General Discussion

Garriott was my hero in the 80s, but he's been a mere figurehead in this industry for at least the past decade.   UO was primarily designed by Raph Koster.  I'm not saying Garriott wasn't still involved then, but his version wouldn't have lasted 10+ years.  I don't think he ever had squat to do with anything about TR other than maybe periodically commenting on somebody else's designs.  I doubt he's spent any of his free time gaming since the 90s, and certainly not playing any time-consuming MMOs.  He's a totally different person now from the guy who single-handedly wrote & marketed Akalabeth (look it up, and yes I played it).  If he is ever associated with another MMO, be it "UO2" or something else, it will be strictly a marketing move, because his name *still* sells a few extra boxes.  He will not be involved in the game's design , and will not measurably affect the game's success or failure.

For the record, I bought TR, but only because it was $10 at EB within a couple of months of shipping.  It had nothing to do with Garriott's name being associated with it.  And it was a much better game then I'd been led to expect...

Man!...and I was all set to pawn General Garriott ingame, I've been working at it for ages too, that sucks all that planning out the window, all those hours training, all that time setting up all for nuth'n!     

Me thinks his head got hit by space debris on his way back to earth.

Wow! Watching that video... that game surely changed. But for the better, if you ask me.

When I started playing TR about a year ago I was stunned. I was in love. I was home. It felt like a FPS, played like a MMO, a dream. The idea of fighting for bases, claiming them, defending them, against an onslaught of far too many enemies... it was surely a wonderful dream. Hell, even leveling up, usually the most boring part of an MMO, was fun! Yes, people, grinding in this game is fun!

Then you're 50 and then you're... well, done. Nothing left to do. Well, except leveling up another toon. But I loved my character. I didn't want anything but my Engineer. Well, maybe a Xenobiologist, but I loved my cute little turrets! They were cute, they were damn powerful and I felt fine! I didn't want a spy, I didn't want a sniper, I wanted to continue playing my Engi!

The problem now is I think they cornered themselves with their story. PvP? How? Hell, we're fighting a losing battle for survival against some aliens and we should battle each other. For ... what, by the way? Prestige? Pride? As your General, I'd fire your rear out of the next orbital cannon if you started a gang war against other humans for bragging rights while we got worse things to fight!

If they reduced the aliens to some sort of petty nuisance so human vs. human battles made some remote sense, create the long promised player owned bases and gave it some meaning to fight over them, we could talk again.

But so far I don't see anything that could convince me I should renew my subscription that I ended in June. If you know anything that might change my mind, please go ahead. I loved the game. I just saw no reason to continue playing.

I think his brains are left behind in space. Ah well, I can understand that you get verry philosophic in space. If I was him I would just stop making money and I would buy myself an island ^^. What will happen with TR now? Will NCsoft quit with it? RG will now go back to EA or something, working a bid on UO or thinking about a new mmo?

What you need to understand is that RG hasn't actively contributed to a game's development in probably 15+ years. He's just a figurehead that rakes in piles of cash from the awful products and eventual sale of the company.

The game was great in concept but  RG failed to deliver and basically cheated NC out of a lot of money for the product delivered. TR isnt such a bad game imo but truly deserved much more.

Originally posted by todeswulf

He is just getting clear of  NCsoft so he can return to EA.  He will be working with Mythic on the new version of UO.  I know this because he was at Mythics offices several times last year.  EA is determined to have the number one MMO in the industry, and they belive with enough money the right IP  and RG they can beat WoW.

Well if this information is true then i understand the situation this way:

"The rat is leaving a sinking ship!"

What would you do if you had made a contract in the first place with which you aren't satisfied after a short period of time? You try to sabbotage the project in the best possible way and still to be a hero. And to me this is what's happening with TR.

Garriot was not very pleased with the TR project so he changed everything TR should have been so he could leave like this and turn to a project he thinks would be more sucessful.

Someone said that the "Captain is sinking with his ship" but this what Garriot is doing is nothing more then what i said at the beginning of my post. Believe it or not but Garriot never cared to much about this game and this is his final cut to a dying pray.

For those of you who claim RG was only some sort of "figure head" for the last 10 or 15 years...hmmm not so much.

Here is a list of the MMO's he helped create.

Ultima Online 1997 Windows Producer
Ultima Online: The Second Age 1998 Windows Executive Designer
Lineage 1998 Windows & Mac OS X Executive Producer
Ultima IX: Ascension 1999 Windows Director
Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle 2003 Windows Executive Producer
City of Heroes 2004 Windows Executive Producer
City of Villains 2005 Windows Executive Management
Tabula Rasa Nov. 2 2007 Windows Executive Producer
 

Please take note that big Rich helped create the grand daddy of of "Korean grinders" L1 and L2. In fact, when it comes to MMO grind, he pretty much pioneered it. L1 and L2 were emulated by probably hundreds of Asian games.

Next time you are b*tching about "Korean grinders" please keep in mind that it was a westerner that made it all possible.

Hopfully the influence of the "King of Grind" is gone now. Even L2 got rid of it.