Like 90% of the crap that people blame SOE for isn' SOEs fault. I'm glad a dev finally stepped out and said how it is. People blame SOE for a failed game simply because they was a part of it in ANYWAY. SOE is a publisher for many of these games in the beginning. With no strings attached and the game ends up failing so SOE takes the heat as usual due to peoples ignorance.
The game failed because it sucks. That's all there is to it. The graphics are nice and now with the changes the performance is good. The problem is the vast emptiness to the game. It feels dead. Everything just doesn't give a lively feeling. At an attempt to be a sandbox it failed horribly. They would have probably been better off just making a linear game.
Brad hooked on drugs? Doesn't surprise me. He's a freaken idiot. What do you expect? Him and his damn vision(s) can jump off a cliff together. Why in the hell would SOE hire him for ANY kind of position is what confuses me. He doesn't deserve to work on any game.. ever. People say he was the power behind EQ1.. Well that's old news.. that style of game is no longer a success so stop trying to use it as "experience".
Brad + Game = EPIC FAIL
I will not purchase any game he touches. I know this is a bit extreme, but I don't trust him. Even if the game is good on release. It's bound to go down the drain soon enough.
[ Played ] 2Moons, Anarchy Online, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest, Everquest II, Guild Wars, HellGate: London, Lord of the Rings Online, Rappelz, RF Online, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Last Chaos
Like 90% of the crap that people blame SOE for isn' SOEs fault. I'm glad a dev finally stepped out and said how it is. People blame SOE for a failed game simply because they was a part of it in ANYWAY. SOE is a publisher for many of these games in the beginning. With no strings attached and the game ends up failing so SOE takes the heat as usual due to peoples ignorance.
Yeah because everything that SOE has made themselves, produced or licensed has turned out to be such gems right? All those sad launches and public relation disaters are someone elses fault. Poor poor SOE always getting blamed for things they had no control over. They just gave Sigil a pile of money and assumed everything would just work out based on Sigils awesome track record?
SOE invested money in this game and that is the only reason it ever saw a release. They didn't invest enough money for it to get anywhere near finished which is an error on their part. When faced with the prospect of a launch almost certain to fail they had 3 choices. Walk away from the project, invest more (IE all their talk about commitment) or release the game and to quote John Smedley "start seeing some revenue".
All sarcasm aside I do see SOE get hammered for things they didn't do (or didn't follow through on) and I'm not saying Sigil didn't screw everything up, but SOE sure didn't do much better than Microsoft did they?
Hmmmmm.... back stabbing, trying to get one up on everyone else, secretly hating everyone while smiling through your teeth and pay rises that never happen.
If you guys beleave any of this I have swamp land for sale at a really good price...
Excactly what I am thinking while reading this thread . . . and even IF it's true, I don't really care. I just got back into Vanguard, and I am enjoying the game. Maybe monkey's made it, but I (and many others lately) are logging in to play.
Hey, if you don't like it, there are plenty of others. If others happen to like it, why not just leave them be and move on?
If you guys beleave any of this I have swamp land for sale at a really good price...
Excactly what I am thinking while reading this thread . . . and even IF it's true, I don't really care. I just got back into Vanguard, and I am enjoying the game. Maybe monkey's made it, but I (and many others lately) are logging in to play.
Hey, if you don't like it, there are plenty of others. If others happen to like it, why not just leave them be and move on?
Because if people start to play crappy games, they will start making crappy games... Hummm wait it's happening already.
All sarcasm aside I do see SOE get hammered for things they didn't do (or didn't follow through on) and I'm not saying Sigil didn't screw everything up, but SOE sure didn't do much better than Microsoft did they?
I think they did. Microsoft walked away, and SOE is still here a year or so later standing by the product. I'd have to say they did a whole lot better than Microsoft when it comes to VG. They could have given Brad and Sigil $100 million and 10 more years, and I still think it would have been a failure. Sigil just didn't seem capable of getting the job done regardless. I believed that before this dev's letter, and I believe it more after reading it.
If you guys beleave any of this I have swamp land for sale at a really good price...
Excactly what I am thinking while reading this thread . . . and even IF it's true, I don't really care. I just got back into Vanguard, and I am enjoying the game. Maybe monkey's made it, but I (and many others lately) are logging in to play.
