Poll: Was Brad Mcquaid Overrated?

[A Knight]

Sorry I hope I didn't sound rude. I meant all the best. I didn't know Brad but I'm sure he was a great guy. I wouldn't say that he was overrated.

[Bisonzabi]

I think he was. But that's not to say he was a bad thing. He definitely was not up to task for leading major projects. Lot of people like to shit on John Smedley, but keep in mind it was John Smedley who pushed for Everquest to be a fully 3D Game back in the mid 90's when EQ was in pre-production. That wasn't Brad's idea.

Also over 3 years later and I'm still wondering what killed him. The fact that it's still hush-hush makes it no doubt a dishonorable death (OD'd)

[Bisonzabi]

Originally Posted by mycoolrausch [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Seeing as after EQ -> WoW he knew what made MMOs more popular and successful, but continued to make games that purposely didn't do those things, he gets an A+ in my book, regardless of any other faults.

Brad's insight on WoW was surface level. He had the same issues that a legendary game designer like Yu Suzuki (creator of Shenmue) had in that his understanding of the industry was outdated and several decades behind when he was creating games like Vanguard and Pantheon.

I remember back on the Vanguard Saga Of Heroes forum in late 2006, he legit thought Vanguard would hit 750k subscribers even though the game was nearing launch in the disastrous state it was in (I wish the old forums were archived btw).

[magnetaress]

There's nothing dishonorable about dying to OD when u battle it for so many years.

He fought his battle and died fighting it. Valhalla imo.

[Bisonzabi]

Originally Posted by magnetaress [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There's nothing dishonorable about dying to OD when u battle it for so many years.

He fought his battle and died fighting it. Valhalla imo.

When I say dishonorable I meant that it was too embarrassing or damaging for the details to be shared outside those close to him and his loved ones. If he died in a car accident, a stroke or cancer then it would've been mentioned in an obituary somewhere. The reality is he was once again at the helm of a project in another studio and for word to get out that he died due to yet another relapse, it would've hurt said project and his lasting image.

I also remember far too well how horribly he managed Sigil as the CEO just 16 years ago and all the drama that spurred including devs who were fired out in the parking lot when the studio collapsed accusing him of being absent for months on end and not even being there when everyone was fired. If you have massive internal issues dealing with drug addiction as a head of a studio, than you need to step aside and appoint someone else early on and not just wait for shit to hit the fan costing over a hundred people their jobs.

Originally Posted by WokeCat [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I remember seeing in magazines about how if you had a $6,000 NorthWest computer, the game would run amazing, but I just couldn't bring myself to squeeze the trigger.

Glad you didn't, saved yourself from losing a few grand. Vendor PC's are overpriced usually with shoddy proprietary hardware connecting it all. Basically paying a premium for the GPU, CPU, and possibly a monitor if it was included. If this was in early 2007, what made it cost so much was probably because it had something like Core 2 Extreme X6900 which was a $1200 CPU at launch along with a set of high end SLI/Crossfire GPU's.

Though tossing hardware at a game isn't a be all solution. It all depends how the game was programmed and if the hardware would be fully utilized for the game instead of diminished or bottlecapped. When EQ2 came out, much of its processing came from a single core CPU and barely any rendering came from the GPU, then the slower multi core CPU's came out by 2006 and the game was perpetually ran by many in a mid-tier settings for years to come for a smooth solid frame rate. If I recall; the major issue with how Vanguard ran was because while it was on the Unreal 2.5 engine, it lacked the usage of the Unreal scripting language that was built inside of the engine. It was basically all spaghetti code. It's one of the reasons why a proper bonafide emulation has yet to manifest. And it's the very reason why the game had such high requirements despite its visuals being a mixed bag. That was just one of many problems with the game though. It was in a pre-alpha stage and nowhere close to being finished.

Yet regardless of this, being a 17 year old who was super hyped for this game, purchasing the pre-order for the $100 Collectors Edition a month before launch and playing its Jan 2007 disastrous beta, I held on up until April in the vain hope that it would turn around. It didn't. And it's a shame since deep down somewhere could've been a good game. It had great music and some state of the art particle effects implemented at the time such as volumetric clouding, and a solid atmosphere to the entire game, but it would've costed them to remake the games code from scratch to get said good game out of it. Last videogame I ever really hyped, and left me a little wiser to never do such a thing again nor pre-order until reviews of a game came out.

