Tabula Rasa - Richard Garriott leaves NCsoft

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SasqWatch
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Has new interests apparently;
Fellow Soldiers of the AFS,

I am happy to finally be able to write the players and community of Tabula Rasa. We've been on quite a journey together. First in creating a game unlike any other on the MMO market, then growing a loyal community and finally launching the game and its players into space with Operation Immortality. It has been quite an unforgettable journey, one that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

I am very grateful to you loyal players for sticking around through what I think we can all honestly say was a rough launch. I thank the development team for pushing hard to get polish, updates and new content out every month since launch...a feat that I think is unusual in MMO development. They have a lot to be proud of.

Many of you probably wonder what my plans are, now that I have achieved the lifelong dream of going to space. Well, that unforgettable experience has sparked some new interests that I would like to devote my time and resources to. As such, I am leaving NCsoft to pursue those interests.
This news is difficult for me to deliver. I am honored to have worked with the team I've had and I'm grateful to the community who makes this game so unique and fun.

Thank you and farewell.

Richard "General British" Garriott
More information.
 
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Wow, I sure didnt see that coming. Its really a new low for who once belonged to the top developers of RPGs. A dark hour for him. I never understood why he didnt spent his time in what he had expertise in: making single player RPGs!

TR was quite a mediocre game, and it sure wasnt his fault alone. I cant say what vision he had in space, but I hope he returns to his old virtues and makes some new RPGs as he used to.
 
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I am happy to finally be able to write the players and community of Tabula Rasa. We've been on quite a journey together. First in creating a game unlike any other on the MMO market, then growing a loyal community and finally launching the game and its players into space with Operation Immortality then me taking my belief in my own hype and high tailing out of here before the monumental loss of money finds it's way into my pockets.

Fixed.

10 Character minimum.
 
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I'm kinda amused and share Reyla's view. Does that make me a bad person?
 
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Hmmm, I wonder if there are any ties to Mythic digging up all that Ultima memorabilia a few months back.
 
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TR is the best proof that people like Garriott were simply lucky. At some point in their career they were at the right place at the right time. He still plays his role of the eccentric genious fairly well, but has also become somewhat of a sad figure. The major failure TB relativizes his big successes of the past.
 
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I was taken aback when i first read about Tabula Rasa, it seemed like a horrible idea. For a little while, Garriot was writing a column in PC Gamer, extolling the virtues of his space shooter mmo thing (while supposedly just there to talk about rpgs, the TR-PR just worked it's way in somehow) - and I have to say that i had a big "wtf?" balloon over my head the entire time.

For some supposed pioneer of the RPG genre, youd think that he could hit a home run w/ a modern mmo.
 
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Wow, I sure didnt see that coming. Its really a new low for who once belonged to the top developers of RPGs. A dark hour for him.

Uh... or maybe it is quite the opposite. Maybe going to space (certainly being a monumental experience of epic proportions in all sorts of ways) opened his eyes and changed his views on his own life. Maybe he has come to the realization that there's got to be more to life than making stupid video games all his life. Maybe he is in reality at an all time high, not a low. Perhaps this is his brightest hour, not a dark one, as he finally breaks free from the chains of the past to commit whatever talents he has to that new career that he now wants to pursue.
Whatever it is I don't think that anyone should judge RG's life ('cept for himself). He is first and foremost a human being like all of us and not our personal entertainment slave who should be chained to his chair 24/7 cranking out new Ultimas ;) . If he believes that he should pursue a different career then we ought to respect his decision and wish him well.

I never understood why he didnt spent his time in what he had expertise in: making single player RPGs!

Maybe because he grew tired of them and desired a new challenge? The vast majority of people change interests and careers at some points in their lives. Why should RG be excluded from that right? Just so you can be entertained? Is that all that matters? :roll:
 
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Can see your point, but I think that we can assume that no matter what he's doing, he at least desires it to be successful. I'd wager that this is not what he envisioned, or hoped Tabula Rasa turning out like. He cant be happy about that.

Some of us have an idea of what it would take for him to actually make a successful game, and I think most here will agree that TR wasnt it. Is he wallowing in sorrow over it? Is it his "darkest hour" in life? I dont think so, but it isnt a particularly bright spot in his career as a game designer.
 
