I am a bit confused here.
Brad insists in marketing this game for everyone.
I suggest he needs to play it first, because it absolutely ain"t (unless he is playing a different version of Vanguard not still released).
When he talks about this game being for everyone he is missing a big point.
He needs to take into consideration that Casual gamers want to stay at the same pace as everyone else, that"s why they play games like WoW, because even putting little time, they can have at least a lvl 60 well equipped, like anyone else and they won"t feel inferior to others, that"s the point.
Brad is not lieing that in Vanguard you can solo and you don"t need the help of others to level, that"s of course "theorically" speaking.
Practically, it is another matter.
More "dedicated" players will outclass and outlevel casual players.
In Vanguard there are different means to level up and generally all this means are geared up towards players that have lots of time.
Crafting, Adventuring, Diplomacy, in all of them in order to succeed you need to put a hell of an effort and time.
You can choose to just level up through single quests of course, but believe me, you won"t go too far.
I am by no mean a casual gamer, I dedicate a fair amount of time to Vanguard, yet I feel already left behind both in crafting and adventuring.
I don"t mind, I like the game therefore it s not my main concern (my main concern is the game being unsteable, which is driving me to a mental breakdown).
But I put myself in the Casual player shoes, which after trying this game is going to think what on earth Brad was on when he marketed this game as casual player friendly.
Casual players who bought this game are incensed, because they think they"ve beed lied too, and I believe they are right to be angry.
Brad, please tell me that the Infineum Questline is for solo or even casual players, if u dare.
In this questline you have to solo, group and even raid (the captain needs 2 groups to have a chance to kill him).
This questline offer really nice rewards, which you will never be able to acquire if you choose to solo in Vanguard.
On the other hand there is not a similar quest that you can solo which offers the same uber rewards (not on my knowledge at least).
So to aswer the question of the OP.
Contrary at what Brad said that apparently all this hate is fault of all those EQ lovers who spread the word that Vanguard is an updated EQ, I actually think that the fault is his for not being clear to what player category this game is aimed for (and also making sure that this game is not playable only on a Nasa computer, would help a hell of a lot too, you are cutting off around 70% of the player base who has normal PC, so you know).
I will make myself more clear.
With his fancy marketing compaign, he attracted people who liked meat,fish and vegeteables saying that each one of them can fully enjoy and appreciate this mouth watering dish.
In reality he created a chicken casserole (with some peas) and market it as "suitable for vegetarians".
Yes of course there are vegetables in it (the peas remember?) but problem is that Vegetarians don"t like and won"t eat meat!!!
What I suggest Brad, who I love dearly, is to concentrate in making Vanguard a super MMO for non casual gamers.
Why? Is it an egoistic request? Not it ain"t.
It is a logic request.
The market is saturated of games for Casual, you name it they are all for people with little time to play (and rightly so, since they are the majority of players).
Are all those games succesful? Of course they are. WoW and GW are a shiny example.
Problem is that at the moment there are not games around who can satisfy people who wants more from a MMO.
Those kind of people are still looking for the right game to play, because no one could be arsed to try and make a game that doesn"t put casual elements in it.
There is no point in chasing the big boys like Blizzard, Arenanet (ex blizzard) because they know how to make games for casual players, they have a huge experience in the off-line market which is mainly made by casual gamers.
They will always win, let them do the Disney games.
What Brad is doing by trying to please everyone is a new EQ2 in the making.
EQ2 has never being able to overtake EQ in subscriptions (a 7 y/o game), that says it all on what those kind of players wants.
People don"t want games that stand in the middle, want games with attitude.
WoW is the Casual gamer benchmark, make Vanguard the Core gamer champion.
Just be bold and do what you gotta do, the market is there, just go and grab it mate.
Drop this marketing gimmick of "one fits all", it ain"t gonna work, no matter how much "viral" marketing you do, you will only give players bad diseases, and they will develop "anticorpses" against Sigil, like they did for SoE.
Vanguard is not for Casual gamers. Period.
Speak with your heart, not with your wallet Brad, sometimes it gets better results, trust me.
