From Vanguard Wiki
[edit] The "Core" Gamer
The "core gamer" is one who does not spend all of his or her time using only one playstyle. Vanguard is designed to facilitate casual, solo, group, and raid playstyles as a means to allow for content and progression for players at all points in their career in Vanguard. The guarantee of content being included for all playstyles is also attributed to the Advanced Encounter System (AES).
Quotes
"Additionally we will have areas that are more geared for one of the categories: casual, group, and raid. The casual areas require less of a contiguous time commitment and you don't need a full group. The grouping areas, well, require you to group. Think classic, old school grouping. Then the raid areas, well that's pretty obvious.
Both risk and reward will be present, however, so one shouldn't expect to see as much of a reward in a casual area vs a group area. It's something to do when you have less time, and it should be fun, but you're not going to get the fiery scimitar of ultimate doom in a casual region."
- Vanguard FAQ, 1
[edit] Casual Play
Casual players in Vanguard will have avenues of advancement, but it should be noted that casual advancement will be a slower form of progression than other play styles. There will be areas designated as being designed specifically for casual, but such areas will offer less reward than the areas designed for groups or raids. Casual gaming areas will be treated as areas designed for solo play.
Many powerful items and much advanced content will not be accessible through casual play alone.
Quotes
"While Vanguard is not an 'all things for all people' game, it is definitely being designed for people who enjoy a challenging game but don't necessarily have a ton of time. There are regions in the game throughout all of the levels, low to high, for casual, group, and raid. The designers set the target audience and group size accordingly. There are also game mechanics to ensure a raid party doesn't screw up a casual or a group area."
- Brad McQuaid, aka "Aradune Mithara", 1
"We may create some solo and casual encounter routes – but the focus of most of the Premiere Dungeons past a certain level is typically group. That’s not to say we wont have mini dungeons with encounter routes for solo players – but creating this content does take time."
-Bill W. Fisher, aka Tagad, 2
[edit] Group Play
Group play will be partially guided by the Advanced Encounter System. While going about normal adventuring, a group may be presented with an opportunity by the AES to participate in an event. Such opportunities are called "Encounter Routes" (ER).
Quotes
"A group will not enter a dungeon and simply say “Hey I want to do the Manticore Encounter Route”. More than likely they will travel to the dungeon in search of the Exp, and Phat l3wtz. Getting a chance to participate in the Manticore Encounter Route is simply a challenge that the party may be presented with. If they wish to pursue it and reap the rewards, they may."
- Bill W. Fisher, aka Tagad, 1
[edit] Raid Play
There will be content and items that are only attainable through raiding. A "raid" is an event involving (usually) multiple groups of players who act cooperatively to overcome a significant risk to attain a reward.
Unlike many of Vanguard's predecessors, not all powerful items and high end content in Vanguard will be accessible through raiding alone. Much of the content will require overcoming multiple challenges.
Quotes
"Anyway, lots of ways to keep things rare, exotic, intriguing, sought after without using only one or a few ways to obtain rare items. This allows players with different play styles, skills, etc. to obtain powerful items, although the extra effort to make the items distinct is worth it.
All that said, and here's where I risk some wrath, the most powerful items will likely require skill, challenge, risk, and contiguous time commitments involving a lot of people. The reason is that by putting all of those challenges together, you get a bigger challenge. The additional commitment to stay on those extra hours, the organizational skills necessary to lead and organize a large group of people, etc. There's still something to be said about all of that, even though it will be the minority of content, as per what I've commented on in the past."
- Brad McQuaid, aka "Aradune Mithara", 1
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