GameSpot's Behind the Games: Richard Garriott

[DANEGRMAN]

I feel sad to see the game which inspired big RPJ games such DQ and FF series not as popular as these games :/

I Don't think the industry would see DQ and FF if this game never released :)

[lunatiksAlterEgo]

i want to go to one of his haunted house things he does in austin

[broadheadg]

this guy is the best game creator ever

TO YOU RICHARD! = WE WANT A ULTIMA ONLINE LIKE GAME!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!!

[kingcrimson234]

skinniest. gamer. ever.

[iAmCodeMonkey]

@kingcrimson234 Like me. lol :P

[xsKiitz]

Type PRIZE before youtube and hit enter

[spiderman1321]

to madre son a puta

[WildBuck007]

Very nice sugar coating of saying the games these days are really shit with lots of fluff.

But its mostly true.

[therealsniqow]

f5 doesn't work anymore, fuck youtube.

[Gunnar00]

This is an excellent interview and excellent answers. Mr. Garriot is very impressive.

[kxmode]

Legend.

[raCteJ]

I didn't know the guy who did the voice of Lord British was the guy who created the Ultima series ._. ... 'Tis my worst fear? *shrug*

[JACKOJACKO121]

okami is a good one and most def shadow of the clolisus is my fav game and no one realy played it ova here :( go play it if u get a chace

[Silvertrine]

I'm sure he learned lessons from his dealings with EA. Also I doubt money was the primary motivator to sell. In fact I am willing to bet Mr. Garriott made the decision to try and secure his employees future. Creative types arent always the best business men. It worked for a while who can forget genre creating classics like Ultima Online.

[mithrilfox87]

It must really bother him that his popular, groundbreaking RPG series Ultima ended with that absolute piece of trash, Ultima IX.

[claywall6]

That's what you get for being a sellout. Look at other groundbreaking games, that sell out to big companies that start getting way to greedy, and the faster you pump out garbage the more money you make. Don't kid your self's there will never be games made with the heart of when video games first took off. The worst thing that has happened is companies started making games for "The General Gamer". Garriott is just as greedy for selling out in the first place.

[MannPower]

You have no idea why Origin sold to EA, then. We're talking in the early 90's, long before Ultima IX and even Ultima VIII. It was the right thing to do at the time, as Origin was headed for financial trouble and EA had the assets to keep them doing what they were doing. RG himself has stated that he regrets a lot of the 'concessions' that had to be made from that point forward. Do some research before you decide to label someone a 'sellout.'

[NinjaRunningWild]

@claywall6 One of the purposes of creating a business is to eventually sell it. But agreed on the point that the early era of gaming has a purity of fun that is nonexistant in the current graphics-first climate.

[Poquinho]

@mithrilfox87 not, entire, his fault.

At least he gave us ultima online :D

[NinjaRunningWild]

@mithrilfox87 Ultima IX was not trash.

[mithrilfox87]

@NinjaRunningWild In all fairness, if any other company had released a game like that with a unique game world, it would have been mediocre... possibly a 7.5/10. The controls were awkward, the graphics were already dated, and the game world was ridiculously small and cramped feeling.

However, being that it was released at the finale, the pinnacle of the Ultima experience that had lasted so many years, made it suck so much. Ultima IX was unworthy of the title, much less the finale.

[NinjaRunningWild]

@mithrilfox87 Keep in mind that one of Ultima's motivations was *not* to compete graphically with "the biggest and the best". For the time it was released at, there were few games that exceeded it graphically. Xbox was not even out yet. You may find the controls awkward and the game world small, but those are subjective statements. Compared to many other game worlds, especially ones with a non-level-based world, it's huge. Also keep in mind that each individual item is *hand-placed*.

[mithrilfox87]

@NinjaRunningWild Ultima IX just plain sucked. There is no question that the game world is small. Ridiculously small. The fact that Britannia consisted of a small castle and a handful of buildings was nothing short of pathetic.

Ultima IX was a lame and sorry end to such an awesome series. Nothing short of incredibad.

[NinjaRunningWild]

@mithrilfox87 You mean Ultima 8. Ultima 9 was Garriott's first foray into 3D for one. For 2, he was not singlehandedly at the helm which metered down his input. For 3 EA forced him to push it out. Again, your interpretation of size is not universal. You also refer to only *ONE* city in the entire game. My guess is that you walked around Britania after previously deciding that it was "incredibad", to use your rtarded term, and then writing this completely uneducated and uninformed view.

[mithrilfox87]

@NinjaRunningWild I don't mean 8, I mean what I said, Ultima IX. It was a colossal disaster. If it didn't bear the Ultima name, it would have been a mediocre game. It didn't matter who did what or cut what budget or forced what, it was released as Ultima IX and, for an Ultima, it sucked. Bad.

I played through approximately half of it before I couldn't stand it anymore. I went out to buy it the day it came out, very excited. HUGE disappointment. Got mediocre reviews.