Hey, if you don't like it, there are plenty of others. If others happen to like it, why not just leave them be and move on?
Because if people start to play crappy games, they will start making crappy games... Hummm wait it's happening already.
I think I hear the sound of millions of people just getting owned.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Not because I know what goes on with Sigil and Vanguard, but because I worked at a MMO company that had similar "bosses" who knew nothing about it all and were drug addicted who never actually participated in the Design... but put a stop to anything great that we did end up having to present.
Having not experienced it first hand, I wouldn't have believed it. But, unfortunately, that is not the case.
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title. "When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
If you guys beleave any of this I have swamp land for sale at a really good price...
Excactly what I am thinking while reading this thread . . . and even IF it's true, I don't really care. I just got back into Vanguard, and I am enjoying the game. Maybe monkey's made it, but I (and many others lately) are logging in to play.
Hey, if you don't like it, there are plenty of others. If others happen to like it, why not just leave them be and move on?
Because if people start to play crappy games, they will start making crappy games... Hummm wait it's happening already.
I think I hear the sound of millions of people just getting owned.
Millions? Eve-Online only has 200,000 subscribers or so (maybe less if you could count people with multiple accounts)
In War - Victory. In Peace - Vigilance. In Death - Sacrifice.
I don't really care what some ex-Sigil developer says now. All but two of them have been fired, the rest of the Vanguard team is SOE people now, which means all the crap people are definitely gone now.
So whoever was to blame for Vanguard's failings, they haven't got anything to do with it now and likely are sitting around wondering how they can get another job after being fired for being incompetent.
Vanguard's future is bright now, it will never be a big game, but it does have a chance of getting better now.
Having already been through this drama over Sigil and Vanguard I really have no reason to doubt this guys explanation. To be honest the idea that McQuaid was having a drug problem actually explains a lot. And we already knew that most of Sigil's developers were non-professionals hired out of nepotism. And we also knew that the guy that took over after Brad went AWOL was a complete tool.
The best part is the knowledge that Smedley didn't know what he was buying in Vanguard. How many screw-ups can Smed oversee before he gets canned? The best thing Sony could do at this point is fire that idiot and shut VG down.
Right. And maybe he was MIA cause he's actually an Al-Quaeda terrorist. Not saying it's true, but it COULD be true.
Its funny we have gone so far over the edge in the other direction where now if anybody posts something online it must not be true. You don't believe any of this that seems plain, but why not? And your thing about defamation does not fly. Brad would be considered in court a public figure, raising the bar for any lawsuit against the poster. When dealing with public figures you have to defame with malicious intent, and its a much higher bar then if you are not a public figure where malice need not be proven.
With all the stories flying around about what went on with the release of VG, how can it be so hard to believe?
There may be a smidgen of truth in a couple of the points. But the whole thing reeks of fabrication, just to poke fun a the gullible masses.
And someone like Brad, who's name is instantly recognized by hundreds of thousands of people, would most certainly be a 'public' figure. Unlike Joe Blow, or whoever created this early April Fool's joke.
Hey, if you want to believe he's an addict, no prob. Some people will swallow anything.
There may be a smidgen of truth in a couple of the points. But the whole thing reeks of fabrication, just to poke fun a the gullible masses.
And someone like Brad, who's name is instantly recognized by hundreds of thousands of people, would most certainly be a 'public' figure. Unlike Joe Blow, or whoever created this early April Fool's joke. Hey, if you want to believe he's an addict, no prob. Some people will swallow anything.
Come on...don't be naive. The guy stopped coming to work for months before Vanguard was released all the while making it look like he was still in charge by posting his huge delusional rants about the game at places like Fires of Heaven claiming that it would be good for PR. He was clearly having personal and professional problems.
Even if he didn't/doesn't have a drug problem, McQuaid has no more influence in the industry. He has embarrassed himself and destroyed his own reputation and exposed himself as a hack.
Come on...don't be naive. The guy stopped coming to work for months before Vanguard was released all the while making it look like he was still in charge by posting his huge delusional rants about the game at places like Fires of Heaven claiming that it would be good for PR. He was clearly having personal and professional problems.
