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I've tried to watch/listen to each of the interviews/videos that LB has put out since the announcement of SotA and one portion of those puts the perspective on the statement he made (and I think if some Ultima fans who are skeptical about SotA need to take into account as well) in regards as to why he went the Kickstarter route. That portion is where he's discussing Kickstarter and his experience as a designer both as the founder of Origin and under the EA label. He states that he feels that his best work came with Ultimas 4, 7, and Online. 4 of course being his own creation under Origin, 7 being the first as Origin was being bought out by EA (in fact, much of Black Gate's in-jokes are digs at EA), and Online was developed pretty much AGAINST EA's wishes. He considered the worst to be Ultima 8 and Tabula Rasa... 8 being gutted of most of the content that the game was supposed to have turning it into a mess and Tabula Rasa had been scrapped and restarted three times due to NCSoft's demands (not to mention the contract negation move by NCSoft).
Considering that LB is a pioneer in the field of PC gaming as a whole even beyond RPGs with his focus on RPGs, it's a statement not really of bragging, but of simple truth. The problem is that because he's stating a flat truth, the gaming media and detractors went to town with it. Think about it... how many MMOGs now are Level/Raid EQ/WoW with different skins? What about FPSs in general? Same concepts, different looks and sounds... be it WWII or Dystopian Future.
Obviously there have been some standouts from the norm, and a lot of time it's the more Indie products that do so... Braid and Portal for a couple, but most just end up being variations on a theme. Look how Blizzard screwed up Diablo 3 (polished in some areas, but took too much of a turn away from Diablo 2 and towards WoW) compared to Grinding Gear Games's Path of Exile which is a bit rougher, but is currently in a faster development speed and not having to try and tack on extra character levels because they screwed up the original game.
In regards to online RPGs and MMOGs, LB has easily had the most ability to step back and watch how the genre has developed, where UO succeeded and failed, how the Level/Raid model came into prominence and how every game company wants a "WoW copy". He's been able to see how the companies have brought up developers, and for those following UO watching, we've been able to see it happen as well both in good ways and... not so good ways. We've seen UO teams that have been willing to work with the UO player base and those who have kept the playerbase at a LARGE distance away.
I think LB has a legitimate leg to stand on to make the claims he did, but that to me doesn't give him an automatic pass. He is making some HUGE claims for SotA which he's going to have to fill to keep people from considering him a "has been". SotA as he's hyping it up to be may be his last "make or break" title, and I think he knows that, so he wants to go back to his early methods of having full creative control over the game rather than having to cater to the whims and schedules of a corporate entity.
He's got people up in arms because he told a truth that most people don't want to hear. It's like a pro athlete telling high school kids that they aren't nearly as good as they think they are and that only a very few will reach the level they are at professionally. It's 100% true, but it's not going to be very inspiring to the kids. However, now he has to prove himself again as one of the top tier designers.