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Richard Garriott Interview @ GameBanshee
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
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Joined: 20 May 2002
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Richard Garriott Interview @ GameBanshee
   

Richard Garriott has certainly been popping up around the traps lately and today sees a new <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/richardgarriott1.php" target="_blank">interview</a> at GameBanshee and covering "the pre-Ultima days and working up to his current sci-fi MMORPG, Tabula Rasa.":<blockquote><em>GB: First of all, let's go back twenty-five years. What originally influenced your decision to become a game developer? Was Akalabeth your very first attempt at creating a game? <br> <br>Richard: I started writing small games in 1974. The first few were “Star Trek” style simple games, then I quickly moved to a series of tiny games I called D&D 1 through D&D 28 (I was a big D&D fan, as you can see.) Each was written in Basic, on a teletype terminal connected via an acoustic modem to a mini-computer offsite from my school. But even then they looked a lot like what would eventually become Ultima, but with “*”’s for walls, “$” for treasure and letters for creatures (“B” was a giant bat for example.) You moved around and fought monsters and collected treasure. Then I discovered the Apple II, specifically the one that is still functioning outside my office. That’s when I began the Ultima series… with “real” graphics! </em></blockquote>
Post Thu Mar 30, 2006 8:45 am
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.Twinfalls
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Blah blah blah. Does anyone care anymore what he says? The man hasn't done anything interesting or worthwhile since Ultima 7 (perhaps , he's sold his soul to making money given he only works on MMORPGs now, and his interviews are the same old re-hashes of his glory days of coding for the Apple, blah blah blah.
Post Thu Mar 30, 2006 9:10 am
 
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that should read "...or worthwhile since Ultima 7, (perhaps 8 )", stupid auto-smileys on this board.
Post Thu Mar 30, 2006 9:12 am
 
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I would like an interviewer why he has abandoned the single player market.
Post Thu Mar 30, 2006 1:55 pm
 
TheMadGamer
High Emperor
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Joined: 03 May 2002
Posts: 487
Location: Southern California
   

quote:
Originally posted by .Twinfalls
Blah blah blah. Does anyone care anymore what he says? The man hasn't done anything interesting or worthwhile since Ultima 7 (perhaps


I do. The man cranked out excellent games between 1980 through about 1994 ending with games like U7, U7 part 2, UU1 and UU2. That's 14 years of gaming. He'll always have my respect for that.

quote:
Originally posted by .Twinfalls
he's sold his soul to making money given he only works on MMORPGs now, and his interviews are the same old re-hashes of his glory days of coding for the Apple, blah blah blah.


I don't think he sold his soul. He always seems to indicate in reviews that he had made a mistake by selling to ea. It's easy to sit back and monday morning quaterback a person's life you know only little about though /shrug
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Last edited by TheMadGamer on Thu Mar 30, 2006 3:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
Post Thu Mar 30, 2006 3:10 pm
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TheMadGamer
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quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous
I would like an interviewer why he has abandoned the single player market.


Based on interviews I've read, he just wanted to make changes to the kind of work he had traditionally done. You can't blame him. After working 20 years or so in a certain area most people wouldn't mind a change of pace if they could afford such change.

Personally, I'm not too interested in his current project. One reason for that is that I'm not really a sci-fi RPG person... for some reason I've never been able to really enjoy that setting. I just prefer the Tolken-esque fantasy setting. Secondly, I'm pretty burnt out with MMORPGs. While some of the newer MMORPGs are much improved compared to the older ones like Meridean 59, EQ1 and UO, they are all, for the most part, a leveling treadmill requiring 10 times the amount of play time than I acutally have available.

I'm hoping that someday Richard Garriot will return to making single player CRPGs in a fantasy setting similar to the Ultima series (but NOT the ultima universe). He's still relatively young so it could happen.
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Post Thu Mar 30, 2006 3:17 pm
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Risine
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Guys, he did great things and you forgot ultima online, the 1st wide mmorpg. No use being so harsh.
And me too, hope he'll come back to "ultima style" CRPG someday.
Post Thu Mar 30, 2006 3:53 pm
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TheMadGamer
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quote:
Richard Garriot: The one thing I was NOT going to do next was medieval fantasy (although that may be next after TR) and, yes, I had a skunk works idea to do a game structured somewhat like TR long before we got started.


Aha! I just hope he isn't thinking about a MMORPG but a single player game instead!

quote:
Richard Garriot: When I was creating Ultima IV, I was worried that it would be a flop. I labored over the virtues to the degree that I felt no one would understand or appreciate.


Indeed. I believe this intense 'labor of love' is why Ultima IV through Ultima VII were the hallmark of the series. After Ultima VII, he was no longer involved in direct creative control and the series declined.
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Post Thu Mar 30, 2006 5:54 pm
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Hindukönig
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Richard Garriott never broke my heart like Warren Spector. Sure, Ultima IX and to some degree Ultima VIII sucked, but Richard never wrote a lengthy essay about how cool Ultima IX is and how dumb people are who are complaining about Ascension's design flaws. Unlike Spector, with his speech for the defense of that crap called Deus Ex: Invisible Wars.

