Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Interview Richard Garriott + Ultima 7 + Interview

DarkUnderlord

Professional Throne Sitter
Staff Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2002
Messages
28,560
Tags: Richard Garriott; Ultima VII: The Black Gate

<a href="http://www.crispygamer.com/news/index.php/2009-04-30/richard-garriott-interview/">CrispyGamer have the goods</a>:
<br>
<blockquote>In Part I of our interview, the creator of Ultima reveals some little-known facts about Ultima VII, the origins of a room full of crazy children that caused a memorable family feud, and his feelings on selling Origin to EA so many years ago.
<br>
[...]
<br>
Crispy Gamer: Ultima VII is one of my favorites in the series because it’s so immersive, interactive and easy on the eyes, but it is also very dark. To me it felt like you were tearing down what you created in the first six games. Would that be a fair statement?
<br>
<br>
Garriott: Ah, yes. Here’s how I would frame it. The first three Ultimas were really when I was, frankly, learning how to create a game. Ultima I was written in basic, Ultima II was the first assembly language program I ever wrote, and Ultima III was really the first time I felt that I had succeeded at creating a game, despite its level of sophistication. Ultima VI, V and VI were created at a time when I was learning the process of being a storyteller. They introduced things like the Virtues, etc. I began to pay much more attention to the craft of storytelling.
<br>
[...]
<br>
And so Ultima IV was a time when I realized that I wanted to observe people’s behavior and make sure that if they are supposed to be this great hero, they act like it. And that was the first time that was done in a game, and it’s still a very rare concept. I think Ultima IV did really well because of that.
<br>
[...]
<br>
With Ultima V I started saying things in the story, like the real world is not nearly as black and white. In the real world there are good guys that don’t necessarily appear as such; there are bad guys that might appear good. So I began to tell these stories that had more subtlety to them and they often included very layered or hidden commentary on what I thought were current social issues of importance. They may have not been as obvious to most others, but they were obvious to me. Whereas Ultima IV was fairly black and white, in Ultima V I wanted to bring up other systems, other ways in which people espouse virtue — which in my mind were untrue — especially in that period of time.</blockquote>
<br>
Read page 3 to find out about the children room and how it almost threatened the game into not being published.
<br>
<br>
Thanks <b>newsman</b>!
 

Quigs

Magister
Joined
Sep 16, 2003
Messages
1,392
Location
Jersey
What a douchebag.

I love how he whines about how TV evangelists didn't like him, which he thought was wrong, then immediately goes off to whining about "American Imperialism".
 

Seboss

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 27, 2006
Messages
947
I wonder what was in Garriotts mind to make Ultima 8.
I think things got a little out of Garriott's control when Ultima VIII was made.
The guy may have progressively changed into one of the biggest douche bags of the industry over the years, I just can't imagine him thinking jumping puzzles would be a nice addition to the Ultima series.
 

Silellak

Cipher
Joined
Aug 19, 2008
Messages
3,198
Location
Tucson, AZ
Actually, what bugs me is that, even now, Garriott doesn't seem to realize what a horrible fucking mistake it was to sell his company to EA.

I hope for his sake that he does realize it and is just too much of a pussy to admit it.
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
37,451
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech
Silellak said:
Actually, what bugs me is that, even now, Garriott doesn't seem to realize what a horrible fucking mistake it was to sell his company to EA.

I hope for his sake that he does realize it and is just too much of a pussy to admit it.

He had too, or they would have went under. Read the above link, it explains that on the first page.
 

Silellak

Cipher
Joined
Aug 19, 2008
Messages
3,198
Location
Tucson, AZ
Jaesun said:
Silellak said:
Actually, what bugs me is that, even now, Garriott doesn't seem to realize what a horrible fucking mistake it was to sell his company to EA.

I hope for his sake that he does realize it and is just too much of a pussy to admit it.

He had too, or they would have went under. Read the above link, it explains that on the first page.

It sounds like they had to sell the company, but not necessary to EA:

Richard says, "Ultimately we chose EA because EA's vision for the future, their prediction of platform shifts, and their planning to meet that challenge was right on."

Still, it may not have mattered. Sounds like Garriott's big mistake was asking for funding for UO before even finishing Ultima 9. Thanks for that, Richard. Really.
 

MisterStone

Arcane
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Messages
9,422
Quigs said:
What a douchebag.

I love how he whines about how TV evangelists didn't like him, which he thought was wrong, then immediately goes off to whining about "American Imperialism".

Richard Gariot said:
You know, fantasy games were commonly under criticism in that era by religious zealots that claimed to be good, that I did not think were very good. A lot of TV preachers were falling on hard times because they were getting caught on various things — and so I made a parallel to that in gaming.
With Ultima VI I took it a step further and said that there are lots of things that people think are bad or evil that aren’t. And that’s why I created the gargoyle race, and their culture, religions and factions. There’s actually parallels to today’s events, where American imperialism and global police force can be seen by others in other countries as really bad or evil. And I think people’s interpretation of that is not entirely unfounded. And so I tried to make a story that spoke to that kind of thinking.

