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#8
02-12-2014, 09:43 AM
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#9
02-12-2014, 11:11 AM
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#10
02-12-2014, 12:55 PM
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"In a nutshell, our publisher was Microsoft and we had a deal with them to make a new AAA MMO. For about four years everything was going well and we were almost ready to start some early alpha testing of the game. Then there was a regime change at Microsoft, with the VP of their games devision leaving the company along with just about everyone who worked for him. The new group that was assigned to our project wasn't interested in doing an MMO. They accused us of being late and over budget. They wanted to push us out the door and launch the game one year early. This would, of course, result in total failure. So I went out and did two things: I approached SOE, asking them to take over publishing Vanguard and to fund us to completion. At the same time, I went on the road and approached a variety of investors, seeing if we could drum up some interest to invest in the game and the company, again to give us the funding we needed to complete the game. In the limited time we had, we failed to raise any additional funds from investors. SOE, however, was able to step in and help out. They assumed the publishing rights to the game and were able to fund us for six more months. That was, of course, better than nothing and the best they could do at the time. But we really needed 12 more months. With only 6 months we ran out of time before we could polish and optimize the game. So when the game was released in January of 2007, it wasn't in very good shape. The game sold 250K units very quickly, but then the majority of players ended up quitting by level 2 or 3. Why so quickly? (you could achieve level 2 or 3 in a couple of hours). But the players couldn't enjoy the game in its unoptimized state unless they had the latest and greatest PC and graphics card. And even then the game didn't perform that well. A few months after launch SOE decided to buy both Sigil and Vanguard. They were again a bit strapped for cash and couldn't keep the Sigil office fully staffed (at Vanguard's launch we had something like 105 employees). So about 50% of the company was laid off. The whole situation was horrible, but I need to stress that if SOE hadn't been able to come in and help as much as they could, things would have been even worse. At the very least, Vanguard did ship. SOE then focussed on optimizing the Vanguard client and server tech. Eventually the game was playable by most average PCs, but by then critical mass and momentum had been lost. Players had left with a bad taste in their mouth and many were not willing to come back and give Vanguard another chance. So Vanguard continued on as an SOE game and, over time, became an MMO that I'm very proud of -- it was a lot of fun and most of the new game features like Diplomacy turned out to be pretty cool. The players that remained became a small but passionate and loyal bunch. In fact, only just recently did SOE decide to shut Vanguard down. The game was up and mostly playable for 7 years. Most of the employees that were laid off were able to take their 4+ years of game development experience and land jobs elsewhere in the industry. But there's no getting around the fact that things got ugly in early 2007. People who had poured their hearts and souls into Vanguard were laid off right after the game launched. It was a dark time and I was in a dark place. I made my share of mistakes... perhaps I could have seen what was coming, or kept more money in reserve for a rainy day. I was out of the office quite a bit talking with investors and pitching the game. I was therefore absent during a lot of these trying times. As the game sort of fell apart, so did I. There was a lot of stress and anxiety. So anyway, that's the short version I guess. The good news is that I know myself a lot better now and have learned from my mistakes. So have the other guys on my team who were Sigil employees at the time. Our project now is smaller and the team not nearly as large. We're able to turn the negative that was the Vanguard situation into a positive, by building on our experiences and setting things up a lot smarter this time around. -Brad"
__________________
Escapegoat / Pharmakos / Madriax
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