He's the man credited with Tabula Rasa and Ultima Online. He blames other companies for ignoring the social gaming space. He runs his own company via robot, and he likes to remind everyone that he is a key element of the ultimate RPG. Oh, and he's been to space, and that's what the upcoming documentary about Richard Garriott is going to focus on. The documentary, Man on a Mission, will be chiefly focusing Garriott's efforts to be the first son of an astronaut to go into space.
As the documentary explains, due to Garriott's nearsightedness, a career in NASA was always out of the question, but he never stopped wanting to follow in his father's footsteps. The documentary will premiere on January 13th nationwide, tracing his path to fortune through video games followed by his trip aboard the Soyuz spacecraft. If you're interested in seeing what you can expect from the documentary, you can check out the trailer just past the cut.
@EuchridEucrow It isn't that I hate volcanic steam vents - but I know that the fumes coming out of them are toxic and deadly.
The hot air coming from Garriott is no less toxic to the game industry. This will be one production that I hope if viewers watch they have downloaded a pirated copy.
Because really, why are we giving this guy attention and money?
Of course, the day he produces/directs/whatever a new innovative fun-to-play game, then I'll gladly give him props. And I give him credit for the early Ultima games - nice work. And although I know that most of the brilliant work into Ultima Online came from his very talented staff, I'll even give him props for assembling a solid team.
Since then, however, I have seen only failure from Garriott. Eliot must only be writing this as a story to: a. Torture us with more sadistic stories about Garriott. b. Increase revenue on ads - since we love to tear this guy down. c. He actually loves Garriott and follows his every move and by running stories hopes to befriend him one day.
Individuals like Shigeru Miyamoto are gaming developer legends. RG is not. He's a PR-parasite, this is just another effort to get his face in the news.
@hansh0tfirst - Agreed. Even the vaunted Ultima series went down the tubes. And really, the only reason it was popular in the first place was that there was no real competition for it way back then.
RG may deserve credit for doing things first, but never for doing them well.
I don't get the hate on Garriott. His actions are quirky, yes. But what he done for the MMORPG space did nothing but help it. I and many others play UO still to this day.
@hansh0tfirst I've played all of the Ultima games; Ultima VIII had its annoyances such as the Super Mario jumping, but it was still better than most games out there in terms of atmosphere and story, and the climbing and jumping was a good idea poorly implemented. The game was also less finished than they wanted it, they had to cut some stuff to meet the deadlines as well as to fit it on a CD.
I was in closed beat for Tabula Rasa. The game had lots of potential but it got old once I was up around lvl 40. I gave lots of feedback to NCSoft, they did nothing about improving the playability. So I didn't buy on release.
