This week, Sony Online Entertainment announced the official launch of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes! This highly anticipated MMO was designed from the ground-up by none other than the great Brad McQuaid, lead developer of the original Everquest.

We attended the opening day events at our local Best Buy, where crowds gathered in anticipation of the release of this epic online RPG. Best Buy, in planning for this mega-release, prepared for the events with crowd-control barriers, security guards, and live events to keep all the anxious line-geeks entertained. With crowds this large, there was some drama.
Incidents of line-cutting, various disputes, and minor acts of violence occurred, especially after it was revealed that only 500 copies of Vanguard were on hand. These outbreaks were handled quickly by the plentiful security that was present at an event of this magnitude. It?s all to be expected, I suppose. Vanguard is a major title in a competitive genre. It?s the newest kid on the block, and it?s been whispered as a WoW-killer.

Designed from day one by the granddaddy king pooh-bah of online RPGs, the excitement factor is just plain huge. It would be hard to exaggerate the magnitude of this game?s release, and the launch event certainly captured that spirit?

?Except that I just made all of that up. Well, not the parts about SOE launching Vanguard, and it being designed by Brad McQuaid. That stuff was real. The rest was nonsense.

The Launch That Wasn?t

Here’s the problem: the launch of Vanguard should be a major event. I mean, it is a major title, right? If you are into online role-playing games, you know what Everquest is, and you know that Brad McQuaid was the game’s spiritual father. If Everquest is Luke, then Brad is Vader. OMG…Luke Everquester?Brad McVader? Luke, I am your father. Oh, I could go on and on, but I digress.

Vanguard should be highly, highly anticipated, with a huge frackin? launch. Where were all the game geeks, soiling themselves with lustful longing for Brad?s hot new brain-child? Munch on this thought: before World of Warcraft, Everquest was the biggest, baddest, mofo of all the online MMOs. EQ was the bomb. Lots of us played EQ and, like crack addicts, we loved and hated that game. It was addictive. It caused divorces. It was crazy ? dogs and cats, sleeping together crazy. It caused mass hysteria. And just like that hot-but-unstable girl you dated in college, it kept coming back into your life.

Brad, at this point, was the hottest thing in game development. He moved on to lead the development of Everquest II. With Brad at the helm, everyone thought EQ II would rip the entire MMO industry a new one. Suddenly, Brad left Sony Online Entertainment while Everquest II was still in its embryonic stage. Brad soon formed Sigil Games. Sigil, the pundits murmured, would allow Brad the creative freedom that was so constrained at SOE. At Sigil, Brad could exercise his full potential, bringing all of his geeky RPG knowledge to bear on the creation of his choosing. That creation, we were soon to learn, would be called Vanguard.

For a couple of years, Vanguard was the golden child of the gaming press. I heard more gossip, rumor, and innuendo about Vanguard than about my boss?s hot new secretary. It got more press than all other in-development MMOs combined. Vanguard was the real EQII, I was told. SOE?s Everquest II was just a poser. EQ II, without Brad, would fail. It was all Brad this, and Brad that. He didn’t give a lot of interviews, but when he did, it was all headlines.

A few other wanna-be MMOs hit the market. They came and went, leaving much to be desired. However, the rumors that enveloped Vanguard like a hungry vampire promised something very different. Vanguard would be the next great online game, because Brad was behind it. Everyone knew it. Everyone talked about it.

Warcraft Woos the World

While Vanguard was still just a fetus, a little bitty game called World of Warcraft birthed itself violently upon the planet. Other solid MMOs have their share of the market — Eve, Guild Wars, FFXI, City of Heroes — but WoW grew into the monster that devoured nearly everything. WoW actually became what Vanguard had been prophesied to become. Every guy that played MMOs suddenly began playing WoW. Lots of guys who never played an online RPG in their lives suddenly started playing WoW. Heck, even my wife started playing WoW. And that, kiddies, is nothing short of a miracle.

