Broken
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Tanned, Rested, Ready
A familiar figure has entered the mmogoblogosphere after a brief absence.
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Broken
Toys
Random comments about
games and tractors
A familiar figure has entered the mmogoblogosphere after a brief absence.
| Print article |
about 1 year ago
Must be nice. Company gets sold, game struggles and all but flops, go off and play Magic and ride dirt bikes for a year, then “decide” you need to go back to work and “explore options.”
Whatever, Brad. It might be better for a lot of people if you weren’t in charge of anything for a while longer.
about 1 year ago
@J.
Kinda what I’ve been doing since Adobe got rid of me
.
about 1 year ago
My point being, most people don’t do that because they have the “option” of continued employment, especially not these days.
about 1 year ago
I’m absolutely speechless from some of the comments I read on his blog… people still believe he’s an absolute god and can “save” the MMO world… amazing.
about 1 year ago
I believe that Brad absolutely could make the best MMO ever… if only he weren’t constantly constrained by reality.
about 1 year ago
After putting up with “The Vision” for so long and seeing how much EQ changed for the better after Brad wasn’t at the reigns, It’s going to take a LOT for me to ever play something he heads ever again.
about 1 year ago
I, for one, cannot wait to see what Mr. McQuaid comes up with next. Much in the same way I’m looking forward to seeing Ricky Henderson give his hall of fame acceptance speech.
about 1 year ago
Just reading his posts make me think about trying Vanguard. It seemed like it wasn’t an awful game, just one plagued by a bad release. I hear that Sigil was slow to fix bugs and resolve balance issues but I don’t have any confirmation of those claims.
So how is Vanguard? What made it fail in the players eyes? And how much of Brad’s ‘vision’ really go into the product at release? How old school was it really?
about 1 year ago
I don’t really have an opinion if his ideas can work, but the day he refused to show up to face his employees when they were being laid off “because [he] would cry” was the day I stopped giving a F about him as a person. I know people who have gotten laid off, people who have had to lay them off, they all treated themselves and their employees with more respect than Brad did. He can take a flying leap.
about 1 year ago
I only tried Vanguard back in the beta or whatever, but honestly it just felt really generic. Bards and those blood mages seemed kinda cool, but otherwise nothing I saw really stood out from your average WoW/EQ clone.
about 1 year ago
I know Brad takes far more credit for things than he has a right to. Due to his work ethic, he’s probably the worst game designer of his generation. That is saying a lot.
about 1 year ago
Which underlines the oft-hand-waved-at notion that claiming to have a great idea is a lot harder than articulating it to a large team of people charged with making it real, and then providing all the resources necessary for them to make it happen. Ideas are cheap. Execution is hard, and ability is expensive.
about 1 year ago
I see he has a picture of his Porsche up on the site. I wonder if it needs any performance upgrades?
And I have to imagine that the comments on his site are hand picked… or sarcastic in the extreme… I could go either way.
about 1 year ago
I don’t really know what to say. Well I do, I just shouldn’t say it. So…holding back.
about 1 year ago
So much hate – he’s still have at least one more hit than most of us have had.
about 1 year ago
What you folks think. Brad and Paul matchup?
about 1 year ago
I don’t feel any negative towards Brad. I hope he does well and I’m sure he still has a lot of potential to produce good games.
I am really curious about how one just ‘gets back into the industry’ though
I’m sure plenty of us would like to just get into it in the first place 
about 1 year ago
@Angelworks
I’d say that’s as much being in the right place at the right time than being inherently awesome. EQ would not fly in today’s market, and like I said, How EQ improved after Brad got kicked out of any position of power at SOE/Verant is proof enough to me that he’s not really a very good designer.
And that’s not even going into the fact that EQ was essentially a MUD with a graphical interface. I mean, good for him for being one of the first guys to take that step and get enough money to make a bigger, prettier world than other early MMOs like UO and The Realm did, but I dunno if he’s THAT praiseworthy.
about 1 year ago
No. This is a huge fallacy many have about EQ. John S. (Whom I despise btw.) was the key to EQ getting done and launched.
Brad had some ideas, most of which were eventually removed from EQ. Brad’s total contribution to EQ was eventually reduced to almost nothing. The team John put together made EQ what it was, not Brad in anyway shape or form. In fact Brad was mostly known for his laziness.
about 1 year ago
If I were funding a MMO, I’d hire him on as a ‘creative consultant’ because he’s a decent face for a game.
