Looks like RG has finally lost his marbles, or he needs money to fund his new mmo, or go into space again.

computerandvideogames.com/article.php

Hahaha, he failed developing his own MMO and now wants money. This is so good and funny.

Edit - Thanks bmdevine, ignorance turns us into trolls, so it seems... By reading the written complaint itself at http://cdn2.libsyn.com/gamepolitics/Garriott-NCsoft-complaint.pdf?nvb=20090506133954&nva=20090507134954&t=0e9a519bb23453adb321d I really have to say that this might not be simple as I originally thought. It allows room for the theory of conspiracy on NCSoft chance to get rid of RG, his MMO, and keep his money. We will see how it plays though. I have made a new post http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/2811384 .

That's pretty dispicable.

He more or less uses name recognition to market Tabula Rasa, then buggers off to space and abandons it .. comes back down to find that it's failing so jumps ship on NCsoft to "pursue other interests" and is now suing them for fraud.

Hard to know which side to come down on without knowing the particulars of the alleged fraud, but I have a lot less respect for RG than I used to. Kinda feels like he's sold out and is only in the industry for the cash.

Wow epic fail

Originally posted by Ilvaldyr

That's pretty dispicable (sic).

He more or less uses name recognition to market Tabula Rasa, then buggers off to space and abandons it .. comes back down to find that it's failing so jumps ship on NCsoft to "pursue other interests" and is now suing them for fraud.

Hard to know which side to come down on without knowing the particulars of the alleged fraud, but I have a lot less respect for RG than I used to. Kinda feels like he's sold out and is only in the industry for the cash.

???  You come down on a side and then say it's hard to know which side to come down on.  Why not read the complaint?  It gives more details.  Apparently, he may not have been the one abandoning NCSoft.

Reading that court statemnt, it looks like NCsoft screwed him over big time lol.

Notice he filed in a western Texas district court just like that worlds.com. Interesting.

You guys are way off base here,RG has a very legit case.Him and his brother were offered exec jobs in NCSOFT, and if i am not mistakin they backed out on both of them.Then the TR joke was ALL NCSOFT as far as i am concerned,they put THEIR guys in full control before it was half done.Everyting that came out of TR was consulted by NCSOFT,they knew exactly what they wanted and knew what they were putting out,it had almost NOTHING to do with RG,he merely started the project.

I don't feel like going back in time,but i am pretty sure RG's brother was already in NCSOFT and was let go or fired,then of course RG left or there was more going on behind closed doors,like maybe he was pushed out.Even still if the game was no good as the public tends to feel,NCSOFT should have changed it AGAIN as they already made changes when they took it over,or they could have scrapped it altogether.NCSOFT was sure of their product that is why they released it.I truly believe 100% this is why they are so cautious about releasing AION to the NA public,they know now that their ideas do not match the NA ideas.

I think ONLY the original employees of this game,know exactly how it was suppose to come out,no one else knows for sure.

yeah if all is right and that complaint is true then NCsoft is gonna get wopped for a bunch of cash

Looks like ncsoft could be losing millions of both RG and the worlds.com people win.

Either way looks like shady practices by Ncsoft to RG.  But hey I hardly blame them, they probably knew TR was gona be shiit, and he probably also kew thats why the nutcase spent weeks in space.

its all a secret plan to try stop Aion D:

Originally posted by bmdevine

Originally posted by Ilvaldyr

That's pretty dispicable (sic).

He more or less uses name recognition to market Tabula Rasa, then buggers off to space and abandons it .. comes back down to find that it's failing so jumps ship on NCsoft to "pursue other interests" and is now suing them for fraud.

Hard to know which side to come down on without knowing the particulars of the alleged fraud, but I have a lot less respect for RG than I used to. Kinda feels like he's sold out and is only in the industry for the cash.

 

???  You come down on a side and then say it's hard to know which side to come down on.  Why not read the complaint?  It gives more details.  Apparently, he may not have been the one abandoning NCSoft.

Heh ..  I did think twice about my word usage and I accept that it's probably not a fair judgement on the lawsuit having read the particulars, however RG did publicly represent his split from NC as being voluntary back in November 2008, so in my defense .. it was an easy misjudgement to make.

Maybe Gaute "Sizzling Steak" Godager and Brad "The Vision" McQuaid can testify on his behalf as character witnesses.