In the world of MMOs, it seemed that Vanguard had lost its luster. It just wasn’t the golden child of the press any more.

Of course, there were still occasional interviews, and there was some coverage by the gaming press, but it wasn?t as starry-eyed. The screenshots were beautiful, the game theory behind Vanguard was solid (Brad often pontificated on that topic), and the video releases looked great. Brad even showed the old over-confidence from time to time, dissing and dismissing other MMO games.

I finally got a full taste of Vanguard at E3. E3, as you already know, is the circus, Disneyland, and the Oscars all rolled into one. The Mecca for game developers, you simply cannot get better press for your upcoming game anywhere else. Vanguard was represented, but I can?t remember if I even bothered to write about it at the time. Not many of the numerous writers and reviewers present at E3 did, either. There were too many other great games on display, screaming for attention. Very simply, Vanguard was overlooked because Sigil didn?t put forth any real effort to impress anyone.

The Utter Importance of Building Boats

It?s kind of hard to put my finger on it, but Vanguard had lost its life force. The game had some floor space in the SOE booth (hell, SOE had a huge, impressive booth at E3) but Vanguard?s designated area was a small one. It was meager. It was the size of a Tic Tac. A game I?d never heard of before (Gods and Heroes) got just as much floor space as Vanguard. Star Wars: Galaxies (already a dying game at the time) had four or five times the floorspace. Everquest and EQ II were much more prominent, dominating most of SOE?s booth.

I got a chance to speak to a Vanguard developer (but not Brad himself) who was giving interviews there, and he told me all about the game?s crafting system.

?There would be some truly in-depth trade skills in Vanguard?, he gushed. ?Players will able to build their own houses, then tear them down, then build new ones somewhere else!?

?What joy,? I offered.

?Players will even be able to build their own boats?, he told me excitedly. He beamed like a chubby kid at the ice cream counter.

?Um, what?? I asked, befuddled.

Apparently, this the kind of thing Sigil rattles on about to a reporter trying to give their game some press coverage. The biggest feature on display at E3 was the fact that players could build boats? Incredibly, a developer for a major upcoming online RPG spent his time at E3 discussing the crafting system ? I?d never seen that before. C?mon, Sigil, that?s it? That?s your big show at E3?

Dig Me. I know I Do.

A thought began to rear its ugly head. The MMO market was a big one, but it was clearly a competitive one. Could Sigil really compete? Well, the company kept telling us how great Vanguard was. Beyond that, how much better Vanguard was than anything else. And Brad was pretty free in his criticism of other online games. Could that be the problem? Had Vanguard become the starlet, the cheerleader who digs herself a little to much, the hottie that can?t stop talking about how hot she is? Could that explain the lack of effort at E3, and the utter lack of any effort at launch?

Does Brad simply think he doesn?t need to put forth these kinds of efforts? Does Sigil think that Vanguard is that hot?

Honestly, I don?t know. Vanguard has some good stuff going for it. The game certainly has many, many more features than just the crafting system. I?d describe them to you, but I?m still completely dumbfounded by the boat-building thing. The point is that, over time, I found myself losing interest in Vanguard. Unfortunately, I wasn?t alone. If you followed the gaming press surrounding Vanguard?s development, it went as flaccid as an 90 year old phallus. The buzz was not buzzing. There wasn?t a lot of coverage. There wasn?t a whole heck of a lot being said by anybody about the game.

Ask yourself this: Were you anticipating the 19 races and 15 professions the game offered? Did the innovative diplomacy system, unique in the MMO genre, intrigue you? Did you even know that the Vanguard open beta was this past month? Did you know that players that pre-ordered the game would get to play days before anyone else? Did you even know Vanguard was being released yesterday? No?

Join the club.

