https://twitter.com/Aradune/status/4189 ... 06/photo/1minimum 3 years to release. Also, there's going to be a long beta.
new gaming studio mentionedExcited about the opportunity to return to another title he was involved with, he accepted the role as EQ Senior Gamer Designer in February 2013.
Brad left SOE in August 2013 as part of a huge RIF. With so many jobless developers in the area and so many exciting game design ideas in his head, Brad intends to start something.
He’s run the ideas by John Smedley, who was visibly excited. More info will be made available on this site and elsewhere when the timing is appropriate.
This project will only be funded if at least $800,000 is pledged by Saturday Feb 22, 2:40pm EST.
related Vanguard info from April 2007Microsoft gave him $40,000,000 to make Vanguard with almost absolute creative control and he still released an unfinished, buggy, POS of a game after 5 YEARS in development.
So I wouldn't trust this guy.
Brad McQuaid
Microsoft funded us to almost $30M, after which there was a regime change at Microsoft and virtually all of the people we had been working with disappeared. The new people didn't want to make Vanguard... they really didn't want to make an MMO at all, and if they were, they wanted a Wow-clone-beater. We broke away from them and I turned to SOE and got them to fund as much as they could. Unfortunately, it fell short of the 6 months we needed, and the game was released too early.
WoW came in around $80M and they took at least 3 years to develop it (probably more, but 3 years after they *announced* the game — I have a feeling they were already working on it).
Star Wars: The Old Republic took at least 3 years, had hundreds of people involved, and cost between $150M and $200M (no one really knows for sure except the publisher).
Anyway, just some numbers for perspective. In any case, Vanguard was released too early but if you go check it out now it's a solid game. The world is underpopulated but beyond that I'm still very proud of what we accomplished. Thursday 3:41am
Role: Utility
Style: Master of crowd control. Proficient at buffing, stunning, mesmerizing and charming the enemy to do their bidding.
Specializations:
Beguiler: Assists the group through stuns and mesmerizing multiple enemies. Maintain and use mesmerized enemies to power your magical strengths.
Phantasmist: Control groups of charmed enemies. Manipulate their behavior and force them to adhere your commands like a general commanding his army.
Fallakin Kuvari wrote:Because laws that require voters to have an ID (Something they are required to have anyway) are bad....
Brad wants readers to know that this isn't the end for Pantheon. It's a new beginning. It may just take a little while longer before they can rent their own office space.
Fallakin Kuvari wrote:Because laws that require voters to have an ID (Something they are required to have anyway) are bad....
Brad KS failed - no money was taken from kickstarter pledgesKulaf wrote:That is the problem with Kickstarter. There is no accountability at all. You are donating, not investing. If the person just wants to take all the money and say FU......they can.
I haven't posted much on this, but this more recent rumor that I paid my team 'nothing' needs to be addressed:
1. The original team were absolutely compensated. They were contract workers, and each month they would be assigned tasks and the amount they would receive in compensation was right there, in their contract, as an exhibit. They knew how much money they were going to make for that month.
2. The vast majority of the money we raised via crowdfunding went to the team. I am not going to post dollar amounts in regards to what I or anyone on the team received.
3. We worked on this game from September 2013 until the disagreement re: funds occurred in April, 2014. So the amount in total they received and I received was for 7-8 months of work. There was no '3 month advance'. I compensated myself for that 7-8 months of work and I compensated the team for that 7-8 months of work. They were paid for getting done what was in their contract exhibit and for the work done prior to having any money (pre-crowdfunding).
4. Additionally, the founding members (the majority of the original team) received between 4% and 10% equity each in the company via stock.
I regret that there was a disagreement over who got how much money and that this caused an exodus of much of the original team. That said, the team I've re-built since April is getting even more work done, more quickly. That's not to say the original team didn't work hard -- most of them did -- but most of them also were doing contract work on the side, or even worked a full time position and then worked on Pantheon in the evenings. The majority of the team I've more recently assembled don't need nearly as much money to live off of and therefore most of them put most of the day into Pantheon and not other projects.
