Eschalon: Book 1 Pic of the moment More pics from the gallery

Site Navigation Main    News    Forums Games    Games Database    Top 100    Release List    Support Files Features    Reviews    Previews    Interviews    Editorials    Diaries    Misc Download    Gallery    Music    Screenshots    Videos Miscellaneous    Staff Members    Privacy Statement   Richard Garriott Interview at Frictionless Insight Posted by Rendelius @ Monday - March 18, 2002 - 02:40 - Top Frictionless insight has conducted an interview with Richard Garriott, best known for his Ultima games. In the interview, Richard talks about himself, the Ultimas and what has changed in the gaming industry since the early days. Here's a bit: At what point did you know that computer gaming was going to become a career rather than just a hobby? It was a ways into it. Once the Apple II came out I wrote DND28b (which became Akalabeth) and even after that one sold I was like, “Wow! I can make money at this!? Well, let me make one which is intended for public consumption,” which became the first Ultima. It really wasn’t until somewhere between Ultima II and Ultima III, where I began to flunk out of school. The first class I failed was a programming class that was even on a processor that was related to the Apple II processor, but since it wasn’t quite the same I would make errors in my school coding even though I was coding on a sister machine processor at night. Then I made a very difficult decision – I either had to finish school, or go do games. The money I was already making in games was hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, so there was no question even from a family standpoint. Everybody was like, “Oh, yeah … go do the games.” But everyone still thought it was a hobby. Everyone thought, “When this windfall goes away, ‘cause this is an aberration, surely, you’ll go back to school and finish your degree and get a real job.” It wasn’t until a few years after that that I finally began to reflect and go, “This industry’s not going away. My company’s probably not going away, but even if it did, I’m now a senior member of this new industry. The knowledge I have is very valuable to anyone and everyone in this industry. I’m not ever going back to school. This is not a hobby anymore.” That didn’t really happen until Ultima IV or V.

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