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Brad Speaks!
Praxus
Member Posts: 266
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Praxus
Member Posts: 266
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Anyhow on with the wall !!!
f13.net: What was the relationship in the office between Microsoft and Sigil prior to the split?
Brad McQuaid:: As I've posted a number of times, there was a regime change at Microsoft where they reorganized a lot of their game studios. The people who were in charge of the Vanguard project on the Microsoft side went elsewhere and a completely new group of people were put in place. In that new group of people, the upper management side were also in charge of getting the Xbox 360 out the door. So, the PC games at the time were not receiving a lot of support and I don't blame Microsoft for this at all. When you've got billions of dollars spent trying to launch a new console and millions on the PC titles, you're gonna make sure that the Xbox 360 kicks ass - I think they did a good job of that. The lower level people were put in charge of our project were people who didn't have any MMO experience. They had done Zoo Tycoon 1 & 2. We tried very hard to bring them up to speed and with open arms to show them the differences and similarities between developing an MMO and a single player game - the scale and things like that. That just didn't seem to work. Previously, the people who were dealing with us committed to us - verbally - that they, Microsoft, wanted and were determined to launch a AAA Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game - and to do whatever it took to make sure that happened. While that's not down on paper - as no company ever would put down on paper - that was our understanding. Under the new regime, that commitment, nobody remembered it.
When games like WoW were getting heavily into development and dollar amounts on games like EQ2 and WoW were becoming public - we said it would always be our understanding and agreement that we would compete with these guys. They backed down off of that and said that it was no longer their goal and at that point, the money started drying.
f13.net: So, Microsoft simply wasn't ready to compete and they had previously failed projects...
Brad McQuaid:: You have to understand how Microsoft works - and like I said, I don't blame them. They're given different marching orders from a corporate level when it comes to large expenditures. If you go back to Xbox 1 there was a lot of concerns. Can it handle Nintendo and Sony and Sega? Microsoft, you're big, but you can't have the console arena. Microsoft said "we're gonna do it, whatever it takes." The Xbox 1 was ok, and the Xbox 360 is doing great - and that, well, that was their mandate: To do whatever it took to start dominating the console market. They may not be there yet, but they're a lot farther along than they were with the Xbox 1. They had made that decision at some level to look ahead at online gaming and really do the same thing with MMOs. The day or the day after I left Sony, Ed Fries - I think the general manager at Windows Gaming - and other publishers called me, EA and NCSoft, but I had known Ed from before and had a relationship with him. I just knew that Microsoft, when they put their mind to do something, there's no stopping them. They were ready to make the next big MMO. A couple years into the project there was a significant change - the gaming group - and that was no longer the mandate. It took several months to really figure that out. When you have the Zoo Tycoon team assigned to you and the upper manager is in charge of your project and in charge of launching the 360... he must have had ten seconds a day to bother thinking about Vanguard. As there are - and I don't want to sound bitter - in large corporate entities, they make changes. When that change occurred, our relationship started going downhill. We knew what we needed to be competitive with World of Warcraft was in jeopardy.
f13.net: People have said that Microsoft were completely hands off in the development...
Brad McQuaid:: Well, before the transition, they weren't completely - but we were working hand in hand. It was a fantastic relationship. After the change they became completely hands-on.
f13.net: What did that do with the game?
Brad McQuaid:: It slowed down development significantly. Managing the game from their perspective, well... We tried to explain how MMO development is different from Zoo Tycoon and that explanation just wasn't being agreed with or understood - one of the two, I'm not sure. They wanted detailed schedules going out for months that were fairly inflexible. The more artistic a project is, the less schedulable it is down to the long term. I'm all for scheduling - but you have to be flexible. What if a technology doesn't work out? What if you find a better way to do something? You have to be flexible. Especially in pre-production. They wanted everything systematically and that it would take exactly this amount of time, this amount of art assets, and this amount of people to make, say, a dungeon. Are we talking about a premiere dungeon? A level 30 dungeon? A raid dungeon? A dungeon for core gamers? A dungeon where we can reuse certain art assets? Are we talking one where new art is used? There are a lot of variables there. There's not a lot of flexibility there. Our interpretation of that early on is that they don't understand MMO development. Later on, we determined that the decision was made that this is how the studio would be run regardless of the game.
f13.net: I was told that Microsoft actually came in and set a firm release date when you all were somewhere between 55 and 65 percent done.
