They take care of their own it seems. An $OE developer spotlight piece.

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For this week's Developer Spotlight, join us as we welcome back one of the original creators of Vanguard Saga of Heroes – Aradune!

Name: Brad McQuaid
Job Title: Game Designer

How long have you worked at Sony Online Entertainment?
I joined Sony Interactive Studios/989 Studios in 1996. Our group spun off later into its own company, Verant Interactive, which was later bought by SOE. If you group all of that together, I was directly or indirectly part of Sony for five years. Then, after a long break, I returned to SOE in February of this year. It's great to be back!

How did you get into the game industry?
A friend of mine and I created a shareware single player RPG called WarWizard back in the early 90s. We then made a demo for a sequel to WarWizard and put it out on the Internet. John Smedley saw the demo and the first game and then hired us both to begin work on EverQuest (we were the first two people on the EQ team). It was nice to finally be able to work on a game full time, as opposed to on the side.

Do you play Vanguard? If so, tell us a bit about your character.
I played a lot during and before beta. Then I took a long break, but began playing again a couple of months before returning to SOE. The game is incredible – performance is so much better now and there's tons of content. My main play character is a Paladin and he's almost level 30! He'd be a lot higher by now, but working on the game sometimes means less time to play it.

What do you like best about Vanguard?
For those of you who remember the Bartle test, I'm an explorer/achiever. What I like best about Vanguard is the huge, seamless world and crazy long vistas, combined with lots of great content. There's really no way one character can experience everything, which makes the world more real and immersive for me. If you're tired of playing one character, you can create an alt and have a totally new experience in a different environment, especially if you try out a different class.

What exciting plans do you have in store for Vanguard?
As MMOs grow older there are often areas in the game where the loot and rewards aren't as good as in other areas. This unfortunately encourages players to choose a specific region or quest line for their level and ignore much of the rest of the game. One of the things we're working on to get ready for the free-to-play (FTP) launch is a re-itemization of the majority of regions in the game. This means we're going through areas and making sure that quest rewards and boss loot drops give you great items. As a player you'll be able to explore and level up in different areas of your choice without having to worry that you're missing out on great loot that drops elsewhere.

Do you have any funny stories to tell everyone about working on Vanguard?
The Vanguard team is an amazing group of people pouring their hearts and souls into this game. We're all very serious about the FTP re-launch and making sure the game is ready. That said, there's always somebody cracking a joke, especially in or near Silius's office. In fact, if you don't hear laughter coming from that direction every ten minutes or so, it almost always means he's out or somewhere else in the building.

Have players ever surprised you with using a strange tactic to defeat an encounter that you created?
Players have been surprising me since the EverQuest beta 14 years ago! There's always some new form of emergent behavior and part of what makes working on MMOs so rewarding is watching players come up with new ways to deal with the challenges we create.

Do you play solo or play with others and why?
I definitely prefer grouping with other people, especially friends and guildmates. The group dynamic, where everyone needs to know their role and how to work together as a team, is one of the key reasons I enjoy MMOs over other genres.

What other games do you currently play?
I try to check out all of the current MMOs to learn from them. I also really enjoy RTS games. Lately, though, much of my free time is occupied by all the great tower defense games on the iPad. Whenever I get tired of one, there's always a new one to download and play!

Thank you for joining us for the Developer Spotlight. Stay tuned for more highlights in the near future!

"It's great to be back!

Translation - I need to eat!

soe needed someone who was interested in making games. For a long time I thought they should reunite with Brad, but this isn't exactly how it should be done.

Soe isn't really a good place for him anymore and I'm not really sure he has left what made him an interesting designer.

OK, isn't this the guy that basically blew most of his money on drugs and fired everyone at Sigil in the parking lot? And wasn't he Smed's personal buddy too?

Yeah, makes so much business sense. Could be a Renaissance at SOE. Does nobody at Sony even give 2 shits what goes on at SOE?

The $OE messiah has returned!!

After he couldn't get another job in the industry. Remember, he was the one who made that fucked up game and abandoned it half-done to $OE.

OH HE HAS RISEN!!!

MMO_Doubter wrote:
if by eating you mean buying dope then yes.

-Brad created SOEs most successful game ever.
-Even his biggest failure while at sigil produced a game that was creatively better than anything soe had mustered in year.
-Soe doesn't exactly have deep pockets to pay for top talent
-Soe doesn't exactly have the ability to attract talent even if they could pay for it

SOE can't design a decent game to save their life.
Brad can't run a project or business on his own

Considering the situation both are in it really is a smart choice. Perhaps they can find that magic again, but I think it is to little to late and SOE is just showcasing brads name for a dead game.