EverQuest and Pantheon Developer Brad McQuaid Has Died

Brad McQuaid, best known as a formative hand in the creation of EverQuest, has passed away at the age of 51. From a report: McQuaid's death was reported by the official Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Twitter account, which is the MMO he was working on until his death. A message was also left on the Pantheon MMO forums by user BenD -- Visionary Realms' director of comms Benjamin Dean -- who writes that McQuaid passed away in his home. "Brad was a visionary, a mentor, an artist, a trailblazer, a friend, a husband, a father," the message reads. "He touched thousands of lives with his dreams and concepts. He changed the landscape of video games forever. He will be deeply missed and forever remembered in life and in Pantheon. Thank you, Brad, for bringing us together through your worlds. Rest in peace, Aradune. All of us at Visionary Realms offer our deepest condolences to Brad's family and during this most difficult time, we kindly ask that you respect the privacy of Brad's family."

Known as Aradune in the MMO community, McQuaid joined Sony Online Entertainment in 1996 as a lead programmer and later producer on EverQuest, before later becoming chief creative officer. In 2002 he left SOE and founded Sigil Games, which shipped the MMO Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Sigil Games was eventually purchased by SOE. He briefly rejoined SOE in 2012-2013 before going independent. Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen was successfully Kickstarter funded in 2014.

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[GoTeam]

I really hope this isn't a David Carradine situation...

Loot

[war4peace]

I hope he dropped some legendary loot.

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[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

Wow. Flamebait? C'mon. Aradune would have laughed at that.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Well that's a shock

[Cloud K]

Something I never expected to see any time soon.

I remember his legacy well. EverQuest was a BIG part of my life in 1999 and the early 2000s, many hours of excitement and adventure in Norrath are down to him. His vision early on was to make people put real time, effort and social interaction into EQ! Something which seemed a pain at the time and earned him notoriety for "The Vision (TM)" (the joys of chasing around asking if any mage could be kind enough to bind you to a new location when you just wanted to get on and play) but exactly as designed, created a lot of friendships, co-operation and memories. IMO it did lose its way a bit when he left.

Might have to pop in to EQ, dust off one of my old toons and raise a glass in his name. Cheers Brad, RIP

Re:Well that's a shock

[JaredOfEuropa]

He certainly was one of the visionaries, like Garriot and Koster. Pioneers with strong ideas about what an MMORPG should be; ideas that didn't always pan out perfectly in practice, but which certainly lent a lot more charm to the game than uninspired compromise. I was surprised to see that we was actually working on another MMO.

Sad that he went at too young an age...

Re:Well that's a shock

[JaredOfEuropa]

Being almost at that age, I vehemently have to disagree...

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[denzacar]

It all depends on how much of that was crunch time and were your corporate owners pleased with the results.

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[Cloud K]

Same here considering my parents (who are also my friends) are past that age!

Things can happen at any time of course and yes there's a dodgy hip and a faulty non-return valve involved but at 66 they're still thankfully quite happy to stick around (in fact they're both avid gamers, my mum still plays a few maxed-out toons in WoW...)

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[Dunbal]

70 is the new 50... (I'm 51. I got my heart attack out of the way early, when I was 26...).

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[Tuidjy]

At the age of 44, I was still kickboxing semi-professionally. I stopped because I realized that I was no longer recovering as quickly as I used to, not because of a losing streak (I won my last three matches).

Two weeks before my 50th birthday, my first daughter was born.

I'm 54 now, and I sure as Hell am not ready to kick the bucket yet. My body is not what it was when I was 30, but it is still the source of a lot more good than bad. My brain seems to be holding quite well, I still get offered more progra

Re: Well that's a shock

[frup]

If you've got all those problems and you're older than that maybe your opinion is worthy.

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[Organic Brain Damage]

There is a point beyond which, extending life is not worth it. I'd like to find that point myself, in about 150 years.

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[angel'o'sphere]

I would actually extend that a couple of years ...

re: died at the perfect age

[King_TJ]

Like someone else said, I'm not far from his age either -- and I dunno? There's something to be said for passing away painlessly (such as in your sleep) before you're so old, your life becomes a constant physical struggle and/or you lose your mental faculties.

But age 51? Especially these days, that's too young. A lot of studies show people are actually happier in their 50's than any earlier time in their life, and happier still in their 60's.

And don't forget, Stan Lee was 55 when he first worked with a p

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[Cloud K]

This. 51 is young! I'm only 14 years away from it myself... now, that's 7 years past the regime of Logan's Run but I'd rather not only have 14 years to live either. Still feel I have plenty of life ahead (and apparently look it, I still get ID'd for alcohol).