Brad McQuaid:: Before the regime change, they had committed to us that they would adjust budgets and time frames to make sure it was a AAA game. These things take a long time to develop. Changes are happening, getting more expensive and customers are expecting more. We went back a couple of times together with [the managing team] to increase our budget or increase our time here and there. They were totally cool with that and understood that it was necessary to remain competitive.
After the regime change, that was considered "we were late" or "mismanaging" or "not adhering to strict schedules." It was looked upon not as staying competitive or making a AAA WoW-level game but rather that we were doing something wrong. They frowned upon us needing more time or money. When we'd ask for it, it was considered that we were making errors. Each time that occurred the micromanagement would increase. More and more Microsoft people would come down and try to analyze what was going on. Where we were "messing up." What they could do to "help us." Until finally they flat out said no. No more money, no more time. Your release date needs to be in the July 2006 time frame and that's it.
They didn't have their MMO people anymore really, and they had a major priority of getting the Xbox 360 out which cost billions and billions of dollars. Our ability to petition this to higher-ups and get any attention just really wasn't there.
I don't want to appear to negative here... but this happens with large corporations. There are changes and changes in mandate and focus, and clearly the Xbox 360 is doing very, very well. It has great titles and Microsoft is sitting fine. It's not like they made a catastrophic corporate error. I very much respect Microsoft as a whole and there are a lot of great people there and I'm definitely not one of those "I love Linux and hate all things Windows guys." I understand that all these things happen. Unfortunately it happened to us.
f13.net: Right after the split and before the tragedy the other day, that's when people claim you started to be in the office... not quite as much. Can you explain why?
Brad McQuaid:: We need to back up a little bit. After we split from Microsoft - because obviously we couldn't ship the game in an unready state - we had to go out and do something. Find money to make the game that we could and all dreamed about. We cut a deal pretty quickly so that we could get into SOE's E3 kiosk. We ended up having to meet payroll and to pay the bills. We needed to raise money. We went out and found some people who specialized in venture capital and I worked with those people immediately following the deal coming together. I started working with them on putting a deal together to fund the game to completion and fund the company post-completion and to possibly start a second title. It was basically "get money that we needed." So I started working with these people, it was a learning experience - I'd never really been in the private investor/VC world - and we started that process. I was in and out of the office quite a bit. Demoing the game, showing it to potential investors and putting together the documentation. All sorts of stuff you have to do for that kind of money.
f13.net: So that time being out of the office was business?
Brad McQuaid:: It was a bummer. Even going back to SOE, I want to make games. The executive producer side of things is more fun than the CEO business side of things. But it had to be done, right? So it was a bummer leaving a lot of that behind and it simply had to be done.
f13.net: The SOE-speak was vague in their press release, what are you doing on the game now.
Brad McQuaid:: Pretty much what the press release said. It will become more clear and more announced in the future. I'll be posting on message boards, working with the creative/marketing team on Vanguard, perhaps future things... projects, and working as a consultant in that area. Which are some of the things I really enjoy like posting on message boards.
f13.net: Like FoH?
Brad McQuaid:: If that had gotten to me, I'd have gone under in 1998.
f13.net: I don't know. You refuse to post on f13, even though you said you "read us daily."
Brad McQuaid:: No offense, it looks like a lot more people read FoH and I was posting on there to get the word out about the game. I had no intention to argue or or debate about the game. It was to show people that there was a difference. F13 is a smaller group of guys that really gets into MMOs - the analysis of MMOs and what makes them work. I enjoy reading it, it just doesn't seem like the same type of forum [as FoH].. On FoH, some people would say - "Oh Brad," You're just here promoting, go away. I say, "well, if that's your feeling, let me know." A bunch of other guys say "stay" and well, as long as I'm welcome here that I would. I was simply too engaged with other stuff to get into the more esoteric and more philosophical parts of MMO design which f13 is a bit more focused on...
f13.net: Well, it's irrelevant these days since everyone links to everyone else.
