Brad McQuaid

Brad McQuaid is a former EverQuest developer who is now known to be a drug addict, douchebag, dirtbike rider, and creator of the originally-failed MMORPG Vanguard. He could probably also be the Michael Jackson of MMORPGs. Except he's alive, was never accused of being a pedo, and was born white.

EverQuest and Brad

THIS IS MY OC DO NOT STEAL

While he entered the gaming industry in 1989 when he co-founded MicroGenesis, his rise to fame came with EverQuest. His early game demos were noticed by John Smedley, a Sonyfag and a kickass troll, and McQuaid was soon a developer of a project which became EQ. Shortly after EQ's release, it toppled the subscription numbers that Ultima Online had. Many considered him a revolutionary god of the vidya gaymz.

He was later immortalized within the world of EverQuest as his Gary Stu, Aradune Mithara, a ranger who wears shining green armor.

Christianity

It is interesting to note that McQuaid did not want demons and angels depicted in EQ. He felt that this was because it would allow concerned mothers to let their children play EQ because it wouldn't be blasphemy or something else inane. It obviously did not prevent the game from being criticized by shocked and appalled Christfags, though.

	“	I am a Christian so this probably goes back to me seeing 'Deities and Demigods' and kind of being bummed about that even though I still play [D&D]. It would have made me feel better if they had not used - or rather, had other creatures that weren't demons.	„
	—Brad, on you are the demons;

The interviewer here on f13.net even asked Brad McQuaid if he gave out religious tracts and offered promotions to those who converted. He said no.

Flounce Time

According to TOW, in 2002, Brad did not like how he wasn't getting all the attention anymore since more developers were hired, so he threw a major bawwwfest, and left SOE to create his idea of the The Vision: an online world that is epic and challenging and has a fuckton of high fantasy. Since he didn't have Hitler-esque control on EQ, EQ wasn't it. And so begins...

Vanguard: The Vision

Vanguard itself.

Brad talks to some dude at Fanguard 2005 Vegas.

Wine, eh?

THE VISION

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a MMORPG which Brad McQuaid often referred to as "The Vision" after ditching SOE and EverQuest. He started the project in his new gaming company, Sigil. It basically is EQ with better graphics, except EQ was probably buggy and glitchy on release for a reason - the whole concept of MMORPGs was still fresh at the time. With Vanguard being released in early 2007, it had no excuse. The game was rushed and even had glitches where the user interface would disappear entirely, rendering you unable to play the game. Second to the much-more anticipated Age of Conan (and later still, FF14), it was considered the biggest disappointment with MMORPGs. In fact, GameSpy chose it as Biggest Disappointment of 2007.

Not long after release, SOE bought the game, laid off half of the developers, kept the rest, and reworked it into something half-decent and playable, almost making up for that whole Star Wars Galaxies fuckfest back in late 2005 when they made the game into a simple piece of shit. Of course, Sigil went the way of del.icio.us and became absorbed within SOE, no longer Sigil.

Development: Microsoft and Sigil

Before SOE even bought the game, and even before they bought the publishing rights, Microsoft was going to be the publisher of Vanguard. It wasn't too long before the game's release, since in late 2006, Microsoft ditched Sigil, and according to Brad himself:

	“	... there was a regime change at Microsoft where they reorganized a lot of their game studios. The people who were in charge of the Vanguard project on the Microsoft side went elsewhere and a completely new group of people were put in place. In that new group of people, the upper management side were also in charge of getting the Xbox 360 out the door. So, the PC games at the time were not receiving a lot of support and I don't blame Microsoft for this at all.	„
	—Brad, actually not blaming someone else this time?!

Opium-Riddled Drama

One of the Vanguard developers commented on something extremely interesting: McQuaid was addicted to narcotics and only worked on the game for fifteen minutes, which probably caused the game to crash and burn until SOE nabbed it.

