Richard Garriott Quits NCSoft

unc0nn3ct3d writes "In a shocking update on the seemingly endless troubles plaguing NCSoft, Richard Garriott — the king of online games, creator of The Ultima Series (and consequentially Ultima Online), as well as the recently troubled Tabula Rasa — has announced that he would be stepping down from his position at NCSoft. Apparently motivated by his recent trip into space, perhaps he has found a higher purpose while orbiting so high above the earth."

Question

Does this article call for a racist or anti-semitic diatribe? What a personal or disgusting description of a sexual encounter be more appropriate? What about a goatse link? Thank you in advance.

Re:

I hate to break it to you, but computer games were being made before 3 years ago. If you were a gamer in the 80s, you KNOW that Garriot is indeed a king. Ever heard of the Ultima series?
If you were gaming in the 80s you are either -
A) trolling hard
B)living in an ignorant state of denial
C)lying
about the "washed up has-been" crap.

Centuries ago, Internet time

The "recently troubled" link leads to a blog posting from February 2008. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Tabula Rasa's still having trouble, but that's an interesting definition of "recent".

Re:

Beat me to it. "Who, what, when?" was going to be my title. An article about a guy who was remotely involved in this game-generation's Daikatana becoming un-involved? Yaaawn.

I'll save further comment for when kdawson dupes this article on Friday.

Re:Centuries ago, Internet time

"Whoa, Paul McCartney used to be in a band?"

Re:It is doomed

My biggest complaint about Tabula Rasa was that it was so generic. When I got into the beta, from all the material and previews I'd read, I was expecting something like WW2 Online (but good) against an intelligent, dynamic AI army.

Instead I played WoW with crappy pseudo-FPS controls. About the only innovative feature was the cloning, and even the appeal of that was diminished by the near-Korean levels of grinding the game required.

Maternity Leave

He needs to care for the alien fetus growing inside his stomach.

Re:Maternity Leave

He can cure that with a little Mandrake Root and Nightshade.

Re:Maternity Leave

And, uh, In Vas Flam!

Is that the spell? Damnit, all this time I've been casting In Vas Flan, which has entirely different, albeit delicious, results.

Re:Maternity Leave or alien invasion!?

"He needs to care for the alien fetus growing inside his stomach."

Maybe aliens have already replaced him with a replica? ... so he can help start the alien space invasion!... oh no!... This would also explain his sudden career change and it would also explain John Carmack's move into Aerospace!... see it explains a lot! ... they are both aliens!

Maybe the Armadillo's are behind it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillo_Aerospace [wikipedia.org]

Then again, maybe we have both had too much coffee today. :)

Re:

I do not want astronauts defying gravity in front of my children. Nor do I want them driving their moonbuggies through our neighborhoods at all times of night, playing that theme to 2001 on their CosmoBlasters. Astronazis! Watch out! They'll try to stick an American flag in you! They can't eat normal food and they're addicted to tang!

Last October, an astronaut moved into my neighborhood... Simultaneously, all the leaves started dying.

-Upright Citizens Brigade

Does this surprise anyone?

The games industry has sucked the life out of any 'franchise' inherited from when the PC game market was healthy.
Tabula Rasa has zero name recognition.
The number of people who know who Garriott is, is not enough to sustain usage on an MMO.
The cost of the game was exorbitant when you have zero name recognition.
MMOs have a shelf life and expire after a (very few) years.

Therefore, why would someone do a project like this, as a pure business case? I love Richard Garriott and what he represents, but I blame NCsoft for greenlighting and funding this MMO, rather than Garriott for creating it.

Re:Does this surprise anyone?

TR is, IMHO, the best MMO available today. It's also pretty cheap compared to WoW.

I have played both pretty heavily, and my all time fave is TR.

I've been a fan of Garriott since the beginning (Akalabeth) and he has rarely disappointed (well, ultima underworld kinda sucked). TR doesn't seem to have much of his penchant for dramatic story telling (unlike Ultima, Wing Commander, and UO), so his departure may not change much.

I hope he goes off to do something fun.

If TR ends after this, it will be a shame. It's my favorite MMO, and probably the last one I'll play for the foreseeable future (since most of the rest are just... meh)

Re:

Ultima Underworld (which was a truly pioneering game) wasn't really done by Garriott, but by Warren Spector who later worked on Wing Commander, Thief, Deus Ex, etc.

Re:Does this surprise anyone?

I'm not a hardcore MMO player.. but I've played WOW, Anarchy Online, Guild Wars and TR (picked it up at a firesale at Target). TR SUCKS. I played 3 days out of the free initial month before I canceled billing.

The interface was backwards and counter intuitive, the mechanics of the game didn't make much sense nor did the story. Not to mention the performance was pretty horrible (MBPro, 256mb video, etc).

I read a bunch of reviews explaining the game and I know that point was that it was intended to reinvent what an MMO game is - and maybe it did so. But in doing that, it had next to ZERO mass appeal. The things that it changed to 'be different' didn't make sense why they were changed - and what was put in place instead felt tacked on, confusing and backwards.

Honestly, I can't think of a single thing I experienced during my limited run with it that was superior, or even on par with other MMOs. YMMV.

Re:Does this surprise anyone?

Guild Wars is even cheaper (pay for the software, no recurring fees). I've been playing it for about 3-ish years off and on and still enjoy it.

Re:Uhhhh

If your numbers of players are declining, your product is in a death spiral, even if it takes 10 years to drop to something equating to nil. If you are not doing well financially now, having fewer players - meaning less cash coming in - means you can afford to develop less and have even less chance of turning things around. And there are several MMOs that have closed down.

http://www.mmogchart.com/charts/ [mmogchart.com] - have fun checking it out.

Overview Effect

Apparently motivated by his recent trip into space and perhaps has found a higher purpose while orbiting so high above the earth.

This actually is a phenomenon known as the overview effect [dailygalaxy.com]. Space travelers often report a transcendental sense of connectedness.

Re:Overview Effect

More likely he realized that outer space is the only place with enough room for his ego.

Re:Overview Effect

And when he dies, on his deathbed, he will achieve total consciousness, so he's got that going for him.

Plaguing NCSoft??

What sort of troubles that aren't related to Tabula Rasa?

Is Guild Wars 2 at risk?!

Space Ace

Now that he's a Space Ace [pdragon.net] he has to rescue a princess he goes time travelling. He's just cleaning up some loose ends first.

"General" British? Did I miss something?

[NT]

*poof*

All that was heard was Garriott's voice booming "Kal Ort Por" and a following puff of smoke.

King of online games? I think not.

He didn't produce the first, the most successful or even a particularly good online game: so why would he be "king"?