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Tabula Rasa News - Richard Garriott Awarded $28 Million
Posted by Suzie Ford on Jul 30, 2010 | 114 comments in our forums
The lawsuit between publisher NCSoft and Richard "Lord British" Garriott has finally been settled. Garriott has been awarded $28 million by a Texas jury. The suit came about after Garriott, according to NCSoft, left the company amicably in 2008. Garriott has always contended that he was fired and forced to sell his 400,000 shares of stock quickly resulting in a profit loss.
NCsoft's action, Garriott claimed, cost him millions of dollars because he was forced to quickly sell his options for more than 400,000 shares of the company's stock while the stock market was severely depressed. Under Garriott's agreement with NCsoft, he would have had up to 10 years to exercise the options if he were to be fired.
The jury agreed though they did not award Garriott the $47 million he wanted from his former employers.
Read the entire article in the Austin (TX) Statesman.
Via GamesIndustry.biz.
I liked tabula rasa, it just had to be improved.
I was waiting for that. And then, poof.
I played Rasa jsut before they announced servers closing
personally I think it just wasnt advertised well, I liked what I played of it
Not sure what you tried guys... but the game was laggy all the time and sucked graphically...
Mr Garriot sucked NCsoft money for years and now he continue to do it... He should be ashamed!
I thought it was pretty good, like you say they just needed to do some minor improvements and it would have been great I think.
Never understood why that happened but now we have an idea.......if he was awarded that much then they must have done the wrong thing.
I totally agree I liked the game, I still hope they go F2P, with it like Dungeon Runners or Exsteel!
A true visionary that was treated so so bad..... NCsoft wanted his name as part of the Brand not Vice versa.
Lets hope he can get back on the tread mill and deliver us Ultima Online 2....
son of a bitch..
He should take those money and reopened Tabula Rasa...
the game was very fun I miss it really, it only needed several improvements
We were specualting on planettr in :
- how the damages would be paid ( he was indeed suckered out of a huge amount of $$ ) and thought NCsoft might try to offer the IP-rights to Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa , i.e. give him back the development studio with which he joined NCSW in the first place .
- if the above were the case he'd have a reason to reopen Tabula rasa .
The fact he won this case isn't surprising as the evidence he could offer the court was overwhelming . If you check out the chronology of TR's demise it's astonishing how bad NCSW handled this game . As for laginess : I played for about 6 months and never experienced any significant lag . On the final day we all flocked to ONE location for a farewell screenshot - even though the server obviously lagged then- and saw that the server could handle that many folks in one location .
I don't think TR will ever be reopened - either as f2p or otherwise - though and will in all eternity remain on a shelf ,collecting dust. Worst of it is NCsoft tried to pacify us with the "lemon" which is called Aion when they closed TR. Even with all the issues TR was about 20 times better than Aion .
I'm glad Garriott won the case. The game looked great like most NCsoft titles, but also like most NCsoft titles, it had no content. If he tries to make it again, hopefully he adds some depth to the game.
Another blow suffered by NCSoft... With AION already taking on water and about to be contested by other "graphically stunning" F2P games, they need to find some steady ground..
They simply close games too quickly and you can bet your bottom dollar that they are looking for that "get rich quick" scheme now.. So to all the people holding their breathe for Guild Wars 2.. BEWARE..
NCSoft is only the publisher for GW2, they are not the developers, ArenaNet takes care of all design and development exclusively.
There is nothing to be wary of from ArenaNet, they are solid.
Well, I guess those that tried saying Gariott abandoned Tabula Rasa back when it was getting shut down feel like idiots now.
It should be remembered that Tabula Rasa was origninally supposed to be a new-agey fantasy game, then, a couple of years into production, Garriott changed horses and started turning it into the sci-fi game that finally released. I don't recall the exact figures, but TR cost NCSoft a chunk of money. With Garriott's name permanently grafted to the title (and a lousy title at that!), I can only imagine that his contract with NCSoft insured that he'd be siphoning off of them as long as the game was live. I've always suspected that the only way for NCSoft to get rid of Garriott was to cut their losses and get rid of the game, so Tabula Rasa was shuttered.
