It's all ultimately good news, but complicated enough to justify one of my verbose postings I should have my first Sigil/Vanguard update up tomorrow and then look for regular updates as to the future of the game here and on the affiliate sites (probably weekly or so, depending on what's going on). I will post here first and then immediately copy the post to a set of the Vanguard affiliate sites.
Thanks,
-Brad
Update: 30 Apr 2007 - Link updated. Brad has posted a more in-depth post with more details.
We will see soon. But if it goes that way, then what? What would SOE plan to do with Vanguard? (As opposed to how you think things will really end up.)
ReplyDeleteSOE will probably merge servers and consolidate the resources required to maintain Vanguard. A skeleton crew of developers will then take over the game and it will most likely remain in obscurity until its closure a few years from now.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said heartless except for the closure in a few years. I mean, isn't the Matrix Online still going? Or does that game have even more players than Vanguard?
ReplyDeleteThat is the reality scenario. I'm with you there.
ReplyDeleteWhat I want is the pie-in-the-sky rationalization for the purchase with the rosy forward view towards the wonder that will be Vanguard of the future.
How is SOE going to sell this deal, should it come to pass? (Freudian typo... I wrote "come to pall" the first time. Too close to the target, that.)
How is SOE going to make this seem like a good idea?
Is SOE destined to become the Computer Associates of MMOs? Not that CA doesn't make money, but when they buy a product your company uses, your best first response is an RFP to replace it.
Would it be cynical of me to believe that this has probably been in the works ever since the Microsoft - Sigil split? Brad's minions just needed it broken to them slowly, thus the gradual changing of the guard that we are seeing now?
ReplyDeleteFrom my understanding it doesnt look like they will run Vanguard like they have MxO(cutting down the development team significantly and what not).
ReplyDeleteWhat this really looks like is them getting more involved through whatever means and doing a big marketing push and what not further down the line.
And MxO has like 15k subscribers :P Not more than Vanguard. Mxo also has about 3 developers on staff.
I doubt Vanguard will be shut down a few years from now, considering that UO, MxO, Planetside etc are all still in operation these days.
The best thing that SOE could do is to bring Sigil/Vanguard in house, steal every feature worth stealing, and every programmer worth taking, and use it to bolster continued development of EQ2. They need to re-energize it as their flagship product by continuing what they've been doing, acknowledging problems and fixing them. Cannibalizing Vanguard for its best design ideas is the direction they need to go in.
ReplyDelete