[cocteaumusic]

@mithrilfox87 ultima ix is far from small. it has a tremendous amount of content. if you play it with the last patch the game handles quite well. i remember being amazed at the scope of that game. spoken dialogue, great graphics, cool loot, secret passages, many places to explore, lots of spells/reagents to learn, etc. I guess i'm in the minority but I spent a lot of time playing ix and i still have fond memories of it. I actually want to play it again lol

[mithrilfox87]

@NinjaRunningWild Additionally, gamers have created a website that lists many of the abundant inconsistencies in the story with the Ultima lore and the Guardian trilogy. Although previous Ultimas rarely had glaring inconsistencies, Ultima IX was packed with them. It simply did not belong in the series. Several groups of fans have tried to recreate Ultima IX for themselves, using engines like ESIV: Oblivion. It would surely be better than the actual game we played. So sad.

[NinjaRunningWild]

@mithrilfox87 I disagree completely. The bottom line is that some people like and some people hate *any* game, and the inconsistencies don't raise an issue with me. There a number of patches to revert the plot to what Bob White originally wrote for Ultima IX. Other Ultimas *did* have inconsistencies. You act as if it's specific to *only* this game. It's is not. Ultima Underworld for instance was crammed into the series with the story equivalent of 1 barrel of KY and a 6' crowbar.

[NinjaRunningWild]

@mithrilfox87 .. Additionally Worlds of Ultima series just randomly related to the Ultima plot. You sound as if you've simply read the wikipedia article on it and quoted it verbatim.

[bmanown]

Look at some of the things in the later Ultima games; they poke fun at EA in subtle ways. With Ultima IX, besides being rebuilt and redesigned multiple times, EA finally told them, it's out by November 1999, or it doesn't come out.

[EverHurt]

I think if i ever heard his voice over my guild vent I would be reduced to a quivvering hyperventilating fan boy.... I wonder if he played WOW anonimously ?

[UMpt835]

"What's your favourite swear word" and "blood type"???? Come on..! You have... *His Majesty* Lord British in front of you and you waste precious time on that?

[Cstyle12]

i cant believe he is quitting NCSoft...

[fkhosmoo]

Jerk sold out ultima for his greed. They called Beast British!

[BVargas78]

he thought that with the backing of Electronic Arts he'd be able to work on a lot of ground breaking projects. Unfortunatley he hadnt realised what corporate jerks EA could be and when he realised its hard to reason with people like that (who just have the thought of instant £ in their mind) he quit.

For example EA declined an early idea for making a privateer online game that would have been really cool, and pressured Ultima IX to come out before it was ready.

[fkhosmoo]

If he is so loaded why does he need EA? He could have bought out origin, himself and continued to make ultima.

There is no replacement in an rpg genre for ultima.

[BVargas78]

He's rich but not that rich, especially in 1992 when the sale was done. It was a bad move with hindsight but back then it seemed like a win win situation.

The idea was that EA's stake would provide the funding the allow Origin to work on multiple big projects at a time when costs for developing games was increasing (a trend that was to continue). For a while it seemed to go ok, some good games came out like Strike Commander, Privateer, Wing Commander IV. And the once great Ultima Online.

[BVargas78]

after that things started to sour, EA corporates kept pushing for expanding Ultima franchise in ways Garriott didnt agree with, and Ultima IX which was taking longer to develop than intially planned had to be rushed against his wishes. It was EA that got greedy not Garriott because for a while the partnership worked.

[st4ngeI2]

you have no idea what you are talking about

[NinjaRunningWild]

@st4ngeI2 No, you don't. EA and Origin's story is well-known.

[keyotikdragon]

Gotta love Lord British... Where's Shamino, Dupre, and Iolo?

[BVargas78]

He'll forever have my respects. The Ultima series will always be amongst my favourites. Hope they do some remakes!

[nazaxprime]

I love archaeon too Mr. Garriot. i also enjoy developing games too. sadly the industry is not conductive to the generation of games by individuals such as my self, so design is my passion. ugg. still going, 30 now and i still cant afford to go to school so i could hope to be chewed up and spit out my the industry.

[nazaxprime]

my main sadness is from the system for releasing games in their current form. it works, it sells. innovation is almost illegal, at least logicaly illegal. ugg. you rule though brother, wish i could have stumbled into the world you fell on. im glad you did though, and and am happy for you and your success. Congratz and good luck, not that you need it as much now...lol you have merely to open your eyes to see opportunities arround you. yea, im jelous.

[storrs19]

Ultima is the best! I can't believe how much RG has aged. It makes me feel old as I remember playing Ultima 3 when it was new (24 years ago).

[gawain20]

this guy is my hero :)

[piajeno]

Mine too!

[Killersepp]

He makes a good point about games never achieving the depth that they could (and funnily, he made that point allready ten years ago). Allthough the cycle might be broken soon, or even *now*, as the graphics progress in smaller and smaller steps, the designers can *finally* focus on what's really important.

[Dubaifreak]

He is simply wicked!

[osten22]

He's got some interesting ideas...

His house is very neat i think.

I love those ultima games, im very used to 7 and 8.

I have to play the rest, ive played a little of underworld, and ascension.