First, I should warn you that this is a rant, pure and simple. Second I should say that this is in no way meant to be an "attack" on the developers. It is, however, my opinion that while game developers can be wonderful people with great ideas, they are also as capable of making mistakes as the rest of us. And there have been some signifigant mistakes made in the creation of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. I have said in my review and some of my blogs about the good things about the game, so it is only fair to also bring to you the things that I'm extremely frustrated with. Going to explain why first.

Follow up:

So far Vanguard has yet to bring the level of passionate excitement that these thing are bringing in passionate frustration. I have played since beta, and a few weeks into release now I have yet to experience any real excitement in regards to my in game accomplishments. I'm no where near as high a level as most (something I'm used to), I've not seen anything all that exciting and cool in the world to write about. I've not had anything but two weeks of grinding out the same things over and over again. This is especially true when it comes to crafting. I've pushed and pushed to get to level 11 so I could become a Leatherworker. This was my chosen path when I started as an outfitter, so I was at least mildly excited when I finally got there today. To level 11, that is. Here comes the but... and it's a big but... with many "t"'s type but.

But in the space of an hour all that excitement has been replaced with pure frustration, anger and, to be honest, almost tears. Now at this point I have walked away from the game, because no game should bring that much frustration. A game should be fun. Challenging, sure. I didn't like the grind of getting to level 11 any more than I've liked the reason for my frustration that I'm about to explain. Fun comes in many forms, but it isn't sitting for hours pushing the same series of buttons repeatedly. Even doing that, though, isn't frustrating. And some I'm writing this blog because I feel a bit as though I should warn off others so they don't end up at this same point as I am.

Picture this if you would: Two weeks of planning, of being excited at the prospect of being the ONLY leatherworker in my guild. Being THE one that my friends would come to if they need leather. Of being able to supply my husband's character, and my own, with the equipment they need in order to continue to adventure and explore. Two weeks of building up to a point that, while I know it won't be the end by any means of the grind, will be a milestone. Finally that magical "ding" comes. I get the quests to become a leatherworker. I finish the first one, and the title appears in my list of possible titles. I put it over my head with pride and move on to the next quest.

The next quest says to go to Martok and talk to someone there. Knowing nothing more than that, and trusting the developers to have given me the information I need in order to reach my goals, I search around and find out how to get to Martok. Excitement still growing, because I'll be discovering a new part of the world too, I step off the "boat" and make my way toward where Martok is on my map. I dodge mobs and get to the road. As I close in on Martok, in the blink of an eye I'm dead. Martok, you see, is the orc city on the Kojani continent. And Orcs are the evil race, where humans are the good. So I am KOS to orcs.

I am now faced with a choice. I can either give up on my goal of becoming a leatherworker, stop crafting all together, or raise my faction with the orcs, thus starting to turn my otherwise good human to evil. While I'm not a strong roleplayer, this is a roleplaying game, and I do write stories about my character. I don't WANT to have an evil character, or even one who walks toward the line in between. In fact, in the stories I've written about my character, she has done just the opposite, and turned away from previous evil ways toward good. And now, in order to craft, I'm being told that I MUST do the complete opposite.

The developers got it wrong, this time, in my opinion. I understand that this is a faction game, and I could completely understand if I had to go to another "good" or even "neutral" city and raise my faction with them before continuing to craft. If, for example, the lore of the continent was such that the wood elves who are in the middle of the world geographically were also in the middle of the conflict between human and orc. If players who had chosen to play "good" or "evil" had to then raise faction from 0 (neutral) to 100 with the middle of the road group before they could advance, I could even live with. As a guildmate told me while discussing this issue "This is a faction game". But to demand that I completely change my faction just so I can continue on toward my goal has me at a point where I am very frustrated.

I have no choice but to give up this goal. I'll be honest, I haven't yet decided if I want to give up totally on the game yet or not. I can tell you that if I come up against many more of these "it's my way or not at all" paths, I will quit. One of the things I liked about Vanguard was the wide variety of options that I had. I could quest, I could craft, I could do diplomacy, I could just slaughter stuff, I could harvest...there was variety. And even in each of those things, there were choices. Take those choices away, especially when making them counter to what I'd already decided to do, and I become a "not happy camper".