I do Apologise heartly, i am pure british (and glad of it) what i was originally  goign to write was the western world and i should. I am so very so sorry i did not meant to offend anyone, its just the garriot is now operating in america and he was working for NCSOFT NA im so sorry !.

But yeah NCSOFT KOREA wont hire anyone from the western world (very unlikly refer to original post) as he was representing US/EU.

I aologise once again <3

Edit:

Originally posted by LordSherpa

Tabula Rasa was a good but underrated MMO, and now it's over. Garriot made good job with it, but now his ego is little bit to big. BTW don't blame him for going into space, you would make same call if you were on his place I know I would.

and for this i would have done the same. BUT REFERRING TO OP i would not have sued NCSOFT for what i did, i would have taken advantage but .........wait yeah i would sue them oh snap im just contradicting myself oh man what are we british like :(

The space trip had puzzled me before, but now my previous puzzlement is much more relevant:

I don't claim to have good knowledge of the training required for a trip to space.  Is it not an intensive regimen of weeks or even months?  Where in the world did the 'creative director/core designer' of a relatively new MMO find the time to do all of that?  Even vacation time is not enough to cover it.

Assuming he didn't take vacation time, the training and trip itself must have been submitted to NCsoft higher ups as a relevant and useful marketing tool, and they would have had to sign off on it for him to proceed.  How should they have responded to Garriot's request?  They had no choice, deny his trip and they are left with a disgruntled lead for a major investment.  I imagine there was a great deal of resentment towards Garriot during the whole ordeal, coupled with a failing game and his apparent lack of dedication to saving his own vision, the dismissal was the natural resolution.

Originally posted by scorpchen

The space trip had puzzled me before, but now my previous puzzlement is much more relevant:

I don't claim to have good knowledge of the training required for a trip to space.  Is it not an intensive regimen of weeks or even months?  Where in the world did the 'creative director/core designer' of a relatively new MMO find the time to do all of that?  Even vacation time is not enough to cover it.

Assuming he didn't take vacation time, the training and trip itself must have been submitted to NCsoft higher ups as a relevant and useful marketing tool, and they would have had to sign off on it for him to proceed.  How should they have responded to Garriot's request?  They had no choice, deny his trip and they are left with a disgruntled lead for a major investment.  I imagine there was a great deal of resentment towards Garriot during the whole ordeal, coupled with a failing game and his apparent lack of dedication to saving his own vision, the dismissal was the natural resolution.

There are three zones around the earth - the ISS is on the first around 12000KM from the earth which does not require much training at all especially if your not staying there for long, at that distance you have no gravity and so you would experince that , however that is also the distance VIRGIN is trying to achieve with their 'Out of Space' commercial flights i would say a few weeks of training would qualify you to go on that flight.

Edit in bold : man i shouldent be on the forums when im drunk ><

Off topic, sorry, but "everyone" seems to hate America yet they have NO problem taking the billions of dollars the dumb ass politicians throw their way.  I say to hell with the haters, reel in the money and take care of our own damn country!

Z

Originally posted by IronZ

Off topic, sorry, but "everyone" seems to hate America yet they have NO problem taking the billions of dollars the dumb ass politicians throw their way.  I say to hell with the haters, reel in the money and take care of our own damn country!

Z

I dont think a lump sum of money in the hand is better than alot more money over time

Originally posted by Shadow786

Originally posted by IronZ

Off topic, sorry, but "everyone" seems to hate America yet they have NO problem taking the billions of dollars the dumb ass politicians throw their way.  I say to hell with the haters, reel in the money and take care of our own damn country!

Z

 

I dont think a lump sum of money in the hand is better than alot more money over time

actually, it usually is, as the money is worth more now then it will be due to inflation. As I understand it.  10 million bucks now is worth more then 10 million bucks 20 years from now.  So having a smaller, lump sum now and investing it well should earn you More cash then the slow payout of the original amount over time.

