"To Try" or "Not To Try"... that is the question.

[GantRahl Goodekind]

I've reached a minor "burnout" (or at least "brownout") period with WoW... There isn't a square mile of Azeroth left to explore, save the later areas of Outland... and even with a multitude of Alts to choose from, I've "been there and done that" so many times already.

Then add on a few days of nostalgically looking back at my years of EQ (pre-Luclin... though my complaints about the series didnt become evident until at least after Ykesha), and I'm seriously considering looking into Vanguard as my next destination to explore a new world.

I'll admit it... I'm hoping to regain a few of those old feelings I had back when I stepped out of Rivervale and into Misty Thicket for the first time, or set across the plains from Freeport to Qeynos with my young human, to begin on the path of a Quellious Monk in the lands of the agnostic brotherhood. (Made the trek at 5th level... Now THAT was a hell of a run.) WoW never gave me that sense of adventure. Sure... There were a few fleeting moments, where I and a few groupmates felt like we "beat the odds"... but nothing that I hold as memorable.

What scares me about considering Vanguard:

- Fear of leaving family behind... again
Myself and my wife were the first of the family (literally... my mom, sister & bro-in-law, and several "adopted" siblings make up our guild) to leave EQ for WoW, years ago. Since then, they've come to Azeroth and, after I switched back to Horde, we've been able to come together again. (though the wife no longer really plays anymore... from a higher level job and the new young daughter, to just not being a real "gamer" and not really getting beyond character creation and guild chat)

- The Wife...
Because it'd be another game purchase and she tends to prefer my not buying "new" games, and practically loathes when I get the itch to buy another MMO... which I generally don't do. (I've 'invested' in my characters, and tacking on another RL gaming fee doesn't make either of us feel all warm inside, either)
Barring the Wii/Zelda (she acquiesced in the purchase of those because they're so bloody hard to find and we litterally stumbled upon one at the local Wally World, and she'd actually squealed when she saw the in-store demo vid of the Wii, especially the Zelda segment) the last games I bought were 'X3' for the PC and 'MGS3:Subsistance' for the PS/2. But, since she watches TV more than I (about twice as much... I watch 3-4 shows, weekly, while she can watch every night) I can't justify taking over the tube for gaming.

- And daughter...
The daughter, because I know with WoW I can turn away in a moment's notice... Vanish/stealth (I play a rogue, primarily) and I can be away from my desk in a flash. If I get wasted, it's barely an inconvenience. Also, I can spend the majority of my time soloing. From 1st to 66th, some 80-90% of my leveling has been solo. With Vanguard, I hear that near the opposite is true... although this is accompanied by the fact that leveling isn't nearly as licketysplit fast as in WoW. (something I look fondly on, for some reason I can't explain) Would the community-at-largebe averse with the possibility of my leaving the comp at a moment's notice and a quick "AFK... kid" in chat? (I've had groups in WoW go both ways... some badly, and others without a problem) With a smaller playerbase spread across the multiple servers, I've heard that grouping itself can be a little harder to come by, anyways.

- Thinking I might be trying to chase the ghosts of my past
Vanguard looks to be the "'NEW' oldschool"... First impressions and experiences are more vivid in the mind's eye. I don't want to feel like I'm trying to relive the wonder of my youth, when I'm only going to be the same jaded individual because I'm simply no longer young.


And then I look at what I'd look forward to and/or have missed:
(I'd actually typed out for each and all below... but have dropped to bulletpoints, due to my known tendancy to be a long-winded typist, the likes of which can only be compaired to that long.YTMND.com bit.)

- Depth of Storytelling (ie: whole new world of Lore)
- Interactive (not one-click) Crafting that is actually useful
- Wide variety of pastimes: can Harvest, Craft, play Diplomacy, or just go out and kill stuff.
- Death as something to FEAR again (aka: the darwinian learning curve)
- The eventual return of Sangrahl, Human Monk (debating Qaliathari or Kojani... but leaning Qalia for the look)


After going through the lists above, I've pretty much come to the decision to try and get ahold of a copy and give the first month a try... If it still feels so overwhelmingly buggy that I can't enjoy it, then at least I know I'll have the disk available for a later date to give it another go. (Of course, getting ahold of a Trial 'Buddy' Key would rock, but I've seen a massive number of people begging on other boards for one, and I doubt I'll be so lucky as to have one land in my lap.)

Of the uppermost concerns, how forgiving is the world for those who tend to strike out on their own in the wilderness, or may have need to turn away for moderately short periods of time?

[Teleri]

That is the main reason I left WoW... I was 'done' with it. I could not even wait for the expansion... I knew it would be more of the same... which to me was a bad thing at the time.

Uhg... that is always hard.

I think we have the same wife LOL

Rogues and Rangers have good stealth and bards have good invis. A few casters also have invis so you do have options there.

You can solo to 50. It wont be as fun as grouping but you can do it. Soloing to 30 is cake... after that I hear it gets a bit harder.