And here's an archived post on the Fire of Heavens board back in Jan 2008 by a former Sigil developer who was laid off. Now this is a major flashback.
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[magnetaress]

Originally Posted by Bisonzabi [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

When I say dishonorable I meant that it was too embarrassing or damaging for the details to be shared outside those close to him and his loved ones. If he died in a car accident, a stroke or cancer then it would've been mentioned in an obituary somewhere. The reality is he was once again at the helm of a project in another studio and for word to get out that he died due to yet another relapse, it would've hurt said project and his lasting image.

I also remember far too well how horribly he managed Sigil as the CEO just 16 years ago and all the drama that spurred including devs who were fired out in the parking lot when the studio collapsed accusing him of being absent for months on end and not even being there when everyone was fired. If you have massive internal issues dealing with drug addiction as a head of a studio, than you need to step aside and appoint someone else early on and not just wait for shit to hit the fan costing over a hundred people their jobs.



Glad you didn't, saved yourself from losing a few grand. Vendor PC's are overpriced usually with shoddy proprietary hardware connecting it all. Basically paying a premium for the GPU, CPU, and possibly a monitor if it was included. If this was in early 2007, what made it cost so much was probably because it had something like Core 2 Extreme X6900 which was a $1200 CPU at launch along with a set of high end SLI/Crossfire GPU's.

Though tossing hardware at a game isn't a be all solution. It all depends how the game was programmed and if the hardware would be fully utilized for the game instead of diminished or bottlecapped. When EQ2 came out, much of its processing came from a single core CPU and barely any rendering came from the GPU, then the slower multi core CPU's came out by 2006 and the game was perpetually ran by many in a mid-tier settings for years to come for a smooth solid frame rate. If I recall; the major issue with how Vanguard ran was because while it was on the Unreal 2.5 engine, it lacked the usage of the Unreal scripting language that was built inside of the engine. It was basically all spaghetti code. It's one of the reasons why a proper bonafide emulation has yet to manifest. And it's the very reason why the game had such high requirements despite its visuals being a mixed bag. That was just one of many problems with the game though. It was in a pre-alpha stage and nowhere close to being finished.

Yet regardless of this, being a 17 year old who was super hyped for this game, purchasing the pre-order for the $100 Collectors Edition a month before launch and playing its Jan 2007 disastrous beta, I held on up until April in the vain hope that it would turn around. It didn't. And it's a shame since deep down somewhere could've been a good game. It had great music and some state of the art particle effects implemented at the time such as volumetric clouding, and a solid atmosphere to the entire game, but it would've costed them to remake the games code from scratch to get said good game out of it. Last videogame I ever really hyped, and left me a little wiser to never do such a thing again nor pre-order until reviews of a game came out.

And here's an archived post on the Fire of Heavens board back in Jan 2008 by a former Sigil developer who was laid off. Now this is a major flashback.
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Fair points.

I loved vanguard fwiww. It had some genuine charm. Haunted. Butt I felt like I was wandering about in the dreamlike backrooms of a deranged game designers brain. And there was just a genuine charm to that.

G-d and Br-d bless.

[Dolalin]

Brad was into world-building, and the sense of immersion in another world drove EQ's early successes in the low end game, but what got people to stick around past level 20 was the loot/raid treadmill. Brad didn't really get this second half of the game.

[Jimjam]

Originally Posted by Dolalin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Brad was into world-building, and the sense of immersion in another world drove EQ's early successes in the low end game, but what got people to stick around past level 20 was the loot/raid treadmill. Brad didn't really get this second half of the game.

So true. So much fun talking to NOCs in qeynos, uncovering the basics of the settings, sleuthing around, discovering the nest of the rat king, uncovering an entire SK guild hidden in the sewers. So immersive! But then those linestone rings, alligator tooth earrings, the cape off the shady mercenaries … pixel addiction begins and the world is forgotten.

[Tongpow]

Originally Posted by Dolalin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Brad was into world-building, and the sense of immersion in another world drove EQ's early successes in the low end game, but what got people to stick around past level 20 was the loot/raid treadmill. Brad didn't really get this second half of the game.

I've only been lucky enough to experience that perfect synergy of gamers for any meaningful length of time twice, early EQ and EVE Online. EQ worked because it was a actual cultural phenomenon so the population was diverse, eve worked because things like a single shard world with a symbiotic relationships between pve and pvp forcing those two groups to interact

i wish the world had more Brads and crazy Icelandic Vikings making video games in it is my point i guess idk...

[magnetaress]

Originally Posted by Dolalin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Brad was into world-building, and the sense of immersion in another world drove EQ's early successes in the low end game, but what got people to stick around past level 20 was the loot/raid treadmill. Brad didn't really get this second half of the game.

the second half of the game should always be secondary imo tho

let the low energy plebes play that stuff

time to build a better universe [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]