Could it have been better at release? You bet! Could it have been fixed to a sustainable level. Maybe, but with General British in the mix, it's likely that the game was a considerable money drain on the company, which, if I recall, wasn't real profitable at that time. Garriot's ego, greed, and flightiness was likely the cause of TR's demise.
Good for him. I hope he starts another game company and doesn't sell out to a big publisher.
I wish he would have gotten the IP back for the game so he could relaunch it and make it better for everyone.
Umm pretty sure the original fantasy build was before Garriott had anything to even do with TR. I think NCSoft realized how much of a turd *that* game was going to be, and brought on Brittish to turn things around. If you look at the videos of the original TR build, it looks like Korean game cause I'm pretty sure before RG it was being developed by NCSoft East... After that, it became sci-fi and most of the code and development team was replaced.
That man has about as much desire to get back into video game design or publishing as there is the prospect of World Peace tomorrow. The last time he did anything was in Producing. The utter failure of Tabula Rasa in 2007 and before that, City of Heroes in '04 and CoV in '05.
Before Tabula Rasa began with a video game Lawn Dart act, his last real work was Ultima IX: Ascension as its Designer... back in 1999. It came out utterly terrible and was effectively the end of Ultima as people knew it.
So. The man sued his former employer for $28 million. I'm down for sticking it to someone if they've wronged you, but I do know that Lord British will not be doing anything for video gaming (in any worthwhile, effective, influential role) anymore. Because he hasn't done so in years. And I haven't heard from anything about the guy saying that he will prove me wrong. He might as well be dead, because he's doing as much for video gaming.
If memory serves, the original Tabula Rasa was Garriott's baby. I remember seeing the early teaser videos and I'm pretty sure he was the brains behind the project. That was 2001 and he was fresh released from a non-compete agreement with EA. Two years into the project, he turned the whole thing upside down. I found this 2004 video with Garriott talking about the original design: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB9dHVUX2KY&feature=related
that is correct, the game was a Destination games title and that studio was owned by Garriott brothers . Those that attempt to belittle Garriot or state he is a "has been " are totally unaware of the impact some of these folks have had - and are still having - on the MMO's we play today . The same applies to Jeff Strain,for example .
People also tend to forget Garriott was already part of NCsoft USA management when they were heavily into guild wars . He worked together with the entire management team to ensure that one's success. Folks tend to only look at failed titles when it comes to developers or corporate CEO's and forget about the positive influence they have had. Strain/Gariott brothers pretty much defined entire NC soft's western hemisphere operations back then . The fact they made an accountant the new CEO for NCsoft west is telling enough ( a Korean accountant at that ) ....
It would be nice to see them make this rise from the ashes. I played it during beta and liked it quite a bit, saw a ton of potential. Did not play after release and around the time I was thinking of looking in on it again it had gone under :(
Rasa was good everything else ive seen as well as tried from ncsoft has been absolutely terrible
"back then" is the key thing, isn't it? Because he isn't doing s**t for video gaming now. Not in years. Except for mention of him blasting off into space.
"back then" for me is the same as "has been."
well who knows? I remember its was shady the way they closed TR because less then one month before he did a space travel to help to advertise his game then when he land he is fired :P(that was his words, and since he won his sue I guess it was true),
but if he buy the TR name back he can try to open a server again, they are trying to do that with hellsgate, but I doubt more easy for him to design a new one or a TR 2
I have a hardtime dealing with people that disrespect a man that helped create amazing single player Rpgs and one of the greatest sandbox mmo ever.
to keep myself from getting banned ill simply say grats to Rich for the cash and hope he evolves the gaming genre like he wants to on other platforms (facebook, Phones).
goodluck.
Although he was "awarded" the money by the jury, because of the appeals I am sure are coming, he won't be getting paid for several years yet, and, I'd bet his award will be further reduced.... asking a jury to determine damages based on complex financial formulas is very difficult and practically never withstands further judicial review.
Good for him. I'm glad he won, the evidence I've seen was clearly against NCsoft. Now of course, NCsoft will likely tie things up for years on appeal. Thats one of the reasons that in most of these cases, only the lawyers on both sides really win. As for TB, I quite enjoyed aspects of the game. But it needed much more work before it was worth extended time. I ran a sniper and spy up to cap, but then there wasn't much to do.
