[MUD-Dev2] [OFF-TOPIC] A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants

[Lachek Butalek]

On 2/20/07, Mike Rozak <Mike at mxac.com.au> wrote:

> So, here's a question? Why do I perceive huge flaws that the reviewers
> ranters don't? And vice versa?

Hard to say without knowing what flaws you saw with the game. Care to
elaborate on that?

A lot of the issues other reviewers saw with the game, including bugs,
crashes and poor graphics performance, was no doubt based on their
previous experience with the game while in Beta. Vanguard had a very
large number of Beta testers, and as a "hardcore" (I'll get back to
that term) game in this era of MMORPG-Lites, it no doubt attracted a
large number of reviewers (bloggers and forum residents) to the Beta.
The issues they experienced with the game while it was in Beta no
doubt made an impression where they still attribute those issues to
the game, whether that is true or not.

As tends to be the case with bugs, crashes, and graphic frame drops,
you don't tend to notice their absence when the problems gradually
disappear - but if there is even an occasional glitch, the knee-jerk
reaction is to point at the screen and scream "I knew it!". This will
serve to propagate the myth (?) that Vanguard is an absurdly taxing
and "unpolished" game.

Grind is, in my opinion, a silly thing to complain about. Grind is
only present in a game like Vanguard if you choose to grind. You can
decide to do quests, or craft, or simply run around and chat with
people - but the fact is that if you want to level up and increase
your power, you have to either 1) kill monsters, or 2) run quests. By
complaining that the game is too grind-heavy, you're basically just
complaining that the level cruve is too steep and you want to climb it
much faster than you are currently able. Seeing how Vanguard is a
brand new release of a game expected to be a major player for the next
5-7 years, it's probably a good thing its leveling curve is fairly
steep and maybe ding-spoiled players need to learn to settle down a
bit.

> 1) The fundamental game isn't right for me, causing me to nitpick at
> "flaws" that people targeted by the game won't see? Could be, but WoW
> and EQ2 are essentially the same game, and I didn't cringe at them
> nearly as much as I do at Vanguard. (WoW and EQ2 are both less hard-core
> than Vanguard though.)

What is "hard-core" in this context? Is it a game that requires a lot
of time investment to be enjoyed? Is it a game that is very
unforgiving in terms of death penalties, leveling curve etc? Is it a
game that by design allows for unbridled PvP? Is it a game that
distills the CRPG genre down into its core mechanics of minmaxing and
mobslaying and spends little time on other aspects? Is it a game that
aims to give as much power as possible to the players, a la
player-driven cities, all player-crafted items and so on?

I have heard the term "hardcore" applied in all these situations and
more, and - to me, at least - it is a very vague descriptor.

> 4) Am I merely delusional?

Possibly. :)

Lachek