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A good joke by Brad
altairzq
Member Posts: 3,811
"Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is going to dumb down this game or make it anything less than the spiritual successor to our previous accomplishments and a truly 3rd generation MMORPG. Brad 05-11-04"
Comments
I don't know if it's a joke. I think it's more of a clue to just how much he downplayed any outside competition ever supplanting EverQuest, or the genre ever evolving past him. I don't think it even occurred to him that a game like WoW would ever come along and change all of the rules.
That's the joke, don't you see it? After so many others have talked that kinda smack he should have known better. He was eating his hat before beta was even over with the teleporters in place instead of the ships.
I don't know the guy, nor did I follow his words through the many months of development like a lot of others apparently have. But I can see from playing the game that Dude has given up on trying to listen to his customer base when it comes to what that game needs to get it's act together and is going for a vision that maybe only he and his crew are working with. This new idea of teleporters all over the place to save on travel time? I would ride in that game for as long as it took if I knew that what I was riding for was going to be worth doing. Long rides for weak quests is just not what's happening is all. From level 1 - 25 I would ride anywhere to do anything cause those are the levels that Vanguard rocks in. Past that point you can barely get me out of my own homeland because it's just rinse and repeat armor quests. The idea of a fast mount (something that took time and money to get) is now going to go out the window as well as I will soon be able to walk to my nearest port guy and get anywhere fast.
I say stop going for the quick fix and get to work on some more storyline. I thought that by now (level 30 in-game) I might be able to see some division among the chosen paths via armor, weaponry, or faction but since there is little else to do past level 30 BUT armor/weapon quests it's more like everyone just looks the same. Low 20's all have the CiS look. Mid 20's to 30's all have the Wardship look and high 20's to 40's all have the Xenn look with the Pantheon weapon. Any diversity that you might see simply comes from the flecks of crafted that people mix into those quested suits to denote their lack of willingness to grind grind grind to get full suits of those quested pieces. Now you know that they should have known better than that. These games are ALL ABOUT THE GEAR!
The decision to throw around the Nerf bat instead of providing more content is also the classic "Let's slow them down to give us more time" move that has been the doom of many a game I have beta tested in the past also. Each decision like this costing them huge amounts of money in membership as people flow out of the door. My prediction for the next classic move will be when they add a bunch more low to mid level content to further innundate the incomming lower levels with choices so that the mere effort of some of these kids being able to make a decision is enough to keep them from getting to the mid and high levels fast enough to join the din of cries that already exist there.
Here is a free idea for someone working on that game to think about. Use your faction. Make the race choice mean something so that not just the Orcs and the Goblins have to make nice with other races in order to do their quests. Stick to your guns and have a little faith in your folks, it's not like we weren't ready for it and nothing promotes grouping like all being stuck in the same situation. Were the faction set up like we were told it was going to be, by now, 3 months into it, you would have a natural slow down anyway as the many Jerk friends who I brough along to play would have been figuring out that it would have been a lot easier if we had all just picked the same race and would be rerolling characters to fix that situation anyway. Either that or grinding out the faction needed to come hang out. I play on Shidreth and there are plenty of people to group with, there is just too much for all of us to do and now days for some reason you can't count on people to see the best common path because they can just ride along with pickup groups all over creation to get done what they want to get done.
More social resistance is the key, not less. Force them to bunch and give them a path to follow and your grouping problems will be over. Freedom of choice will still be there but with a cost of time and effort JUST LIKE IN REAL LIFE and that my friend would be realism. I would have much more enjoyed knowing that the Lord Tsang weapon existed but was out of my factional reach than having to go over there from Qalia and do that long and involved quest only to come back to CiS (in Qalia) and start a quest to get a better weapon almost immediately. I mean come on man, break it up a little. Let us see the value of our decisions. As for competing with WoW? Well, all cub scouts want to be boy scouts one day and all brownies wanna be girl scouts too. Build it and they will come sooner or later. You still have time. Stick to your guns!
I got it Altairzq!
Oh the stupidity runs deep these days.
STOP IT! SMACK YOUSELF MAN! YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF at the very least.
That should clear things up. It's inherent.
My vote for most useless post of the week.
I'm seeing things said in Warhammer and things being promised in Age of Conan right now but I have no clue who is saying it. Brad was a MMORPG rockstar. He was like Lord British. Everyone knew him, everyone knew his game, his ingame name etc. etc. I've said it before but he was the 30 million dollar scapegoat for every person who is tired of buying and subscribing to a beta game and many will find humor in all the lame promises now that we see what was really released. It can be appreciated by anyone. Not just disgruntled VG fans but also ticked off fans of Horizons, Shadowbane, Dark and Light, EQ2 or any other game that said it was going to be a porche and instead was a gremlin.
