Brad McQuaid - where is he these days?

Nikoz78

Nothing current about him on Wikipedia and nothing via a Google search. Also, his website is offline.

Anyone know what happened to this fallen idol?

sepher

Muzzled I'd imagine.

I've actually begun to forget about him and all the crazy things he used to say. Brad's silence is in his best interest. The sooner folks can forget about Sigil the sooner he can move on in his career.

Somnulus

Career?

Seriously, what career would that be?

I'm not flaming. I'm honestly curious. As the CEO of Sigil, he was directly responsible for one of the largest MMO launch failures in the history of the genre. Roughly 50% of the Sigil staff was let go directly after Vanguard's release.

Regardless of who did what, where and when, the buck stopped with Brad McQuaid. And when it stopped, he wasn't even there. From many reports, he either had little idea what shape Vanguard was in or he knew and just walked away from the situation.

Certainly there have been other disastrous MMO launches, but none with a developer at the helm with McQuaid's pedigree. The situation was worsened by the hype McQuaid himself engendered and encouraged.

My understanding is that SOE employed him in an advisory role. I translate that to mean that they forced him to sign a non-competition agreement with a very specific time period attached to it, paid him a large retainer and basically put him out to pasture.

For the sake of argument, let's say the non-competition agreement was for a period of five years. For five years, he would be legally bound not to be involved in any game development of any kind.

Even after five years, given Vanguard's state and the collapse of Sigil, I have to wonder who would hire him.

Again, I'm not flaming. I'm just saying that it could be a considerable amount of time before Brad McQuaid enters the game design arena again. Look at John Romero; although he worked for Monkey Studios and Midway after the relative failure of Daikatana and the eventual closure of Ion Storm, what highly successful game has been released since that era that has touted John Romero as its designer?

Again, I'm not slamming either designer; everyone misses the mark from time to time and it's unfortunate that their relative failures had to be so public. I'm just saying that it's a long march back once you've reached that point.

Sornin

Things have been rough, but he will get by, somehow.

Oh, the other side of the sign says, "Will code bad MMORPGs for food." He is versatile.

Nikoz78

Lol.

McQuaid may be a lot of things but he could find work as a game designer. Maybe in the role of an "idea man."

Milky

In exile, hiding in a hole in the ground somewhere.

MaeEye

He was so stupid.  Everytime I read his lame ass blogs, I felt like I was listening to a priest talk to a little child.  F McQuaid and F his stupid Everquest titles.

Player_420

I really agree with you somn, I really think it would be great if he just geared up and busted ass, it could really be a great game, and if its live and kickin in 1-2 years then ill give it another try. I didnt like EQ2 much, but after all the constant improvements its now the game I play. Also I dont care who gets mad at me for saying these but im sick of you little WoW noobs always being so negative about everything.

mortharx

 

Originally posted by Nikoz78


Lol.
McQuaid may be a lot of things but he could find work as a game designer. Maybe in the role of an "idea man."

There are a lot of IDEA mans out there. It's just the people who can make all those happen that are hard to find.

 Brads talent is talking. He's artistic and coding skills are next to none.

Nikoz78

An "idea man" does not imply any kind of position of authority.

Anyhoo... So no news on McQuaid lately? Anyone?

mortharx

Originally posted by Nikoz78


Anyhoo... So no news on McQuaid lately? Anyone?

Who cares?? Have the man R.I.P

 

You don't need to worry about him. I'm sure he is well off somewhere working on his tan with he's millions laughing at the industry.

shukes33

personally i would love to see him get involved in a game again. Who knows he may have learnt something from his mistakes and we could only gain from him trying again. Imagine he failed again! it wouldnt hurt me as i could always choose not to play the game. If he made a blockbuster then great. I hope to see him getting invloved in something soon as lets face it theres not much coming out that looks anything great! Unless a miracle happens and Darkfall actually apears.

Samuraisword

He paid himself 6 figures a year during all the time Vanguard was in production and then got a golden parachute lump sum payment from SOE when he sold the game, after they fired all the staff. What do you think he's doing?

MMOGs are becoming lucrative scams.

thamighty213

probably holing himself up for years soon to be joined by richard garriot once tabula rasa flops badly. then in 8 years time we will see some other game come along for the fanboi's to jump on board of and see fail.

 

i was never a mcquaid fan I followed VG for what it was not what his so called vision was.

 

now if it was a Raph Koster then that may be different.

alyndale

I would have to surmise that Mr. McQuaid is quietly looking for work somewhere in gamer's purgatory.  It is my feeling, and we may never know, but I sort of believe he "took the money and ran" long before Beta 3.  I just have this feeling that truly something was just not quite right with what happened to this game the final 6 months before release.

Maybe Mr. McQuaid is on a beach somewhere smoozing with the babes with some of that money from Microsoft and SoE.  I think possibly we may well hear from him agian in the near future, but not too soon.  Maybe more like 2009 or 2010.

 

DailyBuzz

Totally agree with alyndale. Brad is currently enjoying an extended vacation, with not a worry in the world.

I heard he just sold his company

Zippy

To say he is enjoying a vacation is to miss what he lost.  All SOE paid him was a nominal fee along with paying off the lump sum  that Sigil owed to MS.  McQuaid lost all the money he personally had invested in Vanguard, 5 years of hard work and a good deal of his reputation.  His role at Sigil was not to run the game but to be a figurehead who could use his name to create a fanbase.  With the collapse of Sigil not only has he lost a goo deal of money he has lost the most important thing he had his name.