There are plenty of mmorpgs that deserve to be shut down imo. TR wasn't one of them. It needed a lot of work, obviously more than NC wanted to sink into it at the final stages, but I loved certain aspects of it and had a lot of fun playing it.
In any event, I am happy to see Lord British win this one. I do not believe that he deserved to go out the way they put him out.
Does the man even need the money?
Honestly I don't know how the transfer of cash after its awarded in court works nor do I care.
I just hate that people give a guy shit for TR when his vision for TR was scrapped by the nooblets at NCsoft in favor of that pos release client.
Check youtube for richards version of TR it looks much more interesting.
I seriously doubt they will appeal this verdict. Why? Because accountants will have taken this "loss " ( in fact they'd have considered the total amount : 47 million ) into account when budgeting and chances are they'll be pleased he was only awarded half of it . Chance is signinificant that when they do appeal , the new verdict would be harsher for them. It's worth considering that RG kept copies of pretty much every d**n document from that period so his evidence will be profound.Tthere's also the fact that immediately after this debacle , NCsoft fired the one responsible for the entire communication with RG and the subsequent community relations . That's pretty much an admission of guilt for any juror or judge .
And I agree with Rockgod99 about the respect we should all have for people like Richard Garriott. Fact of the matter is that NCsoft now has zero folks with vision in their management .They replaced Chung with a d**n accountant from Korea . And it shows : both in the way they handled Aion in western hemisphere and in the recent decision to cancel Exteel. The entire company has no long term vision at all and the sooner they sell everything they own in the west, the better ( both for them and us , imagine having GW franchise at a good company ? )
Man I miss Tabula Rasa!!! I wish it would go F2P or atleast have someone open a private server for it... Man I would love to get my sniper back in action!!!
Man TR was the worst 65 bucks i ever spent.... it was fun for like a week but i guess i got suckered into by my friends.... He got my money and then he gets another 28 million... game was going to fail either way tbh... complete crap that you can get money for anything now a days.
28 million is a lot of money.
Ah Lord British. My hero for Ultima IV-VII. So many hours disk-swapping on my C64/Amiga.
Maybe he should take the money and develop the old Ultima series for the iPhone or something.
I think he was milking NCSoft and they figured that out so they got rid of him. I don't blame them one bit.
I played TR and it was ok after launch but for a 6 year development time the game was no where near it should have been. I think him getting fired is what he deserved, I mean hell look he put on some big show at his house for the launch day and than decides he wants to go into space and pretty much drop sight out of the game. He is lucky I wasn't the CEO he would have been gone soon before he got the axe.
Garriott got lucky on some of the UA series games and UO was only popular because it was browser based and you could put graphics with a chat system. Anything anyone brought out at that time would have succeeded.
Tabula Rasa had great potential. I think they cut the cord before they could work the kinks out.
Not sure what game you played. TR had great graphics and I never lagged a bit, even on base defense capture. As to you saying Garriot sucked money from NCSoft, lets see an article link.
I don't have a hardtime with it.. In my opinion it's comparible to a washed up athlete that really should quit before they do more damage to the legacy they leave behind. IE: You can have a wonderful 10 years in the NFL, but continue to play beyond your prime, and play rather poorly for 6 years straight and then choose to continue to play even when all your fans want you to stop because they want to remember you for how you were, not what you've become. There comes a time with everyone where just don't have what it takes to produce like you used to.
actually, he DID abandon it. He sold his stock to become a "space tourist" i can't believe they gave this guy money. I used to love TR until he left to go launch himself into space and left everyone else to try to pick up the pieces.
Tabula Rasa was supposedly a Double billed game in development but unfortunately private test markets were less than kind with the reviews of the Space Fantasy game Tabula Rasa
So they scrapped the original and took another 2 1/2 yrs to pump out Tabula Rasa the SciFi FPSesque MMORPG
I liked the game it should come back in a varied form imo. It wasn't sub worthy but it was definately Guild Wars worthy.
There's no denying his contribution with UO in the RPG world. But there's no denying he hasn't done SH*T in years, and now the only reason his name has popped up in so long is that he's sued his former employer for millions.
