SOE acquired Vanguard... Brad abandonned Sigil
polycounter lvl 17
My friend told me about the announcement and it was quite shocking for us. Apparently, Brad hasn't showed up at Sigil's office
for years
Even during the game release deadline. Leaving the team to fend for themselves. This announcement was just made today I believe. 50 Sigil empoyee got fired, SOE only took the other 50 in.
http://grouchygamer.blogspot.com/2007/05/brad-mcquaid-abandoned-vanguard-sigil.html
http://www.vgbards.com/forums/index.php?topic=2157.0
I liked the game, thought the game play was really rich and strong (regardless of the bad art.)
for years
Even during the game release deadline. Leaving the team to fend for themselves. This announcement was just made today I believe. 50 Sigil empoyee got fired, SOE only took the other 50 in.
http://grouchygamer.blogspot.com/2007/05/brad-mcquaid-abandoned-vanguard-sigil.html
http://www.vgbards.com/forums/index.php?topic=2157.0
I liked the game, thought the game play was really rich and strong (regardless of the bad art.)
Replies
http://www.fohguild.org/forums/732163-post480.html
Ill just put it this way. They were paying people 100k to make rocks.
SoE has made some great strides recently (especially on EQ2). The game defiantly isn't the best looking, but from what it was before to what it is now is amazing considering they have 50 people working on it constantly and people are always moving in and out. I think SoE can turn Vanguard around.
I think SoE can turn Vanguard around.
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Honestly I know this might seem harsh but why bother? Are there that many subscribers that its even worth it? Im suprised that SOE have decided to form a team to continue with it.
With a game with abysmal performance and visuals this bad it might just be easier to admit defeat. I dont mean to sound disrespectful to folks that lost jobs, layoffs are rough and I saw a few at EA. But sometimes you just need to cut your losses and chalk it up to experience. I'll be impressed If SOE can do much with it. Its one of the lowest quality games Ive seen in recent years. Clearly something went pretty astray along the way, but I'm not sure I follow your comment about people being paid 100k to make rocks.
I mean, my sympathies to anyone who lost their job.
Sucks for the people who got laid off. Sometimes things like this happen that are beyond your power, sucks but it happens to most of us at some point. Im sure most will get their feet back on the ground, and perhaps move on to bigger and better things
haha. Sorry to sound like such a dick but I mean seriously. 100k to make shitty rocks and Brad didn't show up for a year or whatever it was.
Good luck finding jobs guys.
Sorry to sound like such a dick
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You're posting just to shit on guys who lost their jobs? I'm thinking the reason you sound like a dick is because you are a dick. Honestly, what the hell was the point of your post? Gloating over others' misfortune? I don't care what someone said at your school, that's just lame.
I am not going to apologize for anything I said because I am not out of line. I'm not gloating over their misfortune but I am just saying what goes around, comes around. That guy that came to our school was an assclown. So good luck to him.
Other guys that work there that are looking for jobs. Good luck.
and Verm. Kiss my ass haha.
Verm, he's shitting on a guy that came in on a high horse and crapped all over him and his schoolmates. I think he would be less jaded if that had not happened. I would totally love paying really good money for an education that features asshats on high horses talking down to me. Thats quality right there!
Insert corporate ladder climbing analogy here.
Insert farmer reap what you sew analogy here.
Insert golden rule here.
[/Devils advocate]
Maybe what goes around comes around. In the event that it does, you won't see me rubbing anyone's nose in shit when he gets laid off, no matter what I think of him personally. We're not talking about a guy who was fired; his company was yanked out from under him, something that has happened to more than one polycounter.
Taking pleasure in anyone's misfortune... you can rationalize that however you like, but you're still a dick. HTH, HAND.
I just think it's jacked that the only guys that suffer from this are the ones Sony doesn't pick up.
Something like this just happened with the Dirty Harry project at The Collective. They took a bunch of guys to lunch and said "hey thanks for the awesome work guys. Fundings been pulled on the project and you are all fired. Security will escort you back to get your stuff."
http://www.f13.net/index.php?itemid=561
But the game has some strenth when it comes to game play (not sure about now, but the game play was pretty solid when I played 3-4 months ago) I had a lot of depth and strategy in team play combat which is very important for MMO imo. And a very strong community.
If the game has had strong art direction from the beginning it would have turned out so much different. LOTR online uses so much less machine power for much better graphic ._.
I think I would have felt the fear of doom after a few dog-and-pony shows for MS that weren't actual game content. It's a pretty bad sign when you simply can't show the real game, and you continually make fake demo versions in order to have things look less terrible.
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I think SoE can turn Vanguard around.
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Honestly I know this might seem harsh but why bother? Are there that many subscribers that its even worth it? Im suprised that SOE have decided to form a team to continue with it.
With a game with abysmal performance and visuals this bad it might just be easier to admit defeat. I dont mean to sound disrespectful to folks that lost jobs, layoffs are rough and I saw a few at EA. But sometimes you just need to cut your losses and chalk it up to experience. I'll be impressed If SOE can do much with it. Its one of the lowest quality games Ive seen in recent years. Clearly something went pretty astray along the way, but I'm not sure I follow your comment about people being paid 100k to make rocks.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes I agree, it would be smart to cut your losses. However, Smed (The guy who runs SoE) really enjoys to turn crap into something semi-decent. They still do have a good amount of active subscribers, and they are extremely lucky that they have such a devoted fanbase (mostly of old school Everquest players).
From what I understood, when SoE agreed to publish the game they got just about all the money from box sales which covered all the money they had lent to Sigil to finish the piece of shit and they made a little profit themselves. Then in return, Sigil allowed them to add it to their "station access". SoE might have gotten a fraction of the subscription profit just to cover the money they were putting in to cover server costs and maintaining them. Now SoE gets all the money from the subscription. I really don't think it cost them all that much to buy the company. I doubt that they will turn a profit, but they were able to take back a lot of the personnel they lost when Sigil was formed.
As for the 100k for rocks comment, basically what I was trying to say was that they were making horrible managerial decisions and putting people who they hired for 100k a year to make animations to make rocks because they had too many animators instead of not just hiring these people in the first place.