UPDATE: Turns out that the poster at the FOH forums was former game designer Vince Napoli, as noted at The Grouchy Gamer. An unnamed source has independently verified his identity as Teclisen. While this in no way substantiates any of the claims of the post, the information does take it out of the "random guy making wild accusations on the internet" category.
One of the things that happens after a colossal train wreck is the search for the cause of the entire thing. Sadly, the MMO industry doesn't have a NTSB-like organization that investigates these incidents and publishes a report later. What we do have are disgruntled employees and the internet. Someone claiming to have who worked at Sigil during the development of Vanguard must have had one hell of a New Year's resolution and decided to post this at the Fires of Heaven forums:
Oddly enough, the whole situation was probably a bigger let down to the designers than the consumers. I accepted a position thinking I was going to work with a bunch of experts - Masters of their craft - and really learn the ropes of game design. Instead, my fellow design associates and I were unwittingly tasked with trying to fix a failed video game that had literally been canceled twice before any of us were even hired. So in retrospect, despite everything, I guess I'm still pretty proud of vanguard. Every team member should be proud in spite of a truly pitiful and pathetic waste.
Most of the post is unsubstantiated personal attacks on members of the design team and SOE, but don't let that stop you from reading some of the best tinfoil hattery disgruntled employee ranting I've seen in a long time.
