It Really Depends on one thing – You.

Prezzer from Going Nuts In Norrath made the following comment today on a previous post that focused on Vanguard (hopefully he doesn’t mind me calling him out this way):

“I’ve got an account for Vanguard but never tried it beyond a few minutes when it first launched. Never really had the time to devot to yet another MMO but… is it worth it? Should I try it? I’m already heavily into EQII, started to dabble with both LOTRO and am trying to get set up with DDO after discovering I have an open account for some reason. Am I going to find something in VG that will grab me?”

I tried to think of a simple answer for this and failed – there really is no simple answer. I can’t answer whether or not someone else will find something they enjoy and that will grab them in a game, any game. I can point out the aspects that I personally enjoy (and there are a huge amount) and I admit from the start to everyone that I am very biased towards Vanguard in particular. I never seem to have the number of problems that others have with these games, it runs just about flawlessly for me and when it doesn’t run a quick /flush all command takes care of the minor glitches I may have. I love how complex the game is, the three spheres, diplomacy, crafting, the ability to actually own a house. I love the brotherhood idea – and Prezzer if you’re going to give VG a try then by all means let me know and I’ll do my best to play too so you’ll at least have someone to talk to. I play on the Seradon server. 

I’ve never played LoTR – it released at a time when I was already knee deep in other games, and unintrested in adding yet another fantasy title to the list. I also didn’t personally see LoTR offer me anything that I wasn’t already seeing in my ‘other MMO’s’ and it didn’t grab me. Different things grab different people, and all I can speak about is my own personal preferences. 

I can of course give an opinion. If you’re heavy into PvP, VG may not be the game for you. If you find it hard to make friends, dislike feeling lost in a world, are unwilling to dload new maps (talk to Kasul who just grabbed infomap, he LOVES them, and they were very easy to install), don’t like to try to figure things out, you may not like VG. If you’re unwilling to set your feelings aside from over a year of bad reputation, that may hinder how you feel about the game as well. If you’re actively looking for each and every bug, rather then trying to just enjoy the game – then VG may not be for you.

If you’re interested in a world experience, an interesting combat method (actions, reactions, and rescues that trigger by in-combat events anyone?) enjoy a heavy quest-themed game, complex crafting, being able to experience classes in a ‘new’ method (remember how healers used to just heal and that was it? They’ve evolved over time into a hybrid dps / healer class and I personally first noticed it heavily in Vanguard) druids who are nukers and not healers at all, then maybe Vanguard could be ‘that game’. 

Remember. This is my opinion here. I haven’t played what everyone else has played, or experienced what everyone else has experienced. So the best advice I can ever give anyone, about ‘what should I play’ type questions – is how will you know, unless you give it a try. Once you try it if you hate it, then at least you know and you’ll know why.

Edit: I know the screen shot has nothing to do with VG, it’s from Guild Wars, which I was playing this morning and thought looked awesome, so there it is.