John Smedley hired by Amazon to produce MMOs

Flipmode

EQOA Refugee
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VG was a fucking great game. But you needed a monster machine. I had just built a new mini cray when VG came out so never had any issues.

Unfortunately when Sony took over, they assigned 2nd rate devs to the game and fucked it into the ground trying to fix it. VG definitely needed fixing so that people on welfare could play it. Sony wasn't the company to do that though since VG was a direct competitor to EQ2.


Stop the BS. You experienced chunking like everyone else. Your new computer didn’t make you immune to engine limitations. Keep it real.
 
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Kuro

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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All the oxy really smoothed the experience out.
 
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BoozeCube

Von Clippowicz
<Prior Amod>
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It is amazing that people to this day will argue how awesome Vanguard was. If it was so fucking great why did the pull the plug on it?
 
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Grim1

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Stop the BS. You experienced chunking like everyone else. Your new computer didn’t make you immune to engine limitations. Keep it real.

Of course I did, it was very minor for me though. Not even close to game breaking. Why you are getting your panties in a bunch is the real issue here. Your tears are endlessly salty.

It is amazing that people to this day will argue how awesome Vanguard was. If it was so fucking great why did the pull the plug on it?

It amazes me that you are still crying about a game that came out years and years ago. It really is pathetic.
 
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Aelzen

Trakanon Raider
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I had just dumped about 4k into a new rig I built, coincidentally right before Vanguard, and experienced very minor issues as well.
 

Daidraco

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Because the game was so poorly optimized and ran like such utter shit that you had to throw it against a MAC truck just to see the game run "semi" smoothly. Memory leaks were rampant across the game. Even after emptying the memory (which is already a red flag to have a widely known mem dump macro) the game still required far too much memory for what it was.

If the engine was flawless, and thats a big if, then the game would have been a niche game still. The lack of balancing, the lack of content, shitty tutorials on certain class abilities and more would still keep Vanguard from ever reaching the habitable zone for most players. The game surely had some charm, you bet. But at the end of the day, only one or two people were actively talking in the Vanguard threads when there was no new news.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
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I didn't make it past level 18 or 20. I remember starting out near the halfling town and fighting little pixie people (maybe evil halflings?). There was a grain elevator area that was pretty neat, but the elevator caused all sorts of weird desyncing that made it impossible to group. That was when I knew Vanguard would never be the EQ killer we all wanted it to be.
 

KCXIV

Molten Core Raider
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i played that shit all the way until they extended the levels to level 55. After that, i was out. I did love Ancient Port Warehouse, it was a cool ass zone. I remember tanking Kotasoth. ahh, it was fairly fun, laggy as fuck, but fun. lol
 
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Zarlore

Molten Core Raider
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Stop the BS. You experienced chunking like everyone else. Your new computer didn’t make you immune to engine limitations. Keep it real.

The solution to the chunking was to install the game on a SSD - But back then they were expensive.
 

Jozu

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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I ran Vangaurd on a pretty mediocre rig. I did catch lag in dense zones or during team fights but overall the server was the main factor for me when it came to performance.

During morning hours it ran great but the evening or weekend sessions were rough. That game was fun as fuck though sometimes, I ran a dark elf necro and that abomination pet they had was so stupidly OP it was awesome. I used to cc lock a guy then do my pets cool down attack ( I had a legendary item on him that procd extra damage on opening attack) which just one shotted almost every class type.

I quit after they nerfed that amazing little bastard.
 

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
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I guess I started it after the "new" had worn off. It was just dead, not sure if I ever saw anyone.
 

BoozeCube

Von Clippowicz
<Prior Amod>
48,250
283,295
I am telling you these talentless hack fucks need to make a goddamn VR MMO, give people a reason to buy an Oculus or Vive or whatever.

The port over to a new medium will be enough that people will look past all the flaws these skilless cunts will leave in the game.
 

McCheese

SW: Sean, CW: Crone, GW: Wizardhawk
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Based on what we've seen from their ability to program and develop games, they'd probably manage to create bugs that cause the VR set to explode the user's head or something. No thanks.
 

Flipmode

EQOA Refugee
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312
The solution to the chunking was to install the game on a SSD - But back then they were expensive.

Bullshit. Had one. Paid a pretty penny. Chunking was still there. Even tried a RAM disk. You guys are denying reality if you think you ran VG with top graphics and no chunking. That mythical rig didn’t exist. Stop it.
 
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Grim1

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Bullshit. Had one. Paid a pretty penny. Chunking was still there. Even tried a RAM disk. You guys are denying reality if you think you ran VG with top graphics and no chunking. That mythical rig didn’t exist. Stop it.

Lol. You really are butthurt about this. All I said is that it was minimal for me, and not even game breaking. Why does that fact make you taste piss in your cheerios? Too funny.

You just can't accept that some people had a great time in Vanguard. Sucks to be you.
 
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mkopec

<Gold Donor>
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Like most of corporate America Smedley keeps failing upwards.

Yeah, I cant believe this type of shit either. I mean what did the dude "lead" that was any good? Most of his ideas on running SOE were pure shit. People say Day-Z, but even that was craptastic pile of shit until it took teams of people to fix it and to this day its janky as fuck.

They had one contender IMO and that was Planetside 2. But even that game, which had tons of promise was driven to the ground.

Even their bread and butter, EQ and EQ2 were both squandered over the years. No fucking vision at all.