<div id="post_message_558836"> Quote:
Originally Posted by Neric
Apply your statement to games like Tomb Raider and Splinter Cell please. I hope you see the important conjunction.



If you know that, why doesn't your game reflect it?



You tell us that you are getting better and better at it ever since '99, but your games (SWG, EQ2, Vanguard) are getting worse and worse. I'd prefer it to be the other way around.


I was making the point that with a single player game, it’s easier to deal with the problems of repeating, repetitive content – the ‘grind’ as many call it – because you play the game for a few weeks and then you’re done. Perhaps it has a couple of different difficulty settings, or race/class combos and you play it again, but it’s very different fundamentally from how you approach content in an MMOG.

And Neric, old friend, with all due respect to those who did work on those games and in no way am I criticizing them at all, while I was responsible for SWG and EQ 2:

1. It was for a very short while and indirect -- I was VP of Premium games as it related to SW:G (Vogel was Executive Producer) and Creative Director and Executive Producer on EQ 2, both from late 1999 until late 2001.

2. With SW:G I wasn't very involved -- it was being developed primarily in Austin and I left the design work to Raph and the management to Vogel. Why? My hope was that SW:G would *not* be EQ in space and having a lot of confidence in them and their team given their work on UO, I did not get very involved with the design at all. Not to mention the game back then (2001) resembles in very few ways the game of today.

3. While I was more involved with EQ 2, it was also for a short while, and after I left, my design was pretty much scrapped by those put in charge of the game after my departure.

4. While being responsible for all of the MMOGs at the time, I only delved into the design of EQ's expansions and EQ 2 (the latter, like I said, was pretty much disregarded after I left). I did co-produce Ruins of Kunark and was executive producer for Velious and Luclin up until 2 months before it's launch. Jeff Butler co-produced Kunark with me and Andy Sites and then Jeff produced Velious and Sites moved to EQ 2.

5. Now that our history lesson is over, Vanguard *is* a better game than EQ, IMHO, having played it quite a bit. It's not done, but is getting there, and comparing where it's at today vs. where EQ was at during the same period of development and beta, I think Vanguard is as good or better, and we're certainly managing things better (pretty much have to -- it's very different running a company and being responsible for 95 people than producing a game with a 23ish man team).

So, yes, better and better since '99. EQ 1 was great, Kunark made it a better game, and Velious an even better game. Luclin yes and no -- not only did I leave early, but there were some other timing issues such that it didn't turn out to be everything we'd hoped for, but was still a good expansion (and the best selling one I do believe). So from 1996-1999 with EQ, 2000-2001 with Kunark and Velious, and then from 2002 until present working on Vanguard, I know with confidence that we've improved as a team, learned a lot, and as proud as we are of our earlier works, Vanguard rocks.

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