What I'd do if I were in Brad McQuaid's shoes

[Lhon]

We know Brad has said that the MMORPG genre is in its infancy, and the most important thing is to bring in new customers and grow the genre. When Sigil started, EQ was the model MMORPG. Steady subscriber growth over a number of years, and good retention. It made sense to build on EQ's principles of character interdependancy, forced grouping, CRs, etc. a.k.a "the Vision".

Then WoW burst onto the scene and with 2 million subscribers and no indication of slowing growth it has redefined the genre. It has revealed that EQ was catering to a niche, and what were preceived as its strengths may have actually been inhibitors to its growth.

So if I were in Brad's shoes right now, I'd be aggressively tuning Vanguard towards casual gamers. Remove the death penalty, ensure soloing is rewarded, reduce interdependancy, flatten out the leveling curve, in general ratchet down the difficulty to make casuals able to succeed. I'd be watching the WoW forums and figuring out the common problems and complaints and addressing them in Vanguard.

With Microsoft backing and the potential for an uncontested audience on the Xbox360 platform, Brad and Sigil have an opportunity to go after a whole new set of players, the console gamers, who if anything are even more casual than PC gamers (note how EQ Online didn't have much success). Why squander that opportunity by only going after a small fraction of the players by targetting "core" players? They've got a graphics engine, models, content, and all the infrastructure. All that's left for beta is to really tune the game mechanics and content towards casuals.

But, wouldn't that piss off all the hardcore gamers who've been looking at Vanguard as the last, best hope for a hardcore game? Yeah, sure it would, but WoW has shown that pissing off that small niche really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Heck, I'm a one of those who would be pissed, but if I look at this logically I can understand why it would happen.

[masteen]

If I were Brad, I'd cruise my Ferrari down Hollywood Boulevard until I found Julia Roberts.

[Kildace]

If I were brad I'd invite Kildace into Vanguard Beta.

[kudos]

Originally posted by Kildace
If I were brad I'd invite Kildace into Vanguard Beta.

No french allowed

[redav]

/derail

Anyone know why Kendrick isn't working at Sigil anymore?

[Kodylan]

He isn't?

[Solmancer]

And your source for that inf0z about Kendrick is who? (I don't read every thread @ Sigil, and I highly doubt it's there )

[GrobbeeTrull]

Originally posted by Lhon
We know Brad has said that the MMORPG genre is in its infancy, and the most important thing is to bring in new customers and grow the genre. When Sigil started, EQ was the model MMORPG. Steady subscriber growth over a number of years, and good retention. It made sense to build on EQ's principles of character interdependancy, forced grouping, CRs, etc. a.k.a "the Vision".

Then WoW burst onto the scene and with 2 million subscribers and no indication of slowing growth it has redefined the genre. It has revealed that EQ was catering to a niche, and what were preceived as its strengths may have actually been inhibitors to its growth.

So if I were in Brad's shoes right now, I'd be aggressively tuning Vanguard towards casual gamers. Remove the death penalty, ensure soloing is rewarded, reduce interdependancy, flatten out the leveling curve, in general ratchet down the difficulty to make casuals able to succeed. I'd be watching the WoW forums and figuring out the common problems and complaints and addressing them in Vanguard.

With Microsoft backing and the potential for an uncontested audience on the Xbox360 platform, Brad and Sigil have an opportunity to go after a whole new set of players, the console gamers, who if anything are even more casual than PC gamers (note how EQ Online didn't have much success). Why squander that opportunity by only going after a small fraction of the players by targetting "core" players? They've got a graphics engine, models, content, and all the infrastructure. All that's left for beta is to really tune the game mechanics and content towards casuals.

But, wouldn't that piss off all the hardcore gamers who've been looking at Vanguard as the last, best hope for a hardcore game? Yeah, sure it would, but WoW has shown that pissing off that small niche really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Heck, I'm a one of those who would be pissed, but if I look at this logically I can understand why it would happen.

I thank you for your post, but am glad to tell you that I'm 100% enthused that you're not in his shoes.

[Cynax]

Quality and mass appeal are not the same thing.

[FuckYou]

the console gamers, who if anything are even more casual than PC gamers

console gamers are just as hardcore if not more hardcore than PC gamers, and there are a shit ton more of "them" than there are "us".

[Mkopec1]

Brads a T-bone steak dinner with a fine bitch.

Wow is a big mac with your gay friend Sam.

Dont confuse them.

[Mr Element]

Originally posted by Lhon
We know Brad has said that the MMORPG genre is in its infancy, and the most important thing is to bring in new customers and grow the genre. When Sigil started, EQ was the model MMORPG. Steady subscriber growth over a number of years, and good retention. It made sense to build on EQ's principles of character interdependancy, forced grouping, CRs, etc. a.k.a "the Vision".

Then WoW burst onto the scene and with 2 million subscribers and no indication of slowing growth it has redefined the genre. It has revealed that EQ was catering to a niche, and what were preceived as its strengths may have actually been inhibitors to its growth.

So if I were in Brad's shoes right now, I'd be aggressively tuning Vanguard towards casual gamers. Remove the death penalty, ensure soloing is rewarded, reduce interdependancy, flatten out the leveling curve, in general ratchet down the difficulty to make casuals able to succeed. I'd be watching the WoW forums and figuring out the common problems and complaints and addressing them in Vanguard.

With Microsoft backing and the potential for an uncontested audience on the Xbox360 platform, Brad and Sigil have an opportunity to go after a whole new set of players, the console gamers, who if anything are even more casual than PC gamers (note how EQ Online didn't have much success). Why squander that opportunity by only going after a small fraction of the players by targetting "core" players? They've got a graphics engine, models, content, and all the infrastructure. All that's left for beta is to really tune the game mechanics and content towards casuals.

But, wouldn't that piss off all the hardcore gamers who've been looking at Vanguard as the last, best hope for a hardcore game? Yeah, sure it would, but WoW has shown that pissing off that small niche really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Heck, I'm a one of those who would be pissed, but if I look at this logically I can understand why it would happen.

That's like saying Ferrari should sell lower quality, cheaper cars because the cars they aim at making are just too expensive and they don't sell enough. Ferrari offers premium cars because they don't want to settle for the 'normal' stuff thats most profitable. Don't encourage Sigil to step down when they are already going in the right direction by making a game that has (hopefully assuming) real content. Saying they need to make an improved WoW is BS. Forget about mainstream, I'm sure the other 15 MMO's that come out within the next 5 years will cater to them nicely.

[FuckYou]

dont get caught up in the "the next game must outsell WoW to be succesful" mentality. no MMORPG is likely to outsell WoW possibly ever since few companies have as big of a fanbase as blizzard.

sigil is a business first and foremost. while im sure brad and co are trying to make a game true to their "vision", i'm sure they are also looking to be a profitable entity. no one is going to make "the Ultimate RPG" if they know that it will be a commercial flop.

[Brutul Tarew Marr]

I will make a game that is SO GOOD that no one will want to play it. No one. It will be THAT good.

[redav]

Originally posted by Solmancer
And your source for that inf0z about Kendrick is who? (I don't read every thread @ Sigil, and I highly doubt it's there )

His profile has been deleted from the sigil company website and his vanguard messageboard account no longer has an employee flag.