Brad McQuaid:: This is true.
f13.net: For everyone involved, do you have a Google Alert on "The Vision?"
Brad McQuaid::Hm. No. I have it on McQuaid and Sigil I think. I should probably put one on "The Hub of All Blame" as well.
f13.net: Actually, 9 out of 10 people believe that "The Hub of All Blame" is Gilbertson and Fisher. Do you even want to comment?
Brad McQuaid:: No. They're great guys, personal friends of mine and I can understand why people can be upset with them. While I understand it, I disagree on a professional level. Going further would have to wait for an SOE interview.
f13.net: Do you think some of that contributed to some of the eventual problems that arose?
Brad McQuaid:: I can't answer that, but when a company grows and you start being a manager, it's worrisome to hire somebody from outside though. So your inclination is to hire from the inside, your downside to that is that. Growing a company really, really fast is tough. I certainly made my share of errors and there are books written on it. It's not something easy. It goes back into something I said earlier about how quick this industry is expecting more and more - Everquest cost 8 million dollars, WoW cost 80 Million. Jesus. That's in a period of how many years?
f13.net: There were three questions people really want answers to... the first being, why weren't you at the office on launch day?
Brad McQuaid:: Launch day?
f13.net: Apparently they had "cake and champagne."
Brad McQuaid:: In general, I had just found out about future events and what was likely or possible to occur... and it broke my heart. Emotionally, I just couldn't be sitting there celebrating and putting on a big smile when I knew the troubles we might be facing in the future.
f13.net: Next, I was told there was no launch party... Most companies I know, I've been to a few of them, they have launch parties in the face of utter defeat or complete success - what happened there?
Brad McQuaid:: Are you talking about a party for employees or media?
f13.net: Media and employees. A launch party.
Brad McQuaid:: We had hoped to have a big one... well, my favorite one was with Velious. We went to Vegas. We had all the media down one night and a fan-fare another... There were enough things going on with launch and financial realities, that it just wasn't going to work out. I think they had a big hot dog and burger cookout and let everyone go early.
f13.net: And the next party... god, I am a fucking cynic. Why weren't you at the firing party?
Brad McQuaid:: Well, this is going to sound corny but it's true. I would have broken down in tears.
f13.net: I have since discovered that SOE didn't even know it was going to go down like that. They had something else planned, something less cold. You read the interview right?
Brad McQuaid:: The Long and Morbid tale one?
f13.net: Well, let me just read it back. I've now had multiple people say the same thing. It's uncanny. Not a single one of them seem to have embellished. That Andy Platter - who no one knows, they don't even know what he did at Sigil.. Dave Gilbertson, Ryan Elam, and Donna Parkinson - well basically "You're all fired, some of you may be rehired by Sony Online Entertainment" an-
Brad McQuaid:: I know those people and have a great deal of respect for them, but that sounds awful cold the way you said it...
f13.net: No, you don't understand. Everyone said the same thing. I have confirmed it with no less than six people. That they used the phrase "you're all fired." On that day. In a parking lot. My big problem with this is, well, I don't know your relationship with Bill Fisher, but at this event he made a joke about his stock options buying him a new house. I don't even know how you can comment on this.
Brad McQuaid:: I would find that hard to believe.
f13.net: Uhm....
Brad McQuaid:: I think, this is speculation... there was some turmoil on design and Fisher was doing very well and he was one of the people who wasn't let go. If you can imagine perhaps a designer who was let go having some animosity for Bill and maybe hearing that he said something like that or maybe they overheard him sarcastically talking to one of his buddies like "huh, oh, yea, I'm gonna go buy a car now." Ya know, we're not talking those kind of dollar figures I don't think. I can imagine him going "Woo hoo, going to buy a new car" and I can imagine a third party not knowing Bill's sarcastic joke-around with the guys personality and hearing it and taking it in a bad way, you know what I'm saying? I wasn't there. But I sincerely doubt that he said that in the way it's being construed.
f13.net: Going another direction, I know that there was at one point, a coup that was attempted. On the business side, what happened to the relationship with you and Jeff Butler?
