Epic interview. This explains just about everything concerning what went wrong with Vanguard / what can go wrong concerning MMO / game development.
In short: during the Microsoft years, they handed over fake demos to their investor. As the investor (Microsoft) found out, they got out ASAP. Management was apparently quite... unsensitive regarding funding („Oh well we'll get it done and financed somehow...“). So was SOE. When they took over, they just put some money in. They weren't really involved, meaning they seemingly didn't really care to find out why Sigil was looking for new funding midst in development. This may be due to Brad McQuaid being „one hell of a salesman...“.
The producer thought WoW was a bummer – he didn't really KNOW it though cause he never played it. McQuaid didn't communicate important (any?) news to his colleagues. Overall, every decision maker behaved like an arrogant monarch, didn't really care about the opinions of those who were actually making the game, and didn't dare to help in any kind. For example they didn't see a need for a scripting language tool even though everybody demanded it thus severly hindering game development. And resulting in 9+ months crunch mode.
Problems were ignored. Not fixed. Because the one in charge was „one hell of a salesman...“ and „passionate“, but not rational and realistic, he didn't even know about the actual state of the game. When he played the beta, he realized what was going on – and ran away like prey. And the new management was scared to make decisions.
After all this mis-management, people were told to gather at the parking lot after work by email (!) – and then emotionless told that they were all fired, with some having the chance to be re-hired by SOE. Brad McQuaid wasn't there.
Right now, Vanguard has around 90,000 subscriptions and sold 200,000 copies of the game. That is 6,000,000€ out of sales and about 1,100,1000€ / month. The development of Vanguard cost Microsoft about $30,000,000, I'd suggest Sigil probably paid round about $10,000,000.
Well, let's end with a legendary quote:
In short: during the Microsoft years, they handed over fake demos to their investor. As the investor (Microsoft) found out, they got out ASAP. Management was apparently quite... unsensitive regarding funding („Oh well we'll get it done and financed somehow...“). So was SOE. When they took over, they just put some money in. They weren't really involved, meaning they seemingly didn't really care to find out why Sigil was looking for new funding midst in development. This may be due to Brad McQuaid being „one hell of a salesman...“.
The producer thought WoW was a bummer – he didn't really KNOW it though cause he never played it. McQuaid didn't communicate important (any?) news to his colleagues. Overall, every decision maker behaved like an arrogant monarch, didn't really care about the opinions of those who were actually making the game, and didn't dare to help in any kind. For example they didn't see a need for a scripting language tool even though everybody demanded it thus severly hindering game development. And resulting in 9+ months crunch mode.
Problems were ignored. Not fixed. Because the one in charge was „one hell of a salesman...“ and „passionate“, but not rational and realistic, he didn't even know about the actual state of the game. When he played the beta, he realized what was going on – and ran away like prey. And the new management was scared to make decisions.
After all this mis-management, people were told to gather at the parking lot after work by email (!) – and then emotionless told that they were all fired, with some having the chance to be re-hired by SOE. Brad McQuaid wasn't there.
Right now, Vanguard has around 90,000 subscriptions and sold 200,000 copies of the game. That is 6,000,000€ out of sales and about 1,100,1000€ / month. The development of Vanguard cost Microsoft about $30,000,000, I'd suggest Sigil probably paid round about $10,000,000.
Well, let's end with a legendary quote:
f13.net: How was QA treated through the course of development?
Ex-Sigil: QA?
f13.net: QA.
Ex-Sigil: QA was one person up until about November... ONE.
f13.net: What.
Ex-Sigil: 100% serious.
f13.net: What? How? This is an MMOG.
Ex-Sigil: Vanguard had one internal tester for probably 95% of the design cycle.
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