Richard Garriott addresses 'Third Grand Era of Games' at the 2011 LOGIN Conference

Richard Garriott: game developer, private astronaut, beard aficionado -- and now keynote speaker.

The former developer of the Ultima series, Ultima Online, and Tabula Rasa will provide the main speech at the 2011 LOGIN Conference. Garriott will be talking about the Third Grand Era of Games that he sees us moving into, following the single-player titles of the '80s and '90s and the MMORPGs of the 2000s. It's his belief that the market for online gaming is poised to expand tenfold with the rise of casual-led, virally spread, free-to-play titles.

Garriott gave a teaser for his upcoming message: "The gaming industry is dawning on - at long last - a truly global audience of both genders and all ages. What lessons of history are useful? What truly new challenges await us? What will casual online games look like in five years?"

The LOGIN Conference is a convention of game and software developers who discuss advances in technology, business, design and community. It will take place from May 16-18th in Bellevue, Washington, and Garriott will deliver his keynote speech on the 17th.

Reader Comments (39)

I am going to get that rat-tail.

@Nautius
Jealousy serves you not. See young Padawan British for example.

@Scarecrowe

LOL - I am not taking it out of jealousy.

It will be a trophy.

Like human horn.

Wow... Ultima Martian Dreams & Savage Empire on the shelf... great games!

dude, I miss the big boxes so bad.

with that much space in 'em there was no reason not to fill 'em full of extras, back then every edition was like the special edition that people pay $20 for now-a-days.

@Fakeassname

That's the first thing I thought when I looked at the pic. The smell of a freshly printed manual. Maps... etc. Good stuff.

@Fakeassname

Those were the days. It was nice to go into a game store and actually see a decently stocked computer game shelf full of clunky boxes. Now you're lucky to see 15 computer games, on a tiny rack, off in a dark corner somewhere.

@Fakeassname

oops, "back then every edition was like the special edition that people pay AN EXTRA $20 for now-a-days"

forgot that part but I think most people figured it out anyway.

The only thing I saw was Wing Commander II, and that fantastic calculator watch. I think I had that model, Casio rules!

I really want to see Garriot back designing games where he is more than just a name and a face; like he was with NCsoft. I feel Tabula Rasa would have been so much better if Garriot went with his original vision.

@Dunraven
This. People blame Garriot for tabula failing when it was NCsoft who forced him to completely change the game design.
Hurt his reputation pretty bad with letting them force his hand.

@Rindon Couldn't agree more, I remember listening to Garriott talk about TR at Gencon when the first teaser videos were released....it was completely unique and nothing like what we ended up with. I think he as learned a hard lesson from all of that and will come out of it stronger in the end.

@Dunraven

I remember the early TR stuff too, I enjoyed what the final product was for what it was worth but I still would like to see something akin to what it was originally supposed to be.

I can't help but think that at some point Portalarum (or whatever his new company is called) will spit out something painfully close to that initial dimension hopping rough draft as a way of saying "see, it could have worked, so big middle finger towards you NCsoft!"

@Fakeassname

I wish, Fake. I wish. I've been looking for a decent replacement scratcher for that TR itch and nothing's managed it so far. Had high hopes for Earthrise, but uh... less said about that, the better. Rift's about as close as anything's got so far but it's still not quite there. I miss logos and impromptu groups joining up to fend off bane invasions. :(

Oh man...I miss those big boxes too!

Ah Wing Commander II with no soundcard... just beeps and bleeps lol....memories!

Yay! A story about Richard Garriott without a picture of him in a space suit!

"It's his belief that the market for online gaming is poised to expand tenfold with the rise of casual-led, virally-spread, free-to-play titles."
The tragedy is he's correct, hell it's already begun. I understand that the majority of the market, especially casual, is willing to pay a fortune to freemium titles and thus it makes sense to develop those. It's just sad that the rest of us gamers get screwed as developers increasingly decide it's no longer profitable enough to make solely one-time fee or subscription titles. It's okay to have some MT titles, it just sucks when everything - even SP games - is tending towards that model.

@Waxil

While it does seem to be moving toward that model, I tend to think of myself as a "whole gamer" that includes consoles with my PC. While there are efforts to move games on consoles to "massive online", they are still in its infancy.

While I do think many companies are going there, I think there will be games and companies that take advantage of the single player (at least, I hope so!). Really, the ultimate casual game is still a single player game (you can't really hit pause online if your child needs you, etc.) Some online games can do it, but there are still other factors that I have not seen MMOs adopt to really let in the truly casual.

There was a video interview with Richard Garriott by Good Game about a month ago, where he talked about the phases of gaming, including this social gaming that his new company is working on several titles for. It was really good, and I suspect much of what he'll say here will be same as then, and I fully agree with him. Plus he goes into some detail of his life, and creation of Ultima.

You can DL the interview here, its about 222mb ~ enjoy!

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/web_exclusives/Richard_Garriott_Web_Ex_wx.wmv

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Richard Garriott addresses 'Third Grand Era of Games' at the 2011 LOGIN Conference

Reader Comments (39)

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 11:03AM Nautius said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 1:24PM Scarecrowe said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 5:24PM Nautius said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 11:08AM Stuxatte said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 11:16AM Fakeassname said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 11:28AM mikejl said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 1:15PM OmegaDestroyer said

Posted: Mar 23rd 2011 6:39AM Fakeassname said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 11:19AM elaphros said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 11:26AM Dunraven said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 11:53AM Rindon said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 12:00PM Dunraven said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 12:50PM Fakeassname said

Posted: Mar 23rd 2011 2:02AM Transientmind said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 11:40AM Tizmah said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 11:47AM darthgrill said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 11:51AM Wilhelm2451 said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 12:04PM Waxil said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 12:41PM Space Cobra said

Posted: Mar 22nd 2011 12:14PM Khalus said

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