It all assumes that the lump sum value is not absurdly lower then the overall payout. like 100 mill over 20 years or 10 mill now...that might not be good to take as a lump. /shrug, i wish i had these problems for real :-)

I was as upset as anyone with what happened with TR...

But some of the comments here just show a servere lack of intellegence (or at least appear to).

We don't know what was going on at NCSoft... We don't know if the leave of absence was taken (yes to go into space) more due to escape something.. than because he thought it was the best thing to do at the time.

Regardless if the claim is true that they fired him.. then reclassified it as voluntary (for their own good) I think there is probably some breach of contract law there.  I'm not a lawyer...

So I'm more than happy to sit back and see what comes out.  I had made my conclusions when TR failed... and when I saw the headline I thought "wtf"... but when you read the complaint... it should at least get your mental gears in motion that there may be more here than we know about.

In the end maybe Garriott is that big of an arse.. but to make that claim before we know "the facts" and what other things might have been going on.. at this point just seems stupid.

Originally posted by Terminus-Est

 

Garriot isn't British. I am quite sure his passport is American.

 

Actually Garriott was born in England and raised in the US. He might have dual citizenship.

This is actually kind of sad to see. I grew up following his career. I have fond memories of the Ultima series which I played as a kid. I'm saddened to see him failing to make a comeback after Ultima. It just hasn't seemed to be happening for him. Even though he does seem to have an over inflated ego with the space station thing I still think he was one the giants that helped make the gaming industry what it is today and I take no pleasure in hearing of his struggles.

Garriot graduated from HIgh School a year ahead of me.  That would be in Texas, right by NASA in Houston.  From there he went to Austin and was a Lord, God, high muckety-muck in the local SCA where I got to see him every weekend.  He was always a bit of a prig.  Well, OK...  He was almost 100% prig.  Now, he's middle aged and balding, but he's got one heck of a spiffy rat tail ponytail!  Oh, and he's still a prig.

What a rat! Wasn't the cost of his space trip 24 million dollars? I remember it being quoted as that expensive so he is trying to bilk NCsoft for the money HE WASTED on a space trip! If I were NCSoft i'd be pissed to. He was supposed to make this great MMO game and all he did was waste millions of dollars, redesigned the game twice and cared more about a space trip then fixing the game. No wonder everyone but NCSOFT CEO despised RG.

Wait... so NCSoft invests more time and money into this game than they had any right to simply because of the Richard Garriott name attached to it.

He fails to deliver and the game launches with major issues.

At a crucial point where the game neads clear leadership and a major overhaul, the guy leaves the f***ing planet.

And once the game tanks he's suing NCSoft for the money he spent on not doing his job?

If Richard Garriot spent 24 million dollars on food for the homeless and hungry pplz  i bet tabula rasa would  be the most selling game ever :) and he would look good in the paperz all around the world :)

Originally posted by Shadow786

Originally posted by scorpchen

The space trip had puzzled me before, but now my previous puzzlement is much more relevant:

I don't claim to have good knowledge of the training required for a trip to space.  Is it not an intensive regimen of weeks or even months?  Where in the world did the 'creative director/core designer' of a relatively new MMO find the time to do all of that?  Even vacation time is not enough to cover it.

Assuming he didn't take vacation time, the training and trip itself must have been submitted to NCsoft higher ups as a relevant and useful marketing tool, and they would have had to sign off on it for him to proceed.  How should they have responded to Garriot's request?  They had no choice, deny his trip and they are left with a disgruntled lead for a major investment.  I imagine there was a great deal of resentment towards Garriot during the whole ordeal, coupled with a failing game and his apparent lack of dedication to saving his own vision, the dismissal was the natural resolution.

 

There are three zones around the earth - the ISS is on the first around 12000KM from the earth which does not require much training at all especially if your not staying there for long, at that distance you have no gravity and so you would experince that , however that is also the distance VIRGIN is trying to achieve with their 'Out of Space' commercial flights i would say a few weeks of training would qualify you to go on that flight.