Even if he didn't/doesn't have a drug problem, McQuaid has no more influence in the industry. He has embarrassed himself and destroyed his own reputation and exposed himself as a hack.
From what I read he stopped going to work in Sigil's office several months before the Sony aquisition and let the other developers fend for themselves.
I cant believe some people here actually buying this stuff. It explains why some of the more outrageous conspiracy theories are so popular. Half of that stuff is slander and people would be sueing left right and centre. Please think and not take everything you read at face value.
All this talk about slander and defamation... If you print or say something that's true, it's not slander/defamation/lible, and there's no ground for a lawsuit. I don't know if any of this is true, but if it is, there's no legal recourse.
I cant believe some people here actually buying this stuff. It explains why some of the more outrageous conspiracy theories are so popular. Half of that stuff is slander and people would be sueing left right and centre. Please think and not take everything you read at face value.
All this talk about slander and defamation... If you print or say something that's true, it's not slander/defamation/lible, and there's no ground for a lawsuit. I don't know if any of this is true, but if it is, there's no legal recourse.
Agreed, but the burden of proof is on the person making the accusations. Has anyone got any proof that whoever wrote this was in any kind of position to have this kind of first-hand knowledge? If not then I think we should treat this as someone's personal rant against a game/person/company that they personally dislike. I am no fan of Vanguard, but I don't want to judge people I know very little about.
I cant believe some people here actually buying this stuff. It explains why some of the more outrageous conspiracy theories are so popular. Half of that stuff is slander and people would be sueing left right and centre. Please think and not take everything you read at face value.
All this talk about slander and defamation... If you print or say something that's true, it's not slander/defamation/lible, and there's no ground for a lawsuit. I don't know if any of this is true, but if it is, there's no legal recourse.
Agreed, but the burden of proof is on the person making the accusations. Has anyone got any proof that whoever wrote this was in any kind of position to have this kind of first-hand knowledge? If not then I think we should treat this as someone's personal rant against a game/person/company that they personally dislike. I am no fan of Vanguard, but I don't want to judge people I know very little about.
If it is true, and the author is telling this from his personal experience, it sounds like he would be able to produce many witnesses/coworkers to back him up. If it's not true, and Brad comes down from his "spirit quest" in a very bad mood and his rolodex in hand, God help this "developer."
All sarcasm aside I do see SOE get hammered for things they didn't do (or didn't follow through on) and I'm not saying Sigil didn't screw everything up, but SOE sure didn't do much better than Microsoft did they?
I think they did. Microsoft walked away, and SOE is still here a year or so later standing by the product. I'd have to say they did a whole lot better than Microsoft when it comes to VG. They could have given Brad and Sigil $100 million and 10 more years, and I still think it would have been a failure. Sigil just didn't seem capable of getting the job done regardless. I believed that before this dev's letter, and I believe it more after reading it.
One important thing to keep in mind. All the changes to date have been done by the original Sigil staff. It doesn't matter that they now receive their paycheck from SOE, it was the same people just 75% less of them. Who is on the team now, who knows.
Microsoft stood by the product by not releasing it, because it was garbage. Funcom and Mythic are standing by their products by delaying release until they think the game is ready. Even Perpetual stood by GnH and didn't release it in the state it was.
SOE cut funding and I quote Smedley "enough is enough, and we have to ship the game and start generating revenue." which doesn't really suggest they stood by the product and instead just wanted people to give them money to recoup their investment. Just like they pushed out EQ2 and SWG long before they were ready.
Comments
lol classic
Like 90% of the crap that people blame SOE for isn' SOEs fault. I'm glad a dev finally stepped out and said how it is. People blame SOE for a failed game simply because they was a part of it in ANYWAY. SOE is a publisher for many of these games in the beginning. With no strings attached and the game ends up failing so SOE takes the heat as usual due to peoples ignorance.
The game failed because it sucks. That's all there is to it. The graphics are nice and now with the changes the performance is good. The problem is the vast emptiness to the game. It feels dead. Everything just doesn't give a lively feeling. At an attempt to be a sandbox it failed horribly. They would have probably been better off just making a linear game.
