I started out with Vanguard when the preorder folks went live. Things were a little buggy as far as social server going up and down constantly, but I always figure you're taking your chances with a brand new game release.

I did okay with the initial quests. I'm a human sorcerer in kind of an arabian culture. I think the main city is Khal (I hope I'm spelling that right).

I started playing mainly (okay only) because my husband has been so excited about Vanguard and he abandoned me in WoW. I picked my character based on his starting character choice so at least we could try and adventure together.

My first complaint, and this is a huge issue for me, is that it's so freaking dark! I mean I'm getting eyestrain trying to see (and yes, I do have my torch turned on). If I could figure out how to brighten up my monitor without hurting it I would do that. And the day to night cycle seems to happen fairly quickly. I feel like I've barely had any daylight and then it's night again. Grrrrr.

My second big issue didn't happen until I reached level 7 and there started to be a death penalty. I respawn at the altar just fine, but my gear is all at a tombstone in BFN. Let me get this straight. I'm fighting something (with all my armor and gear) and it beats the crap out of me and kills me. Now I get to run back to where it killed me, naked and unarmed, and try my luck again. Who's idea of fun was this? Body run can be bad enough. Body run naked and unarmed is just sadistic. Yes, I know you can get little baubles to soulbind gear to travel with you, but I'm not exactly rich as a starting character.

I have somewhat enjoyed the crafting mini game. I started out as an artisan but got frustrated with trying to find resources and not getting killed. I switched to tailor and took cloth gathering and skinning. I figured (rightly) that skinning is a multitask operation. I get adventuring xp for killing the critter and crafting xp for stealing it's hide.

I have been dabbling a bit in diplomacy. It's definitely different. I wish I could figure a way to get more cards. Some of the early quests I've gotten I have not been able to get past. I've gained some experience in the meantime so I suppose I need to hunt up the people and give it another try.

I haven't been thrilled so far, but I'm going to keep trying in the name of marital harmony (either that or find another hunting buddy in WoW).

I will say that so far my experience with the community has been reasonably good - except for all that dang WoW bashing in general chat.

In case you hadn't heard, well, crawl out from under whatever winter blanket you've been hiding under, and drag it down to your computer, because you're about to miss out. Vanguard has been released. My hope is that you pre-ordered, because rumor has it that stores are already running out of copies. And I have to say that I'm not surprised in the least. I'm totally hooked, and have been since playing back in beta. Let me explain why.

Read more »