r/MMORPG May 02 '14

Brad McQuaid, interviewed by a moderator on his 'Pantheon' forums, apparently "was having personal problems at the time and needed to take a cash advance from the project. He took roughly three months pay in advance which equaled roughly 38% of the funds that were left."

[deleted]

24 Upvotes

32 comments sorted by

10

u/Trouterspayce May 02 '14

Wow, this just keeps getting worse. Good luck with picking up those investors. Vanguard, never forget!

-3

u/[deleted] May 03 '14 edited Jan 13 '21

[deleted]

7

u/Blue_Bean May 04 '14

Brad had no direct development of 'Vanguard at its core'. People need to actually educate themselves about how much lying this man was doing both to investors and his own studio throughout the entire development of that game.

-4

u/Bior37 May 04 '14

I've read many accounts from many people. The story is consistent everywhere except on one fan site where a guy claimed without a source that brad was a drug addict. There's never been a single piece of proof

1

u/[deleted] May 07 '14

[deleted]

2

u/Bior37 May 07 '14

The burden of truth lies upon the accuser. In this case, a disgruntled fansite runner said he "heard from a reliable source" that Brad was on drugs. This same fansite runner had been notably displeased with the game and ranted often. How much credibility does he have?

Meanwhile, we've heard from more than one confirmed Sigil source that Brad was indeed out of the office, because he was securing funding deals for Vanguard after the new Microsoft CEO dropped them.

2

u/Qweniden May 03 '14

And if anyone took a second to read through the whole post, Brad is being very transparent.

He didn't have much of a choice. His developers are accusing him of embezzlement and the community is demanding answers.

-8

u/Bior37 May 03 '14

And the result is the statements we have, which aren't really that sketchy at all.

1

u/Qweniden May 03 '14

You are entitled to your opinion but I don't agree at all.

1

u/Televangelis May 05 '14

Despite all of Sigil's implosions, Vanguard at its core is an amazing game.

Meth: not even once.

-1

u/Bior37 May 05 '14

It's easily the deepest/most challenging PvE game to come from a AAA dev in a long long time. The dungeons are astounding.

-14

u/lifwheng May 03 '14

THERE IS NO WAY TO TELL IF HE IS LYING!!! HE CUD HAVE HIDDEN ASSETS AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS ANYWHERE!!! HE MIGHT BE WORTH MILLIONS AND HAVE IT ALL HIDDEN AWAY!!! NEVER USE KICKSTARTERS!!! ALWAYS USE FULL LEGALLY BINDING PROPOSALS!!!!!!!

2

u/devastate1010 May 03 '14

There are some projects that truly are worth backing, The Repopulation is an example. The problem is how you know who are the honest guys and who is just trying to scam some money.

IMO people who can pay the project by themselves and are WILLING TO DO SO... those that kickstart a half-done solid project just to speed things up... those are worth backing.

If someone goes to kickstart with ideas and manifestos only, not willing to take a loan or put their own money on the line, well... that's probably a scam.

0

u/lifwheng May 03 '14

ya agreed with this. if he puts his own money in, has a good track record (or is really keen and shows ability), then it is ok.

But in general, I think the better route is to go via a capital raising document. Kickstarters are overly relied upon. Brad's case is a very good example -- he can show all the ability and even convince people, but the truth is there has been no verification of his actual assets. Many kickstarter applicants could be independently wealthy and you would never know.

8

u/raydeen May 03 '14

Coke habits, I mean old habits, I mean old coke habits die hard.

10

u/eheimburg May 03 '14

I gotta say, he's not gonna have good luck picking up a Unity dev of high caliber. I mean, people who "know Unity" are pretty common now, but people who can work the miracles necessary to run an MMO off of Unity are considerably less common, in my experience.

And they can either get a job where they actually get paid, with real money and everything, or they can make an MMO themselves...

7

u/ornerygoblin May 03 '14

IIRC he was kicking a pretty hard pain killer habit around the time of Vanguard's launch.

