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Vanguard welcomes the return of Brad McQuaid
If you're a fan of Vanguard, you know full well who Brad McQuaid is. If you're a fan of EverQuest, you're probably also familiar with the name. And now, the man behind both games has returned to Vanguard after a lengthy hiatus to rejoin the development team. Considering the game is heading toward a free-to-play conversion in the not-too-distant future, it can certainly be seen as an auspicious event. McQuaid is the focus of the game's newest Developer Spotlight, where he discusses his role in starting the game and in its early development. He confesses that he took a long break from playing the game, but he seems quite happy with how it's developed in his absence. Looking to the future, McQuaid also talks about making loot drops and quest rewards more viable throughout the game, encouraging players to explore a variety of zones instead of just a few old standards. The interview is remarkably low-key considering that the man in question was one of the driving forces behind the game's original launch. Players can draw their own conclusions about what McQuaid's return will mean for the game in the long run. [Thanks to Ryan for the tip!]
The Soapbox: The curious case of Vanguard
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. "Yaaay!" "FU-- yeah!" "Finally." "WOW! This is the best MMO news I have heard in a long time!" These are just a few of the comments that greeted our recent announcement of Vanguard's upcoming free-to-play conversion. The reactions were overwhelmingly positive, and Sony Online Entertainment's open-world fantasy themepark was lavished with praise by a wide cross-section of Massively readers. This makes me wonder where all these folks have been since the game's launch in early 2007. It's not like Vanguard shut down and is being resurrected, you know? More importantly, I wonder whether free-to-play can actually save the game from the scrap heap of shuttered SOE MMOs.
It's official: EverQuest goes free-to-play
Back in December, when EverQuest II made the transition to free-to-play across all servers, many gamers wondered whether its sibling, EverQuest, would follow. Today, the speculation has become reality, and EverQuest will officially go free-to-play in March, which also is the month that the game first launched back in 1999. As the game closes in on its 13th birthday, it's worth taking a look back at this game's amazing history.
Brad McQuaid reminisces about the birth of EverQuest
Maybe you're a big fan of EverQuest. Maybe you were at one point, but your ardor has cooled. Maybe you never liked it. Whatever your opinion on the game, you can't deny that it had a massive impact on the face of MMOs as a whole. In a new interview, Brad McQuaid talks about the genesis of EverQuest through development and what the game looked like from the other side, before it was a known fact that the game would be a success or even functional. And yes, according to McQuaid, there were several points at which the team was worried that the game wouldn't work at all. Between the issues of 3-D performance and network issues, it was far from a certainty that the game could be played and enjoyed by a large enough number of people. The difficulty level of the game wasn't on the list of worries -- from the design team's perspective, that was half of the enjoyment of the game. Read the full interview for more anecdotes and opinions about the early development of one of the first big MMO successes.
GDC Online 2011: A nostalgia trip with the original EverQuest team
This year, GDC Online presented the Hall of Fame award to SOE's classic EverQuest. The game is currently 12 years old, and as legendary presenter Richard Garriott put it, "It perfected the commercial genre" of MMO games. Several members of the original team attended the awards ceremony, and Massively was honored to have a chance to sit and speak with them. Even if you aren't an old school vet, you'll enjoy this trip down memory lane with Brad McQuaid, John Smedley, and the rest of the team. Read on for highlights from the interview.
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: The games
Fair citizens of Massivelyville, believe me, I've heard your voices. After two weeks of giving an overview of MUDs and MU*s, not to mention talking to Dr. Bartle about the genre, I think I've held off talking about specific games long enough. No need for heads to explode on my watch! One of the reasons I stalled for time is that I was gathering as much information on the most popular and beloved MUDs of the past few decades. From the perspective of someone who is but a mewling infant when it comes to these games, it's a considerable task akin to asking someone to sum up all of the World War II movies out there. The selection field is big -- that's all I'm saying. So after polling a number of friends and hearing what you've had to say in the comments section, I've culled the list to six games that seem to pop up over and over again. Not only are each of these MUDs a wealth of history, but they're all going strong even in the futuristic year of 2011. If you've never played a game in this genre, then consider these a good place to start, and if you have, hopefully this will be an exciting stroll down memory lane. Watch out for the boojums and grues!
The Game Archaeologist and the NeverEnding Quest: The highlights
To many veteran MMO players, the opening horns of EverQuest's score are enough to trigger vivid memories, violent hallucinations, and an unstoppable desire to leap through the computer screen to return to Norrath. It all depends, of course, on which MMO you first cut your teeth, and while many gamers would claim titles like World of Warcraft as their first, there is a large contingent who will confess that EQ was their first MMO lover. In fact, before WoW came on the scene in 2004, EverQuest was the gold standard of MMOs for a half-decade -- it was insanely popular, perfectly addictive, and absolutely revolutionary. It was a giant that roamed the virtual lands of those days, a giant that continues to forge new grounds well over a decade from its inception. It was 1995 when John Smedley realized the potential for online gaming and roped in Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover to start putting together an online RPG for SOE. What began as a small project ballooned into a crazy endeavor as the growing team created a monster RPG the likes the world had never seen before -- a game that would forever shape the MMO genre. This month, the Game Archaeologist is going after one of the biggest treasures of recorded history as we unearth the secrets to EverQuest's popularity, legacy, and longevity. The first step on our journey is to look at some of the highlights that made EQ what it is today.
