The boys and girls at Sigil have announced many times and made clear that Vanguard will NOT utilize the new instancing trend found in many of today’s MMOGs. My response every time has been a giggle of glee. There seems to be too many misconceptions floating around that NOT making use of instancing is simply due to dated technology. That idea couldn’t be more far from right and here’s why.

My own take on instancing is that it’s merely a form of embedded game. It’s ideally suited to embed session-based activities within a virtual world. I see no mechanical difference between having people go into a Holodeck to do something, and having people go into a pocket zone “chess world” when they sit down at a chess board, or go into a 2d shoot-’em-up when they sit down at an arcade machine in a virtual pool hall.