Brad McQuaid:: When you work with someone as long as Jeff Butler and I have - a long time... you're basically business partners. You agree on most things but there are certain things you do not agree on. We have been described as an old married couple. So, ya know, we've had our disagreements. In the early days, everything was new and we had all these wild and cool ideas to share with each other. And then after the stress of running a business together and seeing each other everyday, we could complete each other's sentences. We've had our disagreements, but I wish him the best in whatever he's doing.
f13.net: This is something that, well, I've already got the people involved to corroborate... did the affair between April Jones and Jeff Butler actually affect anything in development?
Brad McQuaid:: I'm not going to comment on their personal life.
f13.net: Not their personal life, the office life due to it.
Brad McQuaid:: Uhm, I have a lot of respect for them. In general, I mean, you work together so much and so many hours in game development and it's creative and people have common interests. This guy watches BSG, this guy collects comic books. You make lots of friends. Relationships form that are more serious than friendships. The only way to stop that would be to basically fire people on the spot and draw some line in the sand. I don't even know how to define that, the legalities. Or do what most companies do and forbid relationships. But we're in games, I don't want to work in a dry environment. I want to goof off and have friends. Obviously something like... a scenario like that isn't good for the company. Is there an easy solution... how to not let that occur.
f13.net: I'll be honest, you touched on my next question. I heard that, well, apparently it was an open secret. That's fine. Whatever. It happens in every office. But the real problem was, well, seemed to have been that - Jeff's wife still worked there. How do you... you know, never mind, it needs to come from them.
Brad McQuaid:: It made it worse, that's all I'll say.
f13.net: I'm going to do a 180 here. Apologies. But you're a religious person. You've said that angels and demons not being in EQ while you were there isn't just because of your religious beliefs. What was the core reason?
Brad McQuaid:: There are different symbols, beings, supernatural beliefs - belief systems that people have that are active today in this world. Gods, demons, angels, others. I guess, in a textbook, would be world religions. You can't avoid offending everyone. Let's take angels. Christians generally believe that angels are real. Many other people don't. That they're mythological beings. Most people don't believe that dragons are real. Or that a griffin is real. Putting a griffin in your game though, versus an angel - is much less a problem. What we decided to do was to avoid anything that's from a major religion. There's some fundamentalist Christian that won't let their kid play period. Dragons, dungeons, death. Whatever. There's also going to be more moderate Christians who are going to let them play EQ or DAoC because there aren't demons or angels or something. We're creative enough people, why not just use the plentiful fantasy out there and not elements of major religions. I also wanted to not use symbols, even from dead religions. While I definitely think it would be great to take themes from mythologies like East-Asian, Norse, Egyptian and things like that - let's avoid using an ankh or whatever. Let's come up with our own religion and our own symbol that means life. This is a different world. Maybe we don't have the time or creativity of Tolkien - who borrowed from mythologies. We're not going to make our own huge religion, but at least come up with our own pantheon of gods and symbols and whatnot. That was just one of the things I wanted to do early on - by simply avoiding offending people if we can. To an atheist sure, an angel is no different than a griffin. But Johnny's mom will let him play our game.
I am a Christian so this probably goes back to me seeing 'Deities and Demigods' and kind of being bummed about that even though I still play [D&D]. It would have made me feel better if they had not used - or rather, had other creatures that weren't demons. So, is this kind of like, "if I'm going to be involved in making games, can a kid play this without being bother by it or his parents saying get away from that evil stuff!" That's the origin of it, but by no means is it me trying to hoist my religious beliefs on anybod-
f13.net: That cuts directly to the core of something I've heard from at least a couple employees who are upset. Someone is alleging - and I'm sure I'll get a straight no comment, but please just deal with the question... Did you distribute religious materials and offer promotions based on people who took you up on it?
Brad McQuaid:: Absolutely not. No and no. Nor would I ever.
f13.net: Ok.
