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.
I don't think he is a fantastic ideas man. Anyone can design an X-Box huge mmorpg if they have time. Even if they get the missing features finished and the lag sorted it will just be another mediocre game that didn't take too much imagination to create (which even shows in the drab character designs).
I think he should have another chance, he should have a smaller budget this time though.
I was so happy when SOE bought vanguard and Brad was fired that I actually subscribed to the game. Vanguard is not Brad's anymore and it never will be and if it is i'm gone. The last thing we need is everquest with better graphics. Let's look to the future instead of the past it's so bright.
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. ...
I agree with your entire post, and this part in particular is what a lot of people dont get. The development of VG was a 'series of unfortunate events' which all contributed to the premature release in their own way.
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.
Originally posted by daelnor Idea man? He brought nothing to the table but stale ideas and a weak arse card game....Personally, if I was sony, I'd take him into the parking garage and beat my money back out of him.Vanguard is probably a decent game now( I really have no idea) but it has absolutely nothing to drool over.Pretty graphics and no content...and the content that is there is nothing that you can't get in every single other game out there.D.
This is of course a matter of opinion, I love Vanguard its a fantastic game and very well designed, just not very well coded.
Now playing: VG (after a long break from MMORPGS) Played for more than a month: Darkfall online, Vanguard SOH, Everquest, Horizons, WoW, SWG, Everquest II, Eve
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.
I don't doubt this, just curious what your source is, I have been trying to find detailed info on the deal, but haven't found anything beyond SOE acquiring Sigil and its assets; which leaves a lot open to the imagination.
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.
Nice theory. Got any proof?
I won't kid anyone and suggest that he's an MMO messiah. I'm among the masses that won't put faith in whatever his next product is without massive proof of concept. With a 1 and 1 record he could have just had really good luck on his first time at bat. But even if he always sucked and just got lucky the first time, he's put his neck on the line more than once (both with his reputation and his personal finances) for his 'vision'. He's got more balls than almost anyone that enjoys bashing him, and he's got my respect for that if nothing else. He's earned it more than snot-nosed pansies that safely sit and snipe at people who actually take some risks.
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
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"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
Idea man? He brought nothing to the table but stale ideas and a weak arse card game....
hmm... taking faction and changing it from "go and kill gnolls until your hands are numb" to something different, potentially as much grind (granted) but something different.... and all he gets is 'weak arse card game.... I like the interactivity of diplomacy, and i look forward to seeing a PvP element introduced into it.... but like the sig says.....
"We aren't going to ... Period. End of statement."
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.
He is ball-gagged in a rubber suit with zippers in SOE basement.
Thank you.. that was hilarious.
BRING OUT THE GIMP!
Shayde - SWG (dead) Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled - Some deluded SWG fanboi who pities me. I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too. 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Don't worry about Brad McQuaid, I hope he is doing fine and to be perfectly honest I hope he is still highly involved in the game, in it's design and ideas.
As said he was great at telling the community what was going on game wise which is what matters to us longterm. Any business dealings are irrelevant and down to all involved. If they were runing out of cashflow don't you think SOE or MS could have extended any finances so the dev team could focus on some polishing( ie the 3 onths mentioned).
Instead there was no help and the game was released giving no time for the shrunken dev team to then work fully focused on the closed game. Didn't the beta testers make their points to?
I reallly hope he is still involved as how often do you get a guy who speaks and responds so well to the gaming community everyday and makes sure your input is heard due to his position and influence.
So be nice and give he man a warm welcome s he can play the role he is best at.
Dugaar/Mordim/Hearnius/Tornar/Amorphous/Greebly
DiscworldMUD, UO, EQ, EQ2, DAoC, Dransik/AE, WoW
Guilds- GITs CnR KT DiE - Dark Clowns - Dark Prophecy - Dwarven Hammers
McQuaid is a genius, at deception. He suckered MS and SoE into paying him and his budies millions to basically produce a big piece of crap. He ran the company as his own personal playhouse. When it came down to the wire he abandoned the project and all the employees and sold out to SoE. Trust me he's laughing all the way to the bank. I'm sure he would have preferred the game be a huge success, but he got paid well for accomplishing nothing other than generating alot of hype with no results. The game should have never even been released, but they knew they would sell a good amount of copies because of all the hype generated. Now the game is the same broken piece of crap 9 months later and it's on $oE station pass lifesupport where it will no doubt linger for years. Hopefully the industry will realise that these goofballs like McQuaid and Garriot need to be kept in the role of ideas and quit giving them huge budgets for their pet projects. The market needs to set higher standards than making a game with "potential" Potential and 50 cents might be enough to get a cup of coffee these days.
Comments
I think he should have another chance, he should have a smaller budget this time though.
Idea man? He brought nothing to the table but stale ideas and a weak arse card game....
Personally, if I was sony, I'd take him into the parking garage and beat my money back out of him.