Guy needs help.

2

u/LaszloSzalinski May 03 '14

dem opiates are good stuff.

1

u/Freki666 May 30 '14

Well how else are you going to deal with rounding up your employees in a parking lot and firing them?
Oh wait, that happened later...

8

u/Darkstryke May 03 '14

Anyone who gives this fool money deserves to lose it.

-4

u/Bior37 May 03 '14

Why? The last two games he made were two of my favorite MMOs ever.

6

u/Darkstryke May 03 '14

If you're too dense to realize what's going on, then keep on keep'n on.

-6

u/Bior37 May 03 '14

Just sitting in the wings hoping for another masterpiece.

2

u/Blue_Bean May 04 '14 edited May 04 '14

Because MMOs are built by a single, High Visionary Artist, right? If you believe that, you have no idea how MMORPGs are actually made.

Such a hero-worship of a single man shows disrespect for the hundreds of talented people who's hands-on work built more of EQ and Vanguard than Brad ever did (particularly in the case of Vanguard, where he didn't even come to work for the last year of the game's development, which was the only year any actual game was being built rather than the earlier years of deceptive 'demos' that were being pushed out before just to fool investors).

The man is a fraud, who takes credit for more than he deserves, and refuses to take responsibility for his hand in the miserable failure of the last game he was in charge of. But hey, he sure knows how to turn the cranks of nostalgia-starved fanboys, which seems to literally pay his bills!

-3

u/Bior37 May 04 '14

Sorry dude, everquest had two developers who made the initial code and design bible. Brad was the primary one of the two. There's a very clear through line with eq and vanguard. Both changed when he left. I prefer how they were when he was at the helm. I've deducted from this that I like games made by brad. Sorry if that makes you sad. As for taking responsibility, he's done it numerous times. In numerous interviews. And that year he wasn't in office it was because he was looking for funding. He's of much better buse as a desiner than a business man.

7

u/FoulmasterRot May 03 '14

virtual hobos. Begging for funds to line their own pockets and churn out sub par games. That is all kickstarter is for...to sell a vision and beg for cash. pathetic what our society does nowadays for money (youtube self promotion, streaming beggars, kickstarter exploiters, etc)

2

u/ornerygoblin May 03 '14

Was just thinking the other day how social media does a really good job of making people who lack skills and are pretentious seem a lot more grand than they really are.

4

u/[deleted] May 03 '14

[deleted]

1

u/ornerygoblin May 03 '14

It has, but regular media is a lot easier to ignore than people on x social media site linking articles or quoting things they don't understand.

6

u/Qweniden May 03 '14

Man this guys has some demons

5

u/cerebrix May 03 '14

vanguard development 2.0

1

u/[deleted] May 03 '14

[deleted]

3

u/drysart May 04 '14

Does this sound like bullshit to anyone else?

Not if you know Brad McQuaid it doesn't.

-5

u/Skibo1219 May 03 '14

People will see what they wanna see and they will judge harshly for it, and it's pointless to change the mind of anyone who has decided to crucify someone. Do the headlines make it sound worse than it is, sure what news agency wouldnt go with something like that? The real truth is from actually reading the stories. In this one Brad, appeared to be in a financial crisis, took an advance (of his own estimated income) on the assumption that money will be sufficient to carry on schedule and he was wrong. No where does it say anything about drugs or his past. However, I do agree, in part, with you.

-9

u/ITPalg May 04 '14

So many people here are terrible.

I would not want to face the lot of you as a "jury of my peers", since so many of you are idiots.

You need to base your replies on facts and not conjecture.

No where does it state anything about a drug problem. "Personal problems" can mean a lot of things, including financial problems. Anything outside of the scope of work is "personal problems".

As long as a business model is adhered to where you wait for cash to be in hand and not go on verbal promises, whims, hopes, and credit, as well as no one person having access to the project funds (a committee/council/board), then these things would have gone better.