It is with an extremely heavy heart that I have to report that one of the pioneers of MMORPGs, Brad McQuaid, has passed away. The announcement was made via the official Twitter account for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. The tweet was as follows:
It is with deep regret we share that Brad McQuaid passed away last night. He will be deeply missed and forever remembered by gamers worldwide.
Thank you for bringing us together through your worlds. Rest in peace @Aradune.
VR offers our deepest condolences to Brad’s family.
— Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen (@PantheonMMO) November 20, 2019
Brad McQuaid started off as an indy game developer, working on a shoestring budget. He didn’t have the funds to complete his project WarWizard 2. He put the game out there in hopes that someone would pick it up and help with the development costs. That’s when, 1996, Sony called him and offered himself and John Smedley a position at Sony Interactive Studios. With a small team, they began a secret project to bring a game called EverQuest to life. The project was nearly canceled multiple times but it was kept secret for as long as possible. When it was discovered, Sony, primarily a console company at the moment, had invested so much money, they wouldn’t cancel the project. Instead, they offered to have them continue it if they could find another source of income.
Brad and his team became Verant Interactive and then they got backing from a source they never expected: another division of Sony called Sony Online Entertainment. The rest was history and EverQuest became one of the most successful and most popular MMORPGs in history. It was a game-changer that even gave rise to World of Warcraft, which was even confirmed by Chris Metzen during his infamous “Geek Is” speech at the 2010 BlizzCON event where he cited that without EverQuest, there would be no World of Warcraft.
Brad became unhappy with his role as Sony expanded his duties to EverQuest 2 and Planetside. They took him away from what he wanted to do most: make games. Brad ended up leaving Sony to Sigil Games Online to create Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. However, Vanguard needed backing and Sony was right there to offer help once again. Brad took them up on the offer but Sony wanted the game out before it was ready. It was rushed to launch and it suffered one of the worst launches in MMORPG history. Still, Sigil and Brad worked through the problems and Vanguard ended up running for seven years.
Still, Brad had something left to prove to the industry. In an era where MMORPGs became World of Warcraft clones, or tried to be different but didn’t appeal to what brought the genre into prominence, Brad saw an opportunity to take old school MMORPGs and bring them into the modern era. Brad helped found Visionary Realms, an independent studio whose vision became a game known as Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. While the game is still early in development, it is achieving its progress through crowdfunding and angel investors who share the same passion that Brad has for making games.
Taking all of the lessons he has learned in the past, he looked to bring back that sense of wonder and community to the MMORPG genre. Unfortunately, his untimely and shocking passing will mean that he won’t be able to see those efforts come to fruition.
On a personal level, I owe a lot to Brad McQuaid. Even though I have never met him, I enjoyed some of my best gaming years of my life playing EverQuest and EverQuest 2. I immediately backed Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen without thinking and still, to this day, I wished that the MMORPG’s I played after EverQuest would borrow some of their systems because I enjoyed them way too much. Brad’s vision is something I share as a gamer. He was one of the few inspirations in the gaming world that I looked up to and one of the reasons why I pursued and degree in game design.
Brad McQuaid left an impression on me that very few could match. To say that I will miss him will be a gross understatement. I haven’t felt this bad since reading about the passing of former Nintendo President Satoru Iwata.
All I can say is thank you, Brad McQuaid. Thank you for all of the memories that your unmatched passion for games have brought to me. You will never be forgotten.
Rest in Peace, Aradune.
You’ve earned your rest.