I'm seeing things said in Warhammer and things being promised in Age of Conan right now but I have no clue who is saying it. Brad was a MMORPG rockstar. He was like Lord British. Everyone knew him, everyone knew his game, his ingame name etc. etc. I've said it before but he was the 30 million dollar scapegoat for every person who is tired of buying and subscribing to a beta game and many will find humor in all the lame promises now that we see what was really released. It can be appreciated by anyone. Not just disgruntled VG fans but also ticked off fans of Horizons, Shadowbane, Dark and Light, EQ2 or any other game that said it was going to be a porche and instead was a gremlin.
He is like George Lucas of the online gaming industry
Apparently Brad doesn't read these forums to see what gamers think of his prized game.
That should clear things up. It's inherent.
"Nothing, and I mean NOTHING (except SOE), is going to dumb down this game or make it anything less than the spiritual successor to our previous accomplishments and a truly 3rd generation MMORPG. Brad 05-11-04"
"Nothing, and I mean NOTHING (except SOE), is going to dumb down this game or make it anything less than the spiritual successor to our previous accomplishments and a truly 3rd generation MMORPG. Brad 05-11-04"Give it a rest. There weren't exactly hundreds of companies vieing for his game after MS saw the light. Everything that happened to VG happened because Brad confused being an "idea man" with being a "developer'. Oh, and he is also the king of the "yes men".
The only thing you can blame SOE for is: nothing. They haven't bought VG out yet. In fact, a few more months of dismality, and they will own it through forfeiture without spending a dime more than they already put in. What happens to VG AFTER SOE sends Brad home without so much as a doggie-bag, you can blame on SOE.
If SOE hadn't bailed his ass out, Brad wouldn't have HAD a game to let decay. MS was tired of funding his incessant inability to provide a workable game within the given time permitted. It was either launch, or cancel. And VG certainly was even less ready to launch then than when SOE finally cut the purse strings and forced launch later on. Brad is NOT a business man. He has shown that time and time again.
I'm in no way sticking up for SOE as a company, but in this case, the blame needs to land where it's deserved: with Brad.
I have stated this repeatedly; I wish they had hired an MBA as CEO and allowed Brad to focus not on managing a company but execute design ideas, innovations, and so forth.
Nevertheless, Vanguard is what it is: released early, forced-grouping, and altogether unacceptable for each and every friend I have known that has played the game. I literally do not know a single person out of a great many that still plays. In my sample, 100% (including myself) quit. Yes. To ME that means a lot, as in that sample you had hardcore Bradfans. Extremely hardcore, in fact.
I think the rejection of this game by the gaming community is one of the most positive messages to the industry; we will not accept junk, early releases, censorship, or viral marketing. It does not work. If the game is good, people will play.
What is your theory that slowed this game's development for so long? I played in BETA, and it was essentially the same game upon release with all of its bugs, emptiness, and lack of content. Edit: I was very naive in thinking they had content and "stuff" to put into the game upon release day; they did not.
First a take on M$: Publishers are constrained by the contract, and usually cannot bail a project (if the contract was wisely written for developer convenience), UNLESS certain professional terms are broken by the developers, such as deadlines, quality ... etc. In fact there are a lot of things you can write for the end-cooperation part of a contract. So M$ had legal (and moral) grounds to bail the project, and they did that after the reviews from the professional testers of the game sent in their final verdict to the appointed M$ manager. Microsoft is a company people, and they are out advertising Vista right now, with games for windows, they can't add every other mediocre game, such as VG, to that list, because the quality of the game speaks about the publisher. Microsoft is simply put professional, if any of you hadn't noticed that already. Check out Age of Conan for PCs, Mass Effect for x360 (ME is a reason I am considering buying an x360, otherwise I don't care about consoles). In short M$ = MBA on the highest level.
My take on SOE: Sure, they fucked up SWG, they are the devil, right? Wrong! For me it is not totally clear it was SOE pulling the strings behind the CU, and later NGE, LucasArts was waist deep in it as well. I have seen good decisions by SOE, think EQ2 (how they pulled the strings together after a crooked launch), they totally improved MxO, but that is all the past. In the present, were it not for SOE Vanguard would not have launched. I don't see how people tend to forget this crucial fact: VG would not exist today without SOE. So if anything, fans (and haters alike) should thank SOE for VG ever seeing the light of day. And they can sustain the low population because it's in the station pass, and if nothing else works, this is the last thing that will keep VG alive.
Sigil: Many have stated, that they are not professionals, and boy were they right! Brad had no vision for VG, the vision is marketing, he had a vision for EQ, which he now implemented with better (questionable) graphics. The concept of VG is old, it failed to evolve with the flow of games. Hard is no longer time consuming, hard is redefined in this new age of games, whilst VG is simply time consuming, which is a very bad decision in this "I wan to beat the game" type of era. Sigil didn't market research before they started designing the game, or did a very poor job of it. (more on this, if you want me to elaborate). They had the license for the unreal engine, yet they chose to use 2.5, and still advertise the game as future proof, if that wasn't ironic enough, consider the fact that the newest hardware, the 8800 is not supported... wo how is this game future proof? It's just uneffectively coded.