It is a shame as he made a pretty fantastic game it is to bad he never got to finish it.  When Vanguard's design was overhauled in early 2006 to become more quest directed McQuaid and Sigil should be comended for what they did right.  Rather than doing what many other developers have done in the past when their game changes diorection late in development and just shoved something together and polished it they did the hard thing and completely redid all the core mechanics.  Thier biggest failure may have been spending so much time on the core mechanics of combat, crafting and fleshing out the classes.  So much time that it became impossible to produce the rest of the game before their balloon payment due MS became due in April.  The problem was they were dreamers who wanted to make the perfect game rather than cutting out large partss of the game to make it mroe polished for release.

Rather than revamping Thestra in November and introducing Kojan in December they probably should have just released with Qalia and polished Qalia to a very fine level.  Qalia is still bigger than most games.  They could have temporarily placed many races throughout Qalia.  It would have been a sensible and easy thing to do.  Instead they completely revamped the combabt system many times, along with revamping harvesting, crafting and diplomacy.  Kudos to them as the crafting and combat systems are arguably the best of any game on the market. 

Such a shame as most games fail for thinking to small.  vanguard is unique in it failed because they thought to big and simply tried to do to much.  They should be commended for the attempt and other developers should copy them (although with realistic production goals).

Maybe one can call McQuaid naive for thinking his team could do years worth of development and get the game games ready for release in such a short time.  or amybe one can call him naive for thinking that SOE would loan them that money so they could finish the game.   Or maybe McQuaid was naive for not realizing that SOE would understand they could buy the game for nothing if Vanguard was forced to release in January.  Certainly Brad and Sigil made many mistakes but they also made a pretty great game.  They also worked their butts off working 100 hrs a week from August to May.  Such a shame and one can only wonder how much better this game would be now if they had a found a way to continue developing it themselves.  The reality is there is no black and white here.  Sigil, Brad, SOE and MS are all to blame for rushing Vanguard out a year early.

Its such a shame we live in such a hate driven society.  Where everything is black and white and we hate whatever upsets us.  I am amazed how people forget these people are human beings and the effect of such a disaster will scar them for a long time if not for life.  People hate Brad because Vanguard failed to realize its potential.  They could care less what he lost here.  He lost quite a good deal.  His reputation was his biggest asset, 5 years of work is nothing to sneeze at, and don't forget all the money he had invested in Sigil.  He got much worse than he deserved.

Rather than tear down the man and express hate towards him I would rather thank him and congratulate him for the many good things about vanguard.  Despite its flaws, and there are many, its IMO the best game to come pout since DAOC.  Brad should also be commended for how he handled the community.  Most developers spend all their time hyping and over promising their games.  Brad spent so much time under-hying and trying to lower expectations of Vanguard it was amazing.  He flat out told people what would not make release and also he told people that the release would be very very raw and unfinished.  Quite an amazing statement from man whose future was dependent on the game selling  many copies at release.

 

M1sf1t

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Originally posted by Nikoz78
Nothing current about him on Wikipedia and nothing via a Google search. Also, his website is offline.
Anyone know what happened to this fallen idol?

---

He's counting his cash from the SOE buyout and receiving monthly checks for being a "vanguard consultant" from SOE. Remember that was part of the deal that he would be rehired and paid for "consultant" work by SOE.

Ziezo

@10/04/07 1:08:44 AM

Good post Zippy!

I fully agree  

Euthorus

He is ball-gagged in a rubber suit with zippers in SOE basement.

alyndale

Well, it's why I surmised he's looking for a job in gamer's purgatory.  After all he brought this all upon himself, didn't he?

alyndale

Originally posted by Euthorus


He is ball-gagged in a rubber suit with zippers in SOE basement.

Haahahaaaaaaaaa.... omg....LOL....hahhhahahaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

 

bopice

He was involved in the greatest mmorpg/ video game ever made. Everquest. It was bought out and he left. The game went down the tubes and now is still the best PVE game to play. Wow is great too , but still not as good as Original eq.

Brad is a self righteous person. Fueled by personal greed , he would never even answer one of my questions on forums or email. I believe his team made the first everquest great , and he just took the credit. He is a dirt biker, and should do that for a living. I should make the games. I have many many more ideas then him. : )

He gets credit for a everquest. wow destroyed all games.. including all console games in terms of revenue , but wow is on the decline and warhammer will take all it's pvp players. Besides the diehard wowers. Vanguard is lame , period . It's not a good game. good ideas but terrible lagg with a brand new decked out pc. Need a game like Kunark and og eq. With no level requirements a sense of a real living world and adventures with great social interaction required. Not just lfg for quest # 3443243243234 like wow. I can only collect so many boar ribs. EQ is king and still is . EQ2 sucks , vanguard sucks.

EQ
wow and eqoa

only 3 good mmorpgs ever released in my opinion and i've played alot. Wayyyy too much. Even met my wife in an mmorpg. we play them daily.

lol sorry for rant. btw brad if you ever read this.. doubt you even know how to use the net. Get a new career. Or try to make a game like the first eq. where graphics are important it's gameplay and items and adventure.... all players agree , gameplay greater than graphics... i mean donkey is still fun and look at the graphics.

Cathalaode

Originally posted by Euthorus


He is ball-gagged in a rubber suit with zippers in SOE basement.

I didn't know Mr.Blond worked at SOE...

Suttonian

Ever played Lineage I/Lineage II bopice?

metalcore

Quite frankly he is a fantastic ideas man, if they can get VG missing features finished and sort out lag, it will be one hell of a game.

Its pretty good now, just need a huge machine to play it well.

Besides, everyone deserves a second chance, otherwise most of the games/companies out there would not exist.

We all fall and learn to pick ourselves up and carry on, its part of life, only kids don't understand this prinicipal.

Good luck to him and I hope he learns from it all.