Originally posted by bmdevine

Originally posted by Ilvaldyr

That's pretty dispicable (sic).

He more or less uses name recognition to market Tabula Rasa, then buggers off to space and abandons it .. comes back down to find that it's failing so jumps ship on NCsoft to "pursue other interests" and is now suing them for fraud.

Hard to know which side to come down on without knowing the particulars of the alleged fraud, but I have a lot less respect for RG than I used to. Kinda feels like he's sold out and is only in the industry for the cash.

 

???  You come down on a side and then say it's hard to know which side to come down on.  Why not read the complaint?  It gives more details.  Apparently, he may not have been the one abandoning NCSoft.

That complaint link should be added for the OP to prevent misunderstandings.

Thanks for your link, it changed my view that RG was playing some idiot trick to make money, but if the claim is right, it was exactly the opposite. It even makes my feel sorry for Tabula Rasa, I did not think it was so bad to the point of termination, plus how things went at the time, it was pretty strange, yet led to think he simply jumped off his sinking ship, which was clearly not the case.

Sorry Richard Garriot for my earlier blunt comment, although you probably won't get to waste time reading this. Yet you could have done more to protect your MMO, or something like that. Doesn't matter now anyway.

I just read the complaint,  and I don't see how  it exonorates Richard Garriot?

So far: RG was fired, told to get out and leave by Chung. Chung told the rest of the employees and the world that Richard was leaving and Richard says Chung made it sound like it was voluntary. RH asked NCsoft to retract those comments and tell the real story and NCsoft refused. Basically RG is trying to change something that has been happening in forced firing all over the world for centuries.. Good luck. I only agree with this: employers should be truthful when they let go of people.

RG keeps saying he's losing millions due to this, but he hasn't exactly held his end of the bargain which was to make a good mmo worth millions. He's also shamelessly using the depression, golly gee mister what about everyone else at NCsoft and countless other businesses who have lost their employment? Also RG was let go before the depression was public, before the system in America crashed.

I don't know it's not that much to stand on in my view. The stuff about Tabula Rasa is iffy at best, RG claims that NCsoft allowed him to leave when he asked to take a leave to go to space, even if that's true that doesn't mean NCsoft executives were happy about it. He claims to have been in close contact with his team throughout, that's not the impression I got at the time but I guess only a TR dev team member could comment... Claims to have used his space flight as marketing for his game Tabula Rasa, unfortunately for him this tactic was not well received generally. :/

The only ground he has against NCsoft is that NC filed Richard's departure as voluntary when in fact it was not. If he had not fought this with human resources it's possible he would still have stocks with NCsoft but because this took so long (beyond 90 days?) before he finally accepted to leave, he had to sell his shares.

So NCsoft said go away and you have 90 days to say ok, if you do you keep your shares and go on your merry way, if we don't hear from you after 90 days we close that deal and you get nothing.

Did I get that right?

Aww man I guess we'll see how it goes, personally I find the whole thing rather silly, if it had been me I would have accepted failure gracefully and left with my stocks... :S

Originally posted by Wizardry

I truly believe 100% this is why they are so cautious about releasing AION to the NA public,they know now that their ideas do not match the NA ideas.

 

what does this have to do with AION? what do you mean by this line?

Originally posted by Cynthe

 

So NCsoft said go away and you have 90 days to say ok, if you do you keep your shares and go on your merry way, if we don't hear from you after 90 days we close that deal and you get nothing.

Did I get that right?

Aww man I guess we'll see how it goes, personally I find the whole thing rather silly, if it had been me I would have accepted failure gracefully and left with my stocks... :S

 

Actually, this was about stock options.  His contract with NCSoft stated that if he got fired he had until 2011 to cash in his options.  If he quit they could make him cash in his options within 90 days or they would be worthless.  If you have to cash in so many options in a short period of time, you will take a massive hit from the taxes alone.  WIth a 2011 expiry he could have spread out his sales to maximize the money he got and minimize his tax burden. 

The space station bit was to counter any arguments that he effectively resigned from the company to go into space and to establish that he was still a contributing employee during that time.

Originally posted by Torik

Originally posted by Cynthe

 

So NCsoft said go away and you have 90 days to say ok, if you do you keep your shares and go on your merry way, if we don't hear from you after 90 days we close that deal and you get nothing.

Did I get that right?