Leveling is WAY slower than WoW (which is a great great thing) but much faster than EQ. I think it is perfect right now.

I have only had one bad group... and that was last night and i was the leader... so i guess i suck : )

Groups can be a bit harder to get (but now that i think about it i always had a bitch of a time getting a group in WoW because no one ever wanted to group). But only because the world is soo gosh darn huge. They will be adding some type of teleportation soon... and that will help a ton. Possibly the greatest thing in Vanguard is that so many of the 'important' abilities are spread out between a lot of classes. Something like 6 or 7 classes have some kind of 'mez' and you have 6 or 7 classes that can heal (but only 4 that can be main healers). So you don't HAVE to have a cleric and a warrior to be able to make a group... A paladin and a shaman will do just fine.

Oh... you are trying to chase the ghosts of your past. My good friend that is 63 is building a hot rod in his barn... *shrug* as long as the chase is fun and does not interfere with your real life there is no harm in it.

-Depth? Yes. Getting deeper... You will like Diplomacy.
-Crafting? Yep. They still need to fix a few more things I think... but still 100x better than any other system I have used.
-Death & Fear? humm... not sure that I fear death. It can suck bad... and i fear that suck... but death in and of itself does not have a hard edge to it right now.

Aye. It is worth that at least. Make sure to get to level 15 in Adventuring (grouping for a dungeon at least once after 10th), level 10 in Diplomacy and Crafting before the month runs out. You will know if you like the game by then.

I do it all the time with my none stealthy paladin.

Please use the quote tag sparingly or not at all.

[Freiyr]

Another note, when it comes to the child and needing to step away from the game..

I haven't had it happen yet while grouping, but when I need to step away while soloing, it is really easy. If you just want to log out, it takes 30 seconds to camp. Though, if you need to go afk right away, you can quit the game instantly, and I have never yet came back on to a corpse run. Which can be really nice when needing to leave while in an area with aggro mobs.

[GantRahl Goodekind]

Well, the box'll be here Wednesday. Neither of us has the time to run to a gamestore... (she's an executive, and I'm the part-time Mr. Mom) ...so her Amazon account was put to quick use. But she wouldn't let me pay the overnight. Her words: "What's the use of me bein' a sugermomma, if I don't get you a new game, once in a while?"

So, now to spend a few days waiting for the mail to arrive... and keep an eye out for which server's will let me get the names I want. (One thing in WoW's favor... even with a player population nearing the level of absurdity that is generally reserved for the term "national debt", with that many servers running, you're pretty well guaranteed to still have access to your old namesake.)

[Johaocarl]

An advice: try Florendyl server.

[Whytewulf]

Gant, I am also giving it the 30 day try. Let me know what server you try out, because I always understand kid AFk things (though plant AFk never has the same ring to it). I think I am joining for some of the same reasons, though no wife or kid aggro at this time. I already ave the box, just waiting for my new PC to arrive. It is supposed to ship today, so I am hoping I am up and running this weekend.

[GantRahl Goodekind]

I've made a quick search for my 3 main naming prospects:
Sangrahl (supposed to be Sang'Rahl, but no MMO has allowed multiple capitalizations or the use of accent marks since before EQ launched)
Thaco (my current incarnation in WoW... and a constant conversation starter among the older gamers out there)
Twitch (a new name that popped into my head while reading about the new Raki race and thinking about trying a Ranger. Litterally my next thought was, "Ah, crap... now I've named a new character, I guess I ought to see what I can do to at least give it a try." Heheheh, oh well.)

It looks like my best prospects for all of the above on a single server is either Frengrot or Targonor. I can't stand server hopping, as it means I'll not have the constant reminder that the alts are still there, on the char-select screen.

Oh, love the sig, Whytewulf... but if my memoy serves me it should read: "Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim".
Unless my memories of the placque over my Latin Teacher's desk in Highschool has faded in my old age. (Seriously, the only other thing I remember is "semper ubi, sub ubi"... and that's a waste of brain cells, if there ever was one.)

"Be patient and tough; one day this pain will be useful to you"

[LordPazuzu]

I can't stand server hopping, as it means I'll not have the constant reminder that the alts are still there, on the char-select screen.


Actually, you will. Vanguard is like EQ2 in that you get a set number of characters per account, not per server. So they all display ont he character select screen regardless of server.

For soloing, most towns and outposts have solo quests and missives that can be done for xp and treasure. The quests offer decent xp and the missives can be saved up and cashed in for a decent reward. If you need to step away suddenly, manya reas have safe spots you can run to and go afk or if you place a class that can stealth or invis that's great too. If you have to dump out immediately, you will usually have a temporary invulnerability buff on when you log back in. This will cancel itself once you go to move or take an action.

If you hate one click crafting and want to make something useful, Vanguard is your game to craft in. Armor, weapons, boats, houses..can all be crafted, and are all worth crafting.

The interface should make the transition from WoW to VG fairly easy.