So, although I am not really interested in Lord British's new MMORPG (with strong focus on combat ...), I always like to read interviews with this great game designer.
Post Thu Mar 30, 2006 7:27 pm
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Interviewer: So Mr. Garriot, whyhave you abandoned the single player RPg market?

RG: I haven't abandoned it, I just see more possibilities in the realm of MMOG's. The increased interaction with the game world, the feeling of adventuring together with strangers and forging bonds of friendship...this is what RPG'ing means to me, and to many others who enjoy these games.

Translation: munny munny munny munny munny...
Post Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:19 am
 
Myrthos
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Yeah... heaven forbid that game designers actually make money.... Its not like they are allowed to have a real life in a real world where someone who makes a company big and sells it is considered to be very smart.
No... in the games world, buisness models do not apply and businesses should definitely not be run as a business.
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Post Fri Mar 31, 2006 8:40 am
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.Twinfalls
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quote:
I don't think he sold his soul. He always seems to indicate in reviews that he had made a mistake by selling to ea. It's easy to sit back and monday morning quaterback a person's life you know only little about though /shrug


Get off your high horse, Madgamer. The point I made was, quite clearly, not that he has not made anything worthwhile - I even said the contrary. The point is that the interview upon interview being made about him to this day, so many years after he made a good game, keep re-hashing the same old, old stuff.

Of what interest is this to anybody anymore, apart from the very few individuals like yourself who seem to want to re-read the same old material over and over again?

And yes, he is now exclusively making MMORPGs. If you think that the monetary return on MMORPGs is not relevant to his decision to abandon real CRPGs, then you're being rather naive. As for the poster who said 'golly gosh let the poor man make his money oh gasp you're not allowed to say anything bad about that' well, nobody's stopping him from pursuing his cash-cows.

But I'll be damned if I can't be critical. He wants to make money-grabbing non-rpgs, fine. But as he's doing nothing else, all the interviews amount to nothing more than tired, nostalgic self-aggrandisement of an ageing businessman.
Post Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:28 pm
 
TheMadGamer
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quote:
Originally posted by .Twinfalls
Get off your high horse, Madgamer. The point I made was, quite clearly, not that he has not made anything worthwhile - I even said the contrary. The point is that the interview upon interview being made about him to this day, so many years after he made a good game, keep re-hashing the same old, old stuff.


You monday morning quaterback a person's entire life in a rambling quip and then accuse me of being on a 'high horse.' Congratuatlions! You win the internet /golfclap

quote:
Originally posted by .Twinfalls
Of what interest is this to anybody anymore, apart from the very few individuals like yourself who seem to want to re-read the same old material over and over again?


I do? Ok, I'm squinting my eyes real hard and wafting my hands by my head. What elese can you tell me that I want to read since you seem to know everything.

quote:
But I'll be damned if I can't be critical. He wants to make money-grabbing non-rpgs, fine. But as he's doing nothing else, all the interviews amount to nothing more than tired, nostalgic self-aggrandisement of an ageing businessman.


And your over-reaction to a simple interview is akin to a spoiled brat who got a yellow porche from daddy for his birthday instead of a red one. Whaaaaa
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Post Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:19 pm
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10Ktrolls
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For me the problem isn't really so much about the fact that Garriott talks about the old single player rpgs that he once made - after all he was asked about them. What strikes me is that he too (like Spector) seems to have become a true businessman. Just have a look at Tabula Rasa - according to Garriott it's a mmo that will address the eastern as well as the western playerbase, it will be an mmo but have aloooooot of single player elements, the combat system isn't real fps but it feels a bit like that... sorry but for me this looks like a very poor attempt to get as many players as possible. Obviously so far he ver even considered the fact that end the end none of these very different types of gamers will like the game because the mixture will be just too strange...
Post Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:15 pm
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.Twinfalls
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quote:
Originally posted by TheMadGamer

You monday morning quaterback a person's entire life in a rambling quip and then accuse me of being on a 'high horse.' Congratuatlions! You win the internet /golfclap


No need for congratulations. It's not an accusation - it's an observation. You are on a high horse. It's as plain as day.

Oh, by the way, if you are going to repeatedly blather an obscure US colloquialism in place of any argument, you could at least try to spell it correctly. I believe its 'quarterback'. "Internet/golfclap" I'll assume is some kind of performance art piece.

quote:
quote:
Of what interest is this to anybody anymore, apart from the very few individuals like yourself who seem to want to re-read the same old material over and over again?


I do? Ok, I'm squinting my eyes real hard and wafting my hands by my head. What elese can you tell me that I want to read since you seem to know everything.


Sorry, you get only one psychoanalysis per session. I'd really rather not know what else you like to read quite frankly.

quote:
And your over-reaction to a simple interview is akin to a spoiled brat who got a yellow porche from daddy for his birthday instead of a red one. Whaaaaa


The only person crying here is you, over someone who dared criticise what appears to be your personal idol. "WHAAAAA, mommy he said bad things about my RICHARD, WHAAAAA".

There there now.
Post Sat Apr 01, 2006 1:01 am
 


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