Richard Garriott announces his departure from NCsoft
Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Tabula Rasa
According to the announcement, Garriott's experience pursuing his lifelong dream of spaceflight has sparked some new interests in him, and he aims to devote his time and resources into these, instead of the MMO he worked to build for so many years. This still leaves us with many unanswered questions. Does this mean the end of Tabula Rasa as we know it? That part has not been mentioned at all, but we imagine there will at least be some upcoming changes, like, to the logo. You can read Garriott's departing letter just after the cut below, and let us know what you think of his resignation in the comments.
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
_thumbnail.jpg "Aion Beta: Asmodian Ascension Quest")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
tbone said on 3:08PM 11-11-2008
The guy hasnt made a good game in what? 15? 20 years. Maybe he should try something else. Talk about a one hit wonder.
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colin said on 3:17PM 11-11-2008
Wow wow wait what? wtf is he doing -_____-, and yes he hasn't made a good game in forever, although the good games he did make were fantastic.....
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Rik said on 3:25PM 11-11-2008
WTH!!...Im just shocked!
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rob ling said on 3:29PM 11-11-2008
tbone, i fin your comment ignorant in the soul fact that you seem to have little knowledge of Garriot's game credits, and to top it off the company he helped build.
He hit a rough patch, don't crucify the man for it. Although I have not played Tabula Rasa post launch other than a few brief moments at PAX back in august, I can say that the team working on that game has made leaps and bounds to make it all it can be and I think it has changed for the better. It's a fickle market these days for MMO's at best with so many heavy weights vying for control of the gamer populace.
I'm glad that Mr. Garriot and his team took the risks that they did, and I can honestly say (even if it's not my own personal preference) they have ended up with a completely unique game from the rest. They have also written a great story to go with it, and that, I think is all any game designer/story teller can hope for.
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Graill said on 3:59PM 11-11-2008
Hmm, i really can't support your claim he has hit a rough patch, it's a patch, but one that has hounded him since the days of UO. One man's MMO gem is another man's piece of garbage. I mean really, Richards only claim to fame other than mediocre MMO's like UO was being killed ingame when he forgot to turn on his godmode after running some tests
I have never seen any MMO Richard has made as being worthy of my dollar, UO certainly wasnt and Tabula Rasa is up there with AOC in customer support and patches to fix a lackluster incomplete game, but this is just my opinion.
Richard leaving to do other things is a good thing, unless it is to make a space MMO, in which case we should be afraid.............
Conquests.of. said on 5:50PM 11-11-2008
You went way too far.
Tabula Rasa has many many many features similar to other mmos.
the most evident is that you take the usual Kill x collect y quests that guide you in and out of a zone.
david said on 3:42PM 11-11-2008
All I gotta say is "lol......................."
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SgtBaker said on 3:54PM 11-11-2008
Hello george, back from your ban are you?
Keep it up, you'll soon get banned again.
george said on 4:48PM 11-11-2008
What ya mean? I never got banned... :-\
Its funny to see fanboys come out and play... :)
Celyn said on 3:48PM 11-11-2008
In a recent interview I read over at AionSouce.com with the Korean CEO of NCsoft, I was under the impression that Mr. Garriott was on his way out soon. Whether he decided that himself or was forced out is up for debate, but it's obvious his Korean bosses weren't happy with him.
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derella said on 4:30PM 11-11-2008
RG's claim to fame has nothing to do with UO, or MMOs... He's a pioneer in the videogame industry for everything he's done before MMOs were even imaginable.
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SmilingBlackFox said on 4:37PM 11-11-2008
I think it's laughable when you leave a game that you plastered your name all over. :P
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John said on 4:38PM 11-11-2008
I think the Garriott bashing is based more on ignorance than anything.
Garriott was behind some groundbreaking games like the Ultima series, which reshaped the RPG landscape with every new release (until part 8 or so). Ultima Online gave birth to a new genre. His studio, Origin, release games like Wing Commander and Crusader and launched the careers of Warren Spector and Raph Koster.
The man helped shape the game industry. Maybe he's out of touch now, maybe he's had a bad streak. But that doesn't erase his past accomplishments.
I'm sad to see him leave the industry like this. I think Garriott could put together another amazing studio or game, but I suppose his heart just isn't in it anymore.
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crsh said on 4:54PM 11-11-2008
Good riddance. Actually, he should've stayed in space for all I care.
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Tom-AZ said on 5:05PM 11-11-2008
ROFLMO.
mediocre UO?
awww. must be a UO baby. Never played in the Dread Lord days, the greatest days in MMO history in I would gander to say MOST MMO player's minds.
When Dread Lords and Glorious Lords battled it out in dungeons, thieves reigned and the rest of us caught in the middle. When we wrote our own storyline.
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Korgak said on 5:30PM 11-11-2008
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
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HexDSL said on 5:42PM 11-11-2008
GOOD!
maybe now TR will go Micro Transaction based and people will start playing again!
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Kamokazi said on 7:34PM 11-11-2008
Aside from the fact it will almost certainly not happen (Not in NCSoft's character, and is fairly uncommon with US-based MMOs), I would have to say no. I've been heavily debating coming back to TR (waiting on WAR to get old), and microtransactions would instantly drive me away.
I don't even like seeing collector's edition or preorder-type bonuses...I just don't like seeing RL tie over into the game world. I've bought my fair share of CE's, and would likely throw away plenty of cash at microtransactions, so it's not a matter of having money. It just breaks what little immersion these games have nowadays.
Killgroup said on 7:03PM 11-11-2008
Oh well. Sad to see him go.
Goodluck to him in whatever he chooses to do though!
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CP said on 9:34PM 11-11-2008
Wow, MMOs are the only games that matter?
Nevermind that without the financial success of UO, your precious WoW would never have been dreamt of, and Blizzard would've stuck to churning out endless updates to single player games instead of endless updates to multiplayer games.
Since Aklabeth is at least a decade older than your average WoW player, I can forgive you kids from not knowing about it. But not knowing that Ultima had 14 or so incarnations (U 1-9, 7.5, Underworld 1+2, Worlds of Ultima 1+2) not counting console releases? Gee, your opinion is worth so much. I'll gladly take it over that of an industry pioneer like Richard Garriott who started with nothing and created one of the greatest franchises ever.
Pathetic. LB had a huge fortune and string of hits including Ultima, Wing Commander, Crusader, etc. before you children were even a broken condom away from being spawned.
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