KickStarter Pantheon - (Brad "EQ" McQuaid's new MMO)

[frajaq]

this project wasnt looking to be doing too well, I guess this is the nail in the coffin for the game? he was the main guy after all

RIP Brad

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

What the fuck? Was the game really that bad?

 

[Old Hans]

knowing brad he prob faked his own death and skipped town.

 

[Hobo Elf]

RIP Brad, RIP Pantheon

 

[anvi]

Holy fuck that's really sad. I used to talk to him on email, he was a nice guy. I didn't know he was ill. The game will still release I'm sure. He set it up so that he wasn't in charge, he was a creative manager type but the company is run by other people. Jeez I can't believe he died, he was only 40 something.

 

[RatTower]

This is some honestly devastating news.

What makes it worse: The guy was only 51.
I guess, lots of men die around that age and being a high pressure businessman with a (formerly) relatively unhealthy lifestyle doesn't exactly stack the odds in your favor, but still...
I just remember wondering where he was during the last stream (which was a pretty central milestone with the new teaser and everything).

As for Pantheon's development, I believe Brad was mostly in a consulting role there (?), however in terms of financing and investors his name was probably a driving force.
I don't think investors will pull out of the project now, but neither do I think that financing will go on like it did before.

 

[Kem0sabe]

How did he die? People have been saying he had a pretty big drug problem.

 

[RatTower]

How did he die? People have been saying he had a pretty big drug problem.

There is no official statement.
Don't really wanna speculate, but just going by age, his former lifestyle and the fact that he didn't attend the last stream (early November), I'd say he might have had a heart attack a while ago and just didn't recover from it.
Not too uncommon, really. A relative of mine actually had the same at a similar age. It took about two weeks or so iirc. People are still responsive in that time (Brad also still liked tweets two days ago), but eventually the damage their hearts took becomes too exhausting.

 

[oldmanpaco]

In the EQ beta I remember being in some fields by a farm house at night and in the distance seeing a pack of pumpkin headed scarecrows running after what I assume was a player. It was dark so all you could see was the glow from their heads way off under the night sky. That was over 20 years ago and for some reason that memory has always stuck with me.

Anyway RIP.

 

[Tiger]

In the EQ beta I remember being in some fields by a farm house at night and in the distance seeing a pack of pumpkin headed scarecrows running after what I assume was a player. It was dark so all you could see was the glow from their heads way off under the night sky. That was over 20 years ago and for some reason that memory has always stuck with me.

Anyway RIP.

West Karana. RIP Brad.

 

[anvi]

So sad about this. EQ was life changing for me, best thing I've ever played by far.

 

[grimace]

O.K., as some no one has noticed, lol, i'd stopped re-posting their monthlies, because frankly they had nothing to say; just hype.

This motherfucker though gave me a hard on:

I recognize these UNITY assets from Shroud of the Avatar.


How did Aenra guest post?

 

[Tweed]

Was really depressing to hear about this, lots of fond memories of EQ. My brother was a Senior Guide back in the day and had the chance to visit Verant and I got to go with him, got to see Ruins of Kunark before anyone else and even scored an EQ poster autographed by the GMs at the time, back when "the pit" fit in one room. I really wish Brad had been in the office that day.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

"I wonder how Pantheon is doing."

Brad McQuaid is dead.

"Hm... I wonder how Obsidian is doing."

 

[anvi]

Pantheon is still doing well. And all of his contribution was already done.

 

[Shackleton]

Christ, I missed this completely! Poor bugger, 51 is still young in my book. I have such fond memories of Vanguard even though it launched in the worse state of any game I'd ever seen. I remember lurking on the old Fires of Heaven guild forums and he used to go in there and post about stuff before the toxicity drove him away. Seemed like a very passionate dude about his MMO's.

 

[anvi]

Yep I loved Vanguard, the classes were incredible. I played it for years on and off, ended up multiboxing it which is some of best fun I've had in games. Doing those uber dungeons by myself. I used to spend time on the FOH forum too and it became toxic to the point that it was pretty sad, people seemed so messed up. I also hate the narrative that got created about Brad because it isn't really true or fair, it is crazy how shit like that catches on. I see it all the time with other things on the internet, as soon as something catches on, it is the truth that everyone believes, even if it is far from the truth. It happened with Brad and it is a shame. They talk about all his massive failures but the guy only made 2 games... One was a massive success, one was a failure, that's 50/50. But he was part of the 2 expansions for the successful game which were hugely popular too, so that should count for something. And Pantheon I think will be a success too. His one failure was only due to one mistake which happened to backfire massively, but may never have happened.

Even looking at the comments online about his death I see a lot of blabbing morons saying, "I didn't agree with some of his decisions but RIP", yet I bet none of them could say a single decision they disagreed with. They are just sheepily relaying the fucked up narrative that was creative. Even a mostly well written gaming article/eulogy I read the other day which talked about what a big loss it was, said some stupid stuff about Vanguard failing and the "huge budget" was wasted. The budget for Vanguard was tiny compared to other MMOs. If I remember right, the final budget was about 40m, yet games like Rift cost 200m. The fact that Vanguard was as good as it was for 40m is pretty amazing. If it got the budget Microsoft originally agreed, that game would have been a big deal.

 

[Shackleton]

I think we've done this circle jerk before over Vanguard anvi , I remember thinking you were a man with refined tastes in MMO's. Classes, dungeons, crafting, everything about VG was my dream game and I wasted countless hours on it. It started to die for me when they merged my server (the EU team PvP one) with another one and what little population there was just seemed to disappear.

Got me feeling all nostalgic so I hopped up into the loft:

Spoiler

Happened to see a couple of extras up there for bonus KKK:

Spoiler

Those big old game boxes, heh. Those were the days.

 

[Beastro]

Crazy he's dead. Be interesting if the CoD is released.

 

[anvi]

Pretty sure it was a heart attack. His nephew was on youtube and said he died in bed and there was signs he tried to get out of bed but didn't make it.

 

[grimace]

Pretty sure it was a heart attack. His nephew was on youtube and said he died in bed and there was signs he tried to get out of bed but didn't make it.

Was there a public update about the cause of death?

 

[anvi]

Nothing publicly released about cause of death. I figure that the addiction problem he had years earlier might have taken toll on his heart.

 

[luj1]

Whatever happened to this game?

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

Whatever happened to this game?

Y'know Underworld Ascendant? Well imagine if Paul Neurath just fucking died without warning with two years left of dev time. And the all the uni students and interns Otherside hired were left to make the game on their own. Well that happened to Pantheon. And the result will be a game much similar to Underworld Ascendant.

 

[anvi]

Whatever happened to this game?

It is still going same as ever, Brad was just like a creative consultant, there is someone else as the lead designer and a other designers, a management team, etc. It is good, and they have funding. Monthly videos of beta testers and streamers playing it and updates:

https://pantheonmmo.com/news/latest_news/#february2020

Is taking its sweet time though. I am glad it wont be rushed out unfinished but I think the release date of "late 2020 to early 2021" is probably going to be the latter.