Quigs, are you illiterate, a moron, a douche, or an illiterate moronic douche?
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
37,451
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech
Silellak said:
Jaesun said:
Silellak said:
Actually, what bugs me is that, even now, Garriott doesn't seem to realize what a horrible fucking mistake it was to sell his company to EA.

I hope for his sake that he does realize it and is just too much of a pussy to admit it.

He had too, or they would have went under. Read the above link, it explains that on the first page.

It sounds like they had to sell the company, but not necessary to EA:

Richard says, "Ultimately we chose EA because EA's vision for the future, their prediction of platform shifts, and their planning to meet that challenge was right on."

Still, it may not have mattered. Sounds like Garriott's big mistake was asking for funding for UO before even finishing Ultima 9. Thanks for that, Richard. Really.

True, looking back maybe if he had chosen another, they would have not made the abomination that was IX. But around that time, there really wasn't that many big video game companies around. Though my memory is a bit hazy on that time heh.
 

Crolug

Liturgist
Joined
Nov 11, 2007
Messages
104
Location
Panamá
Silellak said:
Actually, what bugs me is that, even now, Garriott doesn't seem to realize what a horrible fucking mistake it was to sell his company to EA.

I hope for his sake that he does realize it and is just too much of a pussy to admit it.

It was a fucking mistake from players' point of view. If he states that it was good decision for him and his employees, well, maybe it was.

Nonetheless, there were two takeovers in the gaming industry history that hurt me to this day, one was Origin, the other was Sierra On-Line...
 

Trash

Pointing and laughing.
Joined
Dec 12, 2002
Messages
29,683
Location
About 8 meters beneath sea level.
Origin was one of the very best out there at that time. Almost all of their games were awesome classics, from the mercenary flight sim strike commander to sci-fi action/puzzle game bioforge. They constantly pushed the envelope. Including the hardware front. Something that contributed greatly to their demise.

Too bad all the giants from back then like them and Lucasarts, Sierra, Looking Glass and Bullfrog went to shit later on. The quality and diversity of games from that era has never been reached since.
 

Luzur

Good Sir
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
41,967
Location
Swedish Empire
Ultima designer and Origin co-founder Richard "Lord British" Garriott even worked an EA reference into Ultima VII (1992). Two high-profile nonplayer characters, Elizabeth and Abraham, perform seemingly helpful tasks for the player - but E. and A. turn out to be murderers in league with the player's nemesis, the Guardian. The three items that power the Guardian's evil generators are a cube, a sphere and a tetrahedron - the former EA logo.

heh, i actually remember that reference with the EA logo, but i didnt know about Elizabeth and Abraham.
E.A. :?
 

Wyrmlord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
28,904
Trash said:
Too bad all the giants from back then like them and Lucasarts, Sierra, Looking Glass and Bullfrog went to shit later on. The quality and diversity of games from that era has never been reached since.
I thought that maybe the people from those studios would atleast filter down to other studios and bring their experience to them or start their own studios.

But alot of them are not in the gaming industry any more.

As I understand it, those were people from times when there was no concept of "professional game developer", so much as there was of these groups of amateur artists and programmers getting together and making stuff.

I don't think was any criteria for who would be a game developer; these were just insurance salesmen, college students, pharmacists, nursery school teachers, and other such people who possessed some knowledge of programming and computers and had experience with arcade games, who were just enthusiastic enough to get into the whole thing, and got the jobs.

They probably enjoyed their jobs, but that work used to pay terribly, and after those studios shut down, they realized it was not worth their time to be in the gaming industry, and went back to their old pursuits.

The two people behind the first four Wizardrys, for example, were law school students, and just harvested their venture, and now work as patent lawyers.
 

Wyrmlord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
28,904
I personally am happy with some of the changes that gaming as a big business brought.

Frequent interaction with the community, getting their feedbacks, seeing which ones might be good ideas, and implementing them in patches - that wasn't there in the 80s and the very prime of gaming.

The problem is that a game development studio should never be an indefinitely long term going concern. Each new game development venture requires enormous financing, which can barely be generated through regular revenues.

The only solution is that they harvest themselves after a particular period, by selling off their licenses, liquidating the studio, or having themselves bought over by some larger entity, within some specified period, and fueling that money into a new project as a new venture.
 

Luzur

Good Sir
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
41,967
Location
Swedish Empire
"Electronic Arts plans to release 26 new games [in 2005], all but one of them a sequel, including the 16th version of NHL Hockey, the 11th of the racing game Need for Speed and the 13th of the PGA Tour golf game."

god how i love these changes in the big game industry!
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom