The word is out about Vanguard: it's the hardcore massively multiplayer game that's not for the sissies who'd rather kick back and play World of Warcraft. This is the tough-guy MMO with complicated tactical combat, mandatory group harvesting, extended dialogue trees, grueling corpse retrieval runs, prohibitive death penalties, and metal clamps that send a shock to your nipples when you take damage.

At least that's what some of the buzz would have you think about this new massively multiplayer RPG from the guys who created Everquest, the original tough-guy MMO. But the buzz is a bit of a distortion of developer Sigil's approach. Their idea isn't to be prohibitively difficult so much as it is to raise the stakes.