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Lord British said:
Many of you probably wonder what my plans are, now that I have achieved the lifelong dream of going to space. Well, that unforgettable experience has sparked some new interests that I would like to devote my time and resources to. As such, I am leaving NCsoft to pursue those interests.

I'm with Moriendor on this one. I cannot imagine that this "new interest" that was sparked in LB upon seeing this splendid jewel that harbors all life that is known to us in the universe suspended in the infinite black ocean of space is supposed to be nothing else but an idea for a new game. I would not be surprised if these new interests were entirely outside the world of gaming. Maybe he'll join the space tourism business? Maybe he'll build his own observatory and enjoy guaranteed time every night? No matter what, I am sure that he's closer to the brightest hour of his life than the darkest, and we should not judge it by how relevant it is to gaming. And I do wish him well on this endeavour. A fascinating fellow indeed!
 
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TR is the best proof that people like Garriott were simply lucky. At some point in their career they were at the right place at the right time. He still plays his role of the eccentric genious fairly well, but has also become somewhat of a sad figure. The major failure TB relativizes his big successes of the past.

I don't think it relativizes his past successes at all. Most people that are successful are successful because they find that right spot at the right time and have the right skillset for it. Sometimes, it happens early (like Garriott), sometimes it happens late. Very few people are successful once the paradigm shifts, and they are a very special group.
 
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Richard Garriott was pushing the quality and technology of CRPGs for many years over many different titles. He was a pioneer for numerous years and I don't call that luck.
 
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I assume the real topic is "NCsoft left Richard Garriot".

I don't think it relativizes his past successes at all. Most people that are successful are successful because they find that right spot at the right time and have the right skillset for it. Sometimes, it happens early (like Garriott), sometimes it happens late. Very few people are successful once the paradigm shifts, and they are a very special group.

The trademark in previous RG games was that there was always an unsually broad array of things you could do - you could ride horses, fly spaceships, harvest crops, bake bread, sail with ships, fight pirates, etc. His games started to fail as soon as he started to narrow that array. Thats my quick guess anyways.
 
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I don't think it relativizes his past successes at all. Most people that are successful are successful because they find that right spot at the right time and have the right skillset for it. Sometimes, it happens early (like Garriott), sometimes it happens late. Very few people are successful once the paradigm shifts, and they are a very special group.

Well, don't get me wrong - I'm not saying it's completely his fault. But people like Garriott, Molineux or Spector (among others) are often presented as icons that are almost doomed to make especially good or innovative games. And in a way they add to this by letting publishers use their name for advertisement purposes - after all it's "Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa".
I absolutely admit that people like Garriott, Molineux or Spector created great games, but I don't see them as digital gods that must succeed where others have failed. And as more or less all of them have proven not everything that they touch turns into gold.
When I read about TR for the first time, I thought almost exactly like xSamhainx. I thought that this game must become a failure. Anyone who had a bit of experience with the MMO scene must have thought that way... so if Garriott honestly believed that this game would become a big hit, then he was either very arrogant or simply did not have any idea of the mmo market.
 
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This is crazy with some of the theories on here...

I mean do you guys even know who you are talking about? This is richard garriot, this is the man who brought us Ultima. Ultima need I say more?

To say he was lucky is so clueless into what this man did to advance rpg games as well as games in general. Origin was my favorite company growing up, I bought all their games, you know why? Its because you were always going to get a honest to goodness awesome game. I think when EA camne around to gobble them up(a very dark day in history) it was a bad time for game companies trying to stay afloat.
But all of you here should know this man had a huge effect on the industry today, he is easily in the top 5 of who's who in video games.

We have no idea what happened at NcSoft with TR, we don't even know how deeply he was involved or what happened if he didn't like something. We know how EA handled that when it came to the ultimas.

I myself would die for a game in the scope of ultima 7 with modern tech, shame on you for dragging a man through the dirt who pushed rpg's forward and gaming in general.
 
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[...]
I myself would die for a game in the scope of ultima 7 with modern tech, shame on you for dragging a man through the dirt who pushed rpg's forward and gaming in general.

Ya, I'm feeling totally ashamed for not giving in to naive hero worship...
 
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Way to read good job.
 
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