Despite the poor publicity and utter lack of excitement in the gaming community, when Elvyra and I went up to cover launch day at Best Buy, we expected something. I don?t know exactly what, but when Brad McQuaid launches a new MMO, something big is bound to happen, right? At a minimum, we expected a line of geeks, waiting for their copy of the game, whom we could interview. Well, as you can see by this article?s pics, there was no line. There were no geeks. There wasn?t a lot going on. Heck, there wasn?t anything going on. Nothing. Nada.

A Dearth of Fanboys

When we went inside the store, there were a few copies of Vanguard on display. They were on the racks, right next to every other game on display. There was nothing to call attention to Vanguard ? no special displays, no banners, no props, no nothing. Vanguard was just jammed in there along with everything else. In fact, Auto Assault ? a tiny, struggling MMO ? had more shelf presence than Vanguard did. I can?t describe the Best Buy ?launch event? as just vanilla, cuz vanilla still has flavor. This was like a glass of water ? odorless, tasteless, and invisible.

I got a chance to chat briefly with a Best Buy employee. At first, she didn?t know what Vanguard was. She was very well aware that there were no special launch activities planned. She was also very well aware that Vanguard hadn?t been selling well enough to get anyone?s attention. There had been no rush of game-geeks buying up copies. It wasn?t exactly flying off the shelves.

We went over to Fry?s Electronics. Fry?s has a giant flying saucer crashed into the side of their store, and there are props of aliens and giant bugs all over the store. Fry?s just oozes with geekiness. If anyone was going to give Vanguard some props, some respect, some love, it would be Fry?s. They always do that when a new, hot game is released. They have a system in place to handle that kind of thing ? the store is good about organizing excited geeks into manageable herds, making sure they get their pre-ordered Wii or their copy of Battlefield 2142 the moment it comes out.

Not this time. There was nothing. No line, no rush to buy Vanguard, no big displays. No real indication that Vanguard was even a new game. The only indication that Vanguard was at all special was that it got a few rows of shelves at the end of an aisle (the two other shelves displayed hardware and some other game). A good number of copies of Vanguard sat on the shelves, in their pristine, un-purchased glory, crammed right between more numerous copies of WoW and Guild Wars.

We met a costumed geek outside the store. Was he an excited fanboy, rushing to grab his copy of Vanguard? We approached to grab a quick interview. Upon closer inspection, we realized he was not, in fact, a geek at all. He was simply soliciting donations for the homeless. Nice guy, just not what we expected. We gave him a dollar in exchange for the pic.

We checked the online press ? there was very little on the game?s release. A few ? very few ? fansites covered the release, hosted some screenshots, and posted general news, but it wasn?t anything at all interesting or special. Even the official site was pretty bland. In all the excitement, we were astounded to discover that there are only 13 servers hosting the game at launch. Thirteen? Huh? Was Sigil kidding?

Later in the day I ransacked my own house, looking for recent gaming magazines. I found half a dozen. There was minimal coverage (a few short blurbs, really) of Vanguard. Many mags simply ignored it.  I couldn?t help wondering why a major title like Vanguard didn?t bother to promote itself ? giving interviews, snapping pictures, giving playtime to reviewers ? in prominent gaming mags. How could Sigil overlook something as basic as that?

Publicity and the Art of Self-Promotion

We couldn?t help but compare the Vanguard launch to the launch of The Burning Crusade just a couple of weeks ago. The BC launch events were huge. Even in places where no official Blizzard launch event was scheduled, many mini-events took place. Stores set up barricades, opened at midnight, served refreshments, and gave away prizes. There were long lines in Boise, and Omaha, and Waco, folks. Hell, there were long lines in freakin? Canada. Fans were rabid for The Burning Crusade.

Fans were equally rabid when WoW first launched. We attended the launch event at a Fry?s in Orange County in November, 2004. The line spiraled around the building multiple times. They ran out of copies of the game ? quite a few folks went home empty handed. The event was simply colossal.

If I remember correctly, WoW had 88 servers on opening day. Not thirteen. New servers were added every week in the beginning, and it was a long time before the rush to add new servers slowed down. As the game grows, Blizzard still adds new servers.

