Paying Tribute to Brad McQuaid

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Poote, Nov 21, 2019.

  1. Poote Lorekeeper

    Just gonna put my thoughts on this here, if it gets locked, moved or deleted, w/e.

    The TL/DR: I feel a grander gesture than a message every time i touch a zone should be made.

    Every so often you (the creators of this mmo world), hold events, or posts on sharing our stories of beginning or memorable moments on our journey. Again, i feel, those moments we share, pay homage to the creators for the created.

    My story began November 4th, 2004. In my day of SoE's Everquest. Was a much better time for me, having been innocent and ignorant of what goes on behind the curtain and not knowing what i know now. Fast forward 15 years, 18 expansions, 7 guilds, 5 of which endgame content driven, good and bad experiences with players, developers, and stuborn admin systems. A man i've never met, never knew, only heard by name in a revered context. Passes away.

    There are many landmarks in EQ that most newer players don't know about, that veteran players took 1 moment and carried on and that some don't care about as EQ is JUST a game. I watched a youtube video made by Joe Leonard paying tribute and respect to Brad McQuaid. In the video he said "Everquest was a game that was bold enough to do terrible things to you...". I thought about that and EQ as a whole, both in and out of the game has achieved this. To sum up my thoughts on this. Their is a quest in Tacvi during the GoD Era of collecting the writings for 14 adventurers (Spoiler Alert: those 14 are developer names). Everquest has named items after players for doing great things. Even the Pink Cherry Blossom tree in Sunrise Hills and PoK had some significance. This game and others he has worked on is his Legacy, i think something should be placed in game to memorialize and honor the man that put in that work to give us an adventure worthwhile.

    It is thru memory that we immortalize those that have moved onward.
    Duder, Yimin and Kontra like this.
  2. Zamiam Augur

    I agree , it would be nice if they were to place something in game to memorialize him, however EQ is a digital game and once it sunsets such memorial will disappear .. it would be nice if also you could make a digital for download (such as a painting or wallpaper) or a non digital physical item (ie . a brad Mcquaid bobble head of his online character) just an idea ..
  3. Yimin Augur

    Hope they do something for this man in EQ may he RIP ....


    YiMin
  4. Tappin Augur

    Thanks for EverQuest and Vanguard. I hope your vision lives on.
  5. Act of Valor The Newest Member

    Bring back Vanguard!
  6. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    How about a Heroic AA:
    - Aradune's Beckon
    -- Clickable once every 3 days
    -- Teleports the caster directly to a group or raid member from anywhere in the game world (flagging and zone requirements apply)
    -- Grants the caster 1 hour of Aradune's Knowledge : 100% XP Bonus (persists through death)
    -- Grants the caster 1 hour of Aradune's Intervention : fires a 100% heal and Procs 5 seconds buff Aradune's Divinity : (Divine Aura) when caster's health reaches 0%. Fades after.
  7. Eyashusa Lorekeeper

    I would love to see Aradune integrated into the expansion after ToV, as a character like Firiona Vie was in TDS (But not in the annoying way that had me wishing I could kill her with the mobs)! For now he could be added into PoK and hailing him would give a cool little blub "Big things coming, we will chat again when I have more to share...". When the expansion goes live he would be like the Herald of Druzzil Ro or the Priest of Discord and take us into the first zone.

    Eya
    skattabrainz likes this.
  8. Evertrek Augur

    i doubt they will do anything unless it gets them some free publicity. too many managers trying to take credit for everquest, when it's clear the real fun and innovation happened early on when he and his group had their time.
  9. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    Just logged into beta....love the new splash screen.
  10. Act of Valor The Newest Member

    Someone post a screenshot of it, pretty please.
  11. Zamiam Augur

    yes pls post a pic
  12. Hekaton Augur

    It’s semi been done before. After the tsunami in japan white blossom trees showed up in POK
  13. Bigz_Zupdarty Augur

    Shaantara likes this.
  14. dreamweaver Community Manager

    Proximoe, Duder, Bardy McFly and 5 others like this.
  15. code-zero Augur

    I had to run over and check that out myself last night
  16. Bigz_Zupdarty Augur

    I'd like to know why that location was chosen?
    Nniki likes this.
  17. Tobynn Augur

    For your East Karana map file:

    P 2660, -1410, 4, 0, 240, 0, 3, McQuaid_tribute

    [IMG]
  18. Reht The Dude abides...

    Cool tribute, glad to see it. Brad's family and VR are also establishing a Game Art & Design Scholarship at Laguna College of Art & Design in his memory. More information can be found on the VR's news and events page.
    Yinla likes this.
  19. Xanbar Augur

    That is so cool. Nicely done.
  20. PraimFaya Journeyman

    Just a little story about how this man changed my life a little bit.

    In early 1999 I was about to hit 30 years old. I played a lot of games on PC but it was usually something offline like Civilization. The online game I played was Quake 2. Around that time I saw an advertisement for a revolutionary new game that was coming out called EverQuest. A 3D world of swords and magic.

    Although I didn't play any games of that genre I did read a ton of fantasy. My favorite then and still now was the Shannara series. Typing that word makes me look for the original trilogy.

    A short time later I say an add in a magazine again for EverQuest. I sat down and showed it to my sister who is two years older than me and she was as amazed at the prospect as I was. We lived in a small town so we ordered 2 copies at a store that was about an hour away and when the game was released we drove over, grbbed our copies, came home and installed it.

    I vividly remember trying to log in and all of the servers were down but ready for launch. I just stared and stared and the moment that the servers popped I clicked Fennin Ro and immediately created a Human Druid named Paranon. (Allanon + Paranor) I loaded in and on my sisters screen it showed the population being 1.

    I loaded in Surefall Glade wandering around and went into this dark tunnel. At this point I became lost in said tunnel. It was completly pitch dark and I was moving back and forth, left and right and I couldn't get out. I finally lucked into the right spot and got the Loading Please Wait message.

    At this point I made it into Qeynos Hills and was standing on the main path (it was still dark as ever). All at once this guy runs up to me. He is wearing green armor and holding a flaming sword. He just looked me over for a second and then ran off into the night.
    I was stunned. It was the greatest video game moment I had ever experienced. It was over, I was hooked, forever it seems. For years after EverQuest was the only game I ever played. And boy did I play it. So many late nights of adventure meeting some very cool people. I can especially remember a Paladin named Devlin and his wife, a Bard named Carliss. They role played heavily and it made the game even better.

    So in 1999 my kids were just little. I l logged into the first RPG type game I ever played and the first person I ever say turned out to be Brad M. Fat forward and I'm 51 years old and now have 4 grandchildren. I still play EverQuest to this day. I also play games like Skyrim plus others but EverQuest was my introduction to fantasy type games and I'm still hooked on it and them all of these years later.

    /salute Aradune. He didn't know it but he changed my life that night. EverQuest drove my gaming addiction and not only did we play EverQuest but we talked about it all the stinking time.

    Thanks Brad and rest easy. You brought the world a lot of joy.
    Grove and Nniki like this.