Brad McQuaid Interview on the end of Sigil

[Maledict]

But he didn't? Thats why people are complaining?

Posting a 3 page childish whine about how other peopel fucked you over, how it wasn't your fault, how no-one did anything wrong, and then sticking on a final paragraph saying : Ignoring all that, the buck stops here, it was my fault doesn't mean shit.
He doesn't believe, and neither do we. IF he did, he wouldn't be spinning the ludicrous tales of how the Xbox 360 and Zoo Tycoon ruined his glorious game, instead of the unbeleiavble bad planning, the shitty office management, and the willingness to just co-opt all your old friends and family into working for you.

I honestly cannot believe that Utnayan over at FoH was right on every single damn one of his points about that place. Every one, without fail. That's just sad.

[DmitrytheWizzy]

I honestly cannot believe that Utnayan over at FoH was right on every single damn one of his points about that place. Every one, without fail. That's just sad.

LOL was he? What points was he making?

[Maledict]

And holy god he's still posting on FoH of all places. The moron just needs gagging.

[Maledict]

LOL was he? What points was he making?

He was saying ages ago how vanguard was doomed because it wasn't being developed properly, how sigil were just hiring brads old friends and family, how no-one was managing it, how office politics were tearing the place apart.

Stuff no-one believe at the time, but it's all true.

[Lunal]

He was saying ages ago how vanguard was doomed because it wasn't being developed properly, how sigil were just hiring brads old friends and family, how no-one was managing it, how office politics were tearing the place apart.

Sounds very similar to the Ion Storm stuff.

[XaxiusShadowspire]

In case you folks don't troll the FoH boards...

I'd like to address something I've seen come up several times on different boards re: the interview: The original MS team DID require milestones and a schedule. By NO means did we ask for or expect free reigns. In fact, we met every milestone and even exceeded the expectations and requirements for many of them.

I am all for schedules. I am all for planning. I am al for Milestones.

It was the degree and detail level and how detailed they needed to be going way out into the future that changed and the assertion that MMOGs should be handled the same way as a single player game in terms of development and an apparent desire to not want to work collaboratively but rather dictate development (which was not part of the original spirit of the agreement, where we were hired on because of our experience) that became a problem. We tried very hard to work with the new team but their approach to game development simply wasn't compatible with Sigil's, did not adhere to how we had worked with them previously for several years, and IMHO not compatible with how one (or at least Sigil) in our experience working on a LOT of MMOGs, some failures, one a huge success, some cancelled, etc.

We were all for organization, scheduling, milestones, accountability, etc. Up until the change I described we excelled in this process and were praised for our performance and progress. When all of this changed, we tried to make things worked (as did the other side), but it simply turned out that the two teams were not compatible. Again, I have nothing against MSFT or those people, etc. They meant well and I'm sure were doing their best given how they were told to deal with an external developer. Changes like this happen fairly often I would think. Incompatibilities and disagreements on development (in this case MMOG development) happen.

Thus it was time to move on. I will also say that working with SOE later on worked out fairly well (not perfect, but perfection happens rarely). My point is that we worked very well with the first group at MSFT and then we worked very well with SOE after we broke things off.

That's it. Again, while I am disappointed, I understand how things happen and that they are not all that uncommon. A developer and a publisher must mesh and be able to work together as a solid team towards one solid goal (making a great game). When that does not occur, or something changes such that it is no longer occurring, something needs to change.

Microsoft agreed with this and allowed us to switch to SOE in a very amicable way. There are no hard feelings. All the MSFT people are in the Vanguard credits in fact. If anything my respect level for MSFT management for letting go of Vanguard to increase to the chance that it would become a great game increased greatly. They are truly a class act. They put Vanguard above politics and team issues and different development philosophies and did what was best for the game. That is huge and I'm not sure if very many other publishers would have done the same. So I remain eternally grateful for them allowing us to make the switch to SOE and getting the deal done so quickly so as to allow us to take advantage of E3 and to interrupt the development process of the game as minimally as possible.

I wish this part of the picture had been included in the interview and hope you all spread it around as it's an important piece that was missed.

thanks,

[Destructis]

And holy god he's still posting on FoH of all places. The moron just needs gagging.

Brad posted again? Link please

[XaxiusShadowspire]

Brad on being the one that should have been fired...

Technically you are right, but emotionally it was just something I couldn't handle. I imagine I will regret it, and already do, but one has to take care of oneself emotionally as well. I and otheres tried for months to keep Sigil afloat -- this was something I and a few others knew was a likely possibility and we discussed it and decided I wasn't the best person to handle it given the emotional pain I was feeling.

That's really all I can say at this point. Again, you are probably right in general, and certainly right technically. I was the CEO afterall. And while I was capable of being CEO most of the time, perhaps this is a good example of an area I'm simply weak at. In fact, it is. The counterpoint would be that while I do not compartmentalize well and don't handle these situations very well, the reason is how much I cared about all of those people and the company. A good friend of mine has said in the past: the best thing about Brad is that he cares so much; the worst thing about Brad is that he cares so much. So in one way of looking at it, it's a flaw. But perhaps not in all ways. Sometimes the stone-cold CEO is who you want in certain situations, but often times it's not. So this may well be a flaw, but overall, I am not ashamed of the person I am and how much I care about projects and people and their futures. Overall I think this personality trait has done me much more good than harm in the last 10+ years being involved in this industry, mostly as a manager of some sort.

Link to more...

http://www.fohguild.org/forums/mmorp...tml#post734548

[Zruu]

Brad posted again? Link please

You all clearly need to start posting over on FoH.
Dmitry would fit right in, for example.

