Vanguard is live.

[Mrbloodworth]

It was pretty. It was also empty.

[Engels]

It was more than pretty. The tile work (not graphics tiling, actual tile art) on some of the buildings, by itself, was jawdroppingly intricate. I would often just sit there thinking of the sheer effort that must have been invested in creating the world, and I was filled with a mixture of happiness and grief that the whole thing wasn't going to work.

[Kageru]

I always assumed it was the art team basically giving up on the game design and mechanics sections of the company and filling their days building stuff to keep busy. The capital city was huge, intricate and a game-play desert.

[MahrinSkel]

The art team that worked on Vanguard was truly first rate.  The design and content...I have absolutely nothing to say.

--Dave

[UnSub]

Pretty sure there is a Vangard post-mortem somewhere that talks about how long they spent in (half-) building a massive, intricate world, only to start scrambling to fill it with things that worked as launch day approached (and was delayed, then approached again, etc).

[shiznitz]

Vanguard landscapes were excellent, but I always thought they were always too close to the real world in basic geography and flora for a fantasy setting.  One of the human starting areas looked like 1700s England. Intent or accident?  EQ cities and landscapes always had some element of fantasy to them.

[Mrbloodworth]

EQ cities and landscapes always had some element of fantasy to them.

Yeah! Square, overly tiled, burly textures.

[shiznitz]

Don't condemn the look due to technology limitations at the time.

[Engels]

To be honest, I think that was by design. I think they wanted a Game of Thrones level of fantasy feel, rather than an RA Salvatore/D&D level. Hence the thinly veiled cultures of Middle-Eastern, Asian and northern European origin.

[PalmTrees]

They put up their ftp terms. http://vgplayers.station.sony.com/images/community/membershipinfo/vg_membership_page.jpg

Typically SOE. Seems similar to what they did with EQ2 iirc. Not all class/race available, 1/3 the bank size, reduced customer support, money and item limits. $15/month to get the full game. Such restrictive terms. Why do they bother? Must've worked out decently enough with EQ2 I guess.

[LK]

Amazed this game is still around.

[UnSub]

I've been writing a blog entry about Sigil Games and have been reading through old posts about Vanguard / comments made by McQuaid on FOH before Vanguard launched. Hilarious stuff in retrospect.

[Pennilenko]

I loved vanguard, it just didn't love me back.

To this day I still feel that Vanguard's, Bloodmage, Bard and Disciple were the most awesome class designs ever. Also their take on a cleric was pretty awesome too.

[PalmTrees]

Well cleric and disciple are among the free, the other two are filthy whores you gotta pay for.

[Stormwaltz]

"Good news, everyone!"

Brad McQuaid is back!

[Ingmar]

 

[Minvaren]

ObPennyArcade

[Lucas]

[Tearofsoul]

Seriously, we need a "Welcome back! Brad!" thread! Please please 

[UnSub]

McQuaid in 2005 about Vanguard vs WoW:

When we're looking at revenue forecasts as well as when we're designing the game we're looking at long term customer retention with the realization that the majority of money made from MMOGs is from subscriptions not box sales. 250,000 I think is conservative... 500,000 would be just fine... both look pretty good though when doing the math and planning on players playing months and even years.

If the 'core' gamer is running out of things to do now (and I say 'core', not hard core, because I'm not just reading posts and talking to people who are part of that minority of gamers who play like madmen), then how much longer will the 'casual' gamer be entertained?

I'm not here to criticize Blizzard's plan (nor am I even privy to it), but I can say what ours is, and it's to keep the average MMOG gamer around for a long time. And we realize this likely means we won't see sales in the millions. But we took EQ 1 up to 400,000+ for three years with very few cancellations, and I know the game continued with those numbers for quite a while after I left. And that's the kind of success we're looking for again with Vanguard.

