>CES Pre-Launch Chat with Brad McQuaid and Paul Luna > >Carolyn Koh catches up with Brad "Aradune" McQuaid and Paul "GM Vladimir" Luna at CES in Las Vegas. > >With their marketing collaboration with SoE, Brad McQuaid and Paul Luna of Sigil Games showed Vanguard: Saga of Heroes at CES 2007 at invited press appointments. After introductions, we chatted about our gaming history and when Paul asked if I were familiar with Brad, my answer was tongue in cheek as I replied that I was familiar with Aradune, a wood-elf ranger in EverQuest who wore green splint mail and implied that he hacked Soulfire – the Paladin epic weapon so he could wield it. > >We waited to connect to the server and I asked Brad, “Who’s idea was it to put Aradune is stinky! Graffiti in the Qeynos sewers?” Bill Trost was the answer – one of the original team of developers of EverQuest. We digressed into how quickly screenshots of Aradune corpses made their way around the internet. “So I forgot to put up enduring breath in Kedge Keep.” Brad said laughingly, but enough of old EverQuest anecdotes and toward Vanguard:Saga of Heroes. > >Given who the founder… the visionary for Vanguard is, we cannot get away from EverQuest, as it was the basis of experience for Vanguard. A fact that both Paul and Brad alluded to often. The launch is February. Next month. We could have spent an entire day just going over the features and exploring the game. NDA has been lifted so information is not just spilling over the dam, the floodgates are open. > >“Who will want to play Vanguard?” I asked. > >“We wanted to recreate the experience for the old school DAoC and EQ player. The player who wants to be challenged, but we also did away with the tedium.” Said Brad. > >Paul continued, “Also the WoW players who wants more immersion and challenge. Those are the players that Vanguard will appeal to.” > >As Brad stepped away to call someone to figure out why we could not log into the game, I took the opportunity to grill Paul a little, asking him about Brad’s vision for Vanguard. What’s important? “The community.” Was the firm answer. “We’ve learned to listen to the community.” He reminded me that Vanguard was six years in the making. > >“There’s a misconception out there that Vanguard is a hardcore game, but you make it as hardcore as you want. Vanguard isn’t about walking uphill in the snow, both ways. We recognize that we will have Casual, Core and Raid players.” Taking the death mechanic as an example, there are three ways to deal with it. One can choose to pay a little money, wait a little while or fight your way back. Read the rest here!