Enough about this, my rant was long enough, just wanted to give some perspective. Fans of VG, blame purely Sigil for all the hate the game gets, and praise SOE for launching this game.
I for one hope, that this was Brad's last endeavor in gaming as CEO. Why? Cause he brings hardcore gaming a bad name! People are already unclear as to why VG failed, and many developers think it failed because it's complexity, and think people want dumbed down games like WoW. But that is wrong, we do want complexity, and true RPG, but we want it done proper and modern, not a buggy rehash. VG failed (thus far, might turn around) because of poor management, poor game design, not because of the goal of being a complex game!
If SOE hadn't bailed his ass out, Brad wouldn't have HAD a game to let decay. MS was tired of funding his incessant inability to provide a workable game within the given time permitted. It was either launch, or cancel. And VG certainly was even less ready to launch then than when SOE finally cut the purse strings and forced launch later on. Brad is NOT a business man. He has shown that time and time again.
I'm in no way sticking up for SOE as a company, but in this case, the blame needs to land where it's deserved: with Brad.
And I can't believe that SOE picked this game up after MS bailed on it! Hello, MS doesn't bail on, what it sees as a money maker!
As to MS's profitability...
Microsoft Corp. today announced record revenue of $12.54 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, a 6% increase over the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $3.47 billion, $2.63 billion and $0.26, respectively.
“Results this quarter exceeded our expectations across the board, with revenue growth at or above our high end guidance for all divisions,” said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “Healthy PC and server markets as well as broad-based business and consumer demand for Microsoft offerings fueled revenue growth this quarter.”
As to the bad product release of the 360..do a quick Google search, all of the lawsuit articles are from Dec 2005. Nothing new since they were filed...my guess is that they were dismissed since MS rightfully pointed out the the plaintifss could have returned their units under the 90 day warranty, and chose to sue instead.
As far as the success of the XBox - this recent March 2007 article says:
http://news.com.com/Nintendo+Wii+top-selling+game+console/2110-1043_3-6167836.html
"Nintendo Wii was the best-selling video game console in the United States in February, console makers said on Thursday, citing sales results from market research firm NPD. Consumers bought 335,000 Wii consoles and 127,000 of Sony's PlayStation 3 consoles in February. Both systems debuted in November, and the Wii is priced at $250, compared with the $600 top-end version of the PS3.
Microsoft's Xbox 360, which came out in November 2005, sold 228,000 units, making it the second-biggest selling console in February.Oh yeah, MS is sure hurting... all across the board it seems.....
Oh yeah, guess I'd better stay on topic, I don't really blame Brad that much, he had a vision, he tried to pull it off, and fell short. It's called failure and no one will go through life never failing. (I can only recall one, and he could walk on water) What's important is what they learn from it and how they apply that knowledge in their future endeavours.
I don't like VG, Sigil or Brad himself, but I will say, at least he tried to create something grand...which is more than most people on these forums will ever be able to say.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
If SOE hadn't bailed his ass out, Brad wouldn't have HAD a game to let decay. MS was tired of funding his incessant inability to provide a workable game within the given time permitted. It was either launch, or cancel. And VG certainly was even less ready to launch then than when SOE finally cut the purse strings and forced launch later on. Brad is NOT a business man. He has shown that time and time again.
I'm in no way sticking up for SOE as a company, but in this case, the blame needs to land where it's deserved: with Brad.
I wholeheartedly agree. I can run a pretty dang awesome D&D tabletop game and entertain friends that are playing. Does that make me capable of making the next WOW? Probably not. During Everquest days a good DM or future Fantasy author was good enough to head up a MMORPG because their wasnt any competition. Now you have choices. Bigger worlds, better worlds, less buggy worlds, better optimization, better gameplay or content. It takes more than a Junior Tolkien to put out a game.
As for SOE I would love more than anything to blame them for this mess but again it isn't feasable. The beta was a smoking pile of crap long before SOE bought them out. All SOE did was throw them a life preserver. All you can blame Smed for is that we wouldn't have seen Vanguard at all if he hadn't threw it a bone.
Of course as you say, it could be no game at all, as happened to Trials of Ascension, the best MMORPG game concept I've seen.
Nope, it's all Sigil. They're doing what any developer would do in their shoes. They're panicking like rats in a sinking ship and making drastic changes to the game trying to keep it afloat. But all they're succeeding in doing is driving away that niche population that might have kept the game going if not financially successful.
Nope...I can't think of anything they can do at this point to keep it going. The horse is tired.
Three more months in beta would have done next to nothing to improve the game (as release has taught us). Vanguard was flawed from the very beginning.
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