missed opportunity I think it is. There's a special dark part of my heart reserved for those guys. :)

Despite being left to whither on the vine, the developers and players have truly given their all for a wonderful, ambitious game. I tip my hat to their dedication.

A very un-classy move by Turbine.

I realize it's optional ( the viewing-the-site-only issue not withstanding) but it's still not cool in my book to encourage your users to sign up for spam lists.

It's beneath them frankly. Or at least, it should be.

Anyone else get that "ugh" cringe feeling whenever you read that there's a need for "Westernization"....

I'm starting to see that phrase as a big turnoff when I check out possible new upcoming games.