Brad McQuaid:: I believe very much in spreading the gospel of Christianity through ones actions. I don't think you're going to force or debate anyone into believing something. It's got to be based on your actions and morals. On top of that in a work environment - and on top of that, in a management position - it is completely unacceptable to do anything like that and I wouldn't dream of it.
f13.net: Fair enough. So, a lot of people talked about this Andy Platter guy. From two people, I got the exact same response. Neither know who he was, or what he did, or why he played any role in the firing of employees. Simply to explain to the employees reading this - who was he and what did he do?
Brad McQuaid:: He was the Director of Operations. He tested servers, websites, and so on. Most of the developers would probably not interact with him. He had also been out of town recently with a family illness. I'll stop there. As for why he was involved in that event, I have no comment because I wasn't there. As the company grew, well, it's another sociological thing. The company gets big enough, it leases another building. Then the people in the first building are like "what do those guys do?" That's just more human nature stuff. If you're a programmer you don't interact with design much. What does that guy do? I haven't seen anything he's done. Is he a waste of space? Well, he could be the best designer on the team. That's just people.
f13.net: I've kind of got a family tree of the company going here and normally this isn't tolerated. I'm trying to figure out - because I know you didn't have final say in a lot of things, specifically hiring practices among non-design folks...
Brad McQuaid:: The larger the company got, the more we had to build up middle management and delegate responsibility.
f13.net: Well, how did nepotism run so freely to the point that - there's just, ugh, so many family members in this company. We've got brothers, brother-in-laws, a wife - how did this happen? Did you need that many people?
Brad McQuaid:: Two answers. I don't know enough about well. I don't have a family tree. I don't know if this is a higher than normal number. You may have that information. I don't. The other thing too is, when you need to rely on somebody or know somebody or vouch for somebody, especially in a creative environment and know how they interact with people... well, you find a lot of pre-existing friendships and relationships. Because so many interests are shared, even some relationships that didn't exist beforehand - it's likely to happen just like it does with MMOs. You spend all this time with people and have a real relationship with people. I honestly don't know if there's more or less in Sigil.
f13.net: Ok.
Brad McQuaid:: We didn't encourage it. We did encourage the general concept of "Hey do you know this guy, can you vouch for him?" "Well yea, I've known this guy six year. He's intelligent and super creative and he won't steal your car."
f13.net: Well of course, there's "I've known this guy 22 years, he's my brother. In secret, he's a big douche."
Brad McQuaid:: That's the risk. And then you find out and you hopefully get rid of both. The industry is not that big. Basically, if you say "hey, I vouch for my brother" and then you hire him and they both turn out to be jerks, ya know, you're gonna hopefully get rid of them. When it comes time to recommendations, it's going to get around. Formally or informally. That stuff doesn't work out so well. More times than not, you get a good person than you get some guy who can't hold down a job.
f13.net: Ok, here's a loaded one. A number of people have said there was one QA member up through at least beta 3 or 4. How did an MMOG survive with one person dedicated to quality assurance.
Brad McQuaid:: The original plan was to use Microsoft's vast testing facility. We were to keep a small testing team at Sigil -
f13.net: But one?!
Brad McQuaid:: No. A small team that was very close to the dev team and use the massive facility at Microsoft. When that relationship went south and we were scrambling for money, we simply did not have the room to grow.
f13.net: Can you talk about The Vision a bit?
Brad McQuaid:: Well, it goes way back to Everquest.
f13.net: Well, we know that.
Brad McQuaid:: I honestly don't know when it started. I probably started using... I think it had to do with something I commented on - why some games - well, you can tell if a development team really had their hearts in it or not, regardless of the type of game it may be. I think for any game, you need a vision. Either a visionary or visionaries and if you don't have that, you kind of meander around and I don't think you get nearly as strong of a game. Or anything. A piece of art. Anything creative. Unless there's a strong vision. My guess is I was doing a long-winded post back in 1999.
f13.net: Finally, is there anything you'd like to say to the people who were let go without warning. You weren't there, and you're the type of guy that would have said... something.
