At least a few times a week the topic on the
Official Vanguard Forums turns to the "Casual vs. Hardcore" argument, and this week is no different. This time though, Brad responded with a rather
lengthy post. Here's a taste:
<i>Anyway, forgive me for rambling on and taking this opportunity to use your post to try to address a more general issue, but, well, I can’t help myself. We are confident that Vanguard will appeal to that audience, move the genre forward, and not just be a great game but also one that makes both Sigil and Microsoft a profitable game we all can be proud of. How popular in terms of numbers will this turn out to be? I've guessed between 250k and 500k (and some have agreed, and others scoffed), but then we also guessed and hoped for 70k for EQ 1 And having enjoyed being number one for several years, it certainly wouldn't be unpleasant to be surprised yet again. But neither is it necessary, and nor do we feel creatively driven to make another game like WoW. Rather, a great game, a profitable game, and a game we can be proud of and enjoy playing ourselves is both more important to us and more realistic. Likewise we welcome other upcoming MMOGs with very different mechanics and goals, regardless of whether we'd want to play those games or not (and many of us did enjoy CoH and other more targeted games, btw). Again, choices = good. Variety = good. And neither require going after obscure niches either.</i>
Check out the
full post.