He isn't on the news for:
"Lord British to revitalize Ultima with a sequel! More to follow!" or "Richard Garriott, creator of the fabled Ultima series, to head development of an upcoming MMO titled, _______."
No, he's on the news after being gone for so long for suing for millions. That is all.
That is, IMO, a washup as far as video game development goes.
This is good to hear,i always cried foul wrong doings by NCSOFT,while the majority on MMORPG put all the blame on Mr.Garriot.
IMO NCSOFT should have been sued for MUCH more,They pulled the plug on thousands that were there to play,they would or could have owed Mr.Garriot far more than 28 million if you realize that he could have been there forever,and he was obviously fired in a roundabout way.
Now imagine if it was you or I,or someone that could not afford to take them to court,big business would have won as i am sure many of these giants get away with murder[papa roach] every day.
What bothers me is that this was basically what Mr.Garriot was owed,this is an unfair judgement.If NCSOFT got away with it ,they win bigtime,if they don't ,they just end up paying Garriot what they owed him anyhow,they were in a win win situation.The punitive damages should have been far superior ,idk maybe 56 million?What i am saying is that there is no detterent here,nothing to keep NCSOFT or any other giant from trying to rip off it's employees again in the future.
He did sue for more. He sued for 47 million but was only awarded 28 Million
not sure Garriot sold his stock to flew to the space station, he was a millionaire way before that...
About Tabula success, the bottom line is NCSoft was responsible for marketing and providing player support. they did neither.
Good for Garriot. Hope he revives tabula in some sort if he can get the IP back.
If TR gets back, they can count on me!
I will *always* respect RG for the wonderful Ultima series that he created. I suspect that with TR it was a combination of business and design issues that finally doomed TR. I played a sniper and a spy to level cap. I will always remember the fun that base defense against the waves of Bane was. But once to cap, there wasn't all that much to do.
As for the space angle, from what I understand, getting into space had always been his dream. One has to follow ones dream when possible. He certainly had the money, and given NCsofts past history, its debatable if his not going would have made any difference. NCsoft has now axed four games(and managed to damage Aion in the western markets). I suspect no matter what RG had done, that things would have turned out pretty much the same.
OBJECTION!
Mr Garriott never sold his stock. His stock options were a form of payment via contract. NCSoft faked his resignation letter makeing it look like breach of contract to get the shares back. Richard was flat out fired.
Why does everyone think hes so talented ? His first idea of the game sucked and he realised that so he went to plan B and made a totaly diffrent game that still sucked or it would still be aroud .
Actually, the whole case reads more like a "They said... He said..." scenario, so it depends on who you want to believe is lying. From a public standpoint, not a whole lot of specific evidence has been offered. I suspect that NCSoft was a bit generous when drawing up agreements with Garriott, agreements they could no longer sustain when what General British released didn't generate the financial return that NCSoft so desperately needed at that time.
And for those who keep pointing to Garriott's space adventure as him trying to promote the game, you're way off base. His offer to take player's messages into space with him (I think the only celebrity endorsement he got was Stephen Colbert) read more like a prima donna's rationalization for dodging responsibility to feed some inner itch. A leave of absence to pursue a childhood dream so soon after the release of a product so blatantly stamped with your own name is nothing more than a complete shirking of responsibility. Garriott didn't care as long as NCSoft kept signing the checks. I don't blame NCSoft for being pissed. Any company worth its salt would be too. Small wonder they would be anxious to be rid of him.
NCSoft's main negligence in this was relying too much on Garriott's self-promoted talent. The man didn't deliver what he promised, but apparently the agreement wasn't airtight enough to enable them to sue him for breach of contract.
I had the chance to beta play TR and quite enjoyed my engineer untill level 32, at that point the bottom fell out so to speak so I took a break hoping to come back to a fleshed out game.
Unfortunately I came back to check on it to late and saw that it had went under.
I will be the first to admit I love sci-fi theme gaming and TR seemed to hit that spot, I really wish it could be given a second chance with proper development cycles without the tug of war so we might see its' potential.
I don't remember any real gamebreaking problems other than the very lacking craft system and unfinished skills past 32 but surely that could be handled with minimum investment, if the powers that be would choose to try.
Heres to hoping..
