Start Crafting. Vanguard: SoH

Launched today in both Europe and the US, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a high fantasy-themed MMORPG developed by Sigil Games Online and co-published by Sony Online Entertainment.

Vanguard: SoH offers three primary areas of play: Adventuring, Crafting and Diplomacy. Each of them can be played independently of each other, and although there are many points of potential interaction, it will present an advantage to be grounded in more than one of the spheres. There are no restrictions to any combinations between spheres, making each character unique.

Vanguard is set in a high fantasy world called Telon. Most of the known playable races are from traditional fantasy: Goblins, Humans, Halflings, Dwarves, Elves, Barbarians, Half-giants and the less traditional Vulmane, a race of intelligent bipedal wolf-men.

Crafting is one of the most important aspects of the game as you can buy property, build a house and even turn it into a business. You can create a shop and even set opening hours.

A very essential and entirely independent feature is the diplomacy system. The third "sphere" of Vanguard, Diplomacy, allows players to influence their faction and to gain benefits for themselves or other players and not just by simply killing large numbers of enemies. Obtaining faction, gear and money are the highest of priorities and one major reward of Diplomacy is Civic Benefits.

Here's an important hint. If you're planning on starting the game, don't be lazy about it. It's as demanding as it gets. What happens if you leave your car unattended for, let's say... a few weeks? Normally, it will get stolen or broken. The same thing can happen to the house you've patiently crafted if you log off the game and don't remember to log back on for a long time.

The user interface is pretty similar to that of WoW so if you're a WoW fan, then Vanguard: SoH just has to fill some of the empty disk space on your computer.