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Brad McQuaid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brad McQuaid is an American computer game designer who was one of the original designers of EverQuest, a highly successful massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 1999. He later co-founded Sigil Games Online where he is currently CEO and Executive Producer of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.
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Brad McQuaid's start in the video game industry came in 1989 when he co-founded MicroGenesis with Steve Clover. In their free time they created WarWizard, a shareware computer role-playing game that they released in 1993. McQuaid and Clover then developed a WarWizard 2 demo in 1995, which caught the attention of John Smedley of Sony Interactive Studios America. Smedley hired McQuaid and Clover in 1996 to work on an online role-playing game, later named EverQuest (or EQ for short).
McQuaid started as the project's lead programmer but was made the producer and one of the lead designers. While EQ was being developed, Origin Systems launched Ultima Online (UO) in 1997 which became the top MMORPG. EverQuest became a huge hit and within months of its March 1999 launch it topped the subscription numbers held by UO. PC Gamer called McQuaid one of the "Next Game Gods" in October 2000, believing that he would eventually become one of the industry's most influential game developers.
After Sony Online Entertainment acquired Verant Interactive, Brad McQuaid was promoted to Vice President of Premium Games and Chief Creative Officer. He found the lack of hands-on influence over the game upsetting. He set aside his place upon Norrath, and created Sigil Games with Jeff Butler in January 2002. McQuaid and Sigil later announced development on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, an MMORPG to be co-published by Sony Online Entertainment.
Aradune Mithara is the alias McQuaid originally used for his player character in TorilMUD and other MMORPGs and it is also the name of a fictional character in the MMORPGs he has designed.
In an IRC interview, McQuaid revealed that Aradune was a character from a series of books he started writing in his teens.[1] He first used the name as his pseudonym in MUDs and then later for his test character in the development of EverQuest. Early screenshots often featured Aradune and players began to associate the name with him.
In the lore of EverQuest, the various deities of the Norrathian pantheon often choose a mortal being as their avatar. Aradune Mithara was a Human Ranger chosen to be the Avatar of Storms, under the god Karana. He was noted to wear shining green armor, and wielding a legendary two-handed sword known as the Fiery Avenger (which Rangers are not actually able to use). Despite McQuaid having left Sony Online Entertainment, the memory of his character remains, as does the jestful graffiti of the sewers of the city of Qeynos, stating simply, "Aradune is stinky".
McQuaid continues to use the name Aradune Mithara as his character's name and in the fiction of his new MMORPG, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.
- ^ Sigil Chat in which McQuaid explains the origin of the name "Aradune Mithara"