This just shows how bad NCsoft is. Thank goodness they only publish Guild Wars 2.
Because many of us played and loved the Ultima series of games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_%28series%29
As for the other, given the internal political games that NCsoft is infamous for, I suspect at least part of the problem was theirs.
It was, they apparently forced him to change it half way through development.
The majority of the team at Totally Games left the gaming industry after X-Wing Alliance, after already producing the exceptional X-Wing and TIE-Fighter games.
Are they "has beens?".
[Mod Edit]
NCSoft is appealing so no, he didn't "one shot" the Death Star. He still has a ways to go.
No, NCsoft is looking at appealing. Chances are 9 out of 10 they cut there losses now, instead of risking a bigger loss due to a higher reward. Think about it, HUGE company with high priced lawyer TEAMS out the ass, and they lost to one man and his one legal team. If NCsoft had a leg to stand on, they would have won in the first place. No, they found out that the crap they could get away with in a Korean court bought and paid for doesn't fly outside their little hole in the wall.
he changed the entire gameplay design from the ground up 3 times before it was released as the mess we all knew it to be. It's a classic case of a perfectionist trying to achieve perfection...but sometimes you just have to go with your first gut instinct and stick with it, as it's usually your best.
No way in the world they "cut their losses" at 28 million. This sum will be reduced, and they will tie it up in court.
BTW, just because you win a case for 28 million doesn't mean you see it. Lawyers are usually paid 60%. Then Uncle Same takes his 40% cut. So roughly, he is looking at pocketing 5 or 6 million. Still not too shabby.
NAh...his interests are pretty much just space now http://www.richardgarriott.com/news/I'd say Mr. G has "Daddy" issues. It's also laughable that anyone thinks Garriott could deliver another Ultima title. Anyone remember Ultima X? How's that playing for you now? Oh right, that was EA's fault. I think EA knew that Garriott was a non-producer and were glad to see him and his brother go.
TR was a great game, just needed some tweaking, loved to play that game. NcSoft really pissed me off with the stunt they pulled with TR. I hope in some shape or form that it comes back again. I bought the collectors edition about three days after I had purchased the downloadable version.
The guys I play with online - we all had a blast playing TR. Still miss it!
i never lagged once playing it, not once and the graphics were very nice indeed, i doubt theyll feel 28 million though but if they do "ha serves you right for cancelling my favorite game" :P
I only heard of one major change to the game and that was when it was redesigned to be a space shooter from the typical dragons/elves game it was being designed as. That came way to late in the games life and pretty much ensured it would die.
However, we don't know who made that decision to make that massive change. I'm not sure that Garriot had that type of influence over the design process without approval of the NCSoft board.
Looking at EA's past history (not to mention Mickysofts) I'd say that its more their fault than RG's aboul Ultima X. Anyone remember a game called Earth and Beyond? Neither company has a very good track record when it comes to MMO's.
MMO's have a different development and launch cycle than other games. Its obvious that the suits at the two companies never learned that.
Considering the radical changes involved, I've heard that it was NCsoft that demanded the changes, or they would pull the funding. RG hadf little choice if he wanted to see the game actually launch. It would hardly be the first time that suits have pulled that type of stunt, with horrible results.
Prime example of a game that should have tried free to play before it was closed down . It still could be profitable if reopened with that sort of buisness model .
I can see that being a possibility. A lot of game companies right around that time got paniced by what world of warcraft was doing. Some drastically abandonded their game designs to emulate wow and others did not want to compete with it.
There was to much money riding on the game for NCSoft to allow Garriot to make this change without their blessing and it really does give the impression of a knee jerk decision by a board of directors.
My suspicion is that NCsoft reckoned releasing a game with RG's name on it would pretty much sell itself regardless of quality and would sell so many copies it would be paying for operating and development costs of upcoming titles in western hemisphere ( including GW 2 ) . When this phantasy didn't come true within weeks of launch they got desperate and started to do all kind of things to the game. They kept on doing that until few months before servers were closed ( at that time they did have a decent dev team for TR and you saw improvement of quality with each update- those updates came on a weekly basis as well ) and then it was too late. If you look at the final few weeks you saw that the game was actually becoming "finished "and in the last week they added the "earth deployment ". I still think- also considering the amount of folks who were (re)discovering the game during those last few weeks - that a few more months would have seen the game on the rebound .
