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Great, Brad McQuaid's Blog is gone ...
Adamantine
Member RarePosts: 5,094
Kinda sad.
But he said he was going for some kind of social game next, so we're not going to see any McQuaid game any soon anyway.
Comments
He is the one that probably hacked Sony...
Now he is on the run.
No loss, he wasn't updating it anyways. Something simple he promised people, such as simple blog updates, he can't even keep. Really does make you wonder.
It's too bad, I was looking forward to reading his frequent blog updates.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
I was lokking forward to have a Brad BBQ with attacks on his piss poor warrior class design in EQ1.
If you have any questions please ask. I have moved on to WoW from eq and no longer have any desire to play a dead game. Thank you. (posted by another selling his account in EQ1)
Thank frakking God. The man is a goddamn train wreck. He and Richard Garriot should shoot themselves into space. That way they can sit around and talk about all of the great things that they used to do without being bothered by reality.
Then again, he and Garriott have helped create a few of the best, most capturing MMO's that the genre has seen so far, so I won't trash them merely because they had to deal with corporate shenanigans and funding issues with their last MMO's.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I second this. The mmorpg industry owes both of them a debt of gratitude.
Vanguard isnt his fault I remember chatting with him during the development and his vision for the game was amazing the problem is reality set in and pressure from deadlines by microsoft then a forced release by SOE destroyed any chance the game ever had.
Can anyone imagine what type of game he could make with no pressure no deadlines and enough $ to get it done ? That is what new MMOs are slowly figuring out when you rush the development you end up with a pile of crap.
Couldn't agree more! Was sad to see his blog disappear.
Doesn't Microsoft bail on every MMO they touch?
Without constraints, anyone can do anything...... McQuaid suffered from overpromising and underdelivering because he only knows about games and not business.
Yup, Brad would've made a great Producer, someone who oversees the actual development of the game, someone who can give inputs and make final decisions on design. Unfortunately, he was the CEO of Sigil, and no matter how you spin it, or who you want to push the blame off to, CEO is always the one to blame. He was given $30mil and 5 years to work on a game. He couldn't finish it ontime, within budget. You just don't do that, and he has nobody else to blame as the CEO is supposed to make sure that doesn't happen.
It's too bad, I still would like to see him hired as a Producer or createive designer of a decent sized MMO. He needs to stay far far away from being a CEO or a businessman as possible.
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My name is not Quaid!! It's housah!!!
I liked Vanguard,..such a shame,..such a huge world full of potential,..layed empty.
It's time has gone though,..but I do miss that Diplomacy card game,..heh ee
I agree about RG, but not so much regarding McQuaid.
McQuaid has proven time and time again that he is an extremely mediocre designer, I personally have never been a fan of the man, his work on EQ was the beginning of the end of his career - Vanguard was the nail in the coffin.
Your crazy!! Aradune was awesome, he not only made EQ he developed and created a game that gave way to your online games of today. To say he was a mediocre game developers is preposterous, he developed EQ have you ever played that shit? The amount of detail and immersiveness he captured for the players was unreal, still to this day I think about my first night playing it back on launch. The weeks the days of sheer imersiveness. Brad gave us the holy grail of mmorpgs, he has and will forever be my hero of game developers.
To say he was mediocre in design is just stupid, unless of course your ignorant on what hes created done then a statement like that suits you.
Vanguard was not his fault.
Yes it is. While I agreed with parts of your post, the fact that his design opened the door for a lot of other companies to jump in. But Vanguard was totally his fault.
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I don't play it, but VG wasn't far off the mark of being REALLY GOOD.
But it's release date being coupled with the "golden era" of WoW (which sucked up a mind-numbing amount of MMO players) coupled with the other obvious issues, well...
So he pitched an unrealistic 'vision' and an unrealistic delivery date andit wasn't his fault? That nothing was done for years and the final product was made in the last twielve months of production wasn't his fault? As Executive Producer at Sigil, what was he responsible for?
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
The mess up was 100% his fault. From what we were later told, Brad was hardly ever around (feeding coke addiction). Programming was a mess, there was a inter-office affair going on everyone knew about, and he was lying to investors. Granted, he has plenty of people help him. Its too bad because it was truly going to be a gem.
Hate to inject some reality into the conversation.....
The Long & Morbid Tale of Sigil Online
Hub of All Blame:McQuaid Interview
I'm not getting into his ideas, his design any of that. Other people can debate that. The cold hard facts though if you look both at what he says and his employee says is that there were some serious issues. There is a LIMIT on how much money companies should pour into development, and the reason there is a limit is because someone says it'll take "X dollars to make". Brad spent 30 million and did not get anything accomplished, and still expected more? Milestones and progress checks are unreasonable for 30 million dollars?
Take it to another step, a CEO of a company who did not go to the firing of employee's because he "would have broken down in tears." MAN UP. I cant imagine an employer finding a way to dodge responsibility and respect that way. He OWED it to his employee's to do that.
Idea man he may be, but leader of people (and yes a CEO should be) he definitely isnt, and he absolutely proved that he did not have the sense to get his moneymen on board, or to get his project brought in even close to budget.