Aww man I guess we'll see how it goes, personally I find the whole thing rather silly, if it had been me I would have accepted failure gracefully and left with my stocks... :S

 

Actually, this was about stock options.  His contract with NCSoft stated that if he got fired he had until 2011 to cash in his options.  If he quit they could make him cash in his options within 90 days or they would be worthless.  If you have to cash in so many options in a short period of time, you will take a massive hit from the taxes alone.  WIth a 2011 expiry he could have spread out his sales to maximize the money he got and minimize his tax burden. 

The space station bit was to counter any arguments that he effectively resigned from the company to go into space and to establish that he was still a contributing employee during that time.

 

Ah ok that makes sense, thanks for the clarification.

NCsoft is toast.

First he create the epic fail of Tabula Rasa... using his name.. to get the game going in developments for years.. only to cook money for the space travel... and then he quit everthing abandon everything and decide after returning from space to make a fantasy mmo... and now he sue NCSoft... with a very fribolous reason to do it.. even more fribolous than the world.com one lol...
 

anyway in what the world.com sue ended?

Originally posted by Pelu

First he create the epic fail of Tabula Rasa... using his name.. to get the game going in developments for years.. only to cook money for the space travel... and then he quit everthing abandon everything and decide after returning from space to make a fantasy mmo... and now he sue NCSoft... with a very fribolous reason to do it.. even more fribolous than the world.com one lol...
 

anyway in what the world.com sue ended?

Have you actually bothered to read his lawsuit?  If his allegations are true, NCSoft screwed him out of thousands of dollars.  I would hardly call that frivolous.

I really hate it when people ignore what is actually going on because that does not agree with their prejudices and dislikes.

I am no fan of Garriot but if he is entitled to the money then he should get it.  If not then he should burn right along with Tabula Rasa.

You can only sue NCSoft in the US in Austin, Texas and Riverside, California.  Soon you can only sue them in California.  Its alot harder to beat the defense in California then Texas, thus why they are suing there.  However, neither the worlds.com case or the Richard Garriot case have any real merit considering the worlds.com is a patent lawsuit for a technology that existed within NCSoft before the patent was filed, and the Richard Garriot case asks for too much money in the case of minor fraud.  So to say goodbye to NCSoft is a longshot considering they can also afford both cases if they lose which is doubtful.

Originally posted by Pelu

First he create the epic fail of Tabula Rasa... using his name.. to get the game going in developments for years.. only to cook money for the space travel... and then he quit everthing abandon everything and decide after returning from space to make a fantasy mmo... and now he sue NCSoft... with a very fribolous reason to do it.. even more fribolous than the world.com one lol...
 

anyway in what the world.com sue ended?

Richard & co form Destination Games, and are bought out by NCsoft in exchange for some very hefty stock options. After Tabula Rasa launches, Richard gets tapped for a space flight he signed up for some years prior. After talking to NCsoft higher-ups, he is approved for, and goes on, extended leave to take his space flight. During this time, he continues doing PR for Tabula Rasa, including Operation Immortality. Flight (and PR stunt) successful, Richard touches down to Earth, goes into quarantine in Russia, and NCsoft calls him to drop the hammer - while he's stuck in Russia, decontaminating. No choice, no warning, nothing. "So long, and thanks for all the Bane." http://www.massively.com/2009/05/06/richard-garriott-blasts-ncsoft-with-24-million-lawsuit/
 

Also read actuall complaint: http://cdn2.libsyn.com/gamepolitics/Garriott-NCsoft-complaint.pdf?nvb=20090506130354&nva=20090507131354&t=07301c3e69fd57f730fd2

Originally posted by Cleffy

You can only sue NCSoft in the US in Austin, Texas and Riverside, California.  Soon you can only sue them in California.  Its alot harder to beat the defense in California then Texas, thus why they are suing there.  However, neither the worlds.com case or the Richard Garriot case have any real merit considering the worlds.com is a patent lawsuit for a technology that existed within NCSoft before the patent was filed, and the Richard Garriot case asks for too much money in the case of minor fraud.  So to say goodbye to NCSoft is a longshot considering they can also afford both cases if they lose which is doubtful.

I am sure his lawyers used a high estimate for the amount of money he allegedly lost.  However, it is still a lot of money for an individual even if you lowball it.  The case will pretty much hinge on which side has better documentation and thus can prove to the judge that their version of events is what happened.