It could have run and be profitable ( or break even ) if they had waited 2-3 months longer. The dev team was capable enough, that much is certain.
Great!
IMO - jury was to "soft" (only 28M)
Tabula Rasa FOREVER!
Huh? What has he been visionary about lately? Certainly not Tabula Rasa, the game was marginal at best and introduced very little to the genre. Sorry Mr. Garriott was a pretty much one and done developer, even UO was designed by others on the team, he had little to do with it's success beyond the initial theme.
Let's face it, Garriott milked NCSoft for a bundle and that is just more game dollars not getting invested back into the genre.
I have my doubts we will ever see anything earth shattering from Mr. Garriott anytime in the future.
I loved TR and would hop back on that in a second if it reopened. I can only hope RG will think about it, but might be better to just work on a new idea and use what he learned from TR.
And to anyone that questions why people think he's talented, he is credited with creating the term MMORPG in 1997 with Ultima Online. That was the start of it all, not counting MUDs. Too many people inaccurately think it started with Everquest in 1999. So the fact that he helped create the genre means something to the MMO vets that know the history.
Hate to burst your bubble, but Neverwinter Nights back in 1991 was the first real graphical mmorpg, while Meridian 59 was the first mmorpg with a 3D world similar to EQ and everything that's come after it back in 1995.
I agree.
Your percentages are a bit high however...
No company rolls over for millions of dollars.
From what I read the court case hinged on the fact that they forged his resignation letter. If they had simply fired him then he would have had 10 years to choose to exercise his options. That forgery cost him financial damages and they were liable for those damages.
Hate to burst your bubble, but the phrase was never used prior to Ultima Online. Neverwinter Nights and Meridian 59 were either called graphical MUDs, online roleplaying games, or multiplayer roleplaying games at best. I am well aware Ultima Online wasn't the "first" MMORPG. Nonetheless, Richard Garriott created the term.
Isle of Kesmai FTW....
And 1200 baud modems lol
Urgh, I hate this. The guy burned tens of millions of dollars out of NCSoft creating a complete failure, and then somehow fully expects to get tens of millions more.
I'm no fan of NCSoft, but Garriot is a complete slime ball.
They do if the potential is much worse. Look at the various mega corps consent agreements with the Do"J" that on the high end amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. NCsoft might be wise to just write this off and move on. But given their past history, I doubt they are wise.
I seriously doubt the acountants didn't consider the possibility of losing this lawsuit ( and for the full $ 47 million at that ) so there will be a budget taking that into account . If they appeal this verdict they stand a serious chance of losing that appeal and mr Garriott being awarded the original amount of that $47 million . It's obvious his evidence was pretty convincing and the fact NCsoft fired the person responsible for dealing with RG and his resignation is an admission of guilt for any judge or juror .
While I always thought RG was a bit too pretentious with the whole "Lord British" thing, I do think he has made some pretty good games with the Ultima games and Tabula Rasa was a decent game and fairly unique for it's time, being an MMORPG shooter when there weren't really any MMORPG shooters at that time.
A stellar idea is for him to take that money and get started on Ultima Online 2, because he has to know that people want it. Afully 3D realized Ultima Online game would be cool, because I hated the look and art of the original Ultima Online. Or he could remake Tabula Rasa as a f2p and it would probably do well.
Word has it that he is working on something like a Ultima Online but designed to work out of your web-browser. He's showed great interest in picking up the Ultima License but I imagine EA is never going to let that happen, no matter how much money he tosses at them to try and aquire it. So I imagine a UO like game but in a different setting with different characters..
Whatever he decides to make he has said that he's going back to his rpg roots.
I'm sure there's room for him at Activision...*wicked grin*
Activision couldn't afford to hire him or give him the rights he would want. RG is anything but hurting for money. The guys made enough money that he's set for life and wouldn't ever have to work ageain if he choose to do so.
Needless to say he's already founded a new company thats gearing up to ride another wave of success on the social gaming markets.
welcome to america where nobody loses and even is you suck or make a crappy product you win or get rewarded. if he had brought this to trial in england he would have lost.
