Interview with Vanguard Fighters
Vanguard Fighters announced last week that the site would cease operations on June 8, 2007. Lightning, the administrator for Vanguard Fighters cited “differences of opinion with the publisher (SOE)” and “lack of interest” as the reasons for bringing down the site. I asked Lightning to spare some time to help fully explain the situation and to provide insight into running a fan site.
Questions about the ClosureTen Ton Hammer (TTH): First off, can you talk about the “differences of opinion” with SOE. I understand that the founder of Vanguard Fighters (TheDrunkenDwarf) turned over the site to you once SOE became involved. This was during beta, right?
Vanguard Fighters (VF): That’s correct. TheDrunkenDwarf had past grievances with SOE, and had vowed to never again support one of their products. To quote the article he wrote at the time:
I read all the developer posts and Brad’s reassurances. I believed what he wrote, but none of that changed the fact that SOE was now involved with the game. I felt like I had to be true to what I believed, even if it meant that I would be missing out on what promises to be a great game. At this point, I had no problem with SOE’s involvement – I too had read Brad’s statements and felt that the game still had the capacity to be the world I wanted to spend the next few years in. My enthusiasm to carry on led TheDrunkenDwarf to hand the reigns officially to me (I had been running the site as the main administrator for several months by then) and we carried on as normal.
TTH: Since that time, has the SOE involvement given you any heartache?
VF: Not from SOE, no. The main problems have been a lack of interaction with the staff at Sigil. I cannot directly fault SOE.
TTH: When you say lack of interest, who are you talking about: you, the VF staff, or the VF community?
VF: All of the above. We started off with four members of staff: two administrators and two contributors / moderators. Over time, after TheDrunkenDwarf left, the other members of staff lost faith in the game, leaving me to run the site on my own. At that point, my enthusiasm was beginning to dwindle, so I kept the site running as best I could, mostly moderating the forums.
At the same time, Vanguard made the transition from beta to live and failed utterly to live up to what I hoped it could be, and what Brad had hyped it to be. I think we’re all conversant with what came after in the wider Vanguard community, but the number of posters dropped off dramatically after the first month of live, and then steadily declined to the point where I decided the site had no further purpose.
At it’s peak, we were getting 25,000 visitors a day. At the end, we were getting about 500.
TTH: Will you continue to play Vanguard personally?
VF: I have terminated my Vanguard account, but I intend to keep a close eye on where it goes from here. With the money and people SOE are throwing at it, I have a little faith remaining that this could be a truly ground-breaking game. I’m giving it six months to grab my attention again, and maybe then I will come back.
Questions about Running a Fan SiteTTH: As a Community Manager for a gaming network, I frequently try to explain the difference between my paid position and effort put forth by an administrator at a fan site. Can you tell me a little bit about your experience operating VF?
• Do you work a job or go to school? If so, how did you balance your time to be able to support VF? And did that factor into the decision to close the site?
• You’ve told me that TheDrunkenDwarf continued to fund VF even after he left. Can you give readers an idea of the expense of running a site without the revenue generated through subscription fees (like IGN) or ad sales (like IGN and TTH)?
VF: I work full time for a business Internet Solution Provider as a Windows Server administrator. I am lucky that I have unrestricted Internet access from work, so in my breaks I would log in and moderate the forum or post news updates. Work time did not really factor into the decision to close the site.
Without going into the exact dollar value of running the site, it rose dramatically over the lifetime of Vanguard Fighters. We started out on a small ISP with a shared SQL server that regularly got swamped by other users – this was when we made the transition from static HTML with a phpBB2 forum to a phpnuke based content management system. What followed was a series of server migrations to more and more expensive solutions as the site grew. With no income from the site whatsoever, TheDrunkenDwarf had to meet this cost out of his own back pocket and I am extremely grateful to him for continuing to fund the site when he himself had lost all hope in Vanguard.
TTH: I have been told numerous times on the SOE forums that all fan sites are biased and that their administrators censor the community. How do you respond to that? Did you find it hard to remain balanced in your moderation?
VF: I would disagree quite strongly. While the community at Vanguard Fighters was easy to moderate due to the intelligent discussions and utter lack of flaming, I never felt the need to censor anyone. All views, in my mind, are valid and if someone says they do not like Vanguard, as long as they post in a rational manner explaining why the game does not work for them, then I see no reason why this should not be in the public domain. Customers have the right to complain, whether the developers want to hear it or not.
Questions about the Differences between Fan Sites and Gaming NetworksTTH: I often tell our community members that one of the upsides of a gaming network compared to a fan site is that the gaming network won’t go anywhere just because the community managers lose interest in the game. The network will just hire someone else who is enthusiastic about the game.
The other side of the issue is that most gaming networks are driven by revenue and may choose to close down one game site on the network if the community does not seem heavily invested in it. Meanwhile, a fan site may not care if that game has 25K subscriptions or 2.5M subscriptions.
How have your experiences with VF changed your perceptions of fan sites and gaming networks?
VF: There are definitely pros and cons. As you mention, due to Vanguard Fighters running out of staff that care overly about the game, the site has fallen by the wayside. What has changed dramatically is my view of how much work really goes into building a fan site and keeping it running smoothly. More people need to appreciate that it can be a lot of hard work with very little thanks.
Questions about the FutureTTH: Will we see you running a fan site again in the near future (Age of Conan Fighters or Warhammer Fighters)?
VF: I have no plans to start a new fan site as of now. I have had a few offers from existing Vanguard fan site operators to move into an administration role, so there is always that opportunity.
TTH: If Vanguard is not the game for you long-term, what are you looking forward to on the horizon?
VF: I am not sure what MMORPG I will be moving to next, though Hero’s Journey looks interesting.
TTH: In what ways have you benefited from being admin at VF that will help you in your career or with future fan sites?
VF: I have spent a lot of time administering the Apache / PHP / mySQL back end of the site and have learned a great deal about that and the building of a site under phpnuke and Simple Machines Forums / TinyPortal. I have to say, I enjoyed developing the sites a great deal more than the day-to-day housework.
I also learned that I would never build a community site using phpnuke again. The amount of work involved to keep the site running can be rather extreme, and having experimented in my free time with many other content management systems, I can say it is a poor substitute for the likes of Joomla.
Parting ThoughtsTTH: Anything you want to add?
VF: Vanguard still has potential. I hope SOE can draw that potential out and show us what it really means to adventure in Telon.
TTH: Thanks for your time, and good luck in your future endeavors! |
