So is Vanguard gonna be all that?

No hoopla at all - that's gotta suck for them.

Well then I guess the question has to change to, "Is Vanguard all that?

You're thinking of buying a copy, aren't you Mike. >=(

Hell no. I think that EQ, EQ2, Anarchy Online, Shadowbane, CoH, CoV, and WoW have cured me of my "gotta catch 'em all" way of thinking. And see I didn't even try out Eve Online, Matrix Online, DnD Online.

Besides the BC is keeping me entertained and feeling very much like we got our moneys worthy.

I think its great, its alot of fun and dont have to deal with all the b net kids that play WoW...yea its alot harder than WoW, but my 11 yr old nephew can play WoW with no instruction and fit right in but thats why I got so bored with WoW and would only play it for a month here and a month there. I'm really liking it, esp the diplomacy aspect of it, thats alot of fun. We're on Flamehammar and Oedfeather under Adaira, Neanix, Ninex, and Neoxthiss. ATM we're messing around with different characters.

Learned the hard way that I simply could not balance two MMOs at the same time back when DAoC came out while most of us were still playing EQ. I loved the concept of DAoC, but none of my friends really committed to the game and eventually my EQ character fell behind while I played DAoC. This was back when you had to keep up with your friends in EQ or miss out on content since it wasn't a solo-friendly game and all.

I was interested in Vanguard since I tend to get bored of any game after a couple of years, but a lot of what Brad said eventually turned us off and pushed the game to a "if it gets a good word of mouth, we'll try it eventually" backburner. I still read up about it to see how it progresses -- release is always rough, but the game usually becomes more polished with more time and money.

i was actually expecting it to be ALOT more buggy and just tons of crap going wrong, but I havent had a single problem and joey and i played most of the day today. The diplomacy is soooo much fun, i absolutely love it. Today mostly we just messed around making different characters seeing what we liked, I made a Disciple and love it!! Its kinda a monk/healer cross and has been tons of fun so far. I watched Joey do some crafting and it was really cool too. I just cant get wait to get rich and buy a plot of land and build me a house and decorate it...but thats the chick in me!

in all honestly if it sucked, id just come out and say it but my expectations have been way surpassed, more than i could have ever imagined.

I'm so so on the game. I play a DE psionicist for the moment and it's a neat class. Dark elves aren't nearly as fugly as they were for most of beta (imo) but the lack of hair choices is seriously annoying. The game is a little buggy (mostly graphical but other issues as well). It's a pretty environment and the mobs look neat, but I'm not super in love with the character models. As far as game play....meh, I'm hoping it'll get more engaging in a few more levels (we're still quite low). And there's plenty of idiots on my server.

BTW, this is the most important question ever about Vanguard. EVER.

How do the short races look? I'm not talking about "cute as tinkerbell," but I don't want any Rosie O'Donnell look-alikes either. :p

Personally, I think the short races look better than they have in any game I've played. However, in general, the char models are a lil sad, as Veri said.

Try the screenshots here - http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&file=index&func=display&ceid=466&meid=170

Look on the left menu for links to the other continents to see the rest.

Ick - the quality of the graphics is good, but what god-awful hair styles for the women, and what little expressions they seem to have. I'm not impressed at all.

Yeah but did they ever fix the fox/cat people? Because you know a couple that would ABSOLUTELY KNOW EVERYTHING about them said they were screwed up...and you know what they say is gospel.

/snicker

It's not a race I'm interested in playing but they look alright.

I absolutely love it, and on my server Darkblood happens to be there. Was pretty weird. The orginal Kinidin and Aalaarn i think is it. I really dont care what I look like but yea the hairstyles suck. When I was messing around trying to decide what class to play I made a fox person and they looked ok to me. I'm settled in now on Woefeather playing DE Disciple and couldn't be happier. It's well surpassed my expectations. It is a little buggy but I thought it would be alot worse than it is and content is fun I think. You have options too, if you get sick of questing, u work on diplomacy or crafting which are both super cool. My opinion would be Vanguard IS all that.

I started playing this on Shrideth last week. At first it wouldnt even run and my comp is sick (2.6 ghz amd dual core, 2 gigs ram, 256mb 7800 series vid card).

I started a warrior but he sucked so i rerolled at level 10 and made another Krassus as a SK. He is sick. This is the first game i have that old EQ feeling on, WoW was a joke like CoH or even playing EQ again. I made 2 more Krassus's got one to 75 and other to 71 and still didnt get it. It really feels like that old EQ, once i changed my hotkeys to the EQ i am used too it pretty much is EQ with better features. The gameplay for a tank is pretty much the same, you have stances though for defense and offense and your attacks are chained when certain ones light up. Its like triggered flurries for instance on a warrior.

The diversity and customization of each race, class is so awesome. You can customize everything and i mean everything down to ear size and eyebrow size on toons.

The bazaar system is amazing, you just place items on it and they are sold while you xp or whatever. Questing is fun and refreshing, it makes you venture out and explore in immediate areas and then once you are done with the quests it sends you to another town and you just build from there. People are happy and everywhere in the game even though its size its insanely huge, i mean it is enormous like impossible to run across and has no zoning. It is a very easy transition from EQ once you set it up correctly, and i even use an EQ UI

That's cool, we're on the same server :). The first week or so I played I found the people annoying but it seems like the game has done an okay job of weeding out the worst of the jackasses.

Yeah, the world is pretty huge - nice that they thought about transportation at the lower levels. Have you tried diplomacy at all?

I am on the same server as well. Yeah, the world is huge. At the end of beta, they made griffons available to everyone. Its unreal how high you can fly, We were higher than the mountaintops, and the land just rolls on forever. I made a few characters on there, my necro is 11 I think. For some reason I just haven't been in the mood to play lately, I think I only played twice since it went live. I need to start playing again, it is a great game.

Verileah, I messed with diplomacy a bit. Its actually a strategy based card game. Pretty interesting, but I find I don't even bother reading the dialog that goes by during each card played, I just watch the score lol.

Really? I like the stories :D. And DE diplomacy is fun because you get lots of people assassinated!

I missed the event with the griffons :(. Anyway, do you guys have future plans for a guild or just rolling along for now?

Just rolling along right now, I need to get back to playing and getting some levels. I haven't messed with diplomacy on my darkie, my main is a cat necro, don't ask my why :p

I definitely have no desire to play a bard. They are kinda interesting though, you actually create your own songs and name them. I think that will be a bitch down the road for raids. "Bard, play that song...whatever the hell you call it...you know the one!" lol.