…having that thought is probably part of the reason I’m not able to fund a MMO.
about 1 year ago
I hear Lord British is available too for that purpose
about 1 year ago
Who’s Brad McQuaid?
about 1 year ago
Heh it’s really odd, I read that guy’s personal diary/blog and the people that commented on it sound so..weird. And for those of you who praise him, the dude was riding bikes and shit and has like expensive cars and stuff;(someone said this above, I don’t know squat) not trying to be a douche but exactly why would you avoid the sinking ship you once were on if your lifeboat was a missile frigate? Atleast some consolation or talking to/something for the peeps you worked for or something would be good since you get to ride bikes and they get to have *real* panic attacks because they need to find new jobs.
about 1 year ago
So… Milo was being ironic. He didn’t have a Porsche.
Just saying. Not the same kind of thing at all, really.
This new blog reminds me of another “industry leader” blog that was started, where the comments were strictly controlled, and I’m wondering if it’ll go defunct just as quickly.
about 1 year ago
I’d really like to see Brad and Richard Garriott team together to make a game. Since they are both not even remotely living in the present day nor reality, this game would be a huge bag of fail. But very amusing to watch.
about 1 year ago
That’d be this Brad McQuaid then?
about 1 year ago
Don’t be a pansy……tell us what you think about this Scott.
about 1 year ago
Maybe he wants to redeem himself or something. And obviously he taked all the money he could of the sinking ship, those luxuries arent free you know. Besides having a few MMO on your curriculum (despite the defects in said MMOs) are good to convencing people to invest in your brand, new ship.
About Vanguard, it could have worked, the crafting and diplomacy were fun (and crafting and fun usually dont go in the same phrase), but it was bugged as hell, released for computers that didnt exist in that time and the races were either blatantly copied from EverQuest or furries.
about 1 year ago
@Cedia
That’s a scenario wacky enough to produce a masterpiece.
about 1 year ago
Wasn’t exactly a nice time I’m sure. If anyone missed this post ( http://www.fohguild.org/forums/retard-rickshaw/31593-vg-producers-letter-49.html#post945201 )on FoH–which was posted by a Sigil Designer, Brad had an addiction to prescription opiates. I’m sure he dropped off the grid for a while, was in rehab, and lost a ton of money. It wasn’t just magic cards and dirt bikes.
about 1 year ago
Wait – big name MMORPG developers have a life outside of rushing games to market, such as dirt-biking? Mind: blown! (This, of course, is sarcasm.)
I don’t think Brad McQuaid’s such a bad guy. He made WarWizard after all. In my mind, that makes him game developer enough.
For about a week, I was pretty excited about Vanguard. It had a broad scope and a combat system which wasn’t sandwich combat, involving trade skill mechanics, and a whole third type of advancement known as diplomacy – these factors alone made it better than 90% of the MMORPGs out there.
Unfortunately, Vanguard really was pushed to market too fast, and the world was too damn big — large empty tracts of land do not a compelling MMORPG make. A game which crashes constantly and is riddled with game-stopping bugs is one doomed to tank.
Since I’ve been dabbling with a bit of game development myself, I’ve learned that these kinds of mistakes are common. Seeking cool innovative ideas goes hand in hand with making boneheaded mistakes. The important thing is that you iron these things out in time. For various reasons (such as the snafu of creating your own proprietary engine) Vanguard could not deliver.
about 1 year ago
On a related note, Blizzard’s Ghostcrawler started talking about The Vision today (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17779489192&pageNo=4#71) and I couldn’t help but think of Aradune. And now he’s back too!
Spooky.
about 1 year ago
Grouchy Gamer thinks that’s not the real Brad. Interesting possibility of someone having a bit of fun with a community known to fly into fits of pique over things like this.
about 1 year ago
Have never developed a game but he does not strike me as someone i would like to work under. At least not directly. He might be a good ideas or vision guy and bad at implementing stuff where the rubber hits the road. Maybe he should find himself a job where he sits on a board somewhere and babbles and other competent people try and make it work. Management is a separate skill from game designing i would guess.
about 1 year ago
I think its easy to sit back and say how everything he worked on in EQ was designed out of the game, but that’s really the way mmo’s work. I can’t think of much of anything in WoW surrounding hybrid classes for instance that is very much like it was when the game was released. I’ve played a shaman forever, and could remember when their role end game was healer and that was really it.
