[MUD-Dev2] [NEWS] Sigil / Vanguard fallout ... the ex-employee interview

[Sean Howard]

"Mike Sellers" <mike at onlinealchemy.com> wrote:
> I believe they have about 90K subs now

Where are you getting that number from? And does that include the Station
Pass subscribers, or even just the increase in Station Pass subscribers
based on the added value Vanguard adds to the package? I've seen that 90k
number before, but I was under the impression that it was just some guy
going into Vangaurd twice a day and doing a /who rather than an official
or accurate assessment of subscriber numbers.

I will say that Vanguard feels pretty empty (popped in the other day), but
most MMORPGs with a large land mass, too many servers, or lots of
expansions feel empty. Heck, even WoW has felt empty recently. But then, I
spend most of my time in low level zones because my refusal to group makes
it impossible for me to advance past level 20 in most games.

> What I'm still trying to figure out is why Sony bought the
> game, especially when they have EQ2, which would seem to be a
> cannibalistic competitor.

I think they are visually similar in that "Look what I can do with bump
maps and Poser!" sort of way, but I don't find the games to be all that
similar. There's a lot of things in Vanguard (flying dragon mounts,
seemless world, crafted housing and boats, diplomacy) that I think
Vanguard could easily distinguish itself from EQ2 - especially if every
EQ2 expansion is going to be EQ zones reimagined.

But I think the first thing that needs to be done is to present a visual
difference. I remember hearing that EQ2 had extreme problems introducing
new armor models into the game, and all the ones that they have look the
same with barely different patterns and has a very realistic, full body
armor feel to it. Vanguard should just put some girls in metal bikinis and
men with unusually rude loin cloths and boom, nobody will ever confuse it
for EQ2.

> There are well-managed teams and companies in the game industry, but
> they are fewer than you might think.

Not fewer than I might think :)

-- 
Sean Howard