Brad McQuaid:: I'm really sorry it went down that way. The way that it did. I can promise you that I and everybody in upper management did everything they possibly could to avoid this happening. Sigil was everything to us. It was our dream. Starting our own company. Providing a great working environment. You know, we worked months and months - as great as SOE is, and it was great working with them as a partner - as some people said "Brad, why did you sell out to.." We didn't. We had hoped that Vanguard would be more of a success. It turned out we all worked very hard. Did the best we could. I thank everyone for pouring their hearts and souls into the game. I think it's a great game. I think it has huge potential. When I've talked and made posts about the future of Vanguard and talked about Vanguard next year - I do believe that it was planned and architected to be an amazing game. We hoped to do it as our own company. It didn't work out that way. I'm sorry.
As CEO, I take full responsibility and the buck stops here. I did everything I could and so did everybody else to make it work. But it didn't. I hope that everything works out for you guys in the future. If there's anything I can do - recommendations, things like that for all of you guys - please don't hesitate to contact me. I hope that you learned a lot in your time at Sigil and that you've become a more valuable asset in the games industry than when you first started. I wish you guys the best. I'm sorry that I wasn't there the day that people were let go. But honestly, these months have been very, very heartbreaking for me. Emotionally I couldn't have handled it. I would've been sitting there bawling my head off. You can ask anybody who knows me about the heartache I've felt because things didn't work out for the company. I do believe Sony will do a great job. I know they will.
That doesn't make it any easier for someone who lost their job. It's got to be a horrible thing. You can ask people when I had to fire one person who really deserved it, I'd have to take the afternoon off because it was so hard for me. And that was firing someone who deserved it. Laying people off was just too much. I guess I'm too empathic in some ways. I took the role of CEO very seriously, that I was responsible for every person there. Their well-being. It got harder and harder as the company. It was a weight on my shoulders. Please, again, if there's anything I can do to help you out. Do not hesitate to contact me. And I wish you guys the very best.
f13.net: Thank you.
Hmm
It was microsoft's fault and the evil Zoo Tycoon 2 staff who actually wanted to see milestones met with their 30 million. Sounds completely logical to me......
Ya, just f'ing perfect. You mean the company that has invested $30 mil in your crappy game actually wants you to set milestones and timelines? You mean they wanted you to try and wrap something up that had been in development for years? You mean they wanted you to stop running your company like a grade-school art project and run it like a business??
This guy is just priceless. The only people who still support anything he says are people who have not worked in the real world. Do you think my company would just allow me to work, doing whatever the h*ll I wanted, and then say, "oh that technology didn't work, we are going to try a new one?" This whole thing is absurd. The game sux. This guy is retarded and is someone who should never have been in charge of a company as he has no idea how the real business world is run.
Microsoft, I applaud you. Sometimes you got to "know when to hold em.......know when to walk away.......know when to run."
DAMN YOU TO HELL!!!!
SOYLENT GREEN IS MADE OF PEOPLE
I mean come on 6 years and 30+ mill is just not enough to make a title.
I must say that i get the feeling that the guy is very slimy, nothing stick on him and nothing is his faults.
Microsoft put the Xbox360 before his game, he didn´t fire the people.
He could be a realy nice guy and all (what do i know), but i´m getting the feeling of a crooked used car dealer over him
I don't blame people for failing or making mistakes, but I do blame them for trying to hide from the consequences of those failings or mistakes.
C
He a slime ball plain and simple...
This is rich....some of that stuff reads better than a daytime soap opera. Office Affairs? Check. With all that internal drama it's no wonder they never had time to polish the game.
"Still I wonder who's cheatin' who...who's bein' true...who don't even care anymore...wonder who's doin' right...with someone tonight....who's car is parked next door"
Never be afraid of choices. More choices are always good things.
C
Quoting people doesn't make you clever, in fact, it makes you all the more stupid for not bothering to read the quotes you post in the first place.
I don''t really know when Humankind will die out but i''m guessing about 6 years before WOW.