Nobody loses? It seems that NCsoft lost (at least this round). If they are wise, they would simply write it off and move on. But I doubt they are wise. As for the English legal system, it has its own shall we say "issues"... Hardly surprising when one examines some of the basic principles so revererd within that system. But how you can say he would have lost without understanding the evidence, and the context within which it has been presented puzzles me.
I think the Lord British thing actually worked quite well in 80s to early 90s gaming. By UO though the image had worn thin and the Ultima series was more or less dead as a franchise. RG is a clever guy so he sells on Origin, and EA who realize fast that they bought a bunch of hot air cancel most of their projects. EQ launches and that finshes off UO, turning it into the retro game it is today. Tabula Rasa is RGs attempt to rebuild himself using his space interest, but the game fails, and RG who is good at business contract law picks up a large payout for it. Really I think RG should just retire, but sadly browser gaming sounds like it may sadly be his direction in gaming over next years.On the Game: Yes, it was fun. However, it was an MMORPG with less content than a single player RPG! That's what killed it. Imagine if WoW had launched with only five zones and you'll get an idea how little content TR had.
On Richard: He had a $120 million budget for TR. It started out as a Fantasy title and a lot of money and manhours went into that concept. Then, he decides to make it a space game, trashes all the previous work and rushes out an MMO with 10% of the minimum content needed for a successful MMO launch. In short, IMO, he showed himself completely incompetent as an MMO designer, wasted $120 million of NCSoft's money and led to the destruction of all the US based NCSoft development teams. I hope no one is dumb enough to invest in any future MMO products with him at the helm!
On NCSoft: Poor management all around. Where was the oversite to prevent Richard from squandering $120+ million? How could they be dumb enough to sever their relationship with Richard in a way that would open them up to losing this lawsuit? Then, making all US based developers the scapegoats for their poor management takes the cake. They retreat back to Korea. Then they start to realize that they still need the Western market to be truly successful, but they have so neutered their Western operations that they have no ability to develop for the Western Audience.
On the lawsuit: I'm no lawyer and the public details are sparse anyway. I will say that it's pretty obvious that Richard would have a huge advantage in a TEXAS Jury decided suit over a Korean company that on top of being foreign, also cut the jobs of a lot of people in the US, many from Texas. I hate to see him get that amount of money in spite of his apparently unfathomable incompetence.
While I don't think that Richard Garriott has got it as a game designer anymore, he was not totally responsible for the mess that was Tabula Rasa. The game went through a number of iterations, some of them the fault of Garriott's micromanaging style and changing concepts, along with his general inability to get things out under budget and on time. But NCSoft pulled the control from Garriott and put a couple of other guys in as managers. This ended up leading to all sorts of conflicting ideas, and a not fully coherent game. Too many cooks, and all. Interestingly, some of the work on the original Tabula Rasa that was superceded, ended up showing up in Aion.
However NCSoft did try to screw him over with the firing/resignation. Or perhaps they just happened to pick the worst time and way for the parting..... No.
That game wasn't so great. Then again, just shooting lasers and aliens wasn't my thing. It got really boring really fast
He should take that cash and make a decent game. Or rather fund a decent game.
Never played Rasa, and dont care about it. Now that Garriott has this behind him, he should get back to what he did best and work on another Ultima game (no more MMOs please)
In all fairness Ultima Online is the longest running MMO on the market, so I wouldn't really say it was a dead license when EA purchased it. They had somewhere around 250,000 players. All said and done it was a very successful project, especially when considering what was invested.
I think your two points bring up an interesting conflict.
Do we really think richard garriot had enough authority to take a $120 million project and scrap millions of dollars worth of work to drastically change the game without NCSoft having any say in what was happening with their project? Not to mention RG has his roots in swords and magic style gaming, not first person alien shooters.
A change of that scale so late in development suggests that this was a mandate from the leadership of the company. Not to mention that tabula rasa fit most of NCSofts game design of most of their games.
qft
Lord British can go back into the hole he crawled out of. Developing games and releasing them just so he can profit, close the servers...taking their money and running...Dumping it on other smaller projects and then claim that NCSOFT stole money..
oh well, He isn't the first and he won't be the last either...
