Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Collector's Edition

A cloth map of Telon, a guild trophy for your in-game house, and buddy keys to recruit your friends into the grind. The Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Collector's Edition for PC is a time capsule from the brief, turbulent era when every MMO thought it could be the next World of Warcraft. Spoiler: Vanguard wasn't, but its collector's edition still has charm for the right shelf.

Inside you'll find a soundtrack CD, a beautifully illustrated cloth map of Telon, an art book, one of three randomly packed hero cards that granted in-game items, a magical fireworks wand or horseshoe set, a guild kit with buddy keys and a guild trophy, and a 90-day subscription. The cloth map alone makes this worth hunting. MMO cloth maps are a dying breed, and Vanguard's sprawling world was genuinely massive.

Vanguard launched in 2007 as Brad McQuaid's spiritual successor to EverQuest, promising an old-school, punishing MMO experience. The launch was rough, the servers eventually went dark, and now every digital item in this box points to a world that no longer exists. But that's exactly what makes the physical pieces matter. The cloth map, the art book, the hero cards. They're the only tangible proof that Telon was real. For MMO historians and collectors who remember the wild west of subscription-based gaming, this edition is a fascinating artifact from a genre's most ambitious decade.