Brad McQuaid, the lead developer for the groundbreaking massively multiplayer online (MMO) game , has died, according to an update from his development team. He was 51.
Details about the circumstances of his death have not been shared publicly, other than a mention that he passed away in his home. The Twitter account for , McQuaid’s project at the time of his death, and Visionary Realms, the company behind it, tweeted out the following announcement:
It is with deep regret we share that Brad McQuaid passed away last night. He will be deeply missed and forever remembered by gamers worldwide.
Thank you for bringing us together through your worlds. Rest in peace @Aradune.
VR offers our deepest condolences to Brad’s family.
Further Reading
McQuaid worked as a game programmer and designer starting back in the late 1980s, but he is most well-known for his role as lead programmer, producer, and designer (at various times) on , the 1999 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that defined the genre to this day. , which adapted the DikuMUD formula from text games for a 3D persistent graphical virtual world, was a breakthrough moment for MMORPGs. Its success codified that model for the genre as other, different ideas of what MMORPGs might look like (such as those posited by , , or ) largely faded into memory.
McQuaid was involved in designing some of the very first raids as we know them today, and his work had significant influence on later games like , , , , and many more.
He later went on to co-found Sigil Games, which developed and launched the hardcore MMO . The game found a niche audience seeking demanding, group-oriented content—a focus of McQuaid’s work over the years—amidst a market of increasingly casual and solo-friendly MMOs. Most recently, McQuaid was working at Visionary Realms on the above-mentioned , which marries that model to some newer game-design ideas. is still in development.
Visionary Realms communications chief BenD shared these notes on the forums:
Brad was a visionary, a mentor, an artist, a trailblazer, a friend, a husband, a father. 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.
McQuaid’s passing resulted in an outpouring of mourning and memories from other notable online game developers such as Raph Koster (), Damion Schubert (, ), the team, and former Sony Online and boss John Smedley.