Lastly, I'd like to address team composition. The original team were all MMO industry vets. The team I have now, not so much. I have had great success in the past building teams that are a mixture of wise industry vets and hungry newbies. Right now I mostly have newbies, and that is in some ways a disadvantage (and in other ways, an advantage). But the goal right now is to continue development and to fill some additional positions (for example, a CEO would be great). Then, in a few months, re-start the quest for angel investors. Once we have funding, I have a long list of industry vets who have contacted me and let me know they are ready to join VR as soon as I'm able to bring them on as employees. So while we do lack the industry vets right now, that will no longer be the case once we bring in the first round of funding that we need.
In the meantime, please check out the details, screenshots, and movies we post on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pantheonrotf?f ... e=bookmark every 1-2 weeks and witness the measurable forward progress we are making with the team I have now.
thanks,
-Brad McQuaid
Originally posted by Dakeru
Brad is a criminal and I wish mmorpg.com would finally take a stance and forbid any support for his criminal activities on this site.
These lies really need to stop. I paid myself and my team. We worked from Sept. 2013 to April of 2014, when there was a dispute over how much I was paid. You can debate all you want about whether I was paid 'too much' for that period, but this 'the team wasn't paid anything' is misinformation at best. Where do you think the rest of the money raised went? 98% to the team and probably 2% to software licenses, etc.
The majority of the team left over this dispute. They left with the majority of the crowdfunded money. I am still here, working 8-12 hour days with my new team, and have made less then $1k. since April. I have sold a LOT of personal items and am currently selling a rental property so I can pay the bills while I and the new team pour our hearst and souls into the game.
So that's now over a year I've worked on this project, and I'm a criminal because I've been paid ~$46k? And the rest of the ~$147k that went to the old team -- they haven't touched the game since April. What should get your more upset? Who walked with their portion of the money and who stayed?
All I know is that I've learned a lot about team building, working with volunteer teams, and working remotely. The result is this new team is not only very talented but incredibly committed and working their butts off. When crowdfunding does come in, I give it to the team members who work crazy hours and who don't have day jobs. And of course, there's software and hardware that needs to be paid for.
But is there proof or is the game just vaporware?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oELd95jqaFc
We try to release a movie every 1-2 months showing measurable forward progress, with screenshots more frequently. Take a look at the August movie and compare it to the one we just released. This game is being made and it's coming together relatively quickly. Do we still need more funding than crowdsourcing to finish it? Preferably yes. And we hope that these movies mitigate risk for the potential investor and that funding will come 'soon'. In the meantime, we continue to move this game forward and at the same time keep the community informed with our progress via these movies and screenshots.
Anyway, I don't usually participate in these threads, but the 'criminal' this, and the 'team didn't get paid' that just has to be addressed. And so I'm addressing it: it's a bunch of crap. That said, despite the misinformation and negativity, the team and I are tenacious. I'm not going anywhere, that's for sure. Come hell or high water, Pantheon will be finished.
-Brad
I do not work for them anymore. Brad is the only official employee of Visionary Realms. They have no local office unless you consider Brad's home the office. No I have not met Richard Garriot. I have played Ultima Online as well as Everquest though. Both held my interest in different ways.
I did not have difficulties running Vanguard unless I tried at Max settings. I quit when most of my guild had quit for the reasons you had. Seeing the empty zones was depressing. I am not here to put blame on Brad for things I have not seen with my own eyes. I know some want to claim he did drugs the whole time the game was made or how he fired his whole team at Sony. I was not there, I know that the firing happened, but many people draw conclusions without considering the underlying details. As to the drug accusations some people just want to point fingers and make things up when there may be nothing there. He may have had a history, does that mean he is doing anything now? No.
I do know that Brad has been often hard to reach and absent on Pantheon. He often promised to be there for the community pop up for a bit then leave for another month, pop in one day rinse and repeat. He needs to realize he needs to be involved with them. They are talking now, but from what I hear most of the talk is Joppa, Radash., and MadMojo (a new member).
They talk about making this game for free... but since May they have practically replaced half of the team once over. How do you make a quality game replacing people so much so fast?
I would say it was interesting, I HAD a passion for the game in its original vision given to us in the kickstarter. What it is now is very different.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/15 ... the-fallen
Compare that to what the game is now.
Thank you for the invite, however I am not a member of the "team" anymore.
-Nirrtix
