I find this a very interesting way of reviewing a game, especially an MMO. Ten Ton Hammer has put up their review of Vanguard and, as expected it is on the luke-warm side of things. Nothing they say in the review is a surprise. We all know what state VG is in right now and what needs to happen in order to get it up to speed.
One funny thing about the review that made me go “hmmmm”. Regarding the level curve:
For a level curve that allows players to reach the cap in only a couple of weeks and a game that includes Rest XP as a means to help casual players climb the mountain at a steady pace,…
Not too sure what he means here, but getting to level cap within a couple of weeks is not realistic for the average MMO player. I know some who have played since launch and still aren’t at the level cap. He’s either talking about Mr.Super MMO Player-guy or total time played in the game. Just want to set that straight. The level curve is not quick in this game. I’d venture to guess that the level curve is on par EQ2. The review is asking for your input to get an overall rating for the game. All reviews need to be in by Sept. 16?so go contribute if you feel the burning need to.
That’s all that really caught my eye on the “news” side of things.
Couple of other things before I sign off. I’ll announce this on SUWT as well, but Adele has decided to move on due to some RL stuff that has recently come up. She got a new job and like most life events, it’ll take some time for her to get into the swing of things. So, much like a cheap drunk, I can’t seem to hold my co-hosts…heh 
. I’ll be flying solo for a bit while I figure out whether the co-host thing is still the way to go. Good news for you guys is that a third guest spot is now open and I can now invite one more person to the show. I wish Adele the best of luck and thank her for her great contribution to the show. And no…Smed did not steal her from me and make her a CM, so quit the rumors
Lastly, I wanted to thank everyone who contributed to the “Are Bloggers Press” question I put out there. Wasn’t expecting to get as much response as I did, so I got /boggled from how well you all came through on this one. I have more than enough content there to talk about it on the next show.
D out.
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September 11th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Good luck Adele … hope to see you back in the future.
As for leveling curve, 2 weeks to max level, did they even play the game … ??? I would expect he was refereing to total hours played as opposed to 2 weeks of casual play. Was a misleading statement …
September 11th, 2007 at 9:00 am
The leveling curve was steeper than in EQ2, though I’m not sure how it would be now with rested XP.
With a set play group in EQ2 (while rested XP was available in EQ2) we blew through the levels, averaging about 2-3 levels a session prior to level 40, after level 40 it was closer to 3 levels every 2 sessions (with our sessions being about 4 hours a piece). This included doing a bunch of the HQ quests. Here’s my Warden I did that with: http://eq2players.station.sony.com/characters/character_profile.vm?characterId=470680101 unfortunately, the time played was bloated 5 days because I power-leveled my friend’s paladin up to 52ish when our set group lost two tanks. I also transferred to Guk and played a bit there, mainly mentoring some mutual friends (the red-headed giant and some co-workers). I had hit level 60 by about 7 days played (and I’m casual, playing less than 12 hours a week).
That means I had about 42 sessions. It would have been 21 sessions at 8 hours each session. 14 sessions at 12 hours a day. 10.5 sessions at 16 hours a day. NOTE: I wasn’t grinding XP. I’d log in and do a dungeon, work on some quests, Heritage Quests, etc. Sometimes we’d end up in a dungeon or area below our level – green to light blue con – for awhile just to finish the dungeon. If we to just grind XP… well, it’d like have gone a lot faster but I would have been bored out of my tree.
Here’s my Cleric in VG: http://vgplayers.station.sony.com/characters.vm?characterId=60129548149 which I’ve played longer than the Warden in EQ2. I do admit, XP is faster now with Rested XP – which wasn’t there on release.
I’m sure a lot of people can speed level through any game in a short time if they dedicate most of their waking time to playing and assuming they have a group willing to do the same.
September 11th, 2007 at 9:35 am
I am not sure about a couple of weeks to level all the way. 60-70 in WoW yeah that easy, heck I even did it in one week TWICE in Prot spec with a pally and warrior, but 1-70 that is a different story. I guess if you log in each night and pound away you COULD maybe hit the level cap with HELP. The problem is groups are not as prominent in WoW as they used to be so the instance XP is far and few between until Outlands. I usually stall out now at level 40 and give up it just becomes too much. In EQ2 we raced along until about level 40 but then got lured back to WoW. In EQ1 we hit 38 in one week I think, but we knew where to hunt and how to pull fast. In Vanguard I have trouble getting to level 12, I have no clue what I am doing.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:48 am
I probably should have read this post before emailing you about my post on the whole bloggers being press issue. Whoops.
On topic: Is it just me or do most of the people who make these kinds of calls (simple level grind) always belong to hardcore tight-knit guilds? I don’t, I wouldn’t mind being in one, but for the most part I just play the game solo. Maybe a real life friend will be playing it for a bit, but that’s about the extent of my grouping. What about the lone rangers in the world?