Brad hooked on drugs? Doesn't surprise me. He's a freaken idiot. What do you expect? Him and his damn vision(s) can jump off a cliff together. Why in the hell would SOE hire him for ANY kind of position is what confuses me. He doesn't deserve to work on any game.. ever. People say he was the power behind EQ1.. Well that's old news.. that style of game is no longer a success so stop trying to use it as "experience".
Brad + Game = EPIC FAIL
I will not purchase any game he touches. I know this is a bit extreme, but I don't trust him. Even if the game is good on release. It's bound to go down the drain soon enough.
[ Played ] 2Moons, Anarchy Online, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest, Everquest II, Guild Wars, HellGate: London, Lord of the Rings Online, Rappelz, RF Online, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Last Chaos
[ Playing ] Everquest II
[ Waiting ] Aion, Age of Conan
Vanguard is the gift that keeps giving.
Most people don't want what it's "giving" though
In War - Victory.
In Peace - Vigilance.
In Death - Sacrifice.
Yeah because everything that SOE has made themselves, produced or licensed has turned out to be such gems right? All those sad launches and public relation disaters are someone elses fault. Poor poor SOE always getting blamed for things they had no control over. They just gave Sigil a pile of money and assumed everything would just work out based on Sigils awesome track record?
SOE invested money in this game and that is the only reason it ever saw a release. They didn't invest enough money for it to get anywhere near finished which is an error on their part. When faced with the prospect of a launch almost certain to fail they had 3 choices. Walk away from the project, invest more (IE all their talk about commitment) or release the game and to quote John Smedley "start seeing some revenue".
All sarcasm aside I do see SOE get hammered for things they didn't do (or didn't follow through on) and I'm not saying Sigil didn't screw everything up, but SOE sure didn't do much better than Microsoft did they?
Hmmmmm.... back stabbing, trying to get one up on everyone else, secretly hating everyone while smiling through your teeth and pay rises that never happen.
Isn't that normal office life?
Hey, if you don't like it, there are plenty of others. If others happen to like it, why not just leave them be and move on?
Hey, if you don't like it, there are plenty of others. If others happen to like it, why not just leave them be and move on?
Because if people start to play crappy games, they will start making crappy games... Hummm wait it's happening already.
I think they did. Microsoft walked away, and SOE is still here a year or so later standing by the product. I'd have to say they did a whole lot better than Microsoft when it comes to VG. They could have given Brad and Sigil $100 million and 10 more years, and I still think it would have been a failure. Sigil just didn't seem capable of getting the job done regardless. I believed that before this dev's letter, and I believe it more after reading it.
Hey, if you don't like it, there are plenty of others. If others happen to like it, why not just leave them be and move on?
Because if people start to play crappy games, they will start making crappy games... Hummm wait it's happening already.
I think I hear the sound of millions of people just getting owned.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
I, unfortunately, believe that story.
Not because I know what goes on with Sigil and Vanguard, but because I worked at a MMO company that had similar "bosses" who knew nothing about it all and were drug addicted who never actually participated in the Design... but put a stop to anything great that we did end up having to present.
Having not experienced it first hand, I wouldn't have believed it. But, unfortunately, that is not the case.
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
Excactly what I am thinking while reading this thread . . . and even IF it's true, I don't really care. I just got back into Vanguard, and I am enjoying the game. Maybe monkey's made it, but I (and many others lately) are logging in to play.Hey, if you don't like it, there are plenty of others. If others happen to like it, why not just leave them be and move on?
Because if people start to play crappy games, they will start making crappy games... Hummm wait it's happening already.
I think I hear the sound of millions of people just getting owned.
Millions? Eve-Online only has 200,000 subscribers or so (maybe less if you could count people with multiple accounts)
In War - Victory.
In Peace - Vigilance.
In Death - Sacrifice.
I don't really care what some ex-Sigil developer says now. All but two of them have been fired, the rest of the Vanguard team is SOE people now, which means all the crap people are definitely gone now.
So whoever was to blame for Vanguard's failings, they haven't got anything to do with it now and likely are sitting around wondering how they can get another job after being fired for being incompetent.
Vanguard's future is bright now, it will never be a big game, but it does have a chance of getting better now.
Probably had them while playing Heroin Hero. Someone should have told him he'd never catch the dragon.