The game designer Vincent Napoli talks about what roles Brad McQuaid, SOE, and Dave Gilbertson in Vanguard's development here. From this interview, we learn that Sigil actually fired the veteran EQ designers (except one) and said they just "decided to leave." SOE did not do much except script a few quests in two areas, and hire an artist to come in two days a week each month. The workers at Sigil didn't even know why John Smedley wanted to buy the bug-infested piece of crap, and eventually Smedley raged at Brad because he did not check what he was buying first. Brad then disappeared into thin air, thought to have been mauled to death by Smed.

Napoli also talked about Dave Gilbertson, a fag who took over for Brad's position in being the lead designer of Vanguard. Gilbertson was known for being a complete virgin to video games - you know, never having played one in his life? He also kept telling the employees that they were getting raises in attempt to make them keep working. To put it into your terms, Vanguard was eventually made by a bunch of newfags to the video game industry, aside from the designer.

	“	Brad Mcquaid didn't do ****. (News Flash?) He's had an opiate addiction for years now, which only got progressively worse as the project failed. His cumulative face time with Sigil designers in the most crucial final years of development? Approx: 15 minutes. And some of the time was spent begging for legitimately acquired narcotics (Or in times of desperation, jacking them from people's desk).	„
	—Napoli, on McQuaid doing opiates and stealing cigs;

But really, what is it with people associated with MMORPGs and doing a fuckton of drugs?

• 
  The effects of the drugs
• 
  does show up in Vanguard.

EverCracked!

The Jace Hall show unveiled their EverCracked! documentary trailer on June 10, 2009 - at exactly 1:14, Brad McQuaid makes an appearance, wearing an Alpinestars T-shirt like a 13 year old boy. This led some to believe that he'd resurface soon, and wonder what gutter Jace Hall found him laying in.

This madness led up to...

He's baaacckk

VROOM VROOM MOTHERFUCKER

On Sunday, June 14, 2009 he returned...

His site, bradmcquaid.com, was updated and the blog was started. He mentioned that Vanguard had a very rocky launch, and most people quit before they reached level 4. McQuaid then went on to mention the game's 14-day trial offered by SOE and how they did a lot of work on it.

Later that same day, he posted another blog entry. He mentioned how he shouldn't have ditched Sigil when Vanguard shipped and should have been present at the transition to SOE and the lay-offs.

More blogs were posted, mostly dealing with Dream Theater, Star Trek, and other nerd topics. Meanwhile, MMO fans were speculating what douche-move he'd pull next.

IMPOSTOR?!

The Grouchy Gamer (no relation to the Irate Gamer or the Angry Video Game Nerd), along with a few other curious nerds, discovered something: the domain was actually registered by some Keith guy. The Grouchy Gamer commented that this blog had a different writing style, him taking the blame for the Vanguard shit, and the different registration could possibly mean it was a troll.

Brad Clarifies

	“	As for why bradmcquaid.com is registered to Keith, he’s a good friend of mine who snatched the url for me a while back so no one else would get it.	„
	—Whatever you say, bro.

The Future

Currently, not much is known about Brad McQuaid and what antics he'll be pulling in the future. He talked about what he fucked up with Vanguard once again, starting with the fact that Sigil should have gotten everything in writing. Oddly enough, he uses "we," "our," and other words suggesting that he is taking some of the blame for once. Maybe he stopped with the drugs? Troll's remorse?

One thing's for sure: he has brought the MMO community lulz the size of Russia.

See Also

• MMORPG

• EverQuest
• EverQuest II

• SOE
• Brad Fitzpatrick, another Brad who fled from something he founded
• Alan "Brenlo" Crosby
• Unwarranted Self-Importance
• Delusional
• Drugs

External Links

• Brad McQuaid's personal website and blog
• An interview with Brad on who is to blame on the whole Vanguard shitfest
• TOW article
• Vanguard wins biggest disappointment of 2007 from GameSpy
• The developer Nino comments on Vanguard and its development
• Vincent Napoli's rage-ridden commentary on Vanguard

Brad McQuaid is part of a series on Gaming Visit the Gaming Portal for complete coverage.

Brad McQuaid is part of a series on MMORPGs.

[Gratz!Ding!]

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Featured article August 21, 2009
Preceded by drp1zza	Brad McQuaid	Succeeded by Liskula Cohen