-BarCrow
As for blaming Microsoft for not writing Sigil a blank check; considering Sigil hadn't figured out until a couple of months before launch that they needed a working auction house, repair system, guild functionality and other things fundamental to an MMO, I can understand Microsoft imposing strict milestones upon Sigil. Heck, Vanguard doesn't even have raid functionality yet, and PvP was another last minute thought that's poorly implemented. Exactly how were they proposing to Microsoft that they'd be able to compete with WoW when at the time, they were missing the most fundamental of systems? Then again, we've learned since then that Brad hasn't even played WoW (difficult to believe).
All the talk about crying, finding it difficult to be around the office, being emotional and all that...wow, does Brad even know what "the buck stops here" means? He couldn't even bring himself to hide slumped in his chair behind his office door, three LCDs and a mountain of action figures. Exactly how does he feel he's suffered comparably at all to the guys in cubicles 10 hours a day working their asses off only for their results to be received by more than half of Vanguard's community predicting their unemployment months ahead of time?
Anyway, it's sad that even in saying things like "the buck stops here", Brad is still completely unable to take any blame for himself. He can hypothesize for a usual page of text about why Microsoft's management may have been inept, but can't come up with a sentence of specific reason why he was inept as a CEO and game designer.
The way I read that...
We were taking WAY too long translating our "dreams" into an actual, working game.
Microsoft had some of their own devs put the screws to us to get on track.
We balked at their work over dreams attitude.
I made a really hasty, and probably bad, deal with SOE.
At that point I knew we were toast, and I couldn't bear to deal with any of my own people, so I faded away.
Sounds like a great example to use in college business courses to demonstrate what NOT to do as a CEO.
My favorite part, though, had to be this:
"Find money to make the game that we could and all dreamed about. We cut a deal pretty quickly so that we could get into SOE's E3 kiosk. We ended up having to meet payroll and to pay the bills. We needed to raise money. We went out and found some people who specialized in venture capital and I worked with those people immediately following the deal coming together. I started working with them on putting a deal together to fund the game to completion and fund the company post-completion and to possibly start a second title."
You had a non-funcitoning game, had just lost your publisher, couldn't make payroll, and were rushing a deal with SOE....but you were floating the idea of ANOTHER title!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, to be fair, it wasn't JUST that Xbox 360 was more important....it was also that Microsoft stopped believing the game could compete with WoW.
Didn't they realize that Sigil ran on faith. All the money in the world helps, but and "I believe in you" is priceless. If only Microsoft had BELIEVED in them....had more FAITH...Vanguard would have toppled WoW by now. Damn you cynicaly Microsoft bastards!!!!!
No, the part where he says "oh it's an MMO you can't make a schedule for it" explains why it was such a disaster. Games are software. Software needs a development cycle and planning so you don't spend months or years rewriting the same stuff because you didn't design it. MMOs need to break this "it's an MMO, it's a game, we dont' need to plan for it" cycle because they're doing the same thing over and over, which is launching in an unfinished broken state because they spent years redeveloping instead of taking the time in design beforehand.
Well, to be fair, it wasn't JUST that Xbox 360 was more important....it was also that Microsoft stopped believing the game could compete with WoW.
Didn't they realize that Sigil ran on faith. All the money in the world helps, but and "I believe in you" is priceless. If only Microsoft had BELIEVED in them....had more FAITH...Vanguard would have toppled WoW by now. Damn you cynicaly Microsoft bastards!!!!!
That's pretty much the problem, Brad's preaching of the events as if Microsoft didn't specifically give up on Sigil and Vanguard, he's generalizing the scenario as Microsoft giving up on a triple A MMO all together. As usual, Brad avoids blame and responsibility by generalizing everything, no different than his argument of "MMOs are never finished". Hell, I bet that's what he told Microsoft month to month when they asked for finished content and features by a certain date.Just amazing.
Anyone notice how
1. He passes blame to everyone but himself
2. He couldn't even be around and be a leader because he was unable to emotionally handle it ( becuase of selfishness )
Horrible just horrible.
To think he has the nerve to say, "I couldnt be ther efor the layoff becuase i couldnt handle it"
What about the poeple with no Jobs that don't have your kind of money, think about them !
Disgusting. Just disgusting.
-Allegria