Vanguard is probably a decent game now( I really have no idea) but it has absolutely nothing to drool over.
Pretty graphics and no content...and the content that is there is nothing that you can't get in every single other game out there.
D.
I was so happy when SOE bought vanguard and Brad was fired that I actually subscribed to the game. Vanguard is not Brad's anymore and it never will be and if it is i'm gone. The last thing we need is everquest with better graphics. Let's look to the future instead of the past it's so bright.
I agree with your entire post, and this part in particular is what a lot of people dont get. The development of VG was a 'series of unfortunate events' which all contributed to the premature release in their own way.
Gone forever??? We could only hope!
REALITY CHECK
This is of course a matter of opinion, I love Vanguard its a fantastic game and very well designed, just not very well coded.
Now playing: VG (after a long break from MMORPGS)
Played for more than a month: Darkfall online, Vanguard SOH, Everquest, Horizons, WoW, SWG, Everquest II, Eve
I don't doubt this, just curious what your source is, I have been trying to find detailed info on the deal, but haven't found anything beyond SOE acquiring Sigil and its assets; which leaves a lot open to the imagination.
Nice theory. Got any proof?
I won't kid anyone and suggest that he's an MMO messiah. I'm among the masses that won't put faith in whatever his next product is without massive proof of concept. With a 1 and 1 record he could have just had really good luck on his first time at bat. But even if he always sucked and just got lucky the first time, he's put his neck on the line more than once (both with his reputation and his personal finances) for his 'vision'. He's got more balls than almost anyone that enjoys bashing him, and he's got my respect for that if nothing else. He's earned it more than snot-nosed pansies that safely sit and snipe at people who actually take some risks.
-Feyshtey-
I think he's contacted Richard G and is arranging to be on the same Russian space launch.....
They're both going to have to get off the planet to avoid the flaming.....
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
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
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"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
hmm... taking faction and changing it from "go and kill gnolls until your hands are numb" to something different, potentially as much grind (granted) but something different.... and all he gets is 'weak arse card game.... I like the interactivity of diplomacy, and i look forward to seeing a PvP element introduced into it.... but like the sig says.....
"We aren't going to ... Period. End of statement."
ya. ok. whatever.
but what do i know, i'm only a vanbois i'm told.
I hope he shot himself..
..In the leg! Dieing just wouldn't be fair.
R.I.P Chikaca Whachuchu
Legend has it he joined up with a group of carnies and now tours smalltown America as a snake oil salesman.
True dat!
/agree
Thank you.. that was hilarious.
BRING OUT THE GIMP!
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
I mentioned this before in another thread.
Daron Stinnett and Brad Mcquaid are chilling out and laughing at the faithfulls that believe in them drinking a beer or two on us all.
Now there are two of them the numbers grow bigger who is next to join there ranks ?
Thank you.. that was hilarious.
BRING OUT THE GIMP!
FUNCOM - putting the FUN in disFUNctional !
Don't worry about Brad McQuaid, I hope he is doing fine and to be perfectly honest I hope he is still highly involved in the game, in it's design and ideas.
As said he was great at telling the community what was going on game wise which is what matters to us longterm. Any business dealings are irrelevant and down to all involved. If they were runing out of cashflow don't you think SOE or MS could have extended any finances so the dev team could focus on some polishing( ie the 3 onths mentioned).
Instead there was no help and the game was released giving no time for the shrunken dev team to then work fully focused on the closed game. Didn't the beta testers make their points to?
I reallly hope he is still involved as how often do you get a guy who speaks and responds so well to the gaming community everyday and makes sure your input is heard due to his position and influence.
So be nice and give he man a warm welcome s he can play the role he is best at.
Dugaar/Mordim/Hearnius/Tornar/Amorphous/Greebly
DiscworldMUD, UO, EQ, EQ2, DAoC, Dransik/AE, WoW
Guilds- GITs CnR KT DiE - Dark Clowns - Dark Prophecy - Dwarven Hammers
McQuaid is a genius, at deception. He suckered MS and SoE into paying him and his budies millions to basically produce a big piece of crap. He ran the company as his own personal playhouse. When it came down to the wire he abandoned the project and all the employees and sold out to SoE. Trust me he's laughing all the way to the bank. I'm sure he would have preferred the game be a huge success, but he got paid well for accomplishing nothing other than generating alot of hype with no results. The game should have never even been released, but they knew they would sell a good amount of copies because of all the hype generated. Now the game is the same broken piece of crap 9 months later and it's on $oE station pass lifesupport where it will no doubt linger for years. Hopefully the industry will realise that these goofballs like McQuaid and Garriot need to be kept in the role of ideas and quit giving them huge budgets for their pet projects. The market needs to set higher standards than making a game with "potential" Potential and 50 cents might be enough to get a cup of coffee these days.