Brad McQuaid returns, forms new company
Brad McQuaid, the former CEO of Sigil Games and one of the driving creative forces behind Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and the original EverQuest, has announced his return to gaming after a three-year hiatus. Lost amid the hubbub of last week's E3 deluge was an announcement on McQuaid's personal blog that served as both a news update as well as a job recruitment posting for his new company. "After a needed three[-]year break from 11 years of working on massively multiplayer games with the large teams, budgets, and 3-5 year development cycles[,] I think this will be a nice change of pace. I'm also very excited to be involved in a genre that is relatively new to me. I look forward to bringing MMO design principles to casual/social gaming," he wrote. Dust off your resumes and view the full announcement on McQuaid's blog.
Part one of Brad McQuaid's Vanguard post-mortem
When most people think of Vanguard, they usually remember that the game had an extremely rocky launch period. A lot of things were changed and fixed after the game was sold to Sony Online Entertainment. The original developer Sigil Games Online (headed by former SOE superstar Brad McQuaid) was also sold in this deal. McQuaid's blog welcome-page mentions that he's been on a break from the games industry since the above events in 2007, but "as of late, he's starting to get that itch again...". It was probably this itch that prompted him to start a multi-part post-mortem of his time with Vanguard at his blog.McQuaid said that he will be addressing topics in chronological order, and part one deals with what he calls the first big mistake that Sigil made: get everything in writing."The first mistake that would have a serious impact later in development was the verbal agreement with Microsoft that Vanguard was to be a first rate, AAA title."It sounds like a change at Microsoft led to a completely different level of support for Vanguard; less funding, less time, and overall a different outlook on what Vanguard was to become."So the moral of the story is one that should have occurred to us: get everything in writing, get it into the contract, because even a company like Microsoft can suddenly undergo significant changes to its management and teams. And when those changes do happen, you might as well be dealing with a new company – anything and everything can change, and change quickly."Part two of the post-mortem will be dealing with the good and bad aspects of creating an all-star team, and we'll bring it to your attention when it surfaces.
More reactions to BioWAAAGH!
We've been keeping our eyes on various blogs and forums discussing yesterday's big news that Mythic and BioWare are being restructured under EA's new MMO/RPG gaming division and that Mark Jacobs is no longer working for EA. Here's a summary of what we've found so far.Many people are under the false impression that Mythic and BioWare have merged. One of Mythic's developers made this clarification: "We're still Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts Studio, as we have been. I've posted this elsewhere, but we're not 'merging.' We are still a completely separate entity within EA, just as Bioware is, simply now grouped under the same MMO/RPG grouping and reporting to one person, collectively."
Brad McQuaid returns to pimp Vanguard
Remember Brad McQuaid? As one of EverQuest's original creators and eventually the man behind Vanguard, Brad is a legend in the gaming industry. Sure, his reputation spiraled downward after his time with Sigil and Vanguard, but he has now come out of hiding to tell us all that we should play Vanguard!Wait, what? Is he now working for SOE again? Well, no one knows if that's the case or not, but the fact is, Brad seems quite keen on getting back into the industry. After taking a few years off to "ride street bikes and dirt bikes, as well as drive sports cars, as often as possible", Brad wants to start creating games again. So if you're a fan of Brad's work with EverQuest, Vanguard (or even WarWizard), head on over to his newly-revamped blog and show him some support. [EDIT: Some are speculating that this is an impostor. You be the judge.][Via Common Sense Gamer]
Massively celebrates 10 years of EverQuest
March 16th, 1999: It was on this day that Sony's 989 Studios released what would soon be known as the gateway to a gaming movement. Sure it wasn't the first, but it was responsible for redefining the quality that we know today in the massively multiplayer online genre. That game, of course, was EverQuest, and this month marks its 10th anniversary.To celebrate this unique occasion, Massively has teamed up with SOE to offer some of the greatest retrospective coverage, galleries, opinion pieces and much more concerning the last ten years of EQ. From today until March 16th, we will present a new article counting down to the anniversary date. You can also check out our EQ 10th Anniversary gallery which will be updated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with new artwork and screenshots, showcasing the last ten years for the game. The final days of this countdown will get progressively more exciting, so stick with our coverage to see what unfolds!%Gallery-46192%
A Vanguard Retrospective
Genda of The Grouchy Gamer was a gamer with a dream; to hitch himself to Sigil's rising star. He created a one-stop shop for all news and information about Vanguard's crafting sphere, joined the Vanguard affiliate program, and gained a unique outsider's perspective to what would become one of the MMO world's most legendary disasters. It's a story of how lack of leadership and vision could turn EverQuest's spiritual successor and the hard work of dozens of talented designers, artists and programmers into tears in a parking lot in Carlsbad, California.The retrospective is in three parts. In the first, Genda tells about Brad McQuaid's departure from SOE and the first news about the game that would become Vanguard, his lunch with the late fantasy artist Keith Parkinson, and Brad's increasing absence from the Sigil offices. The second part tells how many of the best innovations in Vanguard died on the vine because the programmers were busy rewriting all the scripts from the Unreal 3 engine and the increasing trouble within Sigil. The last part brings Vanguard from its troubled beta, through its disastrous launch and acquisition by SOE.
