They had some really cool classes, bloodmage, discipline, the shaman aspects, druid being dps, they had some great class design and "new" classes. I wish some game would redo some of their classes.

The crafting was second to none

Halfling Disciple Healer here. Loved the game.

It was wonderful.  I didn't get to play nearly as much as some, but I have fond memories of what it was like

The game has so many great ideas implemented. No game has ever had such great character classes again. A bard with his songbook, where you could compose your songs for certain effects. Or the disciple as a melee healer, the monk with his combos. The Shaman as Phoenix, Bear or Wolf. I unfortunately had a lot of problems back then, the world was divided into squares and whenever you passed a border the game could freeze or just closed.

This game was SOOOO good.  I remember Haven as they were one of our cross server rivals for first kills.
I played a Disciple (best class ever) in Blades of Wrath.

We got max level and there was nothing to do end game for months... then when Ancient Port Warehouse came out we had it beat in a month (it was challenging and fun) then farmed it for a month, then everyone quit.

Really fun game that didn't get the love it deserved. It would be cool if it somehow saw a resurgence, like many other older MMO's.

Years ago, when I first heard that Brad McQuaid was going to make a new game (Pantheon), my first thought was that rather than begin from scratch, he should try to get the rights to Vanguard, remaster it with a new engine/ graphics, and then re-release it.

Tim, the fucking music was THE best music I've ever heard in a video game. Your channel brings me back man

Disciple and Psionicist were my fav toons to play. I maxed out Diplomacy as well. I so miss Vanguard.

I played this game basically from launch to it's demise. I loved it. When it was at it's most broken I ran around the world harvesting and enjoying the beautiful graphics. Exploring areas that weren't even developed yet wondering what would end up being in those areas. This was probably my favorite game other than Everquest. It was so deep, so rich and so good. It had a ton of bugs and I realize why it tanked. But in the end I was impressed with what SoE was able to do with it. They got it polished up in a lot of ways and introduced some nice content. I never liked crafting until this game. Every character I had was a crafter of some sort. I built ships, houses and guild halls. Numerous sets of armors. I just can't say enough good things about this game. Like a guy mentioned below someone really needs to buy the rights to this game, find the coding and re-release it under a different name. It would be one of the better games out there right now. When it shut down it was pretty well polished and was a delight to play. I go to the emulator from time to time to check on it and it's great but it just isn't moving fast enough. By the time they get it finished I really think it will be a lost cause unfortunately. The soundtrack was amazing as you explained. I loved the vast world. I have even dug around to look where the rights to the game are and if there is some possible way to get this game back running and give it a jump start and advertise it as something new. That's how bad I would love to play this game again. All the reasons I remember people quitting and leaving over were fixed when the game died. I never understood why nobody would give it a second chance when they introduced the Isle of Dawn free play.

You forgot one of my favorite parts of the game was player-made housing and boats/ships. The crafting was some of the best I've seen. Sadly, I also remember "chucks" which were a type of zoning that caused a pause in the game (a lot like old Everquest).  Only with EQ, you knew where the zone was, with Vanguard it would be in the middle of nowhere and you kind of blundered into it.

Dude I remember when this came out. I too purchased a new pc, with a suped up graphics card and like 500 watt psu.  I loved it so much, and had a guild with 3 alts.  Those of us who stuck around and played really, really loved this game.  I wish they had tried to really add more content.  Regular runs of the raid warehouse were always a blast. They have the new emulator version you can get for free today.

Hands down one of my favorite and my 1st mmo I played, and will never forget this game.  Had many great memories raiding each week, and also grinding with crafting and my favorite activity...DIPLOMACY!  They don't make game like this anymore.   I was a dark elf disciple and that class was so unique because it was a healer class that requires you to dps with your staff.

Thisgame is my all time favorite.  My first mmo.  Got sucked in bought a computer just before it released.  Athlon 64 2.4ghz and purchased a 7950gt video card.  Game ran good but the memory leak always eventually caused a crash but could get right back in.  Was in the guild invictus. Guild had a different name before that cant remember what it was. Wonder where some of those guys are at!great times

I played this game very briefly just out of curiosity after it was already known that it was shutting down (I was trying out heaps of MMORPGs at the time), and Vanguard was one of the most memorable of the not-so-big names and of all the many MMOs I tried in that period, Vanguard was probably the one I wish I'd been there for. In addition to just being into the races and classes, I was pretty impressed with how open and vast the world seemed even as a beginner at the very start, it seemed both simple yet also as though it was inviting me to go my own way and go off the beaten path. Might have a look into the emulator and see if I can give it a try for real.

it had very difficult and challenging PVE that made the game so much fun to play with your friends I also remember you had to find skills for your class and Camp some named mobs also I love the roaming rare spawns

Thanks for the video,  one of my favorite mmo. my favorite memory is the server first kill of Kotasoth after a long week of tries. Mabs of Xanadu and developer of the DPS parser that was widely used.
Edit:
i remember working with one of vanguard developer to improve the logs, those logs were really terrible haha

I got to play this sporadically. My computer couldn't run it. I did get to play it at a friend's house a couple of hours a week. I thought it was fantastic!

I’ve been gaming mmo’s since UO beta and have tried hundreds of games at this point and I’ve always considered Vanguard the best MMO. My husband and I are downloading the emulator right now and looking forward to stepping in.  Imo it had the most unique player classes, diverse races etc.  

I find it fascinating that you brought  up the music. I guess I play with the music off so often that I don’t even remember.