Games are made to make a profit... It was NCsoft that closed down the TR servers, not RG. NCsoft has now axed four games, I'd say thats a pattern.
I'd also add that since Garriott was awarded $28 million I don't think it's fair to say he "claimed" anything as it seems he's proved what ever he claimed lol.
Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, Exteel and Dungeon Runners?
I never really took the time to put that together. Good point.
What's crazy is that people has made 100 posts on a dead game. I know there was flaws to that game, but it really looks like people are missing it in some ways!
Maybe with the recent launches, we realize that TR was a better game we thought at the time and with a little bit more work and patience it could had turned into something great!
Honestly, if the new stuff they threw in on the very last day for players to "celebrate" the game's demise had been put in the game from the beginning, it might have had a chance.
So someone finally made money off Tabula Rosa.
Finally, gaming justice!
More here than anywhere but ncsof and garriot are both money suckers so... ill pass at least they don't do much f2p ... yet.
lol'd
so he spent all his previous money on space tourism and now needed more.....so now he has 28 million more to waste on it.....and you guys respect him for leaving his game high and dry to die in a corner....
Never lagged once? Then you never made it to the zone that for about 6 months was so laggy even the TR devs admitted it was broken. I can not recall the name of the actual zone at this point, but the devs eventually fixed it, but the lag was on their end and was documented by them as such.
True, and the zone was ironically named "Mires".
Btw, hey Rok :-)
This is Cav from the 47th.
The dev team of TR was most of the problem. Their work was not stellar. The game was not close to finished in any way shape or form. They pushed out the Earth deployment as rushed "we are sorry we put out such a shoddy product". TR had under 20K people playing BEFORE they announced it was closing. NCSoft was part of the problem but in no way were they alone as the cause of TR being what it was, unrealized potential.
Why would they need anything to pay for the developing of GW2? You are aware of how profitable GW was compared to TR the disaster right? Your suspicions are a fantasy all their own, but quite common from the people at PlanetTR, which IMO was the worst officially unofficial forums for a game ever and part of the problem with TR as a whole.
It could have been run and profitable if they waited 3 months? If you paid any attention tot he facts TR had lost 50% of its player base in the financial quarter BEFORE the closing was announced. Assuming it would have had a rebound big enough to become profitable is fantasy on your part at best.
Hey Cav long time no see. Thanks for recalling the zone, my memory is fading with age.
Whats been going on?
Interesting!I liked Tabula Rasa.I did not like NCsoft when they pulled the plug.I think it was about 1 month after i had signed up for 6 months,that they annouced they were closing it down.Great idea and storyline ,yet NCsoft devs dropped the ball.NCsoft management screws the originator.And with it their chance to crack the MMO market in NA.I gave this asian company a chance and they blew it.Never again.
Ill stick with North American made games thanks.Even Age of Conan is better than what NCsoft puts out.And thats European.
Id rather resub for AoC or Fallen Earth than trust an NCsoft game.
Akomo Combine
NCSoft has a hand in Guild Wars, they cracked the NA market long before Tabula Rasa. They may not be the main force behind Guild Wars but their name is attached to a much better product then Tabula Rasa ever was.
With more work, TR could have been a much better game. As for NCsoft they've demonstrated repeatedly that they have little idea of the difference between the eastern and western markets. Look at Aions retention numbers as just the most recent demonstration of that. Any way, I quite enjoyed aspects of TR. I ran a sniper and spy up to cap. Its too bad that there wasn't much to do after that.
I agree more work would have = better game, but is NCSoft alone in the blame for the fact that this game came out like it did and in a year had barely shown any progress towards getting better? I blame the whole package, RG, dev team and NCSoft for their failures. I think RG spent too much time on his space dream(good for him he got to enjoy his dream but I think his dream ruined the MMO I was playing to a certain extent). The game came out early, they had spent way too much already with no end in sight on the costs.
I give you credit for running a sniper that high. I gave up on mine in the low 40s when I realized that a good baseball outfielder throws a baseball as far as Tabula Rasa devs allowed your sniper rifle to operate. 100 meters or so is not sniper range, that is .22 rifle range with no scope. The fact they blamed the game engine for the limited draw distance always made me wonder if any of them understood what a shooting game was about.