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Brad McQuaid, disparu de la circulation depuis la débâcle de Vanguard à sa sortie, refais surface sur son blog perso.
Apparement il serait sur un nouveau projet, mais le sujet n'est pas là.
Il vient de publier les deux premiers articles "Post Mortem" sur Vanguard (d'autres vont suivre) pour expliquer, avec le recul, les raisons qui ont conduit Vanguard, malgré le talent de l'équipe et le travail fourni, à l'échec commercial cuisant auquel nous avons assisté.
(Note : Je ne fais que passer l'info, personnellement j'avais mis beaucoup d'espoir dans Vanguard que je considère toujours comme un joyaux mal taillé, avec d'excellentes features, malheureusement noyées dans les bugs et l'approximation de la release)
Vanguard : Post Mortem, part 1 :
Intro
I’m going to spend the majority of the time on mistakes we made in development and then what I’d do differently in my next project (e.g. the point of this is to learn from the past and share what I’ve learned here in the hopes that this information would be helpful not just to me going forward, but also to anyone else working on an MMOG). So the finger pointing is mostly going to be at me, not at our partners. I received a lot of email asking about what went wrong and what I’ve learned and how I’d apply that knowledge going forward with a new game. I’ve discussed most of these issues with others who were on the Vanguard team, and we don’t always agree. Sometimes the disagreement is about the issue itself, and other times while we agree on the issue, we disagree on how bad the issue was or to what degree it affected development. So take everything with a grain of salt and please realize this is my perspective and not necessarily anyone else who was involved.
Part One: Get Everything in Writing
The first mistake that would have a serious impact later in development was the verbal agreement with Microsoft that Vanguard was to be a first rate, AAA title. In other words, we were going to get the funding we needed to compete with other AAA MMOGs, and that we would periodically evaluate the competition and adjust Vanguard’s budget and/or release date if it made sense to us and Microsoft. And as time past by, we did increase the budget as games like WoW were released with very high development costs and a ton of polish. But then there was a regime change at Microsoft, and the people with whom we had this understanding and commitment were no longer there. The new hierarchy did not have the same perspective and commitment to Vanguard and when we needed more time and more money, the general reaction was that we were screwing up management-wise. So the moral of the story is one that should have occurred to us: get everything in writing, get it into the contract, because even a company like Microsoft can suddenly undergo significant changes to its management and teams. And when those changes do happen, you might as well be dealing with a new company – anything and everything can change, and change quickly.
One thought you might have reading this could be, “Would any publisher have signed a more open-ended deal?” And that would be a very good question. I do think, with 20/20 hindsight, that a more open-ended deal could have been made. I’m not talking about a contract carte-blanch, but something more than what went down. At this time I had multiple large publishers calling me on the phone, wanting to do a deal with me. So we were in a pretty good position.
Now, I said in the intro above that the majority of what I’m going to write is going to be focused inward, not outward. So my next blog is going to be about the plusses and potentially bad minuses of putting together an all-star team. That said, I’m going to approach this chronologically, and the above issue, IMHO, turned out to be our first significant mistake.
Vanguard : Post Mortem part 2 :
One of the most exciting prospects in terms of starting a new MMO-focused company was being able to hire the best and the brightest. Jeff and I were able to bring aboard who we wanted to be the founders of Sigil. Then the founders were able to recommend people with whom they’d worked. A shining example would be the art team David Gilbertson and Keith Parkinson put together – all sorts of top-notch people with a variety of skills and previous experience.
The majority of people hired were those with whom we’d worked with directly. Others were those that came with impressive resumes. Some were our friends, and while they may have lacked experience, they were a known quantity – often, one of us had known them for many years. Sigil has been accused of nepotism in the past, but I don’t think it’s nepotism when you bring a friend on board because he or she is someone you know and trust. Rather, I think it’s really smart. Real nepotism, in my opinion, is when you hire a previously unemployable relative with room temperature IQ to do something he or she is hardly qualified to do. I do think we avoided this, though, and when and if I’m able to build a new company, I’ll do it all much the same way. Well, much the same way except for the following:
All-Star people sometimes have all-star egos. And while these egos may or may not be justified in some abstract way, they don’t work at all when building a team. And that’s the key thing to keep in mind: you are building a team. And just like a soccer team full of egos who will only dribble the ball and never pass it, the inability to play well with others will almost always result in a dysfunctional environment. MMOG game development is ambitious no matter how you approach it or with whom. It demands a high degree of collaboration. Ideally you want that all-star team to consist of people with a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and preferences. And the magic occurs when this group gets together and creatively comes up with something that is greater than the sum of its parts.
