Managing Fan Expectations - An Interview with Vanguard Founder Brad McQuaid

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Managing Fan Expectations - An Interview with Vanguard Founder Brad McQuaid

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Posted October 30th, 2009 by Shayalyn

A MMOG legend looks at containing pre-launch hype

It’s inevitable--as any MMOG nears launch, excitement builds to a fever pitch and message boards, from official forums to fansites to network communities like Ten Ton Hammer, buzz with activity. But hype for a game about to launch can lead to an almost inevitable crash when expectations meet reality. Brad McQuaid, the man behind EverQuest and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, has learned a thing or two, sometimes the hard way, about keeping fan expectations in check. In one of the first interviews with him since the launch of Vanguard, McQuaid speaks candidly about fan expectations, and shares his thoughts about how to keep them in line.

“I definitely got caught up in my own hype with Vanguard,” McQuaid admits.

In retrospect he offers this advice to developers: “I think it’s very important to hype only features that you are positive will make it into the game. As development progresses one becomes surer of what will and will not make it into the released game. So, over time, you can reveal more and more about the game with confidence. That said, I think a certain degree of fan-generated over-hype is inevitable.”

This article is currently available only to Ten Ton Hammer premium subscribers. If you're a premium member, head on over to read what Brad McQuaid had to say. If not, you can learn more about the benefits of membership.

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Vanguard was *so* my baby. That's how I got involved with Ten Ton Hammer to begin with. There's no doubt it will always have a special place in my heart. To this day, it was the only game that gave me a second dose of the magical feel, the same way EQ did back in the day. It even managed that feat for almost a full year. That's no small task in today's MMOG market.

I think player expectations themselves have become too unrealistic in recent years. I'm not sure there's any game that could r...

Had Vanguard 6 more months in development I think it would've been golden. Launching early with such severe performance issues (including crippling lag and rubber banding) did the game in. Brad McQuaid said in his blog somewhere that the bulk of the people who quit the game at launch, and there were a lot of them, quit around level 3. That suggests that the problem was purely performance--can't play, can't stay.

Despite the problems Vanguard had, I'm with you, Dal. It was a solid game, with ...

Wow... Not sure what to say. Doubt it would be anything good but I think I'll just restrain myself for now.

Amazing how much common sense doesn't apply in this industry.

And I doubt EA cares about the hype for WAR, with those box sales they can't be too far off paying back the development costs, even if most of them didn't stay.

Quote:

So I think the problem isn�t necessarily with getting people excited, rather, it�s with not letting them down.�

Yeaa, yeaa whatever

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