I know the counter-argument, that those players won't tolerate another EQ 1 and its advancement pace -- that MMOGs have to be designed differently now, targeting the more casual gamer and also the gamer who allegedly has less time to play than he or she did in the past, or who just won’t tolerate anything even resembling a ‘grind’.

But I don't buy it. Sure, some people are burned out. But we also hear from a LOT of old school MMOG gamers who want that longer term game again... who want a home again. And if we combine those people with even a small percentage of new MMOG gamers, who were probably exposed to persistent worlds by games like WoW, then it's simply not that crazy to assume we can get the numbers I'm talking about for Vanguard.

Only time will tell, and I know people will disagree with me. But we really need to be right -- not just for Vanguard, but for the genre in general. We can't just give up, throw our hands into the air, and say EQ 1s were a fluke and that core gamers have somehow fundamentally changed since then such that they won't or can't subscribe for years ever again. Were that true, we'd never see the virtual worlds of the scope and scale we all dream about developed. Maybe we are old school, maybe past successes were a fluke, maybe we’re dinosaurs. But I’m betting not.

[Redgiant]

"Do you have any funny stories to tell everyone about working on Vanguard?"
<generic answer #1>

"Have players ever surprised you with using a strange tactic to defeat an encounter that you created?"
<generic answer #2>


Seriously, you can't think of something for this if you actually play the game? EQ would have a list of answers from anyone who's played it much.

[Hutch]

"Brad. It's been five years since you fled the industry. What have you been doing with yourself?"
"I did a bit of this, a bit of that. I watched some movies. Hey, you know who's a really good actor? Robert Downey, Jr. Man. That guy is, just, wow. Amazing. And what a life, you know? Rehab, prison. He's been a drug addict for basically his entire life. Did you ever see Less Than Zero? Robert Downey, Jr was in that movie. I once saw an interview where he basically said that the part of Julian was kind of like himself. I mean, he had a lot to draw on."

"So, you're a fan."
"Oh yeah. Sorry, I kind of got off on a tangent there. I do that. I sometimes lose focus. You might have noticed. What was the question, again?"

[Lantyssa]

I'm guessing he wants to emulate the success parts of his hero, too?

[Hutch]

Oh, please note. My previous post in this thread was, shall we say, pure fiction. Never happened. I made it up. For laughs.

Redgiant's post was the definitive summary of any interview you'll read from "Aradune" 

[UnSub]

I like how in the SOE announcement he avoids mentioning Sigil at all. "I was at SOE, then I went away for a while, now I'm back! And on this game too!"

[satael]

Well, maybe after Curt Schilling's  shenanigans Brad thinks he doesn't look so bad anymore. 

[Tearofsoul]

Well, maybe after Curt Schilling's  shenanigans Brad thinks he doesn't look so bad anymore.  

Believe me or not, I think he really doesn't ... lol

Curt was like:"Check this out, Mr.Brad, this is how you fail. Yours was like banana."

Since then, Brad live happily ever after...

[HaemishM]

The price of meth must have gone up.

[Sky]

I like the part where he doesn't understand people put up with EQ's bullshit because there was only UO's bullshit as an alternative.

[Shatter]

I'm sure the break he took allowed him to dwell on...ahh fuck it what a tool

[Ingmar]

I'm just blown away that they're having him work on the same game he already screwed up. Like the Detroit Lions bringing back Matt Millen.

[HaemishM]

Surely there's no employees left from the original parking lot debacle, because he hasn't been shivved in the men's room yet.

[Shatter]

Surely there's no employees left from the original parking lot debacle, because he hasn't been shivved in the men's room yet.

Not a bathroom anymore, hookers and blow room

[UnSub]

I guess schild hasn't commented because, on seeing the news, he's now running to SOE headquarters, eyes soul-dead, with the aim of crash tackling Smedley through a plate glass window while screaming, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?".

[Severian]

"Do you have any funny stories to tell everyone about working on Vanguard?"
<generic answer #1>

Ooooh, ooooh, ooooh!
I know, I know some!