Re: died at the perfect age

[slasher999]

Iâ(TM)ll be 50 in a couple of months and I donâ(TM)t really feel that much different than I did at 30! I tell people Iâ(TM)m old, but donâ(TM)t really feel it in any major way.

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[angel'o'sphere]

I'm 52.
I still feel like 16.
People claim I behave like 14.
But well, my GF is 48 and she is happy with me.

She told me the second night: "You know, when you are old - like 80 - and can not do it anymore, I wont leave from you. I can live with you without sex"( I try to mimic her english)

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[LatencyKills]

Now crossing the 55 mark, I can tell you that none of those things have become a problem yet, most notably ED - as my wife and I move into the later stages of our marriage, our sense of romance and sexual adventure has never been higher.

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[Aighearach]

That's what Socrates said about why he wasn't going to present a defence at his trial, but he was 25 years older and they didn't have very good doctors back then.

Re:Well that's a shock

[leathered]

I just hope that he won't be judged on Vanguard. Yes, the execution was poor and by the time the game was released the world had moved away from MMOs that didn't hold your hand in any way, but the game had some innovative mechanics and deserved better recognition.

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[Cloud K]

It's a shame what happened to Vanguard, but I don't think that'll go down as anything he's particularly remembered for (for that exact reason I suppose), it ended up a bit obscure and forgotten. For me it just came at a time when I stopped having several hours at a time to set aside to play MMORPGs (just can't do it any more... with all the prep, travelling and group assembling at the start plus goodbyes, wrapping up and finding a safe place to exit you're really talking an hour bare minimum to make it wor

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[rogoshen1]

vanguard was actually quite fun, if you could find people to group with. definitely sad when it died so early on =/

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[Dutch Gun]

I played as a druid, and enjoyed dropping a SoW (Spirit of Wolf - speed buff) on people when asked nicely. I'd occasionally just load up a low-level stranger with a ton of buffs just to do something nice. I've always felt that the ease of which people could interact with each other was one of the more compelling things about the game. EQ2 lost a lot of it's charm since you couldn't even buff or help a stranger without being part of a group, if I recall. Everything felt a bit more controlled, a bit less

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[rogoshen1]

From what I've heard he had a serious cocaine habit, i'm guessing that's what did him in at such a (relatively) young age.

51? That sucks!

[gweihir]

I am pretty close to that age myself. At that time you are not expecting to die yet. Also quite liked some of the things in Vanguard.

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[asackett]

Whether or not you're "expecting to die" (or if you fear it) at any given age depends upon a lot more than the calendar. Ya whippersnapper. :-)

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[gweihir]

You are entirely correct, of course. My apologies.

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[antdude]

I have met people who died in their 30s due to illness. It sucks. :(

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[gweihir]

Yes, even more so.

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[antdude]

Yeah, even I am struggling with allergy health issues in my 40s. Argh. :(

RIP Mudder

[Kwirl]

Never did Tia with your groups, but you lit a beacon to inspire my slow-leveling ass back on Sojourn/Toril. Safe journeys, traveler.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Here, here! I fondly remember Aradune from Sojourn days. Sad to see him go. Way too early. Permadeath indeed.

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[Dale512]

It is amazing to see the influences of Sojourn that made it into EQ. EQ was the evolution of the text based MUDs. It was visionary in its day and execution. While it seems clunky by today's standards, it advanced us forward and its influence will be remembered. McQuaid was the key player in that step of the evolutionary process. I thank him for his contribution to the main entertainment in my life and wish his family well as they deal with his passing.

Any one got their Soap on a Rope?

[Vandil X]

All rez jokes aside, this guy ran a game I was quite fond of for many years and have lots of great memories playing. Rest in peace, Mr. McQuaid.

Sad

[thunderclees]

It became an interesting study in human nature.
I know peeps who purchased computers just to play EverCrack.
Also the mugging people took to at the waypoints to get loot.

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[paxprobellum]

I haven't heard anything, but I don't think its "in the public interest". I think you meant to say "I'm morbidly curious."

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[Dog-Cow]

Have you ever considered not being utterly stupid?

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[Aighearach]

It takes a special sort of stupid to confuse "I disagree" with "ur rong!"

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[The Grim Reefer]

I heard he rolled a 1 on his saving throw.

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[humankind]

it's in the public interest to know what caused it.

He went AFK near the zone in Castle Mistmoore and some nube pulled a train.

I guess we need a cause of death pool

[bruceki]

I don't think it was spawncamping.

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[Luthair]

Part of The Vision(tm) nerfs was reduced lifespan for humans.