 

Edit in bold : man i shouldent be on the forums when im drunk ><

Just a quick nit pick.
 

For one, ISS is at about 300km. There is also gravity too, you just don't feel the effect of it as much because of the rate you're 'falling' around the earth. The correct term is, microgravity not 'no gravity'

*edit* When thinking about microgravity look at it this way...You know how it feels when you're riding a rollercoaster and you feel a moment weightlessness? That , really is the best example I can give...

Just to nit pick the post above me there is a plane that does that for training astronaughts, that oes exactly what a rollercoster does biut toyu actuall yfeel zero gravity for about 30 seconds. Sorry been watching a shit series called 'The Universe' in season three atm :D

Not sure how that is a nit pick...But what you are talking about is the(a) Vomit Comet... NASA uses a Boieng 727 btw.

*edit* The Universe is a fun show, I like Dr. Michio Kaku. If you liked him in The Universe you should check out some of his other stuff...You can find some of his videos and interviews on YouTube

Couple of points:

* Richard Garriott wasted over 100 million dollars in Tabula Rasa costs. (I would like to know how one spends that kind of money anyway?)

Link: Financial Disaster

* His brother Robert Garriott works for (and leads) NCSoft. (Perhaps thats why Richard had free run with the funds?)

Maybe this lawsuit is a good thing - NCSoft will get a chance to counter-sue and the press and players will get a chance to see (perhaps) the true story of behind the biggest MMO financial fiasco in history.

Originally posted by Antarious

I was as upset as anyone with what happened with TR...

 

But some of the comments here just show a servere lack of intellegence (or at least appear to).

 

We don't know what was going on at NCSoft... We don't know if the leave of absence was taken (yes to go into space) more due to escape something.. than because he thought it was the best thing to do at the time.

 

Regardless if the claim is true that they fired him.. then reclassified it as voluntary (for their own good) I think there is probably some breach of contract law there.  I'm not a lawyer...

 

So I'm more than happy to sit back and see what comes out.  I had made my conclusions when TR failed... and when I saw the headline I thought "wtf"... but when you read the complaint... it should at least get your mental gears in motion that there may be more here than we know about.

 

In the end maybe Garriott is that big of an arse.. but to make that claim before we know "the facts" and what other things might have been going on.. at this point just seems stupid.

It's clear NCsoft did breach their contract, now whether they can save face and have something to negate some of Richard's claims we'll have to see, but just from reading the claim it is sound if it's all provable on paper which it very well may be. (probably is)

Of course NCsoft was trying to get rid of Tabula as soon as the game hit the market, they wanted to get rid of the whole of Destination Games in a fell swoop and restructure everything. I don't know why specifically, maybe it had to do with NC Austin's poor handling of Lineage 2 (were they responsible, I think so??)  I know there was a lot of grumbling about Tabula's development to the point of being unprofessional. Something crucial went missing about that game and my gut feeling tells me it was RG's attention and that's why he was told to go.

I don't agree with how NCsoft dealt with it, NCsoft execs keep proving they are ruthless in that sense, but they are a big business.... You have to be an ass to get rid of an ass? /shrug.

*puts head in hands* :(

Maybe if he focused his time and energy on the development of Tabula Rasa instead of playing douchebag Astronaut, the game would still be around. He spent millions on that space flight. He probably expected the game to turn a profit and cover his pipe dream costs. Now, he is butt hurt. What an asshole.

Garriott won't get his case, I could definitely forsee NCSoft going all out, not barring anything to win this suit, they don't have anything to lose by going all out. The MMO community doesn't like Richard Garriott.

Originally posted by Shadow786

I hate Richard Garriot So Much this is not helping him at all

 

Edit: Also after reading the article again i believe NCSOFT wont ever hire an american to spearhead their games anymore, i know this may sound a bit racist, but when so much money is involved it will leave a bitter taste in anyones mouth. Especially when Aion another korean developed game is a highly anticipated game in US/EU.

I don't know about that, COH/COV didn't hurt ncsoft one bit..