And while most Sigil team members did indeed play well with others, we did have a few that didn’t. And even though it was only a few, it eventually led to some big issues, including negatively affecting morale and productivity. It wasn’t only that the problem person had issues themselves, it also led to good team players not wanting to give it their all. But I was blind to this, especially early on. I was so excited about bringing all-stars on board and the potential greatness that could come of it, I downplayed the ego problem. Sure, I saw it as an issue, but also as something we in management could deal with in the future. We’d work with these people and, over time, most if not all of them would hopefully come around. There would be some pain involved, but it would be worth it. In fact, during the earlier stages of team building I’d even do press releases, announcing the all-stars we were bringing aboard (especially if they had been members of the ‘original’ EQ team). Heck, I thought, I might as well get the public as excited as I was.
But despite very serious (and often prolonged) attempts by management, including me, to address these issues, they rarely got better. And sometimes, even after a problem person eventually left the company, scars were left behind. Some bad feelings and habits persisted.
So what would I do differently? Well, I’d make an effort to resolve the situation, but if that effort failed, I’d let the person go. I wouldn’t let what they could potentially bring to the team and project blind me. The benefits one gets from a smoothly running team or department without the egos is simply too great. And after all, despite how much fun it is to create games, it’s still ultimately a business. You are creating a product and a service, not a community with great mental health counseling.
Ultimately I realized that I’d rather hire somebody less qualified, but who thrived in a team environment, than somebody with unparalleled experience and talent, but also an untamable ego. Thankfully we in management only made a few of these blunders, otherwise who knows what could have negatively occurred. But then, like I said, it only takes a few to have a real impact. And that impact was felt.
Pour le moment on ne peut pas dire que McQuaid s'accuse de grand chose, si ce n'est d'avoir été trop gentil avec l'ego de certaines "stars" de l'équipe... Mais il promet de revenir sur tous les aspects du développement.
Quelques commentaires de sa part en réponse aux posteurs sur son blog :
TheRealVGPlayer: You are right that the post-mortem is not done and I have other errors to reveal and what I've learned from them. Hopefully this blog helps other people too in terms of creating an MMO and building a team. But I absolutely take primary responsibility for it all. The buck stops here. I have posted this before, but I think doing so occasionally now and in the future is probably a good idea. I know what I've posted, but not everyone else does.
Lazaretto: The firings were definitely a bad happening, and I wish I could go back in time to be there for everything. And yes, people had poured their hearts and souls into both Vanguard and Sigil in general. This and other screw-ups are something I will always deeply regret.
All that said, one of the things that I have gained over time is perspective. I've also talked with a lot of people who were involved. The bottom line is that while I regret and take responsibility for the bad, I also know deep down that there were a lot of positives as a result of the Sigil endeavor. All things considered it was a mostly a good working environment where the employees were paid well and earned for themselves a lot of MMO development experience. The vast majority of people involved have taken this experience and impressive resume onward and are accomplishing bigger and better things.
The purpose of this blog is multifaceted. Primarily I hope it is a learning tool that will help others. It is also a way for me to explain what went down and where I screwed up. I need to take responsibility where it is due.
But I'm not going to paint the Sigil experience as all negative and a complete disaster either. As heart wrenching as it was for everyone involved to release Vanguard early and then experience the turmoil that followed, ex-Sigil people (including me) need to get up off the ground, dust ourselves off, and look towards the future. We need to learn from the past, both from triumphs and mistakes, and then apply this going forward. That's the perspective I've come to, anyway.
btw, system specs and size of the world will be the next couple of blogs.
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