Subotai
Having already been through this drama over Sigil and Vanguard I really have no reason to doubt this guys explanation. To be honest the idea that McQuaid was having a drug problem actually explains a lot. And we already knew that most of Sigil's developers were non-professionals hired out of nepotism. And we also knew that the guy that took over after Brad went AWOL was a complete tool.
The best part is the knowledge that Smedley didn't know what he was buying in Vanguard. How many screw-ups can Smed oversee before he gets canned? The best thing Sony could do at this point is fire that idiot and shut VG down.
----------
Life sucks, buy a helmet.
With all the stories flying around about what went on with the release of VG, how can it be so hard to believe?
There may be a smidgen of truth in a couple of the points. But the whole thing reeks of fabrication, just to poke fun a the gullible masses.
And someone like Brad, who's name is instantly recognized by hundreds of thousands of people, would most certainly be a 'public' figure. Unlike Joe Blow, or whoever created this early April Fool's joke.
Hey, if you want to believe he's an addict, no prob. Some people will swallow anything.
Hmm.. interesting..... altho they got some serious unverified/unproven accusations (aka slander) and shit.
Even if he didn't/doesn't have a drug problem, McQuaid has no more influence in the industry. He has embarrassed himself and destroyed his own reputation and exposed himself as a hack.
----------
Life sucks, buy a helmet.
cool another complaint. is the vanguard trial out yet?
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
From what I read he stopped going to work in Sigil's office several months before the Sony aquisition and let the other developers fend for themselves.
Another source to consider: http://grouchygamer.blogspot.com/2007/05/brad-mcquaid-abandoned-vanguard-sigil.html
Whatever happened it seems the game is doomed to failure.
All this talk about slander and defamation... If you print or say something that's true, it's not slander/defamation/lible, and there's no ground for a lawsuit. I don't know if any of this is true, but if it is, there's no legal recourse.
All this talk about slander and defamation... If you print or say something that's true, it's not slander/defamation/lible, and there's no ground for a lawsuit. I don't know if any of this is true, but if it is, there's no legal recourse.
Agreed, but the burden of proof is on the person making the accusations. Has anyone got any proof that whoever wrote this was in any kind of position to have this kind of first-hand knowledge? If not then I think we should treat this as someone's personal rant against a game/person/company that they personally dislike. I am no fan of Vanguard, but I don't want to judge people I know very little about.
All this talk about slander and defamation... If you print or say something that's true, it's not slander/defamation/lible, and there's no ground for a lawsuit. I don't know if any of this is true, but if it is, there's no legal recourse.
Agreed, but the burden of proof is on the person making the accusations. Has anyone got any proof that whoever wrote this was in any kind of position to have this kind of first-hand knowledge? If not then I think we should treat this as someone's personal rant against a game/person/company that they personally dislike. I am no fan of Vanguard, but I don't want to judge people I know very little about.
If it is true, and the author is telling this from his personal experience, it sounds like he would be able to produce many witnesses/coworkers to back him up. If it's not true, and Brad comes down from his "spirit quest" in a very bad mood and his rolodex in hand, God help this "developer."That is some badass dirt right there..
I feel bad for Vanguard, it had SO much potential, it might of had a fighting chance against WoW, but that is most definetly what it has become.
I think they did. Microsoft walked away, and SOE is still here a year or so later standing by the product. I'd have to say they did a whole lot better than Microsoft when it comes to VG. They could have given Brad and Sigil $100 million and 10 more years, and I still think it would have been a failure. Sigil just didn't seem capable of getting the job done regardless. I believed that before this dev's letter, and I believe it more after reading it.
One important thing to keep in mind. All the changes to date have been done by the original Sigil staff. It doesn't matter that they now receive their paycheck from SOE, it was the same people just 75% less of them. Who is on the team now, who knows.Microsoft stood by the product by not releasing it, because it was garbage. Funcom and Mythic are standing by their products by delaying release until they think the game is ready. Even Perpetual stood by GnH and didn't release it in the state it was.
SOE cut funding and I quote Smedley "enough is enough, and we have to ship the game and start generating revenue." which doesn't really suggest they stood by the product and instead just wanted people to give them money to recoup their investment. Just like they pushed out EQ2 and SWG long before they were ready.