Vanguard Beta

I’ve had this draft title saved at Play-Girlz for weeks now and have finally decided to use it despite the fact that I have yet to even play the Vanguard: Saga of Heroes beta. Why, might you ask, would Erin, already admittedly strange, go this one step further into weirdness in a blazingly public forum?

Because Sigil and VMC are pissing me off.

I went to E3 on a Super Pass (or Supah Pass, as I liked to call it), meaning that I got some perks and freebies that other, lesser mortals weren’t inclined to receive. One of them was a disc from VMC GameLabs that, in addition to promoting VMC abilities, also promised the bearer of the disc a free beta account for Sigil Games‘ new upcoming MMO, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. So home with this Holy Grail I went, knowing full well that getting into the Vanguard beta otherwise would have been like trying to catch a moderately greased weasel. In short, I had something that crazed fans would pay a lot of money for.

Post-E3 a lot of things kept me from rapturous beta play (like that pesky thing called real life), but finally, last month, I sat down with the disc and attempted to get my account rolling. I was already imagining the character creation screen, where I would spend anxious moments weighing the pros and cons of being an Elven Psionicist. Life would be good. I thought that right up until the fifth time that FilePlanet refused to accept my beta key code, stating that I had either entered the number incorrectly, or that the beta account had already been activated by another party. Considering that the disc had sat in my office undisturbed by human hands for a month, it seemed like the first option was more likely, but even after repeated tries and careful double-checking…nada.

So I got annoyed. Did someone steal my account? If so how? My boss (ha!) paid good money for this at E3, and now you’re telling me I don’t get to play?

Rather than fly off the handle, I sent a pleasant support ticket request to FilePlanet, to see if there was something on their end that needed fixing. No, said they, I would have to contact VMC directly to see what was up. And so I did. Not only did I write VMC, but also Sigil and neither of them have even acknowledged reception of my email. I’m sure you can imagine how pleased I am with this.

I’ve just, not five minutes ago, sent them another email with a read request so let’s wait and see what happens. Will I get my beta account? Will balance be restored to the universe? Only time will tell, but for now I’m going to go stare at the banner on the Sigil site that encourages people to sign up for the beta.