As a UI programmer at SGO, I can address your specific example, the font, so let's talk about that.
When we started working on what we knew would be the 'final' UI back in March '06, we were internally aware of the impending publisher switch. Funds were limited, so we started to work with what we could at the time, Arial. When things settled down, the idea of changing to a better font was impractical. That would take days of polish we didn't have. Our time was better spent making the UI usable for beginners and extending the moddability for power users. Arial was the least of our usability concerns. If things suck, nobody is more aware than us, but they will be fixed in order of priority. We still plan to draw or license a better font in the semi-near future.
Now, I'm a fan of your blog because you cheerlead for more creativity in games, but blanket criticism like this serves no benefit. If you don't personally enjoy the game, I would encourage you to recognize the accomplishments of a programming team a fraction of the size of EQ2's or WoW's, and a design team that has been on crunch since last May.
It's your pie to eat if you want to try and predict our success. But if you're going to pin a reason on a negative guess, I'll accept many things other than "dedication." When you claim that we don't care about improving the game, you're not slamming Brad. You're slamming 100 folks whose primary motivation is to make something fun.
Re: Vanguard day
As a UI programmer at SGO, I can address your specific example, the font, so let's talk about that.
When we started working on what we knew would be the 'final' UI back in March '06, we were internally aware of the impending publisher switch. Funds were limited, so we started to work with what we could at the time, Arial. When things settled down, the idea of changing to a better font was impractical. That would take days of polish we didn't have. Our time was better spent making the UI usable for beginners and extending the moddability for power users. Arial was the least of our usability concerns. If things suck, nobody is more aware than us, but they will be fixed in order of priority. We still plan to draw or license a better font in the semi-near future.
Now, I'm a fan of your blog because you cheerlead for more creativity in games, but blanket criticism like this serves no benefit. If you don't personally enjoy the game, I would encourage you to recognize the accomplishments of a programming team a fraction of the size of EQ2's or WoW's, and a design team that has been on crunch since last May.
It's your pie to eat if you want to try and predict our success. But if you're going to pin a reason on a negative guess, I'll accept many things other than "dedication." When you claim that we don't care about improving the game, you're not slamming Brad. You're slamming 100 folks whose primary motivation is to make something fun.