[Kaylena]

Originally Posted by Faith

Absolutly, there were two fanatical sides battling it out on the forums, and the real information was lost between the flames. It was easy to think "Oh, XXX is just bashing away now because he wants to flame XXX". Easiest way to avoid that is to reply to one typical post with your own thoughs and then let that be that. That one side was gagged by a NDA didnt help either.

I waited a long time to see someone who didn't lose faith in the game say that, thank you. I didn't have faith in it, but at least we understand each other.

That Brad is a con-artist is a bit harsh I think. I dont belive he wanted Vanguard to fail, but ended up in a position where he could either admit defeat and say "look guys, we simply cant get this to work, we need to cut down on features and try to get the game into shape for release" or he could hope for the best and try to spin it to make it look good to the money-guys and pray Sigil could get the game out the door in a somewhat playable shape and retain enough subs to actually get most of the fluff in. If you work on something you love, its bloody hard to take a step back and admit to yourself that this simply wont work and that you fucked up.

Harsh, yes. But his history didn't help with unfinished expansions in Everquest. Between that fault in history and bad vibes about Vanguard leaking to the forums, people were fearing that history was going to repeat itself.

Brad gambled and lost, unfortunatly being a visionary dont mean you have the skill to pull such a huge undertaking off. Im sure he is a great pal outside work, but he has shown that he could simply not cope in a management position and that he needs someone to look over his ideas to determine what is actually possible within the framework of the project.

I agree.

No, Im not excusing Brad for his role in this, but Im also realistic. People around him should have noticed and put up a red flag when it was obvious it went down the shitter. Just read that interview. If that is correct, management was a joke and everyone knew about it. I guess its easier here in Sweden. You cant get fired just because you speak out against the boss. People are not afraid to speak their mind for fear of their own jobs, our laws protect us from that for good or evil.

In spite of it all, I think something can be said for the gaming community. The ones that are called "nerds" by the publishers. This is the first time an epic MMOG hit the market and was impacted by word of mouth straight away. People took the wait and see attitude. I do however, believe the game would have been a hit if it was solid at launch. Word of mouth would have spread quick enough.

So, I'd rather NOT see gamers fight amongst themselves. You have too much positive impact. Plus, that just gives developers an excuse not to interact with gamers. And I don't believe games get better because developers just read forums. They need to stop treating it like a Charmin commercial, a product that doesn't require public opinion, because they're selling "interactive", not toilet paper.