The Founding Father of Vanguard

A Chat with Brad McQuaid

By Shayalyn

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It was Vanguard Gamers Day, a press event in sunny San Diego, California, and I had just sat down to a hands-on demo of the upcoming massively multi-player online game (MMORPG), Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Just after I’d taken my seat and started fiddling with the game’s character creation tools, one of Sony Online Entertainment’s (SOE) PR reps tapped me and asked if I was prepared to enter my interview with Brad McQuaid in a few minutes.

Was I ready? Well, yes and no. I had questions--lots of them. But it occurred to me at that moment that, despite my best intentions, I was fighting a case of nerves. As a gamer, I’ve been hearing Brad McQuaid’s name since the beginning of my adventures in EverQuest 6 years ago, and now I was going to meet the man who has declared that he hopes to one day be numbered among the “founding fathers of interactive entertainment.” (Many gamers already consider him a member of those ranks.) Whatever your feelings about Brad McQuaid, like him or not, you have to give him credit for all that he’s accomplished when it comes to MMOGs.

And now McQuaid has become founder and CEO of Sigil Games Online along with partner (and Sigil’s president) Jeff Butler. Both men serve as executive producer of the development company’s ambitious premier title, Vanguard, which is now in it’s third stage of beta (dubbed Beta 3).

I took a seat across the table from McQuaid and next to another gaming reporter who shared our interview time. (There’s only one Brad, and there were approximately 20 of us.) He looked tired, and perhaps a bit distracted, but after a moment it was clear that he was still eager to talk about his game. (In fact, he’s always eager to talk about his game, a point I’ll address a little further into the interview.) We all chatted for a moment, and then dug right into the meat of things.

I asked McQuaid to talk about end game plans for Vanguard. “Players are concerned,” I said, “about what awaits them when they reach the level cap. There’s talk that Vanguard will be all about end game raiding, like EverQuest and World of Warcraft.”

“There’s always that hardcore group who will consume content,” McQuaid said. “No matter how big the game is, no matter how long you think it’s going to take to get to the end of the content, there are going to be those people who’ll burn through it faster than you thought, and there’s not a lot we can do about that except try to give them a good experience.”

On the topic of expansions, McQuaid said, “We’re going to shoot for monthly content updates, and we’re planning on expansions about once a year.” He went on to explain that Vanguard will have two teams at launch, the live team (which will focus on maintaining and updating the live game) and the expansion team (whose focus is on producing the content for the next expansion pack). “Launch is almost an arbitrary date,” he said. “It’s a big day, because it’s the day we let the public in to play Vanguard, but development doesn’t stop there.”

“How do you decide which content will go into a live update and what’s worthy of an expansion pack?” I asked.

“It’s all planned out,” he said. “We have it all mapped out for the next 7 or so years.” In the game preview and group interview session earlier McQuaid had said, “My dream one day is to create the never-ending MMO. People talk about a game where it could take you years to see everything. How about if there’s no flippin’ way you could see everything?” He explained that when he plays the Vanguard beta himself, the scope of the game still surprises him. “I’m going to be experiencing things at the character level where I go, ‘Oh, cool! We put this in? That’s awesome!’ And so...I want to create the never-ending MMO. I think it could be Vanguard.”

My fellow reporter asked McQuaid about potential in-game benefits for beta testers. “Sure,” said McQuaid, “We’ll definitely give them something. It won’t be imbalancing; but it’ll be cool.” The reporter asked if the reward might change depending on how long the player has been a beta tester. McQuaid became animated. “That’s a great idea,” he said, “Thanks for that. I want to make a note of that.” He snagged another developer and asked him to take note of beta reward items that change depending on how long the player tested the game.

“Yes,” said the dev. “We’re already working on that.”

“See what I mean that there’s no way I can keep track of everything we’re putting into the game,” McQuaid mused.

“Are you satisfied with the quality of the beta testing that’s going on right now?” I asked. “Are you getting what you need from this crop of testers?”

“It’s okay,” he answered honestly. “I wish there were more people submitting bug reports, but that’s the way it goes with beta, and we’re still finding them regardless. Besides, I need all types [of players]. I need the exploits so we can find them...I need the jerks.”

He acknowledged that there were some beta testers who tested to the extreme and exemplified what beta testing is all about. “It’s such an honor how committed people are,” he said. “And we get these people in the fan community who are just so [into helping]; creating mini videos, and hosting them for us, and writing beta stories. It’s great...a great community.”

“Speaking of the community,” I said, “You’ve really made an effort to extend the game’s reach beyond the existing fan base.” I was referring to the fact that McQuaid has spent a good deal of time sharing screenshots and videos and conducting question and answer sessions with the Fires of Heaven guild site, as well as making visits to the vocally Vanguard-bashing community at MMORPG.com.

“Yes, yes.” McQuaid nodded. “I think it’s important. The grass roots marketing is important. And sometimes it might be controversial when I do that...but you have to get the word out on places like Fires of Heaven where they might have questions or misconceptions about the game.

McQuaid is certainly not without his critics. Some have argued that the inordinate amount of time he spends with the gaming community could distort his original vision about the sort of game Vanguard should be. Others view his attempts to bring the game to a wider audience--and correct what he perceives as misconceptions that the game will be all about hardcore content, grinding, and raiding--as pandering at best, or insecurity about his game at worst. But a forum persona can be quite different from the face-to-face persona, and I saw no hint of pandering or insecurity in this interview session. If anything, Brad McQuaid is supremely confident in his vision for Vanguard, and the Sigil team’s ability to deliver it to the gaming community in the first quarter of 2007.

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• The screenshots in this article were originally posted by Brad McQuaid on his personal website and on the Fires of Heaven forums. Click here for a gallery of McQuaid screenshots.