[Maledict]

Seriously, the fact that out of all the boards he could post on, the only one getting his love is FoH just boggles the mind. I guess SV guys are really happy, and all the other acual Vanguard boards he set up with the affiliate program!

[Raven]

Brad McQuaid

I'm sorry that I wasn't there the day that people were let go. But honestly, these months have been very, very heartbreaking for me. Emotionally I couldn't have handled it. I would've been sitting there bawling my head off. You can ask anybody who knows me about the heartache I've felt because things didn't work out for the company.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2E_RSJAhYU

Originally Posted by Maledict

I honestly cannot believe that Utnayan over at FoH was right on every single damn one of his points about that place. Every one, without fail. That's just sad.

I vaguely remember some of those flame wars. When you're ahead of your time, you'll get swarmed, but the Brad/SG/VG critics have been proven absolutely dead solid correct.

[Maledict]

You all clearly need to start posting over on FoH.
Dmitry would fit right in, for example.

It's still very difficult to get access. And also, to be frank, despite what people like The Hiram Key say, that board has gone down the tube so far now it's popped out in the southern hemisphere. 99.9% of the traffic there is just noise.

I like visiting the zoo, I don't like sitting in the monkey enclosure as they hurl shit at each other.

[DmitrytheWizzy]

It's still very difficult to get access. And also, to be frank, despite what people like The Hiram Key say, that board has gone down the tube so far now it's popped out in the southern hemisphere. 99.9% of the traffic there is just noise.

I like visiting the zoo, I don't like sitting in the monkey enclosure as they hurl shit at each other.

I post there from time to time but not as Dmitry. It's a pretty useless place.

[Destructis]

Ut used to go after Brad in EQ also. Believe it or not, Ut ran the Mith Marr message board and really is a decent guy. I took over after he left and ran it for a couple of years.

Something you probably don't know about Ut is he was a pro football player for a while. I have talked to him off and on for years now.

[Grindel]

I can't get over Jeff Butler banging the PR chick while his wife is like two floors away. That dude is never gonna live that down. Best question in the whole interview.

PR chicks are almost uniformally hot.

I've read it so that you don't have to! Please, allow me to provide Cliff’s Notes: It’s not my fault. Long version:

1. Its Microsoft’s fault, not our mismanagement, MS kept asking to see milestones for thier money spent, they don’t “get” MMOs;

2. Having to raise money made it hard to focus on development, it’s the lack of money’s fault (T: No word on why $30M was not enough);

3. Being a businessman is hard!

4. It’s not my main developers fault, they’re good guys, we promoted from within because hiring new people is hard!

5. I wasn’t at launch or the firing because I'm emotional;

6. Everyone who was at the firing must have heard wrong, what I think happened must be what really happened (T: When preconception and reality collide, reality loses);

7. Don’t employ your business partner’s wife, ;

8. Because I am religious, I decided to not draw on the Myths that actual human beings are familiar with and opted instead for generic and vanilla constructions that would offend no one since no one would relate to them (T: No wonder I’ve previously commented on how weak Telon’s creation lore is and no wonder why people feel disconnected from a world that doesn’t draw from such a treasure of myth);

9. Andy did something, I assure you, here’s a vague description.

10. I don’t know why Sigil had more nepotism then the Saudi Royal family;

11. Its Microsoft’s fault that we didn’t have QA

12. Sorry, we did everything we could to stop it, I take responsibility for what happened, even if this is totally inconsistent with me just giving nine pages of response blaming everyone and everything else.

Pretty much what he said.

Spoiler for Ah! My Goddess:

Woot, new background!

Here she is...

http://www.thesafehouse.org/mugshots...6/IMG_4544_001

PR chicks are almost uniformally hot.

OK there are exceptions I guess.

The main thing I got out of that whole mess is that Brad is at the same time trying to salvage his rep in the industry and ruin it, and that he hates Zoo Tycoon. What a bunch of sound and fury amounting to very little.

[Laraque]

In my experience, that's what happens when there IS a deadline. The deadline causes people to procrastinate to the 10% of time right before the deadline and crunch it all in. When there's no deadline people start working right away to get the job done and reap the rewards as soon as possible.

If this is the case then you have never created yourself or worked for a person who really knew how to create a schedule or what the schedule really means.

A schedule is a time based plan for how you accomplish a goal and should be well thought out. Like all plans, things go wrong and change so schedules need to be adjusted for that but there should always be a good and justifiable reason for adjusting a schedule.

It is not a be all, end all, thing; it is just a tool to help plan a project. And no major project ever works, is done on time, or on budget, without a plan for how to do it.

[Laraque]

We were all for organization, scheduling, milestones, accountability, etc. Up until the change I described we excelled in this process and were praised for our performance and progress....

But didn’t he also say…

We went back a couple of times together with [the managing team] to increase our budget or increase our time here and there.

So if he “excelled” in the “organization, scheduling, milestones” process, why did he need to ask for more time and money?

spin....

[Raven]

Brad just needs to shut up. He's only digging himself deeper. This is like Don Imus going on Al Sharpton's radio show. All he's doing is fanning the flames.

[DmitrytheWizzy]

It's really getting too sad. I have to look away from the train wreck. The game looks worse than it is from all this. He is a complete frigging idiot.

[Nadiar]

PR chicks are almost uniformally hot.
Pretty much what he said.

Woot, new background!

OK there are exceptions I guess.

When you compare her to his wife it was a huge upgrade. From what I remember, she was a huge gamer and had some gamer-tag that was familiar to me, but I can't remember what it was now..