See, the Blizzard publicity machine is pretty active. They have a presence at every geek convention ? ComicCon, E3, etc ? that you can think of, they send out press releases regularly, they sponsor launch events, they support fansites, and their developers give interviews and talk with magazine editors and such. It?s a regular series of ongoing events. And it doesn?t hurt that WoW is a very good game, either.

But the EVE Online people do the same thing. They know the importance of publicity. At E3, they positively wooed us with a special lounge (full of comfy chairs and couches), where they plied us with drinks before we ever interviewed a soul. Clever.

Similarly, Elvyra and I know the Guild Wars people by name, we?ve interviewed a bunch of nice folks working for NC Soft, and we?ve met the lead developer for both the upcoming Warhammer Online and the upcoming Hellgate: London. Why? Let me tell you, it?s not because either Elvyra or I are particularly important. It?s because the companies behind these games understand the value of publicity and good press. They put their best foot forward, and their best people up front, meeting the press. They don?t prop up some dork to explain the crafting system and the importance of boat building (in great detail) on their pint-sized E3 floorspace. And they don?t simply forget to have exciting launch events on launch day for their biggest game. The purpose of publicity is generating excitement about the game, right?

That Sucking Sound You Hear?.

Does this lack of excitement mean that Vanguard sucks? That is unclear. In fact, the lack of excitement may not reflect on the game very much at all. What is clear is that Vanguard?s press relations are lacking, and its publicity people aren?t the most proactive we?ve ever seen. It?s also clear that the ?build up? to the launch could have been handled with a bit more flair. Or simple professionalism. Or basic workmanlike effort. Or any effort at all.

I?ll repeat something I wrote a bit earlier: Does Brad simply think he doesn?t need to put forth these kinds of efforts? Does Sigil think that Vanguard is that hot?

I read a forum poster ? clearly an impressed Vanguard player ? that believes the game is, in fact, that hot. The poster predicted the game will have 500,000 players in the near future. Some of the other players have echoed this kind of sentiment. Still others, having played the beta, expressed disappointment with the game. There is room in the MMO market for other games ? WoW isn?t for everyone ? and Vanguard still has a chance to be one of those other games. If Sigil is planning on Vanguard being one of these contenders, they aren?t looking to magazines, websites, retail promotions, or any other conventional means of making that happen. In fact, they are apparently counting solely on some sort of viral, word-of-mouth buzz to make the game popular. That?s a pretty dubious strategy.

But it has actually worked in the past: the original Everquest didn?t have a huge launch, but caught fire as the months passed. That occurred, however, in an environment in which there wasn?t a lot of competition in the MMO marketplace. In fact, the entire North American MMO marketplace consisted of only three MMOs at the time. Nonetheless, Everquest outshone the it?s two competitors and rose to dominate that market.

Can Brad pull this off a second time? Is Vanguard good enough to compete, survive, even thrive without conventional marketing and publicity? This will all shake out, and whether Vanguard becomes a viral success remains to be seen. If it?s good, the game will survive despite the lack of effort from Sigil?s publicity people. If the game really isn?t all that hot, Vanguard will join the wreckage of other failed MMOs.

There is one big advantage to a lack of hype, failed marketing efforts, a lack of publicity, and a botched launch: the game doesn?t have far to fall. If Vanguard fails, it?ll go down fast and in flames. Llike the Hindenburg, if it gets the support it needs, it?ll slowly rise and sail along beautifully. If it?s destined to crash and burn, it?ll burn up in an exciting fireball, producers and fanboys will jump from the flaming wreckage, and it?ll crash so quickly it?ll make a gamers head spin.

Oh the humanity.

Copyright 2007 by WanderingGoblin.com. All rights reserved. Any attempt to reproduce this article without express written permission of the goblins will result some nasty goblinoids sniffing you out, finding out where you live, and paying you a visit. And then our goblin lawyer will serve you with some nasty legal papers, and that?s really scary.