It still took some effort to come up with all that was EQ since launch – I wasn’t there, but a group of friends did play it since beta and were hooked on it for years – so they must have done something right.
about 1 year ago
He still scoffs at the need to prioritize the elimination of bugs? The boy has learned NOTHING. And based on his continuing habit of being held back a grade in the school of hard knocks, I don’t have much hope of him ever learning. I pity any developer unfortunate enough to work on anything Brad has a management say in.
about 1 year ago
“I should have been there during the transition to SOE, the lay offs, etc.”
So why wasn’t he?
Didn’t he had the guts for the “yeah, sure, motivation, we are all family but we have to let you go. hey, security is here to walk you off the premises. bye”?
Smells like cowardice…
about 1 year ago
Read up on how Sygil was closed and the people were fired. Note the compassion of the boss, and how well he was there for his team. Ask yourself, why would anyone with any skills or education ever work for this man.
As others have said. he may occasionally have some good ideas. But Execution of those ideas and management of teh team getting that execution done is what count.
about 1 year ago
Sure, love to do so. However, my Google-Fu has failed. You wouldn’t happen to have a link about this – preferably not on F13?
(The reason why I throw in that last qualifier in there is that F13 has a giant Brad McQuaid-sized bug up their butt, and anything you hear on that site about him is likely exaggerated.)
I’m not saying I’m a big fan of McQuaid’s work or anything, I’m just saying the dude knows the trade.
about 1 year ago
Ok Ok, Brad McQuaid, Richard Garriot, and Paul Barnett walk into a bar…
The jokes just write themselves
about 1 year ago
geldonyetich this is what some of us are referring to: an interview with Brad. Witness Brad’s running for the hills intead of facing his employees at the end: http://commonsensegamer.com/?p=282
My freind’s father had to lay off employees, he showed up and told them to their face, he also cried, not the greatest thing to cry but he had the guts to face them. Brad ran and hid.
about 1 year ago
As I said before, get me one that isn’t based off of anything F13 did, as I know those guys well enough to know that they’ve a thing against McQuaid.
Anywho, this complaint is irrelevant. When the hammer comes down, your ass is fired, and this in itself is the failure of management to utilize you. I really don’t care about the messenger.
Right now I’m working as a temp, their method of letting you go is to have the temp agency call you and tell you not to come in that morning. Am I to assume then that anybody who hires through a temp agency is the worst employer ever?
No, it’s a really weird complaint. Getting fired isn’t supposed to be personal, it’s business. Telling me that I have to fire you to your face for it to stick is you failing to understand the situation. It’s the professional business world, not a school playground.
about 1 year ago
I took a look at Vanguard’s free trial a couple of weeks ago, and I was struggling to find a single aspect of the early game which wasn’t “exactly like WoW/EQ2/LOTRO, only not as good”. Seriously, the first impression it makes is so derivative and unimpressive that I can’t imagine many people choosing to convert the free trial into a subscription.
about 1 year ago
@The Claw
I played EQ2 & LOTRO for a very long time and never discovered their diplomacy systems, guess I wasn’t paying very close attention. Tell me more about them.
about 1 year ago
OK so they didn’t have diplomacy, but diplomacy alone doesn’t outweigh the feeling of blandness I got from most of what I saw.
about 1 year ago
Sometimes projects/business endeavours/”things” fail. They can’t all be winners (Vanguard wasn’t, it wasn’t “slow” it was unplayable), and I don’t think I can begrudge him that.
What he can be judged by is the professionalism with which that failure is dealt with. Don’t really need to say much more than that.
about 1 year ago
@fatbutt
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a big fan of Vanguard. Not so much the blandness as the out and out brokenness. I’m never going to forget the image of mobs walking backwards
But “exactly like WoW/EQ2/LOTRO, only not as good” is a bit much.
about 1 year ago
JuJutsu, I think I made it quite clear that I was talking about first impressions. Vanguard may well have facets which are later revealed that are novel and interesting, but the first impression is poor enough that I never got that far, and neither, I suspect, will many people who try the trial.